The response to being beaten in space was as profound as the shock, and not just in increased defense spending on technology. For the first time, the nation saw technological education as a form of defense.
Read MoreAt 240,000 miles on average, the Moon lies only one fifth of the way to the top of the Gravity Well.
Read MoreAs a rule of thumb, ten pounds of rocket fuel are required to push one pound of equipment or human into low Earth orbit.
Read MoreTo get into low Earth orbit—a path in which the forces of motion balance the pull of gravity—a rocket has to attain a speed of about 17,000 miles per hour.
Read MoreMost of today’s space economy occupies low Earth orbit, a 1,200-mile-wide band that’s a slice of less than one one-thousandth of the Gravity Well.
Read MoreVenus used to be a pleasant, watery, habitable planet much like ours. The Martian atmosphere, it turns out, also used to be much more like Earth’s
Read MoreLagrangian points are the “flat” places in space where the pulling and pushing forces are in balance.
Read MoreIt really wasn’t that long ago when the two greatest superpowers were vying to put satellites into space. Now, 50 nations have their own satellites in low Earth orbit. If you’re a Thailand, say, you can call Space Systems/Loral, a Canadian-owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and tell them you want to put a satellite into geostationary orbit for television broadcasting or military communications. You can have the thing in orbit 25,000 miles above Earth within two years.
