Book Review: Fighting for Space
The author skillfully uses the dual biography format in this revealing examination of the personalities and careers of Jackie Cochran and Jerrie Cobb, two women who aggressively pursued aviation careers and met head-to-head in the early 1960s when Dr. Randy Lovelace began testing women’s potential suitability as astronauts.
Book Review: The Sirens of Mars
This book covers the history behind the search for life on Mars, written by a person who was intimately involved in this history. Despite the short length of 288 pages, the book has enough interesting facts and anecdotes to satisfy both serious Mars enthusiasts and newcomers to the subject.
The Records They Keep Falling: F9 First Stage flies for 7th time
By Dale Skran SpaceX continued to push the envelope of reusability with a November 24, 2020 launch of the 16th Starlink mission, bringing the total number of Starlinks launched to 955. For the first time, a Falcon 9 first stage flew and was recovered for the 7th time,...
Nightflight to Venus: Pioneer Venus, Arecibo, VOIR, and Magellan
This Space Available, By Emily Carney. The Arecibo Observatory was essential in discovering features of inner solar system planets, including Mars and Venus. Venus, the truly lesser-understood of the two planets, enjoyed an all-too-brief period of space exploration from the 1970s to the 1990s. Observations from Arecibo, used alongside observations by spacecraft, deepened our knowledge of the “Island of Clouds” (as referred to by author Gerald Brennan).
‘The Real Right Stuff’ Illuminates Mercury Program, Debuts Rare Material
This Space Available, by Emily Carney. A documentary set to debut tomorrow on Disney+ sets out to recapture the actual world of the first U.S. astronauts, early NASA, and the people behind the effort to send the first Americans to space. The Real Right Stuff not only tells the astronauts’ story, but newly unearthed sources set the mood of the era – when the whole country and world were turned on to a new Space Age future.
Ground-Breaking SpaceX Crew-1 Commercial Flight Enhances International Space Station Productivity
National Space Society's Ongoing Support for Commercial Spaceflight Shows Results On Tuesday, at 11:01 pm Eastern Time, SpaceX’s Crew-1 flight successfully docked with the International Space Station in its first operational flight with a crew of four. The National...
Are We Ready for a Real-Life War of the Worlds?
By Bailey Cunningham, NSS Legal Fellow In 1897, H.G. Wells envisioned a Martian invasion. Today we know there is no need to panic, but that doesn’t mean we should be complacent about planetary defense. The threat posed by Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) is very real. NEOs...
SPACE BASICS: “Space Settlements” vs “Communities Beyond Earth”
By Dale Skran In a previous post on What Is a Space Settlement? I made a serious effort to define a “space settlement” and came up with this: “A space settlement” refers to a habitation in space or on a celestial body where families live on a permanent basis, and that...
This Space Available, Ten Years Later
On November 3rd, 2010, Emily Carney pressed the “create blog” button for This Space Available. This blog posts marks a milestone she never imagined she’d even reach.
Attention Space Educators: Apply by December 11 for the National Space Club’s Space Educator Award
The National Space Club has established, with the initial support of Glen P. Wilson and the National Space Society, the National Space Club Space Educator Award. The award has been created to recognize the importance of U.S. secondary school teachers in motivating and...
Book Review: The Ultimate Engineer
George M. Low was Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office and also served as Deputy NASA Administrator for over six years. His accomplishments include the proposal to use the Apollo 8 mission as a circumlunar exercise. This book provides an excellent survey of Low’s life work and is filled with quotes that bring the personal perspective.
Book Review: Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars
A deeply personal book from former analog astronaut Kate Greene, who joined five others in a simulated Mars mission. Veteran space enthusiasts will here find issues of space psychology rarely covered elsewhere.
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