A Rocket of His Own

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TIME magazine recently went to interview astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson and noticed a huge crate had been delivered to his office at the American Museum of Natural History. He was kind enough to open it on-camera. The back story of this gift is that Neil was adamant that ABC News include the Saturn V Rocket on its list of The 7 Wonders of America. The folks at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama were so grateful, they sent Neil a replica.

This video just goes to show that boys never really grow up, but their toys sure do [listen to the entire audio recording]

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"Geologists have a saying: rocks remember." -Neil Armstrong Looming up above us, hundreds of thousands of miles away, is the largest moon in the inner solar system: our Moon.
“Geologists have a saying: rocks remember.” -Neil Armstrong
Neil Tappen is probably most well known for having worked out the species and distribution of species in Central and western East Africa in the 1950s, as everyone who has worked in the area since then, from Jane Goodall to Richard Wrangham, has used his work as a tool in their own study of apes a
--Director of the famous Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History, New York City -- Hosted the science TV show "NOVA scienceNOW" on PBS --Named to host new sequel to Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" TV series on Fox later in 2013

-Space Geek Alert-
It's amusing that the model has the painted roll pattern for SA-500F, the non-flight Facilities Integration Test stack. :)

By the bug guy (not verified) on 20 Jul 2010 #permalink

I do so love his enthusiasm. His recent lectures at The Rose Center were fascinating, in part because of that irrepressible enthusiasm.

I love it! Despite being this big TV star and media personality, despite being this world-renowned astrophysicist and head of the Haden Planetarium and all, he is, at his heart, still the little nerd kid who gets a thrill out of big rocket ships.

That simple, child-like thrill is what still drives me in what I do. I too get to play with expensive toys just so I can make really cool looking space ships.

Neil is truly one of my heroes. A man of many accomplishments who still knows how to be a little kid; still in touch with that simple thrill to this day. I love this.

These guys are actually building their own rockets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Suborbitals

Their first test launch is scheduled to take place about a month from now at sea off the coast of the Danish island Bornholm.

They built their own sea launch platform for that...

And they are going to tow the platform + rocket out from Copenhagen with their own submarine...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC3_Nautilus

Their blog is well worth a look if you can read Danish/Norwegian/Swedish or if you can stomach a google translation:
http://ing.dk/blogs/rumfartpaadenandenmaade

By Peter Lund (not verified) on 26 Jul 2010 #permalink

No pun intended, but I love how down to Earth Neil is in his explanations. He really is an inspiration in how to communicate science to the general public.