Space Travel

Kensington -- By the early part of the next century, geneticists should have worked out a complete mapping of the human genetic code. Many doors will then be opened, not all of which will be biomedical. There exists the possibility, within the next century, of speed-of-light, deep-space travel based on the broadcasting of genetic information.A question that is often raised about life in other parts of the Milky Way is that if it is Out There, and if it is on the move, then why hasn't its presence become evident to us?

Whatever goes up must come down — just not always in the condition one hoped. That's the lesson Paul Warren, the 16-year-old from Maryland whose science experiment was launched into space in May, learned Friday when the materials of his project — test tubes, packing liquids and roundworms by the thousand — returned after having spent nearly seven weeks aboard the International Space Station. The experiment, he learned, had never been activated. "I don't know if I've ever been this frustrated," he said shortly after opening the box he had been waiting for since it landed in Kazakhstan on Sunday.

While some folks wish to see their names up in lights, students at Folly Quarter Middle School can boast that their names have gone up in space. The students at the Ellicott City school recently participated in the NASA and Lockheed Martin Student Signatures in Space (S3) program, which allows youngsters to sign posters that are scanned onto a disk and sent into orbit. The students signed the posters last spring, and their signatures were sent up in space in late February via the space shuttle Discovery.

As the space capsule called Dragon hurtled toward the International Space Station at about 17,500 miles per hour on Friday, no space enthusiast was more enthralled than Paul Warren, a self-described "nerd" who attends Henry E. Lackey High School in Charles County. Warren is one of 15 students from across the U.S. whose original science experiments are aboard the capsule, the first privately built spacecraft ever sent to the station. His project sends thousands of tiny roundworms into orbit to study the effects on their life spans — research that could lead to a better understanding of how space travel affects the human body.

Sure, you can get all excited about going suborbital, somersaulting weightlessly and bringing home the complimentary astronaut suit. But the potentially coolest thing about traveling to space with Zegrahm Space Voyages, a Seattle-based adventure-travel company, is playing with the space toys.Imagine holding in your hand a padded, clear sphere and watching the water inside it gradually become weightless and disperse into a cloud of droplets. After all, when riding in a Space Cruiser worth tens of millions of dollars, you can't just let a glass of water or hot Tang loose inside.

Apprehension inevitably haunted the Fourth of July celebration of shuttle Discovery's successful return to space. Fears will doubtless linger until the orbiter and its crew land back on Earth in 10 days or so. That's as it should be. Space travel is still far too experimental to be taken for granted, as the tragic explosions of shuttles Challenger and Columbia at the beginning and end of their missions, respectively, attest. Despite continuing concerns about breakaway chunks of foam insulation of the sort that damaged Columbia three years ago, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin made the correct calculation to OK Tuesday's launch.

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.

David Lasser, 94, a founder of Institute of AeronauticsDavid Lasser, an immigrant's son whose vision of the future inspired men to build and fly rockets into space, died Sunday in Rancho Bernardo, Calif. He was 94.Mr. Lasser's pioneering sense of the potential of rocketry was expressed in a 1931 book "The Conquest of Space," and led him with other writers in 1929 to form the organization now known as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.His vision grew from an unlikely source: Mr. Lasser, as managing editor of a magazine called Science Wonder Stories, grew dissatisfied with the propulsion imagined by his authors for their spaceships.

WASHINGTON - They still want to go. Ten days after the space shuttle Columbia was lost and the seven astronauts on board were killed, space industry entrepreneurs pledged this week to forge ahead with their mission - to turn a buck by sending ordinary people into space. Ordinary in this case means people who might not be astronauts or members of the military but who are instead very, very rich. It costs at least $15 million to vacation in space these days - and there are few takers at that price.

NO ONE has to sell Marylanders on the benefits of space travel. With so many space-related agencies and aerospace contractors located here, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a huge new investment in space flight would be a boon to the local economy. Buck Rogers "R" Us. And yet, we can't help but be skeptical about President Bush's plans to call for manned missions to the moon and Mars. What is he thinking? He wants to launch a program estimated to cost a trillion dollars at a time when the government is running $500 billion in the red, waging a global war on terrorism and embarking on a long-term commitment to the reconstruction of Iraq?

While some folks wish to see their names up in lights, students at Folly Quarter Middle School can boast that their names have gone up in space. The students at the Ellicott City school recently participated in the NASA and Lockheed Martin Student Signatures in Space (S3) program, which allows youngsters to sign posters that are scanned onto a disk and sent into orbit. The students signed the posters last spring, and their signatures were sent up in space in late February via the space shuttle Discovery.

HOLLYWOOD - Not screened Mirrors, a thriller about an ex-cop who discovers secrets hidden in reflections, was not screened for critics. If you were around in July 1969, chances are you remember exactly where you were when Apollo 11, the first manned mission to the moon, touched down and astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. took their first steps there. Now the Eagle has landed again, reimagined, for a new generation. The 3-D animated film Fly Me to the Moon tells the tale of a young fly named Nat who stows away aboard Apollo 11 with a couple of his buddies and accompanies Armstrong on the moonwalk.

Apprehension inevitably haunted the Fourth of July celebration of shuttle Discovery's successful return to space. Fears will doubtless linger until the orbiter and its crew land back on Earth in 10 days or so. That's as it should be. Space travel is still far too experimental to be taken for granted, as the tragic explosions of shuttles Challenger and Columbia at the beginning and end of their missions, respectively, attest. Despite continuing concerns about breakaway chunks of foam insulation of the sort that damaged Columbia three years ago, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin made the correct calculation to OK Tuesday's launch.

MOJAVE, Calif. - Some day, the tiny airport in this high-desert town may be considered in the history of manned commercial spaceflight much as Roosevelt Field on Long Island, N.Y., is to commercial aviation. It was here that SpaceShipOne, piloted by Michael W. Melvill, made the first commercial flight into space in June, making history just as Charles Lindbergh did on May 20-21, 1927, when he took off in the Spirit of St. Louis from Roosevelt for the first nonstop solo trans-Atlantic airplane flight.

CALIFORNIA'S HIGH desert blue sky suddenly is sliced in half by a brilliant streak of white as Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne shoots silently upward through the sound barrier and into space, capturing the $10 million Ansari X prize for his team at Scaled Composites. An eclectic mix of engineers, entrepreneurs, space enthusiasts and the eccentric wealthy gaze up from Earth to contemplate the significance of this bold stroke. In the days that follow, the broader business community and the federal government would be wise to do the same.

TWICE within the last week, the SpaceShipOne team sent its privately financed craft, a test pilot and 400 pounds of cargo more than 62.5 miles high - past the threshold of outer space - to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize. And with its second relatively safe and low-cost ride into the thermosphere Monday, a new era - of private space travel - may have dawned. Other entrepreneurs already are lined up to build or buy similar rocket ships to send paying passengers - initially the very wealthy, of course - on the same trip.

As a guinea pig in sleep studies during the space shuttle Discovery's coming flight, John Glenn was prepared to answer questions about his age and his normal sleep habits.But he wasn't going to tell the nosey reporters everything."I won't tell you how many times a night I get up," the 77-year-old space pioneer and U.S. senator said, to gales of laughter. "I don't know that that's any of your business, really."Glenn is a payload specialist on the flight, with fewer logged hours of space travel than all but the flight's one rookie.

Be a 4Kids DetectiveWhen you know the answers to these questions, go to www.4Kids.org/detectives/What does the word "astronaut" mean in Latin?What animal was sacred to the ancient Egyptians? (Go to www.nationalgeographic.com/3cities/ to find out.)Our year is based on which two astronomical objects?ZERO GRAVITY OR BUST!Buckle yourself in and rocket into space with NASA. Just set your control panel to kids.msfc.nasa.gov/, and space travel is seconds away. Once you catch up on the daily news from NASA, get ready for a space walk with "Space and Beyond" for your important research about black holes, solar systems and quasars.

The Presidential Commission on Space Exploration Policy At Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians are busy preparing Aura -- NASA's $800 million atmospheric research satellite -- for a July 10 launch. It's been a long time coming. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration conceived the mission 18 years ago. The Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt awarded the Aura contract a decade ago. And Northrop Grumman Space Technologies began building the spacecraft three years ago. Fast enough for the old NASA, perhaps.

A FEW DAYS ago in suburban Baltimore, a 15-year-old already deep in summer torpor was momentarily roused from the couch by a TV news report of plans for the first privately funded manned space flight. "I'm going to do that some day," she proclaimed with sudden energy and enthusiasm. More power to her, and more power to the designers and backers of SpaceShipOne and its pilot, Michael W. Melvill, for its record-setting flight more than 62 miles above the Earth's surface, roughly the beginning of space.