This Week in The Space Review:
Old Reliable: The story of the Redstone
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This week marks the 50th anniversary of the flight of Alan Shepard, the first American to travel in space. Drew LePage examines the history of the Redstone rocket that made Shepard's flight possible.
A muddled future
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The space shuttle Endeavour was set to launch Friday on its final mission, but was scrubbed hours before liftoff because of a technical issue. Jeff Foust notes the near-term uncertainty about when Endeavour will launch parallels the long-term uncertainty about the future of the Space Coast after the shuttle program ends.
Pomp and circumstances
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Friday's attempted launch of the space shuttle Endeavour was scheduled for the same day as the big royal wedding in England. Dwayne Day compares and contrasts the symbolism and significance of each.
Review: Martian Summer
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What's it like to spend a summer operating a spacecraft on Mars looking for water ice? Jeff Foust reviews a book that provides a unique, quirky look at how a team of scientists and engineers worked on the Phoenix Mars Lander mission.
If you missed it, here's what we published in our previous issue:
Funding the seed corn of advanced space technology
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The final NASA fiscal year 2011 funding bill provided no explicit funding for space technology activities, a key element of the agency's future plans. Lou Friedman says that without such investment, it will become increasingly difficult to make new advances in robotic or human space exploration.
Commercial crew's final four
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Last week NASA announced that four companies would share nearly $270 million in commercial crew development awards, the next step in efforts to develop commercial vehicles to carry astronauts to orbit. Jeff Foust reports on the outcome of the competition and whether there's room for other companies to compete later in the program.
Fifty years of piloted spaceflight: Where are we going?
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It's clear to many that, half a century after the era of human spaceflight began, we have fallen fall short of our early dreams for the exploration and settlement of space. Claude Lafleur take a look at what went wrong.
Paul Allen's past (and future) in space
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While best known for co-founding Microsoft, Paul Allen is known in the space community for funding development of SpaceShipOne. Jeff Foust discusses some insights about that effort Allen reveals in a new book, and his potential to return to the commercial space field.
An exercise in the Art of War: China's National Defense white paper, outer space, and the PPWT
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China continues to press for a treaty banning the placement of weapons in outer space, even while developing its own ASAT capability. Michael Listner examines what may be at the root of Chinese strategy regarding space weaponization.
Until next week,
Provided by The Space Review
