I recently began here a serialization of an updated version of the book The Rocket Company by Patrick J. G. Stiennon and David M. Hoerr, with illustrations by Doug Birkholz.
This week you can obtain the following chapters of the book:
Download these within the next week. Only four chapters will be available at any one time.
The electronic version of the updated book is available at The Rocket Company eBook by Patrick Stiennon, David Hoerr, Peter Diamandis, Doug Birkhol: Kindle Store/Amazon.com.
The drama of the 1960s Space Age and the journalists reporting on it in Florida might become the basis of a new TV series from the team that created the hit Mad Men program about 1960s advertising industry:
In a promotion of Will Smith’s new movie After Earth, Smith participated in a Google+ Hangout moderated by Google’s Ray Kurzweil, and included guests Elon Musk, Alexandra Cousteau, and NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams: SpaceX’s Elon Musk and friends look to the far future: Engage warp drive! – Cosmic Log
Here’s a concise history of the X-15, the first rocketplane to reach space: Suborbital Spaceplane – Greg Kennedy/CitizensInSpace.org
Nature has this report on the naming of exoplanets and Pluto’s moons: Moon and planet names spark battle: Company clashes with International Astronomical Union over popular labels for exoplanets – Nature News & Comment
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Meanwhile, the Uwingu contest to name a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri has a winner:
Uwingu Announces A Name for the Planet Orbiting Alpha Centauri
The winning name from Uwingu’s competition to select a name for the planet is “Albertus Alauda”. This nomination was entered into Uwingu’s public planet name nomination database last November by Jason Lark, in honor of his late grandfather, Albert Lark. In the citation Lark entered into Uwingu’s database, Lark said, “His name in Latin means Noble or Bright and to praise or extol. I think this is an apt description as my Grandfather was a noble man and bright of character and in this nomination I wish to honour (extol) him.”
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Over 1,240 name nominations were received in total. “This really shows that ordinary people like to engage in astronomy and space exploration this new way, and at Uwingu we’re very happy that we could help demonstrate that. We’re also ready to now give people new ways to engage in public sector exoplanet naming” said Uwingu’s CEO Dr. Alan Stern.
Uwingu’s mission is twofold: To help the public better connect to space and the sky, and to create a new kind of grant fund for space researchers and educators using proceeds from our web site. Uwingu’s name means sky in Swahili. Uwingu’s web site can be found at www.uwingu.com.
Uwingu Fund grant dollars from the Alpha Centauri planet naming competition will be used to help space educators and educator projects.
About Uwingu: Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili, and is pronounced “oo-wing-oo”)