Space Race

In the recent $1.7 Trillion bill that Congress passed just before the year’s end, NASA was allocated nearly 26 Billion Dollars for the FY2023. Although it’s roughly 5% more than 2022 in nominal terms, it’s actually less when adjusted for inflation. As a bit of context, the U.S spending on…

A revealing look at the Space Age and the Apollo program through lens of Apple’s widely praised series. What they got right (a lot) and what they got wrong (very little), and what’s with those Nouns and Verbs, LMPs, SIV-Bs, Sea Dragons, the real Molly Cobb, CapComs, and LLTVs? — With the recent release of season 3 of Apple’s excellent For All Mankind series and its heart-breaking ending, the quality of the show has never been better. Not only from the overall writing and acting but how carefully crafted the show is when it comes to the way the technology…

(Flash Warning: repeating gif) The supernova of 1054 left behind more than one remnant that has been crucial to astronomical studies. The remnant of interest this week is located at the center of the Crab Nebula. It is the not-so-uniquely named Crab Pulsar. Despite shifting our focus away from archeoastronomy…

It’s because space sucks. Let me explain: If you haven’t guessed yet by this account’s avatar, ever since I was a little child I was drawn to Science Fiction. My dad made a long list of classical books I had to read, nearly two decades ago. …

Sputnik and the Creation of NASA Note: The following is a chapter in a book I’m writing titled StarBound, a popular history of the American space program. Comments and questions are welcome. Understanding the evolution of rocketry in the latter half of the twentieth century involves at least a brief…

If you want to take a trip to space, you might want to hop on the reservation train. (Warning: it will cost half a million dollars — at the minimum). — I know what you’re thinking. Space travel? We barely sent rovers to Mars. Sure, humans aren’t going to Mars anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean space travel is an irrelevant conversation in tourism. See, going far enough through Earth’s atmosphere is space travel, and you could imagine the view of…

The year was 1961. Astronaut and test pilot Alan B. Shepard flips a switch, and an indicator light flashes green with the words “ready”. Shepard confirms periscope retraction and assures battery AMPs are sufficient. T-5…4…3…2…1…0, ignition. Liftoff and the clock has started. Mercury Freedom 7 is en-route to a suborbital…

Over the next 30 days I will write and publish daily an Atomic Essay about the history of the space race and the impact it had on us today. I am part of a writing community out of Miami Dade College interested in developing the skills to communicate the topics that matter most to us more effectively. Follow me here on Medium and on Twitter