When the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite during the Cold War it was a shocking wake-up call for the U.S., alarming both policy-makers and the public and sparking what came to be known and the Space Race. Of course, the U.S. went on to win that particular race, still having the distinction of being […]
China’s manned space program scored a major advance this week as they launched three astronauts to an orbiting space lab for a brief stay in orbit. It may surprise many Americans that not only does China have a manned space program but they have a small space station with plans to build a larger one […]
A Russian spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, taking NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin on a mission to the International Space Station. This marks the start of the U.S. tag-along space policy in which U.S. access to low-earth orbit is provided by Russia. It’s nice […]
Good old American know-how. Yankee ingenuity. Can-do spirit. You know the phrases, you know the attitude and values they represent, it’s something deep in the core of the American character. But, is it possible that this American character trait can be lost over time? This question was prompted by two things. First, as you know, […]
As you may have heard, the space shuttle Atlantis will launch tomorrow for the last time. This launch will conclude the shuttle program and quite possibly, the U.S. manned space program, at least in the way we have come to think about it. If NASA is ending the shuttle program you would think that a […]
I was at this year’s Urban Green Expo in New York and vastly enjoyed William McDonough’s keynote presentation. He is an architect, designer, sustainability expert (from way back), and co-guru of the visionary Cradle to Cradle framework for building and living. McDonough’s talk had several key themes: * there are no wastes, only nutrients; * […]
Here, courtesy of NASA, is a look at two Gulf of Mexico dead zones: one well established, as a consequence of runoff (manure, fertilizer, wastewater treatment plant effluent, etc.) from the breadbasket of the US, and the other in the making, from BP’s disastrous well blowout.
President Obama visited NASA today to present his vision for America’s space program. In doing so he responded to critics who said that his plan would endanger America’s status as a preeminent space power. In his speech, Obama provided an overview of past U.S. space efforts before moving on to describe his plans for the […]
I’d like to return again to the subject of the U.S. manned space program. I’ve written on this subject before and there have been some important developments to note. First, I just want to state again that I realize that this subject may, at first glance, appear to be a domestic concern and not really […]
Days after saying in his State of the Union speech that he does not quit, President Obama has proposed a budget that will end the U.S. manned space exploration program. The ambitious vision for space exploration proposed by President Bush (commonly called the “Moon, Mars & Beyond” program and officially called the Constellation Program), would […]
One of the scenarios that Gore discusses in “An Inconvenient Truth” is the triggering of a massive cooling in the Northern Hemisphere as a consequence of the altering of the “Great Ocean Conveyor.” NASA scientists, among others, have looked closely at this “chilling possibility.” The freezing of the North, the warming of the South, and […]
