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Elegant Connections in Physics
ABOVE
Artist rendering of the X-20 approaching a
landing at Edwards Air Force Base. Djoram
public domain image.
TOP RIGHT
Space Shuttle launch. NASA photo.
BOTTOM RIGHT
Stage 1 of the Apollo 18 Saturn V booster,
with author and students, Johnson Space
Center, Houston Texas, November 7, 1992.
Author photo.
(ISS), the largest manmade structure
placed in orbit to date.
It is early nighttime in central Oklahoma,
and the ISS and shuttle are to be
visible together from here at about 8 pm.
Here they come!—like two Venuses racing
across the sky, sweeping so swiftly from
southwest to northeast. From the angle
subtended between them, and assuming a
typical orbit altitude, I estimate the shuttle
to be trailing the ISS by some 600 miles; a
day’s drive for us, but which they cover in
seconds. . . .
With the ISS construction now
finished, the Space Shuttle program has
served its purpose. The last shuttle to
fly was Atlantis, launched July 8, 2011.
Upon its return on July 21, all the surviving
shuttles—Atlantis, Discovery, and
Endeavor, along with the Enterprise that
was used in early gliding tests—are now
making their ways to places of honored
retirement in distinguished museums.
What’s Next?
As we asked following Apollo, now we
may ask, after STS-135, “What’s next?”
During a 1989 CBS television documentary
that celebrated the 20th anniversary
of Apollo 11, in a closing commentary
Dan Rather recalled how in the 1960s
the American people took a great risk
and had a great adventure. Today, he
said, there is less adventure.[13] Shared
adventure can pull a society together
for a time, and manned missions look
great on television. Missions with hu-
24 Radiations Fall 2011