Here's an announcement in the email about a campaign to keep a retired Shuttle at KSC:

Space Coast Non-Profit Launches Effort To Support Keeping A Retired Shuttle Orbiter At Kennedy Space Center

August 20, 2010 - Today the Aerospace Research & Engineering Systems Institute, Inc., a Florida non-profit corporation, announces the launch of the Space Shuttle Project to promote the Kennedy Space Center area as the best location for permanent display of a space shuttle orbiter after the fleet is retired. The Space Shuttle Project provides a platform for community leaders and members of the public to join voices and make the case for the Space Coast.

"Kennedy Space Center is the home of the orbiters," states Matthew Travis, Executive Director for ARES Institute. "This is where they are processed, launched and cared for with the utmost love and dedication by the world's foremost aerospace workforce. The shuttle program has become ingrained in our community and culture. Symbols of the space shuttle can be found throughout Brevard County and the Space Coast. No place could be a more appropriate retirement home for an orbiter."

The Space Shuttle Project is online at http://www.spaceshuttleproject.com. The website has historical information about the space shuttle and an online petition the visitors may sign to express their support for the Space Coast. In the future, feature stories will be contributed by members of the local community, shuttle workers and others with their thoughts, memories and favorite anecdotes from the storied 30-year history of the world's only reusable manned spacecraft.

For more information about the Space Shuttle Project, please visit: http://www.spaceshuttleproject.com

To learn about the mission of the Aerospace Research & Engineering Systems Insitute, Inc., visit: http://www.aresinstitute.org

Museums will be fighting not only over which ones get the Shuttle orbiters after they retire but also over other Shuttle program related hardware: Space shuttle trainer coming to Seattle's Museum of Flight - Seattle PI

Via Spaceports blog comes this RT video report about Huntsville, Alabama and the US Space and Rocket Center:

A humorous put down of the ridiculous notion that the Moon landings were faked: Why we didn't fake the moon landings - pars3c - July.28.10

Arthur C. Clarke saw the huge benefits to satellite communications and positioning systems long before everyone else: Arthur C. Clarke predicted satellite TV and GPS in the 40s and 50s - Boing Boing - Aug.26.10.

Pat Hynes of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC) writes about the history of solid fuel rockets: Connecting firecrackers and solid rocket boosters - Las Cruces Sun-News - July.7.10.

A reader points to a story about an unusual atomic bomb test during the height of the Cold War: A Very Scary Fireworks Show: Exploding H-Bombs In Space - NPR - July.1.10. Includes a video showing the resulting light show.

The Seattle Museum of Flight hopes to get a retired Space Shuttle orbiter: New Space Gallery At The Seattle Museum of Flight Breaks Ground - Aero-News Network - July.1.10.

Here is a set of Spacevidcast video interviews with Frederick Ordway, author of The Rocket Team (Apogee Books Space Series) about Wernher von Braun and his rocket team in Germany and the US.

Frederick I. Ordway III sat down with us at the 2010 International Space Development Conference to talk about his book, “The Rocket Team”. Fred was highly passionate about the past and after asking only 1 question he was able to tell the story of The Rocket Team.

The entire interview is 20 minutes long and has been cut in to 3 parts.

Robert Pearlman at collectSpace writes about the PBS History Detectives investigation, mentioned here recently, into the question of who placed a miniaturized set of art pieces from several famous artists onto an Apollo lunar module: Interplanetary art smuggler sought by PBS detectives for moon mystery questioning- collectSPACE - June.15.10.

Here's a press release from the PBS History Detectives program (See also the Moon Museum and the DIY: Moon Museum participatory section) :

PBS' History Detectives Puts A Question To The Nation: Is Andy Warhol's Art On The Moon?
Ex-Grumman Launch Pad Foreman Speaks Out for the First Time in 40 Years

PBS invites fans to help solve the mystery, "Who is John F.?" with a pre-broadcast online story release at pbs.org/historydetectives

Portland, OR [June 7, 2010] - Today, PBS enlists HISTORY DETECTIVES fans across the nation to solve a 40-year-old mystery: "Who is John F.?" -- and did he really help send Andy Warhol's art to the moon? HISTORY DETECTIVES has posted "Moon Museum" online today, two weeks before the segment airs in the June 21 broadcast premiere. The producers of the PBS series, a summertime favorite, are releasing the story prior to the season launch in the hopes that online viewers will produce evidence to answer this question.



In "Moon Museum," HISTORY DETECTIVES reveals the story of how six major artists -- Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, John Chamberlain and Forrest Myers -- all contributed drawings that were then reduced onto a tiny ceramic "mini-canvas," which NASA may have unwittingly smuggled to the moon aboard the Apollo 12 lunar landing mission in November 1969.

HISTORY DETECTIVES delves into the story and narrows the focus to "John F.," allegedly an elusive Grumman engineer believed to be responsible for sneaking the artwork aboard the Apollo 12 mission by clandestinely affixing it to one of the legs on the lunar module.

For this intriguing investigation, series host and historian Gwendolyn Wright interviews several of the individuals close to these historic events, including retired Apollo 12 astronaut Captain Alan Bean. The story begins with Jade Dellinger, the Florida art curator who purchased a cryptic piece of art in an online auction and contacted HISTORY DETECTIVES to trace the story behind it. Most revealing is the story of Richard Kupczyk, the Grumman launch pad foreman for the Apollo 12 mission, who speaks out for the first time in 40 years and candidly reveals how, at no risk to the mission, some employees stowed various personal items and objects not approved by NASA onto the lunar module before launch.

Key to the story is an interview with renowned artist Forrest "Frosty" Myers, who created the "Moon Museum" and contributed a drawing. Myers relates to HISTORY DETECTIVES how Bell Laboratories scientist Fred Waldhauer reduced the artists' sketches and imprinted them onto the ceramic wafer using the state-of-the-art technology of the time. Now deceased, Waldhauer is the man who knew a Grumman Aircraft engineer willing and able to place the artwork onto the lunar module.

Theo Pirard of the Space Information Center/Belgium passes along a pointer to this interesting video. Though I don't speak Russian, I found the historical video clips to be interesting nonetheless. The information with the video says:

The Excellent Seven (Semyorka)

In January 1960 the USSR adopted an intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 developed by S.P. Korolev Design Office. But even before it became a menacing weapon Semyorka had already turned out to be a legendary unit. It put in orbit first Soviet artificial satellites. Constructions reliability and extreme capacity enabled its application as a carrier rocket which opened a new era for entire mankind that is the age of space exploration.

See also the recent item here about Semyorka model kits.

Here's a message from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation about the Apollo XIII 40th Anniversary event on April 9, 2010 at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex:

Only a handful of VIP ticket packages remain to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s Apollo XIII 40th Anniversary Celebration. This event of a lifetime features an exclusive astronaut-guided drive-by of the launch pad; a private briefing by Flight Director Gene Kranz in a mock Firing Room; a photo-op with Fred Haise and Jim Lovell; and dinner under a Saturn V rocket as the astronauts and space icons re-live the remarkable mission by sharing their most personal memories.

California is attempting to register Apollo landing sites as official historical sites:
/-- Putting the moon in the state's orbit - latimes.com - July.29.10
/-- History on the moon - SF Gate - Jan.30.10

On the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 12 landing on the Moon, Amanda Stiles posted a tour of the Apollo 12 landing site using old and new imagery, including shots from the current Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft: On the Moon 40 Years Ago - The Launch Pad - Nov.19.09.

A group of women pilots beat the astronaut tests in 1961 but not the prejudices of the day: Lost in space race: Female pilots - USATODAY.com - Oct.15.09

A young man sent some advice to the rocketeers in Woomera, Australia back at the start of the Space Age: Letter to rocket scientists from kid, 1957: "You put in other details" - Boing Boing - Oct.14.09

The NOVA show on the American PBS channel will re-broadcast its program Sputnik Declassified on Tuesday, Sept. 29th.

See the program description for details of this fresh look at the event that set off the Space Age.

Poker blogger Martin Harris spots a number of connections between poker and the 1960's space race: Poker and Pop Culture: Poker and Space Exploration - PokerNews.com - July.21.09.

FLYP is an online multimedia magazine that covers a general range of topics ranging from "politics and science to art, film, music and more". The lead article in the current issue is called To Land Among the Stars. It looks at the history of the Moon missions and at where space exploration is heading. The issue also ends with the Sounds of Saturn.