50 years ago…

50 years ago…

Fifty years ago this month of November, the Saturn V moon rocket, took to its wings for the very first time. T-minus-Zero of this unmanned flight came at precisely 7 AM Florida time. Walter Cronkite would yell “Our building’s shaking here. Our building’s shaking!” as pieces of his set started to fall apart. But who can blame him, as the most powerful rocket that has ever flown took off a scant 3 1/2 miles away. The USSR’s N-1 moon rocket had...

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Godspeed John Glenn

Godspeed John Glenn

The term “hero” has been one of the most overused and misused words of the past couple of decades. (“diversity” being at the top of the list and the phrase “celebrate diversity” deserves to be put out of its misery with a litter of rabid dachshund puppies). Baseball players who get a walk-off grand slam at the bottom of the 10th, a movie celebrity who takes on a controversial role, a singer to performs even though they a hangnail, are today’s...

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Wheels of Clay – Stephen Hawking

Wheels of Clay – Stephen Hawking

It’s no secret that Prof. Stephen Hawking is a “rock-star scientist”, as much as Einstein was in his day. Both have the reputation of being considered about the smartest people who’ve ever trod this veil of tears, even if only a few people can actually understand the substance of their contributions to science. Contributions which are substantial, whether understood or not by the public. Hawking’s reputation is naturally enhanced by his tragic...

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Starmus, 2014

Starmus, 2014

I love my “job.” As one who deals in astronomy education it is my sworn duty to go to any odd corner of the world in search like-minded types. And so I undertook a torturous journey to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, owned by Spain but not too far to the east from Morocco. It was on these islands, that the first Starmus conference was held in 2011. The Canaries were chosen as the organizers live there and due to the large number of...

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Still more Weird Crap in Mike’s place

Still more Weird Crap in Mike’s place

Since we’re in the High Holy week for space nerds everywhere as this being the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11, my Weird Crap is a pair of handrails from a lunar module. They don’t look like much, but they’re FREAKING HAND RAILS FROM THE FREAK’N LUNAR MODULE! I wasn’t sure on how to display them but then did this as the “porch” to the inner sanctum, the second floor in other words.

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Apollo 11 remembered

Apollo 11 remembered

I grew up with space. I grew up learning and memorizing the names of each of the astronauts, their histories, flights and records, much in the same way other kids learned batting averages, home run counts, saves and ERAs about their favorite baseball players. Gemini 7, 14 days in space (14!), Gemini 8, first in flight abort, Gemini 4, first US spacewalk, and on and on. Outside of Christmas or my birthday, launch day for Gemini-this or...

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