If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Someone in the crowd called out, "The space station!" and pointed toward the sky. We all looked up, and there, directly above us, a tiny point of light the same size and brightness as any star was moving through the night sky.
So why the hue and cry -- why the determination to slay a "beast" barely visible from the towering heights of the Shareholders Communication Coalition? No surprise, the answer is money.
After eating lunch with the center staff in the Aeronautics room, they let me try a flight simulator. I managed to take off from LaGuardia Airport, navigate to another airport, and land, all without crashing, something I felt very proud of given my general lack of video-game skills.
I was lucky enough to be selected for the Valentine's Day TweetUp at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. 150 followers of the @NASA account randomly chosen and invited to come to DC and meet with astronaut Ron Garan.
It may LOOK like just a dot from my backyard, but I know it's an orbital complex the size of a jumbo jet, built by 16 countries working together, and a house in space that's been inhabited continuously for more than half my life.
It is absurd that more then 50 years into the age of human spaceflight, the entire world depends on one launch system to get people to and from space.
Since the Republican Party now worships at the altar of "Saint Ronald of Reagan," it's always fun to point out the hard, cold fact that Reagan would simply not be acceptable to the Republican Party as it stands today.
The shuttle program ended this week just as we celebrated the 42nd anniversary of Apollo. It is poetic and yet sad. It also begs the question, what ne...
This week, the shuttle program ends and we "celebrate" the anniversary of Apollo, when humans first walked on the moon. Yet, many question if we ever went. Why? Because if we had why aren't we still there and far beyond?
"This business consists of riding bombs. And if you do absolutely everything right, you can marshal the energy to do something astonishing like put yourself into orbit. If you do even a few things wrong, it's going to act like a bomb."
It is just so sad to see statistics take over for education and seeing statistics determine who goes ahead and who stays behind.
In the battle for the Frontier, the stakes are whether the United States will lead the world into space or relinquish itself to second world status by repeating the failed policies of the past.
I and many others working on the New Space revolution now underway in space watched Armstrong walk on the Moon and it changed our lives. But now he is trying to stop us from taking our turn.
It's heretical to say it in many quarters, but unlike its astronomy and robotic exploration programs, the current NASA operated human spaceflight program has failed by any rational measure.
After Atlantis returns to Earth, a space shuttle will clear the tower only five more times before the fleet -- Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis -- is retired in 2010.
Children seem to know things that as adults, we seem to forget. They play together, dream big, laugh, hug and enjoy life wholeheartedly, living each moment fully, not knowing the meaning of worry or stress.
