The Apollo 11 mission culminated a decade of what had been the greatest period of technological development in the history of the human race. More useful inventions were made during the 1960's than any other similar time interval before or since. In landing a pair of astronauts on the Moon, the United States of America not only "won" the "space race" but also brought about a great number of benefits that all of us have been able to enjoy since.
Apollo 11 was the first of six missions to successfully land a pair of astronauts to walk on the Moon. However, since Apollo 17 Mission Commander Gene Cernan returned to the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) at 05:40:56 GMT on 14 December, 1972, no one has been back to the Moon: Lunar exploration and development was abandoned in the interest of developing NASA's Space Shuttle.
It's time to go back to the Moon: We need space to grow: There are far more resources available in the asteroids, moons and planets in our Solar system than there are here on Earth. Once we learn to travel beyond the reach of our own sun, to other stellar systems, we will find even more - and probably more habitable planets. Going back to the Moon is merely one step on that journey, and it's time for us to take it: We must move beyond the low Earth orbit where the International Space Station travels, and establish permanent a human presence on all of the significant bodies in the Solar system, and in bigger, more self-sufficient colonies than the ISS represents, floating in their own independent orbits.
Today is the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest achievements in human history. Let us honor the memory by vowing to re-open the door to space, and by realizing that vow with the actions necessary to bring it to fruition.
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Here is the official press release, announcing the new T-shirt design:
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Friday, September 21, 2007 The L5 Development Group announced today the official introduction of its commemorative T-shirt honoring an important event in space flight history: the launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, which occurred 50 years ago on October 4, 1957. Shirts commemorating the event are offered in either black or white, and are now available from The L5 Development Group's gift shop on their Web site at: "We are introducing this shirt to help increase public awareness of our space travel heritage, and to gather support for a more active human presence in the exploration and development of space," says Fred Koschara, President of The L5 Development Group. Mr. Koschara observes "I think most people don't realize it's been 50 years that we've had satellites in orbit: We get distracted by more immediate things, and forget that building a presence in space takes a broad (yet focused) effort for a long time." While efforts such as the International Space Station show significant progress in the right direction, The L5 Development Group believes the only way a substantial human presence in space will be achieved is through private enterprise working toward commercial objectives. "Government programs may seem like a good plan where they aren't constrained by having to return an immediate profit," explains Mr. Koschara. "However, that's exactly the problem: Unless they have a specific national objective, as the Apollo program did in getting to the Moon first, long-term funding is subject to popularity polls. Such criteria make it practically impossible to do real long range planning, as it is unknown when the budget axe will kill the project being worked on. Ultimately, the prospect of a profit is what leads people to invest their time and money - which is what private enterprise is all about." In very general terms, the private enterprise space program being promoted by The L5 Development Group can be broken down into four steps:
"We aren't getting out there by sitting around waiting for NASA to invite us," quips Mr. Koschara. "The only way it will happen is by getting more people directly involved - and we're hoping our T-shirts will help make the effort more visible." To order the commemorative T-shirts, contact The L5 Development Group using their site's Gift Shop (as noted above) at: For all other business matters, the company can be reached at: P.O. Box 15571 Boston, MA 02215 617/792-4320 http://L5Development.com |
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To remedy this situation, a completely new database driven TodaysNews system is under development. We are hoping to have the new system online before the end of October, 2007, pending resource availability. Further developments will be announced here as they occur.
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Enter your email address here to sign up for our Space History newsletter: |
Under no circumstances will we release your email address to outside persons or organizations, and it will only be used for mailing the specific information you have requested.
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Once the Space History newsletter information has been compiled, we will be offering a variety of options for searching and browsing the material in the Space History section of this site.
We would like to thank our subscribers for their patience in waiting for this feature to be completed, and we hope you enjoy the results!
As was previously announced, we will have a Web-based form for submitting events for inclusion into our Space History database. Until that page is completed, we are accepting submissions via email at SpaceHistorySubmit@L5Development.com .
Your input is welcome and appreciated.
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Building the database of events for the newsletter is going to require a major investment of effort over the next several months. Once the information has been compiled, we will be offering a variety of options for searching and browsing the material in the Space History section of this site.
We would like to thank our subscribers for their patience in waiting for this feature to be completed, and we hope you enjoy the results!
Enter your email address here to sign up for our Space History newsletter: |
Under no circumstances will we release your email address to outside persons or organizations, and it will only be used for mailing the specific information you have requested.
As was previously announced, we will have a Web-based form for submitting events for inclusion into our Space History database. Until that page is completed, we are accepting submissions via email at SpaceHistorySubmit@L5Development.com .
Your input is welcome and appreciated.
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As was previously announced, we are planning to have a Web-based form for submitting events for inclusion into our Space History database. Until that page is completed, we are accepting submissions via email at SpaceHistorySubmit@L5Development.com Your input is welcome and appreciated.
Enter your email address here to sign up for our Space History newsletter: |
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To quote their Web site at http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/041004_spaceshipone_x-prize_flight_2.html:
"In addition to meeting the altitude requirement to win the X-Prize, pilot Brian Binnie also broke the August 22, 1963 record by Joseph A. Walker, who flew the X-15 to an unofficial world altitude record of 354,200 feet. Brian Binnie's SpaceShipOne flight carried him all the way to 367,442 feet or 69.6 miles above the Earth's surface." |
[Ed. note: 367,442 feet is 111,996 meters - effectively 12 km over the 100 km minimum altitude required to win the X Prize purse.]
It is fitting and appropriate the winning flight was timed to coincide with the (47th) anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. Sputnik was launched by the former Soviet Union at 10:28 am, Moscow time, on October 7, 1957. It is also commemorated by our Sputnik+45 T-shirt available from the L5 Development Gift Shop.
On the Scaled Composites Web site, you can find links for more information and videos, including a high quality 3 minute 5MB streaming / downloadable clip featuring on board camera and chase footage of the second X Prize flight.
From the Ansari X Prize Web site, you can also view an extended format (i.e., over five and a half hours) webcast of the entire morning. This interesting documentary includes a number of interviews and embedded video segments which review the entire history of the project, and the teams that have been in the competition for the prize. It is an excellent presentation, and we hope to be able to include it in our archives for historical purposes.
Once again, congratulations to the Mojave Aerospace Ventures team for their successful flights. We send our best wishes to them, to the X Prize team, and to all of the other competitors, and look forward to their continued success with their future efforts.
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