Final Report to the President on the U.S. Space Program
Title | Final Report to the President on the U.S. Space Program PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | U.S. Government Printing Office |
Pages | 98 |
Release | 1993 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN |
Aeronautics and Space Report of the President ... Activities
Title | Aeronautics and Space Report of the President ... Activities PDF eBook |
Author | United States. President |
Publisher | |
Pages | 84 |
Release | 1997 |
Genre | Aeronautics |
ISBN |
Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident
Title | Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident PDF eBook |
Author | DIANE Publishing Company |
Publisher | DIANE Publishing |
Pages | 267 |
Release | 1995-07 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 0788119125 |
Final Report to the President
Title | Final Report to the President PDF eBook |
Author | United States. Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station |
Publisher | |
Pages | 92 |
Release | 1993 |
Genre | Government publications |
ISBN |
NASA's First 50 Years Historical Perspectives
Title | NASA's First 50 Years Historical Perspectives PDF eBook |
Author | Steven J. Dick |
Publisher | Createspace Independent Publishing Platform |
Pages | 776 |
Release | 2010-08-20 |
Genre | |
ISBN | 9781470024758 |
Fifty years after the founding of NASA, from 28 to 29 October 2008, the NASA History Division convened a conference whose purpose was a scholarly analysis of NASA's first 50 years. Over two days at NASA Headquarters, historians and policy analysts discussed NASA's role in aeronautics, human spaceflight, exploration, space science, life science, and Earth science, as well as crosscutting themes ranging from space access to international relations in space and NASA's interaction with the public. The speakers were asked to keep in mind the following questions: What are the lessons learned from the first 50 years? What is NASA's role in American culture and in the history of exploration and discovery? What if there had never been a NASA? Based on the past, does NASA have a future? The results of those papers, elaborated and fully referenced, are found in this 50th anniversary volume. The reader will find here, instantiated in the complex institution that is NASA, echoes of perennial themes elaborated in an earlier volume, Critical Issues in the History of Spaceflight. The conference culminated a year of celebrations, beginning with an October 2007 conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Space Age and including a lecture series, future forums, publications, a large presence at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and numerous activities at NASA's 10 Centers and venues around the country. It took place as the Apollo 40th anniversaries began, ironically still the most famous of NASA's achievements, even in the era of the Space Shuttle, International Space Station (ISS), and spacecraft like the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) and the Hubble Space Telescope. And it took place as NASA found itself at a major crossroads, for the first time in three decades transitioning, under Administrator Michael Griffin, from the Space Shuttle to a new Ares launch vehicle and Orion crew vehicle capable of returning humans to the Moon and proceeding to Mars in a program known as Constellation. The Space Shuttle, NASA's launch system since 1981, was scheduled to wind down in 2010, freeing up funds for the new Ares launch vehicle. But the latter, even if it moved forward at all deliberate speed, would not be ready until 2015, leaving the unsettling possibility that for at least five years the United States would be forced to use the Russian Soyuz launch vehicle and spacecraft as the sole access to the ISS in which the United States was the major partner. The presidential elections a week after the conference presaged an imminent presidential transition, from the Republican administration of George W. Bush to (as it turned out) the Democratic presidency of Barack Obama, with all the uncertainties that such transitions imply for government programs. The uncertainties for NASA were even greater, as Michael Griffin departed with the outgoing administration and as the world found itself in an unprecedented global economic downturn, with the benefits of national space programs questioned more than ever before. There was no doubt that 50 years of the Space Age had altered humanity in numerous ways ranging from applications satellites to philosophical world views. Throughout its 50 years, NASA has been fortunate to have a strong sense of history and a robust, independent, and objective history program to document its achievements and analyze its activities. Among its flagship publications are Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, of which seven of eight projected volumes were completed at the time of the 50th anniversary. The reader can do no better than to turn to these volumes for an introduction to NASA history as seen through its primary documents. The list of NASA publications at the end of this volume is also a testimony to the tremendous amount of historical research that the NASA History Division has sponsored over the last 50 years, of which this is the latest volume.
Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report
Title | Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report PDF eBook |
Author | United States. Columbia Accident Investigation Board |
Publisher | U.S. Independent Agencies and Commission |
Pages | 260 |
Release | 2003 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN |
CD-ROM accompanying vol. 1 contains text of vol. 1 in PDF files and six related motion picture files in Quicktime format.
Science, the Endless Frontier
Title | Science, the Endless Frontier PDF eBook |
Author | Vannevar Bush |
Publisher | Princeton University Press |
Pages | 186 |
Release | 2021-02-02 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 069120165X |
The classic case for why government must support science—with a new essay by physicist and former congressman Rush Holt on what democracy needs from science today Science, the Endless Frontier is recognized as the landmark argument for the essential role of science in society and government’s responsibility to support scientific endeavors. First issued when Vannevar Bush was the director of the US Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Second World War, this classic remains vital in making the case that scientific progress is necessary to a nation’s health, security, and prosperity. Bush’s vision set the course for US science policy for more than half a century, building the world’s most productive scientific enterprise. Today, amid a changing funding landscape and challenges to science’s very credibility, Science, the Endless Frontier resonates as a powerful reminder that scientific progress and public well-being alike depend on the successful symbiosis between science and government. This timely new edition presents this iconic text alongside a new companion essay from scientist and former congressman Rush Holt, who offers a brief introduction and consideration of what society needs most from science now. Reflecting on the report’s legacy and relevance along with its limitations, Holt contends that the public’s ability to cope with today’s issues—such as public health, the changing climate and environment, and challenging technologies in modern society—requires a more capacious understanding of what science can contribute. Holt considers how scientists should think of their obligation to society and what the public should demand from science, and he calls for a renewed understanding of science’s value for democracy and society at large. A touchstone for concerned citizens, scientists, and policymakers, Science, the Endless Frontier endures as a passionate articulation of the power and potential of science.