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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, April 12, 2004 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Roger Launius

"Space Stations: Base Camps to the Stars"

ABSTRACT -- This presentation reviews the history of space stations in American culture, from an 1869 work of fiction in the Atlantic Monthly to the present realization of the International Space Station. It discusses the history of space stations (real and imagined) as cultural icons. From winged rocket ships, to the giant rotating wheels of Wernher von Braun and "2001: A Space Odyssey", to the epic, controversy-wracked sagas of Mir and the International Space Station, this presentation will be a highly original blend of history and popular culture explaining why the dream of a permanently occupied space outpost has captivated so many for so long. The presenter will discuss Mir, Skylab, the Salyuts, and ISS, navigating political treachery, translating technology, refereeing controversies, and weaving the magic of space habitation, both real and imaginary. He will close with a projection into the future as ISS is realized and perhaps future generations begin work on space stations elsewhere in the Solar System. The presentation includes some stunning imagery.

SPEAKER -- Roger D. Launius is chair of the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Between 1990 and 2002 he served as chief historian of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A graduate of Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, he received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 1982. He has written or edited several books on aerospace history, including Space Stations: Base Camps to the Stars (Smithsonian Books, 2003), which received the AIAA's history manuscript prize; Flight: A Celebration of 100 Years in Art and Literature (Welcome Books, 2003), edited with Anne Collins Goodyear, Anthony M. Springer, and Bertram Ulrich; Reconsidering a Century of Flight (University of North Carolina Press, 2003), edited with Janet R. Daly Bednarek; To Reach the High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles (University Press of Kentucky, 2002), with Dennis R. Jenkins; Imagining Space: Achievements, Possibilities, Projections, 1950-2050 (Chronicle Books, 2001), with Howard E. McCurdy; Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite (Harwood Academic, 2000), with John M. Logsdon and Robert W. Smith; Innovation and the Development of Flight (Texas A&M University Press, 1999); NASA & the Exploration of Space (Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 1998); Frontiers of Space Exploration (Greenwood Press, 1998); Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership (University of Illinois Press, 1997) with Howard E. McCurdy; and NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (Krieger Publishing Co., 1994).


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