Everyone in little over an hour the Cassini spacecraft will crash into Saturn. After twenty years of spectacular scientific work, it ran out of fuel. We taxpayers truly got value for money here.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory made all of this happen. This center sits on slightly more land than Disneyland in Anaheim occupies. It has been around since the 1940's. It has sent the Voyager probe out of the solar system and had many other accomplishments in space exploration.
Not well known is that JPL had the Explorer I satellite ready to launch into orbit in 1956. Had President Eisenhower agreed to the launch, we would have beaten the Russians and never had the humiliation of Sputnik. This launch was turned down because the satellite was deemed to be a military satellite. It went into orbit on January 31, 1958.
JPL was a pioneer in another way. It was one of the first employers to recognize the talents of women and to hire them for serious scientific and engineering work. It was also one of the first organizations to hire minorities before the law required such hiring.
I have been honored to have the opportunity to tour this facility two times thanks to Explore Mars,Inc. and the Mars Society.
No comments:
Post a Comment