Terry;

Tom Corbett was my favorite! I just purchased the three DVD’s of Flash Gordon (the originals) and my brother and I watched it and felt like little kids again! Flash Gordon inspired George Lucas, and many of today’s kids would not watch Flash Gordon! It is beneath their dignity!

Wayne Ratliff wrote Vulcan which became dBase II. Wayne was working at JPL in Pasadena, California. I think that Ken Levy and Savannah Brentnall.

Tom



>True - Vanguard was puny- but it looked like a Buck Roger's rocket - sleak - shiney - no corrigation - no rivets!
>
>I bet you read Willey Lea's stuff too! Tom Corbet and the Red Planet and his Walt Disney picture books.
>
>I read James Mitchners Space (a quasi historical novel). There were a few paragraphs describing engineers testing ablative shields. This was before sputnik. Anyway, they would fire a two stage rocket up - burn the first stage - and then flip the trajectory and ignite the second stage to accelerate it back to earth. The idea was to simulate rentry to test the shields.
>
>One of the engineer characters remarked, "If we had not flipped the trajectory, the payload would be in orbit!" The other responded, "I know - but the funding will be better if we appear behind the Russians."
>
>I still don't understand the false-sense-of-urgency marketing NGOs use. Everyone wants a space program!
>
>BTW: I heard that a NASA engineer invented xBase. George Ashton /(Tate?) aquired it and moved to the Z-80 and finally the 8080.
>
>We get a lot of good stuff from the Space Program. It's a shame funding isn't letting those up and comming engineers and scientists exorcise their imaginations.
>
>>Vanguard, how well I remember! It did not do the job! The administration went to Wernher Von Braun, and asked him if the U.S. Army's Jupiter C could be used and the rest is history.
>>
>>After the Air Force I worked on the LEM and Apollo projects, in my electronics engineering days.
>>
>>
>>
>>>Hardly anyone remembers the Vanguard!
>>>
>>>Pop worked as a science guy at McGregor Range and White Sands. On Saturdays I would go to the desert and watch them test the old Nike systems, On Sundays I would go to Juarez and watch the bull fights. He was so cheap - we always sat on the "sunny" side of the arena.
>>>
>>>The Chinese Control Room looked like the old Apollo Mission Control.
>>>
>>>JFK's educational push stole all my free time. I was born to be a loafer and a C student. JFK took that away from me:-)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Terry;
>>>>
>>>>When I was stationed at Orlando Air Force Base in 1960-61 I would listen to the short wave radio from the Cape. "Count down, count down, ten minus five minutes"! We knew when a launch would occur and go outside to face east. Up went the shot and you could see the trail as it went. Cool! :)
>>>>
>>>>Tom
>>>>
>>>>>http://english.people.com.cn/200510/12/eng20051012_214001.html
>>>>>
>>>>>Any of you ancient enough to remember NASA satillite and Mercury launches on the B&W TV before heading to school should get CCTV9's cable signal. Lot's of exciting stuff going on in China.