Tag Archives: nasa

Goddard, ENTERPRISE, and the Agent Scorecard

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Fifty years ago today — May 1, 1959 — The “Beltsville Center” was renamed the Goddard Space Flight Center in honor of the first person to launch a liquid-propellant rocket, Dr. Robert Goddard.

Thirty years ago today marked the first time the Space Shuttle pathfinder configuration — using the Shuttle Enterprise — was assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building and transported to Launch Complex 39A.

(Shuttle Enterprise at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air & Space Museum. Click to enlarge.)
(Image from Wikipedia by Ad Meskens, licensed under Creative Commons.)

Finally, after the first week here’s the tally on my hunt for a literary agent:

  • Agents queried: 9
  • Rejections received: 4

No expressions of interest or offers of representation yet. I’m still researching other agents to query. Wish me luck!

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Gravity Probe-B Launch Anniversary, Plus Two Launches

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Five years ago today — April 20, 2004 — NASA’s Gravity Probe-B spacecraft was launched by a Delta 2 rocket from Vandenberg AFB. The mission carried four gyroscopes that were

the most perfect spheres ever made by humans. If these ping pong-sized balls of fused quartz and silicon were the size of the Earth, the elevation of the entire surface would vary by no more than 12 feet.

according to this NASA page. The mission was designed to test Einstein’s theory of space-time, and especially the effects of a rotating mass like the Earth on space-time. It collected date for 17 months, but solar flares and other glitches corrupted some of the data according to this report.

In more recent launch news, the Indians launched an Israeli-built spy satellite and Sea Launch launched a military communications satellite for Italy.

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Space Station Node Honors Lunar Landing

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NASA accepted a write-in suggestion for the name of the new Space Station node, but not the one that earned the most votes. Instead of being named “Colbert” after comedian Stephen Colbert, the node will be named “Tranquility” after the Apollo-11 landing site. And a creative NASA acronym-meister figured out a way to name the station’s new treadmill the COLBERT. (Here’s the Spaceflight Now story.)

I think it’s fitting, even though I voted for “Serenity.”

And it’s appropriate to honor Apollo-11 this year, since this summer will be the 40th anniversary of that landing.

Of course, this would also be the perfect year to publish my novel of lunar survival, tentatively titled WALKING ON THE SEA OF CLOUDS, except for one small detail: I didn’t get it written in time. And the revision I was supposed to have done today? Ha! Maybe by the end of the month, though I’m going to try to finish it sooner.

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50 Years Ago: The Dawn of Project Mercury

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Project Mercury was announced in 1958, but 50 years ago this month the astronauts were selected and presented to the public. I found two different selection dates — April 1st, according to this NASA page about the 40th anniversary, and April 2nd, according to this NASA list of anniversaries.*


(NASA publicity photo of the Mercury Seven)

All sources agree that the “Mercury Seven” astronauts were announced at a NASA press conference on April 9, 1959. They were Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., John H. Glenn, Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton.

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*From which I get the space anniversaries I want to highlight here on the blog.

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Today in Space History: Shuttle Delivery

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Thirty years ago today — March 24, 1979 — the Space Shuttle Columbia was transported to Kennedy Space Center, marking the first time a shuttle was delivered to the launch base. It was carried atop a modified Boeing 747 as shown in the attached image.*

(NASA Photo EC01-0055-1. Click to enlarge.)

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*The image is of a later flight, in March 2001.

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50 Years Ago in Space History

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Fifty years ago today — March 10, 1959 — NASA flew the X-15 research plane on its first “captive” flight attached to their B-52 test aircraft.

(NASA Image E-4935. Click to enlarge. For more images, see NASA’s X-15 photo collection.)

The X-15 program eventually carried pilots to the edge of space from Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

And in the category of personal nostalgia, I have a picture of that same B-52 aircraft on my office wall, courtesy of my boss at the Rocket Lab at Edwards. In my picture, it doesn’t have an X-15 attached to the pylon: it’s carrying the Pegasus space launch vehicle, for which I served on the Flight Readiness Review panel. (Which was still pretty cool for a starry-eyed young lieutenant.)

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Happy 50th Birthday, NASA

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Fifty years ago yesterday was the end of NACA, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, and 50 years ago today was the first day of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Congratulations — you’ve accomplished a lot since then, but there’s a lot still to do.

Onward and upward!

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Oh, for a few hundred bucks and a day off …

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… and a press pass.

Doggone NASA has scheduled a Lunar Exploration Workshop at Johnson Space Center for September 8th, at which

Reporters will have a unique chance to experience lunar life, including driving across and touching a simulated moonscape….

During Monday’s tour, reporters will visit NASA’s lunar yard to view NASA’s prototype lunar truck as it travels across the mock surface of the moon. They will be able to climb into a concept lunar lander in the Altair development lab and examine moon rocks brought back to Earth by Apollo astronauts.

Here’s the press release if you want to read more about it.

Hey, NASA: I’m writing this novel about lunar colonists and the sacrifices they make to keep their colony alive. Can I come?

You’d better believe I would try if I could come up with money for a plane ticket and could take some more time off from my NC State job. (Baen work I can take with me, which is very nice.)

But, since I’m sinking a decent amount into this week’s trip to Atlanta for Dragon*Con — and need to hold back a tidy sum to pay my estimated taxes next month 😡 — and don’t really have any more time off to spare, I guess I won’t try to wrangle press credentials to attend.

Drat.

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