Osobistości - wątek zbiorczy

[Orionid]

George Robert Carruthers 1939-2020

George R. Carruthers, scientist who designed telescope that went to the moon, dies at 81
By Matt Schudel Dec. 31, 2020 at 6:57 a.m. GMT+1

George R. Carruthers, an astrophysicist and engineer who was the principal designer of a telescope that went to the moon as part of NASA’s Apollo 16 mission in 1972 in an effort to examine the earth’s atmosphere and the composition of interstellar space, died Dec. 26 at a Washington hospital. He was 81.

His brother Gerald Carruthers confirmed the death, saying his brother had dementia and other ailments.

Dr. Carruthers, who built his first telescope when he was 10, had a singular focus on space science from an early age and spent virtually his entire career at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. He was one of the country’s leading African American astrophysicists and among the few working in the space program.

He began working on his Apollo telescope in 1969, when NASA posted what was called an “announcement of opportunity” to design experiments for Apollo space flights. In November 1969 — four months after the first astronauts walked on the moon — Dr. Carruthers received a patent for an “Image Converter for Detecting Electromagnetic Radiation Especially in Short Wave Lengths.”

Dr. Carruthers holding film cassettes from the telescope he designed that was part of the 1972 Apollo 16 mission to the moon.Dr. Carruthers holding film cassettes from the telescope he designed that was part of the 1972 Apollo 16 mission to the moon.

In other words, it was a specialized kind of ultraviolet telescope, or spectrograph, that could observe radiation and other properties in space. (Another scientist, Thornton Page, proposed a similar idea, and the two joined forces for the NASA project, with Dr. Carruthers as the principal investigator.)

Assuming the dual roles of conceptual scientist and practical engineer, Dr. Carruthers led a team that designed a telescope that could electronically amplify images from space through a series of lenses, prism and mirror, just three inches in diameter. Then, by converting photons to electrons, the images could be recorded on film. In 1970, an early model of his telescope was included in an unmanned rocket flight that found the first evidence of hydrogen in interstellar space.

The instrument — sometimes called an electronographic camera — had to be small enough to fit aboard a spacecraft, strong enough to withstand the rigors of being on the lunar surface and precise enough to measure materials that could be observed only in ultraviolet light. Plus, it had to be manipulated by an astronaut wearing a spacesuit and thick gloves.


President Barack Obama awards the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Dr. Carruthers at the White House in 2013. (Charles Dharapak/AP)

“There was still a dichotomy between engineers and scientists” in his early years at the Naval Research Laboratory, Dr. Carruthers said in a 1992 oral history interview with the American Institute of Physics. “When I talked to engineers, especially when I wanted to get parts made in the machine shop, they had sort of a negative attitude towards scientists because they felt that scientists didn’t know how to design things, they weren’t skilled at putting things together, they were all thumbs. They sort of found it strange that I was claiming to be a scientist, yet I was doing all my own drawings and doing a lot of my own assembly of parts.”

When mounted on a tripod, Dr. Carruthers’s lightweight magnesium telescope stood about four feet high. It was covered in gold plate to protect it from the moon’s extreme temperatures. Dr. Carruthers gave instructions to astronaut John W. Young, the Apollo 16 commander, on how to operate the device.

On April 21, 1972, the lunar module from Apollo 16 touched down on the moon. For the next 71 hours, Young and fellow astronaut Charles Duke used Dr. Carruthers’s telescope to peer deep into space, capturing more than 200 images of the earth’s atmosphere, hundreds of stars and distant galaxies.

In essence, it was planetary observatory on the moon, the first time such a sophisticated telescope had been used by astronauts in space. The observations had far-reaching implications for astronomy, astrophysics and the understanding of how stars are formed.

“It was spectacularly successful, imaging the earth’s outermost atmosphere in its entirety in the far ultraviolet range of the spectrum,” David DeVorkin, senior curator of the history of astronomy at the National Air and Space Museum, told The Washington Post in email. “It also surveyed myriad clouds of gas, stars and galaxies in deep space.”

Dr. Carruthers continued to refine his telescopes and develop experiments at the Naval Research Laboratory for decades. In 1986, one of his instruments captured an ultraviolet image of Halley’s comet.

He also designed instruments used aboard Skylab and space shuttle flights and for satellites measuring polar auroras and luminescence in the upper atmosphere. Dr. Carruthers’s original Apollo 16 telescope is still on the moon where the astronauts left it in 1972. A replica has been displayed at the Air and Space Museum.

“George Carruthers was one of the most amazingly focused scientists I have ever met,” DeVorkin said. “He lived to innovate and was endlessly improving his design for a telescope that could electronically amplify light by orders of magnitude and yet was robust enough to survive a rocket flight. His telescopes were physically small, yet extremely powerful.”

George Robert Carruthers was born Oct. 1, 1939, in Cincinnati. His father, an engineer who worked at Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, died when his son was 12.

The family, which included four children, resettled in Chicago, where his mother worked for the U.S. Postal Service.

Dr. Carruthers built his first telescope out of glass lenses and a cardboard tube. He won science prizes throughout his youth, read science fiction and was fascinated by space exploration, an idea then in its infancy.

At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 1961, a master’s degree in nuclear engineering in 1962 and a doctorate in aeronautical and astronautical engineering in 1964.

He then became a research physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory. In a rare 1971 interview with The Post, Dr. Carruthers said he worked 14-hour days, seven days week. In the seven years he had been at the naval lab, he had not yet taken a vacation.

He was described as “painfully shy,” but “something happens to George when he’s addressing his peers on astrophysics,” a colleague told The Post. “He gives beautiful lectures.”

Beginning in the 1980s, Dr. Carruthers worked extensively with science outreach programs, particularly in schools with large numbers of Black students. He developed an apprentice program for high school students at the Naval Research Laboratory and taught summer courses for science teachers in D.C. public schools.

After retiring from the research laboratory in 2002, he taught earth and space science for several years at Howard University. Dr. Carruthers, who lived in the District, received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal and was named to the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, presented by President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony in 2013.

In 1973, he married Sandra Redhead, who died in 2009. Survivors include his wife of nine years, Debra Thomas; and two brothers.

Dr. Carruthers seemed surprised when a Post reporter asked him in 1971 if he had any hobbies.

“Hobbies?” he said. “The projects we have here are so varied that it’s hardly necessary to have a hobby.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/george-carruthers-dead/2020/12/31/ca5a366e-4acc-11eb-a9d9-1e3ec4a928b9_story.html

[Orionid]

W wieku 45 lat Millie Elizabeth Hughes-Fulford stała się też najstarszą kobietą, która wówczas znalazła się w kosmosie.

To zdanie jest prawdziwe w odniesieniu do debiutu kosmicznego kobiety w 1991 roku.

W 1989 starszą od Millie Hughes-Fulford kobietą w kosmosie stała się Matilda Shannon Wells Lucid, która zresztą ustanawiała ten typ rekordów wiekowych od swego pierwszego do ostatniego lotu.

Matilda Shannon Wells Lucid jako jedyna Amerykanka odbyła długotrwałą misję na pokładzie stacji Mir.

Która to Matilda Shannon Wells Lucid stała się pierwszą kobietą, która rozpoczynała długotrwały lot kosmiczny w wieku co najmniej 50 lat oraz jedyną, jak na razie, która odbyła 2 loty kosmiczne w wieku co najmniej 50. Do tej pory tylko cztery panie wybrały się do pracy na orbitę (w tej kategorii wiekowej) na dłuższy okres czasu.

Lista astronautek, które rozpoczęły lot kosmiczny w wieku co najmniej 50 lat:

01)  Matilda Shannon Wells Lucid 1993 (50) (014:00:12:32)
                                                1996 (53) (188:04:00:09)

02)  Barbara Radding Morgan 2007 (55) (012:17:55:34)

03)  Kathryn Patricia 'Kay' Hire 2010 (50) (013:18:06:22)

04)  Catherine Grace 'Cady' Coleman 2010 (dzień po 50. urodzinach) (159:07:17:15)

05)  Peggy Annette Whitson 2016 (56) (289:05:01:29) (57. urodziny na ISS)

06)  Shannon Walker 2020 (55) Aktualnie wchodzi w skład Ex 64

W planach:

Katherine Megan McArthur 2021 (50. urodziny na ISS)

Sunita Lyn 'Suni' Williams 2022 (56)

Jeanette Jo Epps 2022 (51)

Peggy Annette Whitson  ?

[mss]

Lista astronautek, które rozpoczęły lot kosmiczny w wieku co najmniej 50 lat:

02)  Anousheh Ansari 2006 (50) (010:21:04:55)

Aniusza to chyba miała 40 lat w dniu startu!

[Orionid]

Lista astronautek, które rozpoczęły lot kosmiczny w wieku co najmniej 50 lat:

02)  Anousheh Ansari 2006 (50) (010:21:04:55)

Aniusza to chyba miała 40 lat w dniu startu!

Jak jeszcze raz poleci, to trafi na listę w sposób uprawniony 

Dodatkowo NASA wśród aktywnych astronautek 50+ ma jeszcze:

Stephanie Diana Wilson 1966 (2006, 2007, 2010)

Tracy Ellen Caldwell-Dyson 1969 (2007, 2010)
https://www.forum.kosmonauta.net/index.php?topic=3483.msg150032#msg150032

[mss]

Dodatkowo NASA wśród aktywnych astronautek 50+ ma jeszcze:

Stephanie Diana Wilson 1966 (2006, 2007, 2010)

Jest członkinią zespołu dla misji księżycowych Artemis.

[mss]

Inclusive of Thagard’s achievement, 70 Americans have flown long-duration missions to Mir and the International Space Station (ISS), of whom 11 have logged two extended flights and hardcore veterans Jeff Williams and Peggy Whitson have made three. But until last year, all of those missions saw their astronauts launch or land via the now-retired Space Shuttle fleet or Russia’s venerable Soyuz.

Przyjrzałem się temu zagadnieniu i wyszło, że tylko C. Michael Foale odbył długotrwałe loty na stację Mir i na ISS.
Po prostu zmiana pokoleniowa.

Z całej listy 70 Amerykanów z misjami długotrwałymi są dokładnie 14 astronautki, które odbyły bądź odbywają taką misję na ISS.
Patrząc na plany to Suni Williams ma szansę na trzecią taką misję, a Kate McArthur i Jeanette Epps dopiero na pierwszą.

Na dzisiaj na 70 Amerykanów z tymi misjami 15 to kobiety. Spośród 11 Amerykanów z 2 takimi misjami - 3 kobiety. Zobaczymy co będzie dalej.

Najkrótsze takie misje długotrwałe wśród astronautów amerykańskich mają (poniżej 100dni) na koncie:

1) Timothy L. Kopra - 58d02h50m10s;
2) Douglas G. Hurley i Robert L. Behnken - 63d23h25m02s;
3) Nicole P. Stott - 90d10h44m43s;
4) Garrett E. Reisman - 95d08h47m03s.

Oczywiście nie brany jest pod uwagę nowicjusz Viktor J. Glover kontynuujący lot na pokładzie ISS.

Najdłuższe są wymienione w wątku o misjach Sojuzów.

Ponad 200 dni było 7 misji Amerykanek i Amerykanów najczęściej w ostatniej dekadzie XXI wieku.

[Orionid]

Bruce Blackburn (02.06.1938 - 01.02.2021)

                                                       



Standards Manual @standardsmanual 
It's with a heavy heart that we report the passing of Bruce Blackburn, designer of the @NASA worm logo, American Revolution Bicentennial logo, and countless other design programs that will go down in history. RIP legend.
3:26 PM · 7 lut 2021 https://twitter.com/standardsmanual/status/1358421936976625667


Bruce Blackburn (left) and Richard Danne, at the Danne & Blackburn offices in New York City, c.1975. Photo by Alan Orling.

Blackburn (2016) — Documentary


NASA gets retro with 'worm' logo on SpaceX Demo-2 rocket
7515 wyświetleń•18 maj 2020


Bruce Blackburn, "Graphic design : the generalist approach", 1980-10-06
109 wyświetleń•21 maj 2019 Ball State University Libraries


Bruce Blackburn, Designer of Ubiquitous NASA Logo, Dies at 82
By Alex Vadukul Feb. 18, 2021

He was known for the NASA “worm,” which has become synonymous with space exploration. He also designed the 1976 American Revolution Bicentennial star.


Bruce Blackburn, left, and Richard Danne at their New York-based design firm, Danne & Blackburn. They were approached in the 1970s to rebrand NASA’s logo.Credit...Alan Orling

Bruce Blackburn, a graphic designer whose modern and minimalist logos became ingrained in the nation’s consciousness, including the four bold red letters for NASA known as the “worm” and the 1976 American Revolution Bicentennial star, died on Feb. 1 in Arvada, Colo., near Denver. He was 82.

The death, at a nursing home, was confirmed by his daughter, Stephanie McFadden.

In a design career of more than 40 years, Mr. Blackburn developed brand imagery for clients like IBM, Mobil and the Museum of Modern Art. But he is best known for the NASA worm, which has become synonymous with space exploration and the concept of the technological future itself.

In 1974, his small New York-based design firm, Danne & Blackburn, was barely a year old and eager for a big project when he and his partner, Richard Danne, were approached by the Federal Graphics Improvement Program to rebrand NASA’s classic logo, which depicted a patriotic red chevron soaring across the stars.

Known as “the meatball,” the original logo wasn’t exactly cutting edge, evoking instead a vintage Buck Rogers sensibility of space travel. With the eyes of the world suddenly on the agency after the moon landing in 1969, NASA sought a more forward-looking image.

“They were totally unprepared for that kind of attention,” Mr. Blackburn said in “Blackburn” (2016), a short documentary about him. “Their unpreparedness descended to the level of how they presented themselves to the public.”

NASA introduced the worm in 1975. A sleek sequence of winding red letters, it quickly became a symbol of a boundless space age that lay ahead.


An example of NASA’s worm logo, a bold sequence of curvy red letters designed by Mr. Blackburn.Credit...NASA

“We did get what we set out to accomplish,” Mr. Blackburn said. “Anybody we showed it to immediately said: ‘Oh, I know what that is. I know them. They’re really great. They’re right on the leading edge of everything.’”

But in 1992, a few years after the Challenger explosion, NASA dropped the worm and revived the meatball in a decision that was said to be intended to improve agency morale.

Mr. Blackburn and other designers lamented the choice. “They said, ‘This is a crime, you cannot do this,’” he said. “‘This is a national treasure, and you’re throwing it in the trash bin.’”

“His design sensibility was offended by what happened,” his daughter said. “He thought the meatball was clumsy and sloppy and not representative of the future.”

Creating the symbol for the American Revolution’s Bicentennial celebration was another big federal commission for Mr. Blackburn in the 1970s. The result was a soft red, white and blue star that applied a modern aesthetic to patriotic themes. By 1976 the logo was appearing on everything from stamps to coffee mugs to government buildings.


Another of Mr. Blackburn’s creations, appeared on everything from stamps to coffee mugs to government buildings.Credit...Standards Manual

“They say in life there are moments that are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities,” Mr. Blackburn said. “And I got two of them.”

He also worked on logos for the Department of Transportation and the Army Corps of Engineers. In the 1990s, he was a finalist in the International Olympic Committee’s design competition for a centennial logo. President Ronald Reagan recognized his work with a Presidential Design Award in 1984. He served as the president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts in the mid-1980s.

In the documentary, Mr. Blackburn described his style as “programmatic” — design that “fosters imagery in the public’s eye that is permanent.” He added, “The art in design is problem solving and then giving it visual life.”

Bruce Nelson Blackburn was born on June 2, 1938, in Dallas and raised in Evansville, Ind., on the Ohio River. His father, Buford Blackburn, was an electrical engineer. His mother, Ruby (Caraway) Blackburn, was a homemaker and real estate agent. As a boy, Bruce spent hours painting and drawing in his bedroom. In his teens he formed a Dixieland band and won state music competitions playing the French horn.

He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1961 with a bachelor’s degree in design and served in the Navy as a communications officer.

By the late 1960s, Mr. Blackburn had moved to New York to work for the design firm Chermayeff & Geismar. He later left it to found Danne & Blackburn. He parted ways with Mr. Danne in the 1980s and started his own firm, Blackburn & Associates, on Park Avenue. He married Tina Harsham in 1979.

In addition to his daughter, Ms. McFadden, Mr. Blackburn is survived by his wife; two sons, David Blackburn and Nick Sontag; a sister, Sandra Beeson; and eight grandchildren.

He and his wife moved to Santa Fe, N.M., a decade ago, and they settled in Lakewood, Colo., in 2017. A project that became important to him was designing logos for two Episcopal churches of which he was a longtime congregant: Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Weston, Conn., and St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Santa Fe.

Last year, Mr. Blackburn was surprised when NASA revived the worm logo and put it on the side of a SpaceX rocket that was launched into orbit in the spring. The fate of the worm had always remained a tender subject for him.

“I think he was glad to know that his design was finally back in space,” his daughter said.


Last year NASA revived the worm logo for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which launched into orbit in the spring.Credit...SpaceX

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/us/bruce-blackburn-dead.html

[Orionid]

Celebrating Women’s History Month: Most Recent Female Astronauts
Mar 3, 2021

For Women’s History Month, NASA and the International Space Station celebrate the women who conduct science aboard the orbiting lab.

As of March 2021, 65 women have flown in space, including cosmonauts, astronauts, payload specialists, and space station participants. The first woman in space was Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who flew on Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963. The first American woman in space, Sally Ride, flew aboard the Space Shuttle STS-7 in June of 1983.

Other notable firsts:
(...)
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/whm-recent-female-astronauts

Women's History Month 2023: Celebrating Women Astronauts
Mar 1, 2023

“A bird cannot fly with one wing only. Human space flight cannot develop any further without the active participation of women.” – Valentina Tereshkova

“If we want scientists and engineers in the future, we should be cultivating the girls as much as the boys.” – Sally Ride

“International cooperation is very necessary. Chinese have a saying, ‘When all the people collect the wood, you will make a great fire.’” – Liu Yang

As of March 2023, 72 women have flown in space. Of these, 44 have worked on the International Space Station as long-duration expedition crewmembers, as visitors on space shuttle assembly flights, or as space flight participants on short-duration missions. This article recognizes the significant accomplishments of these women from many nations as well as the pioneering women who preceded them into space. Many other women contributed to the assembly of the station and the research conducted aboard on a daily basis, including those on the ground who served as center directors, managers, flight directors, and in many other roles to pursue the exploration of space. Their achievements will contribute to NASA’s efforts to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon and possibly send the first crews to Mars in the coming decades.


1) The five women selected for training to be the first woman in space, Soviet cosmonaut-candidates Valentina L. Ponomareva, left, Tatiana D. Kuznetsova, Irina B. Soloveva, Valentina V. Tereshkova, and Zhanna D. Yorkina, with an unidentified woman at far right.
2)Tereshkova just before boarding her Vostok 6 capsule for her historic spaceflight.
(...)
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/womens-history-month-2023-celebrating-women-astronauts

[Orionid]

Looking Back, Looking Forward on International Women's Day
By Ben Evans, on March 8th, 2021


NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and her Expedition 64 crewmate Shannon Walker are the only two women off the planet this International Women’s Day. Photo Credit: NASA


Yelena Serova (left) talks with Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. Photo Credit: NASA


John Blaha greets Shannon Lucid after his arrival aboard Mir in September 1996. Lucid set a new record of 188 days for the longest single space mission ever completed by a woman. Photo Credit: NASA



https://www.americaspace.com/2021/03/08/looking-back-looking-forward-on-international-womens-day/#more-163979

[Orionid]

Była astronautka NASA Kathy Sullivan, 68 stała się pierwszą kobietą, która 6.6.2020 zanurzyła się batyskafem w Rowie Mariańskim (głębia 11 km)...
{...}

Kosmiczny turysta Richard Allen Garriott de Cayeux, 60,  stał się pierwszym mężczyzną z kosmicznym doświadczeniem, który 1.3.2021 zanurzył się batyskafem w Rowie Mariańskim (głębia 11 km)...

Richard Garriott went to the bottom of the goddamned ocean
By Andy Chalk 02 March 2021



Lord British is now the only human in history to have travelled to both poles, outer space, and the deepest point on Earth.

Richard Garriott made his bones in the early days of the videogame industry as the creator of the Ultima RPG series and co-founder of Origin Systems. In more recent years his attention shifted from game development to real-world exploration: He's been to the North Pole, the South Pole, and outer space, among other places.

Now, as reported by The Mirror, he's added another milestone to that impressive list of accomplishments by travelling to the Mariana Trench, the deepest oceanic trench on the planet. The journey makes him the only person in the world to have visited both poles, outer space, and the lowest physical point on the planet.

Garriott said it took roughly four hours to make the 36,000-foot journey (that's just under seven miles) to the bottom of the Pacific. Once there, he took photos, collected samples, and recorded a short sci-fi film—something he also did during his time aboard the International Space Station. He also confirmed that he was able to complete the entire 12-hour journey without requiring a bathroom break.

"On the video I took you can see these nice little four or five inch long translucent black worms," Garriott said. "They’re there all over the floor down there. And you can also see tracks of larger, things that are out there."

(The italics are mine, not Garriott's, but I think it's an appropriate fit after, as he put it, "a descent into darkness in the truest sense.")

Victor Vescovo, who accompanied Garriott on his journey, shared this brief video of the bottom of the world on

Twitter:

Video of the Limiting Factor submersible cruising above the shattered rocks of the Challenger Deep, Pacific Plate side. We looked for something to pick up but they were all too big. More exploring hopefully tomorrow on the Filipino Plate
https://twitter.com/VictorVescovo/status/1366591801843417090 March 2, 2021

Garriott told Space.com that along with collecting specimens and conducting experiments, he also used the opportunity to have a little bit of personal fun by planting the deepest geocache on Earth. He previously set the world's highest geocache during his trip to the ISS.

"We've cut a 6-inch-square [15 cm] titanium plate that not only has the geocache number written on it, which is still hidden until we make it public in a week or so, and it has a secret word written on it," he said. "And we have a syntactic foam float that rises up on a Kevlar tether, which also has the word 'geocache' and the geocache number on it."

"Then, on the opposite sides of the syntactic foam, which is kind of a downward facing arrow, is the secret word. And so the secret word is in four places on this thing. So that way, anybody that happens to see this again in the future therefore will have seen the secret word and will have a chance to find this geocache as well."

Despite being best known (to gamers, at least) as a pioneering figure in the game business, Garriott is not simply a bored tourist with money: In January he was elected president of The Explorers Club, a century-old organization "dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore."

Andy covers the day-to-day happenings in the big, wide world of PC gaming—the stuff we call "news." In his off hours, he wishes he had time to play the 80-hour RPGs and immersive sims he used to love so much.
https://www.pcgamer.com/richard-garriott-went-to-the-bottom-of-the-goddamned-ocean/

Astronaut-explorer sets records on dive to deepest point on Earth

March 3, 2021 — Richard Garriott's views of Earth are now as deep as they are wide.


Richard Garriott (at left) displays his copy of "Hubert's Hair Raising Adventure" as Victor Vescovo looks on aboard the Limiting Factor submersible during the dive to Challenger Deep. (Richard Garriott)

The son of a NASA astronaut and a video game pioneer who previously traversed both the North and South poles and funded his own trip to the International Space Station, Garriott completed a dive to Challenger Deep, the lowest point on Earth, on Monday (March 1).

"I am the first person to go pole to pole, space and deep and the second person — first male — to go space [to] deep," Garriott told collectSPACE in a call while still at sea on Tuesday.

Garriott, who is the incoming president of The Explorers Club, made the dive on board the "Limiting Factor," the first commercially certified, full-ocean-depth deep submergence vehicle that was developed and funded by undersea explorer Victor Vescovo. It was aboard the same submersible with Vescovo as pilot that former NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan became the first space traveler and first woman to dive to Challenger Deep — in August 2020. (...)


Richard Garriott's selfie aboard the Limiting Factor submersible, which took him to the lowest point on Earth, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, on March 1, 2021. Garriott is now the first person to traverse both poles, launch into Earth orbit and reach the ocean's bottom. (Richard Garriott)
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-030321a-astronaut-garriott-dive-challenger-deep.html

[mss]

https://jeterfuneralhome.com/margaret-jane-lathlaen/

http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum38/HTML/002382.html

In Loving Memory
Margaret Jane Lathlaen (August 24, 1950 – December 13, 2020):

Margaret (Peggy) Jane Lathlaen, 70, of Houston, Texas, passed away on December 13, 2020 after a long illness. She was born on August 24, 1950 in Flushing, New York to Robert F. Lathlaen and Nancy Elizabeth Nichols.

Peggy grew up in Ossining, New York where she graduated from Ossining High School. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Education and a Master's Degree in Gifted Education from Bucknell University.  Peggy lived in Houston, Texas for 41 years. She was a teacher in gifted education at Westwood Elementary in Friendswood, Texas.  She also worked as a middle school peer facilitator for Fort Bend ISD and was a Professor at University of Houston/Clear Lake.  Peggy was a board member of several education associations including the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the National Association for the Education of Young Children and other gifted teaching associations.  Peggy authored several published articles on the education of gifted children.

She is survived by Joshua Channing, her husband of 20 years, son Aaron and his wife Christina and their children Avery and Carter; sister Gail Miskell and husband Tom, their three sons Tom, Father Robert, and Brian; sister Carol Sue Yensco and husband Andy and their daughter Rebecca Bean; and many nephews, nieces and cousins.

During Peggy's tenure at Westwood Elementary, she was nominated for the NASA Teacher in Space Program in 1985 and was ultimately selected as one of the ten finalists.  Peggy participated in interviews, medical evaluations, briefings and training exercises to narrow down the field of candidates, the winner of which would participate in a shuttle mission aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.  Christa McAuliffe was selected and on January 28, 1986, the Challenger exploded 73 seconds after the launch.  Peggy had made lifelong friends of the ten finalists and was deeply affected by the tragedy.

Peggy volunteered in homeschool programs and advised homeschooling parents.  She enjoyed knitting, writing, reading, singing, studying the Bible, the Torah and was involved in Bible Study Fellowship.  Peggy and Joshua volunteered in Vacation Bible Schools and in running church youth programs.  They also enjoyed English Country Dancing and playing games together.

[mss]

Asteroids named for diverse group of 27 trailblazing astronauts

March 17, 2021

— A group of astronauts who are trailblazers for their respective ethnicities are now true "rock stars," having asteroids named for them.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) Minor Planet Center, which oversees the designation of small bodies in the solar system, recently released the list of official asteroid names honoring 27 space travelers of African American, Hispanic and Native American descent. The namesakes include active and former NASA astronauts, U.S. Air Force astronaut candidates and one Soviet-era cosmonaut.

All 27 astronaut-named asteroids were discovered in the belt between Mars and Jupiter by Marc Buie, a Boulder, Colorado-based astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute, which is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Buie is also a co-investigator on NASA's Lucy mission, which, after launching in October, will study Trojan asteroids that circle the Sun, leading and following Jupiter in its orbit.

więcej: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-031721a-asteroids-named-astronauts.html

oryginał: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/newly-named-asteroids-reflect-contributions-of-pioneering-astronauts

[NewMan]

Chyba to dobry watek na taką osobistość.

https://spacenews.com/nelson-expected-to-be-nominated-for-nasa-administrator/

Były astronauta (niezawodowy) kandydatem na nowego administratora NASA.

Clarence William «Bill» Nelson (obecnie w wieku 78 lat) był uczestnikiem programu "Polityk w kosmosie" i odbył lot na pokładzie Columbii w styczniu 1986 (w misji STS-61C).

NewMan

[mss]

Były podobno kandydatury kobiety na to stanowisko!

https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/18/22337787/biden-nasa-chief-choice-senator-bill-nelson

Some had hoped Biden would pick a woman to lead NASA, which has only been led by men in the past. Other people considered for the role included Melroy and Ellen Stofan, the director of the National Air and Space Museum, two people familiar with internal personnel discussions said. Stofan accepted a different position earlier this month as the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Science and Research.

[mss]

Chyba to dobry watek na taką osobistość.

https://spacenews.com/nelson-expected-to-be-nominated-for-nasa-administrator/

Były astronauta (niezawodowy) kandydatem na nowego administratora NASA.

Clarence William «Bill» Nelson (obecnie w wieku 78 lat) był uczestnikiem programu "Polityk w kosmosie" i odbył lot na pokładzie Columbii w styczniu 1986 (w misji STS-61C).

NewMan

Jeśli będzie powołany na to stanowisko to będzie najstarszym administratorem NASA w historii:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_administrators_and_deputy_administrators_of_NASA#Administrators