Space Exploration

As a child, I remember a coloring book that pictured a "Buck Rogers" rocket that looked like a football with three fins at its base. It was my job to give it life by coloring the rocket blast with yellows, oranges and reds that lifted the craft to stellar flight and imagined adventures. The book was filled with such renderings and each page held a new mission to be wondered at. Years later came Alan Shepard, Walter "Wally" Shirra Jr., John Glenn Jr., and tragically Virgil "Gus" Grissom who later died in an Apollo 1 pre-launch test.

As a child, I remember a coloring book that pictured a "Buck Rogers" rocket that looked like a football with three fins at its base. It was my job to give it life by coloring the rocket blast with yellows, oranges and reds that lifted the craft to stellar flight and imagined adventures. The book was filled with such renderings and each page held a new mission to be wondered at. Years later came Alan Shepard, Walter "Wally" Shirra Jr., John Glenn Jr., and tragically Virgil "Gus" Grissom who later died in an Apollo 1 pre-launch test.

AMERICANS MAY NOT have noticed, but in the past month the yin-yang argument over the direction of U.S. space exploration was played out before them. Amid the quiet debate over whether robotic spacecraft should take precedence over more expensive and dangerous manned space flights, each type of mission had a success.In November, the shuttle Atlantis was docked for eight days to the Russian space station Mir. It was one more experiment toward building a U.S. space station that will give this nation a continuous manned presence in space.

In an age of austerity, can the United States still afford, in "Star Trek's" memorable phrase, "to boldly go where no man has gone before"? The answer: maybe. The space shuttle program - that long-running, always slightly disappointing successor to the thrilling Apollo moon missions - is no more. The Obama administration has made it plain that the future of human spaceflight, at least in the near term, will consist of federal partnerships with private enterprise. Entrepreneurs (that is, those whose bottom line is not to advance scientific discovery but to make a buck)

If the Pathfinder spacecraft's exploration of the terra-cotta martian terrain proves anything, it's that the Soviet Union didn't win the space race. Neither did the United States.Robots won it, and seem to be widening their lead.When someone finally sets a well-insulated boot on the frigid martian surface, she or he is likely to be greeted by a menagerie of smart and at least partly autonomous rovers, weather stations and other gadgets.This state of affairs irritates some earthlings. No serious work gets done, they insist, until humans arrive.

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon. ... In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon ... it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there." -- John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961 The 45-rpm record had long gathered dust on a bookshelf of my mother's home. This rendition of "Man on the Moon" was recorded not by the rock group R.E.M. but by CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, and it stirs memories of a euphoric time in the United States, man's first landing on the moon in 1969.

With the final flight of the stalwart space shuttle Atlantis just a few days away, America is beginning an exciting new chapter in human space exploration. This chapter centers on full utilization of the International Space Station, development of multiple, made-in-America capabilities for astronauts and cargo to reach low-Earth orbit, and pursuit of two critical building blocks for our nation's exploration future: a deep space crew vehicle and an evolvable, heavy-lift rocket. Today, we embark on a new knowledge and innovation-driven approach to space science and exploration that will lead us into the new frontiers of deep space.

NEW YORK -- When the first U.S. commercial rocket lifts off in May, its payload will be emblazoned with the cryptic message, "Last Action Hero."A warning to space aliens? A pessimistic comment on the future of space exploration?How about a commercial for an Arnold Schwarzenegger film?Improbable but true, the rocket's payload will carry the title of Mr. Schwarzenegger's action adventure, while the four boosters will be graced with the star's long name.The unlikely advertising venue came about when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's commercial arm -- Commercial Experimental Transport, or COMET -- decided to defray costs of its first commercial launch by renting space to advertisers.

The Naval Academy Foundation is going to new heights to highlight the school's long-standing connection with space exploration, hosting a live online radio show tomorrow featuring nine graduates-turned-astronauts, including two who will talk from the International Space Station. The program will precede the academy's latest effort to bring that connection into the classroom: On Tuesday and Wednesday, three satellites built by midshipmen will be launched into orbit from the space shuttle Discovery.

IT BECOMES CLEARER daily that the Russians aren't capable of fulfilling the ambitious role set for them in efforts to make space exploration international.Chronic fiscal problems left by the former Soviet Union are preventing Russia from meeting deadlines in construction of the space station. Funding may have been a factor in whatever technical problem caused Russia's Mars 96 spacecraft to fall back to Earth only hours after blasting off in November. The Russian probe was to be part of a three-pronged exploration of the Red Planet that included two U.S. probes which were successfully launched.

How fitting the crew of NASA's final space shuttle mission will end almost 42 years to the day men set foot on the moon. On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to visit earth's closest neighbor in space. I'm fortunate to be able to recall that July evening in 1969 when the world held its breath as the Eagle landed on that airless world. Although Neil Armstrong and Buzz Armstrong planted the American flag on the lunar surface, I give credit to the Russians for making the "one small step for man" possible.

I find the outlook for NASA over the next decade by Waleed Abdalati and Robert Braun to be very narrow minded, self-serving and steeped in false hope ("After space shuttle program, NASA's future still bright," July 4). I can see how as NASA's chief technologist and chief scientist, they would welcome an increase in funding in their respective areas, but they must face reality. In this unsettled budgetary environment, unfocused investments in science and technology are ripe for cuts and outright deletion.

With the final flight of the stalwart space shuttle Atlantis just a few days away, America is beginning an exciting new chapter in human space exploration. This chapter centers on full utilization of the International Space Station, development of multiple, made-in-America capabilities for astronauts and cargo to reach low-Earth orbit, and pursuit of two critical building blocks for our nation's exploration future: a deep space crew vehicle and an evolvable, heavy-lift rocket. Today, we embark on a new knowledge and innovation-driven approach to space science and exploration that will lead us into the new frontiers of deep space.

The NASA authorization bill that passed the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation last week is a brilliant compromise and could result in NASA moving forward to a future with sound earth and space science, an aeronautics program that will increase air travel safety and efficiency, and a human exploration effort that has a chance of allowing humans to venture beyond low earth orbit. Beginning the development of a heavy lift rocket in FY2011 gets NASA moving in the right direction and goes a long way to preserving high-tech jobs.

Fifty years ago this past Monday, man took his first steps into space. The long sought after dream of becoming a space faring people was coming true. That first person was a Russian. Like the jolt the United States received when the Soviets first launched Sputnik four years earlier, this sent shockwaves through our technical and political circles. We were committed to regain our technical, and thereby political, leadership. The whole nation was involved, devoting our treasure, time, expertise and, in some cases, even lives to regain that leadership by "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."

L eadership in Outer Space and on Earth For the first time, a U.S. president has canceled the main future human spaceflight program, leaving NASA without a direction, soon without a vehicle to fly people in space, and with its role as world space leader in doubt. How did we get into this predicament, and is there a path toward regaining the kind of space eminence Americans have taken for granted? As an unapologetic space cadet, I'm appalled by Washington's chaotic leadership and judgment over several decades.

Morgan Murray could be spending her final weeks of summer frolicking under a sprinkler or jumping into a pool. Instead, the 10-year-old Pikesville resident has spent the past two weeks studying Spanish. Morgan is one of about two dozen children ages 6 to 12 who are taking college-style courses at the Catonsville campus of the Community College of Baltimore County. In addition to Spanish, pupils dived into journalism or space exploration during the two-week "learning adventure camp," which ends today.

OF ALL THE experiments in space exploration, this nation may have begun the most daring Tuesday with the awarding of a revolutionary contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to build a new version of the space shuttle. More exciting than the company's new arrowhead design for a completely reuseable shuttle is the prospect that private industry will assume the central role in American space exploration. That has been a stated goal of NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin, a former TRW Inc. executive who believes privatization is key to cutting the cost of space travel.

When Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar lander and became the first human to set foot on the surface of the moon 40 years ago this week, it was, as he announced, "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." In those heady times it was widely assumed humanity had arrived on the verge of a new era of space exploration that would shortly lead travelers to Mars and beyond. That did not happen, however: The race to the moon, which grew out of the Cold War military competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, had outlived its political usefulness by the time of the last Apollo landing in 1972.