Free Republic

As one of the proudest and most memorable moments in Russia's history, Yuri Gagarin's space flight, 50 years ago today, has been the subject of much discussion among the Russian media and its political leaders. But what are they saying about it? The Russian president has spoken of Gagarin's achievement in glowing terms. “I believe it was a truly revolutionary event, a highly symbolic one", he said during an interview with Chinese television. "It was a tremendous achievement of Soviet cosmonautics, which divided the world into ‘before’ and ‘after’ the flight, what has been termed the ‘space era’. A lot...

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's William Pickering, University of Iowa physicist James Van Allen and rocket scientist Wernher von Braun hold up a model of Explorer 1 at a news conference after hearing the satellite had reached orbit on Jan. 31, 1958. Click on the image to watch a newsreel report on the launch. Carl Raggio still remembers how tense he felt exactly 50 years ago, on the night America entered the Space Age.He and his fellow engineers were playing gin rummy at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. - but their minds weren't fully on the game. They were...

Space-Age Drinking Water System Tested The system, originally designed for NASA, may provide a short-term solution to provide residents with clean drinking water. By U.S. Army Sgt. Dennis Gravelle 138th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment DAHUK, Iraq, May 2, 2006 — U.S. soldiers assigned to the 401st Civil Affairs Battalion in Dahuk, Iraq, have found an alternative way for residents to drink clean water in the village of Bendaway. A creek running through a small village in northern Iraq is the only natural source of drinking water for the residents who live there.“We are surrounded by agriculture here,” said John...

The Space Age began Oct. 19, 1899, when Robert Goddard, a tubercular 17-year-old from Worcester, climbed a cherry tree in his back yard and dreamed of sending a "device" to Mars. Seven years later on his Aunt Effie’s farm in Auburn, Goddard launched a homemade gasoline-fueled rocket 41 feet up into the air before it crashed 2.5 seconds later into a cabbage patch. A small step for the geek known as the Father of Rocketry. A giant leap into our past and future at the Worcester Historical Museum.