This should be an interesting FISO telecon this afternoon. I suspect it will just be about the myth that it had a lot of popular support at the time, since Roger has written extensively about that.
Category Archives: Space History
Evoloterra
Today is the 46th anniversary of the first human visit to the surface of our moon. There is a ceremony that can be downloaded to commemorate it here, and two of the authors (I and Bill Simon) will be discussing it on The Space Show this afternoon at 5-6:30 Eastern, 2-3:30 Pacific.
Back To LA
Conference is over, heading back to what I hope is still a rainy Los Angeles.
Remember, Monday is Evoloterra day, and I’ll be on The Space Show that afternoon to discuss it.
The Rashomon Of Apollo And Shuttle
Stephen Smith has a lengthy review of John Logsdon’s latest book.
As he notes, the dual myths of Kennedy as space visionary and Nixon as space villain don’t stand up to any sort of realistic historical scrutiny. In fact, with Apollo, Kennedy set us up for decades of failure, in terms of making spaceflight economically realistic.
Apollo 13
The day it crashed into the earth, or something.
This story is depressing to me in what it says about the state of public education.
Phil Culbertson
Rest in peace. His ashes will be going into space.
It’s senior, not junior, though.
Yuri’s Night
If you’re in LA, this is the place to be.
Don’t go in hopes of seeing me. I can’t see spending money to be tortured with awful, loud music. But if you’re into that sort of thing, and what passes for dancing in this society, knock yourself out.
No, this has nothing to do with me being old (though I do seem, unaccountably, to be aging). I’ve never been into clubbing, or awful, loud music. The twenty-year-old me wouldn’t have gone, either.
The High Cost Of Space Access
Roger Launius has a brief history of the Shuttle, but this number is outdated:
The best expendable launch vehicles (ELV) still cost about $10,000 per pound from Earth to orbit.
As I commented over there (it’s awaiting moderation), Falcon 9 delivers ~30,000 lbs to LEO for ~$60M. That’s $2000/lb. Price, not cost. Falcon Heavy will roughly halve that. If they can reuse cores, they’ll drop the price further.
Pluto
A tour of the solar system, and history, from Homer Hickam.
If Apollo 11 Had Gone Wrong
XKCD has the other contingency letters.