Yesterday, Doug spent the day at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) attending a #NASASocial event dubbed #StateOfNASA. A multi-center event, the plan for the day was to listen to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden’s State of NASA presentation (you can view the speech on YouTube: ), planned concurrently with the release of the FY2017 Federal Budget, and then to see how NASA’s part of the … Continue reading The State of NASA: Five Bold(en) Points
It was an unusually busy spring for the Lofty Duo. Doug was the conference coordinator for Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson, and Anna took on a new book project while still trying to work on her book about the history of the space program. Our transition into a summer schedule was abrupt, and it’s caused us some reflection. One of the things … Continue reading Lofty Ambitions Anniversary: 4 Years!
As we begin 2014, we take a look back at Lofty Ambitions over the last year to see where we have been and where we might be going, to see how our interests emerge and shift, to share a few highlights in hopes that our readers take a few minutes to re-read one of our posts. We continue to focus on aviation and spaceflight, science … Continue reading Recap of 2013: 5 Posts to Re-Read
To start with our first post on “JPL & Earth Now,” click HERE. On Monday, November 4th, one of us—Doug—participated in the #EarthNow NASA Social at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, just up the road a bit in Pasadena. We’re huge fans of the NASA Social program, and this was the fourth such event (the others being GRAIL, Dryden, & Dryden Airborne Science) that at least one … Continue reading JPL & EarthNow (Part 2)
Recently Gwynne Shotwell, the President of SpaceX, visited Chapman University for TEDx, and Lofty Ambitions had an exclusive video interview with the space exploration maverick. You need to watch this interview below! Forbes has named Shotwell, who joined SpaceX in 2002, a “woman to watch.” Her alma mater, Northwesten University, calls her “Rocket Ma’am.” She’s in the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. In Popular Mechanics, … Continue reading Video Interview: Gwynne Shotwell
If you didn’t read the recent post on Commercial Crew at Space Tech Expo, read that by clicking HERE. SpaceX Dragon launches, docks with the International Space Station, and returns to Earth! Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser arrives at Dryden Flight Research Center for flight testing! What Boeing wants to do in space! The drop test of Boeing’s CST-100! The big dream that Sierra Nevada is chasing! … Continue reading Commercial Space Cargo: Videos
The Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) Program is a federally funded, NASA-generated process to foster the efforts of private industry to develop low-Earth orbit. In other words, NASA stopped flying the space shuttle and wants to help private companies take over some of the work that the shuttle did, namely transporting cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA and private industry also want … Continue reading Space Tech Expo: Commercial Crew
Now you know this is the end—of shuttle. Today marks the first anniversary of the last-ever landing of a space shuttle, concluding that space program forever. Atlantis landed before dawn in Florida on July 21, 2011, and Anna stayed up very late in California to watch it on NASA-TV. Click HERE for our slideshow at The Huffington Post. If you remember that black-and-white image of Neil Armstrong … Continue reading You’re Wondering Now, What To Do
Two years ago this coming Sunday, we launched Lofty Ambitions blog. This piece marks our 276th post. At this second anniversary of our work together as bloggers, we can’t help but reflect that it’s not just about us, that one thing led to another, and that Lofty Ambitions has become more than the sum of its parts. Two years ago, not many people knew we … Continue reading It Takes a Village To Build a Blog
Yep, that’s right. We’re blogging at The Huffington Post, too. Our co-written posts there are, of course, about the same sorts of things we discuss here. But the content is different, and we take a slightly different approach there. And if you read the comment threads over at HuffPost, you’ll see a lot of strong opinions about space exploration, the role of NASA, the future … Continue reading Lofty Ambitions at The Huffington Post
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