Dr. Armstrong to receive honorary degree from Edinburgh University

An Unusually ebullient Dr. Armstrong, immediately after the very first stroll
on the Moon, back inside Eagle - Buzz Aldrin, July 21, 1969

The still-astonishingly quick and cool Dr. Neil Armstrong, 77, First to walk on Earth's Moon, will again affirm his ties with Scotland this June in a Washington D.C. ceremony where he will receive an honorary degree from Edinburgh University.

The report from Langholm in Dumfries and Galloway – the traditional seat of Clan Armstrong, is heralded by News.Scotsman.Com. (So you know it's not 'crop.')

Sir Arthur Dies

(1917-2008)

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, who has been mentioned casually in these postings and matter-of-factly, as in a reference to the "Clarke Belt," the orbit coincident to the Equatorial Plain where, at 40,000 kilometers satellites may enjoy an orbital speed matching Earth's rotation below, and are, thus, "geostationary," has died in Sri Lanka where he had lived since 1956 at 90 years of age.

Also in passing, in describing the "mysterious" software glitch that prevented Cassini from performing the very experiment justifying its close pass directly through the "Fountains of Encadelus" a week ago I wrote of the event being 'worthy of a short story by Arthur C. Clarke.'

"ALL THESE WORLDS"

Many more words, from the more fanatic fanatics will undoubtedly be written to express their gratitude for the long and influential career of Arthur Clarke, but it would be hard not to say, as simply as I know how, that Arthur C. Clarke was definitely very influential in my life and thinking. He had a vision of "if" more true to Bona Fide Science fiction than any other in his lifetime, and I would have been pleased to see him continue among us, reassuring in his presence somehow, at least through the coming century, as Dr. Heywood Floyd and Dave Bowman and HAL9000 most certainly will.

In his honor, I will re-read "The Sentinel" today.

After 50 years, Oberg suggests, why not bring Vanguard back to Earth?

True pioneer Jim Oberg has articles in Astronomy, and one better on MSNBC where he discusses faithful Vanguard, which without fanfare or much notice, began it's fifty-first year in orbit, Monday.

Officially, Jim reports, Vanguard is "not space junk," and enjoys a singular place in history as easily the longest lasting spacecraft, constructed and launched before the creation of NASA.

Though it ceased functioning in 1964, Vanguard has orbited Earth almost 200,000 times and has declined in it's overall 400 to 2,400 mile orbit, circling Earth once every 133 minutes, by only an astounding 60 miles since launch, March 17, 1958.

Vanguard was the first spacecraft powered by solar cells, and contributed such previously unknown information as the actual size and shape of Earth, which turned out to be an "oblate spheroid," and slightly "pear-shaped," as we all know today, and hardly perfectly round.

As by far the oldest artificial satellite, its development began in 1955, before the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, and it outlasted even the U.S.S.R., just as it outlasted Sputnik, Explorer I and Sputnik II. Vanguard is certainly a treasure, and U.S. Air Force Space Command continues to keep track of it's location along with tens of thousands of mostly unrecognizable, true "space debris." It's official number is "00005," though it was the fourth vehicle to successfully enter orbit, the NASA designation begins, apparently, with less fortunate Buses that died along with their buggy boosters. Not so, Vanguard, however.

And, as a demonstration of robotics technology, Oberg joins others in proposing a retrieval as a museum piece, and discusses more on that possibility with Dennis Wingo, who has an actual, relatively low cost plan to make this happen.

Since Vanguard and I are almost precisely the same age, my having been a week shy of my first birthday, born before Sputnik and 53 weeks after its launch, something in me wants to see the rascal, certainly.

I would buy a ticket, and would be interested from a science standpoint to study this ultimate "long duration exposure facility," close up.

Nevertheless, however eccentric Vanguard's orbit may seem, it is obviously as "highly stable" as Oberg claims, and while it has traveled through Van Allen radiation and solar cycles swells of upper atmosphere, high and mighty and barely touching low-Earth-orbit at perigee, and then well out and away with an awesome view of the "rock from which it was hewn," a half-century ago. It isn't so high that a manned mission couldn't creep up on the speedy 1.5 kilogram wonder.

Perhaps restoring it to operation, just as anyone would any antique car from the time, and leaving it to fly on continuing to challenge the ages and as witness to a time of small beginnings, a veritable spore of the DNA from which much of our staggering, stumbling space program drew pattern.

In short, Jim. I gladly thank Nancy Atkinson, over at Universe Today, who flagged me on the wee beastie's birthday having at least been noticed by you and few others on it's happy day.

But I would just as soon pass up on a visit to the Smithsonian, and despite the hazards (more so than a trip to ISS) I'll gladly visit and examine and promise to take good pictures of this one up close, but preferably in the environment for which it was designed and then proven to be so well-suited.

See Jim Oberg's excellent article on Vanguard HERE.

And March 4, 2008 - "Why we track the trash "
by Ed White U.S. Air Force Space Command via SPACE TRAVEL

Valentina Tereshkova - Born March 6, 1937

Valentina Tereshkova had to practice for zero-gravity eating as part of her training.

Wired celebrates the birthday of the first woman in Space

By Tony Long - WIRED -1937: Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel into space, is born in the Yaroslavl region of the western Soviet Union.

Tereshkova left school early and followed her mother to work in a textile mill, but she had also developed an interest in parachuting and joined a jump school with auxiliary ties to the Soviet air force.

Valentina Tereshkova was 24 when, in April 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man into space. When it was agreed that the USSR should also be first getting a woman into orbit, Tereshkova, by now an accomplished parachutist, was among 58 candidates sent to Moscow for screening.

Four others were accepted for cosmonaut training alongside Tereshkova: Valentina Ponomareva, Zhanna Yerkina, Tatiana Kuznetsova and Irina Solovyova. Of the five, Tereshkova was the least technically qualified. All the others had completed the higher education she lacked, and all were professionals, including a test pilot and three engineers. Like Tereshkova, all were parachutists, too, an absolute requirement since cosmonauts were ejected from their craft following re-entry.

But lack of technical expertise was not a deal breaker at the time, because the Vostok craft, much like the U.S. Mercury capsule, was self-piloting. And Tereshkova brought a little something extra: a purely proletarian background. She was a textile worker and the daughter of a textile worker, and her father -- a tractor driver in civilian life -- was killed at the front during the 1939-40 Russo-Finnish war.

Not only was Tereshkova the archetype of the New Soviet Woman, but she also demonstrated the physical stamina that her instructors knew would be essential to a successful flight.

Their training completed, the five women were commissioned lieutenants in the Soviet air force. When the time came for a decision, Tereshkova and Ponomareva were named the finalists. The ambitious original plan called for both women to go into space simultaneously, but when circumstances changed, Tereshkova -- being the more ideologically reliable -- got the nod.

She was launched into space aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963, using the call sign "Chaika," or "Seagull." Although nauseous from the motion and the weightlessness, Tereshkova performed like the good Communist that she was, completing 48 orbits in just over 70 hours, logging more flight time than all the American astronauts who preceded her, combined.

Though there were difficulties during the flight -- Tereshkova may have suffered from emotional stress while in orbit, although she denied this during her debriefing -- that news came to light only later. By then, her mission -- to trumpet the achievements of socialism in space -- had been accomplished.

Tereshkova was made a Hero of the Soviet Union and became a member of the Supreme Soviet in 1966.