Ferrying the Shuttle – Part Four: The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
The bragging rights to carry the Shuttle on its back came down to the Air Force’s C-5 and Boeing’s 747. The C-5 was a potential budget buster for NASA. It was a large and expensive aircraft that entered production in 1968. The initial version of the aircraft had developed problems with...
Endeavour: One Last Time
At 2:15am Wednesday June 1st, the alarm clock sounded on schedule and I awoke to catch the culmination of the final flight of Endeavour as it was about to touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center. The loud warning sound coming from the alarm also served as a reminder that...
April 12th, Past and Present
The fiftieth anniversary of humankind’s first venture into space is now upon us. April 12, 2011 marked five decades of human space exploration. Significant progress has been made and perhaps more could have been accomplished on our watch in this small window of human history. Persistent political and economic...
Before the Shuttle
In the early days of the space program there were several dynamics that worked for and against a winged, reusable space vehicle. First, the space race itself put resources and focus on a moon landing. A winged, reusable vehicle, while studied extensively by NASA and the Air Force through...
“No Go” for Launch
Thousands of people came to the Kennedy Space Center on February 7, 2010 for the last night launch of the Space Shuttle program. I made the trek down hoping to catch one last piece of history and see a spectacular launch. The complex was as crowded as I had...
The Way of the Pyramids
Standing on the Giza Plateau outside of Cairo, Egypt stands a modern marvel for its time, the Great Pyramid. For 3800 years it stood alone as the tallest man-made structures on the planet. The Egyptians don’t build pyramids anymore and haven’t for over 4500 years. At night they shine...
Houston We Have a Problem….Again
“With a few exceptions, we have the technology or the knowledge that we could go to Mars if we wanted with humans. We could put a telescope on the moon if we wanted,” “The technology is by and large there. It boils down to what can we afford?” Norman...
The Last Great Space Shuttle Mission
As the Space Shuttle Atlantis prepares to return back to earth there is reason to celebrate the work done by the crew of STS-125. After five spacewalks totaling nearly thirty-seven hours the Hubble upgrade has by all accounts been an overwhelming success. The mission that put two of NASA’s...
Leading NASA
In the two months since Michael Griffin resigned as NASA Administrator a successor has yet to be named. While NASA is in competent hands under the interim direction of Chris Scolese we all understand the dynamics of being a “lame duck” especially in the political swirl of the Federal...
NASA Gets It Right
The successful launch of Discovery on Sunday March 15th after weeks of delays and the safe landing on Saturday March 28th was a clear demonstration of NASA “getting it right”. When you have a program that has the highest visibility and you suffer not one, but two tragedies that...