From: "Strong, Lee" <StrongL at MTMC.ARMY.MIL>
To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Last night's meeting
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 08:07:47 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

	40+ years of Americans in space.  Wow!  In 1962, there was a low
budget but well written little show on TV called _Science Fiction Theater_.
Still one of my favorites.  I remember being hacked off because they
interrupted it for the first live satellite TV broadcast from Britain to the
USA.  And it's still eerie that a **historical** movie like _Apollo 13_
looks science fictional!
	
Old Timer

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith F. Lynch [mailto:kfl at keithlynch.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 9:59 PM
To: WSFA members
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Last night's meeting

"Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net> wrote:
> Today is also the 40th anniversary of an important event.
> Lets see who gets it first.

"lee gilliland" <leeandalexis at hotmail.com> wrote:
> John Glenn and Freedom 7 - 1st American in space?

Right.  Or rather, first American in orbit.  Before him were the
Alan Shepard and Gus Grisson suborbital missions.

Forty years.  Space exploration has a somewhat lengthy history now.

It's interesting to think of human artifacts on other planets, or just
loose in space.  While Freedom 7 returned to earth after just three
orbits, and is now in the nearby Air & Space Museum, Pioneer 6, which
was launched 37 years ago, is still in solar orbit, and is still
working just fine.

When Arthur C. Clarke proposed synchronous satellites, in 1945, he
intended them to be manned.  He never imagined electronic equipment
that could operate for decades without maintenance.
--
Keith F. Lynch - kfl at keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/
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