By Matthew Kohut It’s a story so familiar it has achieved popular status as NASA’s creation legend: when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in October 1957, it shocked the flat-footed United States into action, locking the Cold War gladiators into a space race.
By Ed Hoffman Thinking about this special issue of ASK focusing on NASA’s fiftieth anniversary, it occurred to me that there is a story from my own experience that is worth sharing.
By Howard E. McCurdy Imagine for a moment that high-ranking government officials enthusiastically embrace a plan to send Americans to the moon as part of an effort that will lead eventually to human expeditions to Mars.
By Jim Odom I was the project manager for the Space Shuttle external tank for eleven years, from the planning days in 1971 through the launch of the sixth shuttle flight in 1983.
By Kerry Ellis Since the advent of space exploration, Mars has been a tantalizing goal.
By Gary Lofgren I came fresh out of graduate school to the then Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC—later Johnson Space Center) in 1973, prepared to build a laboratory to study the formation of basaltic rocks.
By Glenn A. Robinson, Jr. I graduated in 1963 with a degree in aerospace engineering from North Carolina State University and immediately went to work at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
By J.D. Burke When the world changed with Sputnik on October 4, 1957, we at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) were jubilant.
NASA in the News NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service have partnered to obtain imagery of wildfires in response to requests from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, and the National Interagency Fire Center.
