Tag Archives: Hubble Space Telescope
← Older posts |‘This Week In Space’ – June 27, 2010
The latest edition of “This Week In Space” is now available – give us a watch. Hello and Welcome. we begin this week with shuttle manifest destiny…and the movable feast that the last days of STS launching has become. It … Continue reading
Tagged Earth, Hubble Space Telescope, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, John Glenn, NASA, Space, Space exploration, Technology‘This Week In Space’ – May 29, 2010
The latest edition of “This Week In Space” is now available. Check us out! We begin at the end this week – the end of an era in space. Well maybe. This was the scene at the Kennedy Space Center … Continue reading
Tagged Buzz Aldrin, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, International Space Station, Kennedy Space Center, Low Earth orbit, NASA, Neil Armstrong, Space, Space exploration, Space Shuttle AtlantisGeysers, Oceans and Dinosaurs
Saturn’s moon Enceladus is spewing out some impressive geysers of water ice. The NASA/ESA Italian space agency team that flies the Cassini spacecraft just released this composite image captured in November showing about 30 of the jets near the south … Continue reading
Tagged Cassini–Huygens, Enceladus, European Space Agency, Hubble Space Telescope, Italian Space Agency, Saturn, Spacecraft, WaterSeasons in the Sun
Astronomers may have downgraded Pluto to dwarf planet status – not that there is anything wrong with that – but this denizen of the distant fringe of our solar system never stops triggering our imaginations. Check out these images from … Continue reading
Tagged Astronomy, Dwarf planet, Hubble Space Telescope, Marc Buie, Marc W. Buie, Pluto, Solar System, Southwest Research InstituteHubble Hugger-In-Chief
If you are anything like me, you were on the edge of your chair last summer, watching the crew of the shuttle Atlantis grind out five marathon spacewalks for a final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. The Atlantis … Continue reading
Tagged Baltimore, Hubble Space Telescope, John Grunsfeld, John M. Grunsfeld, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, NASA, Space Telescope Science Institute, STS-125Next "This Week In Space" on track for Friday 1/15
We are in the final run-up to the next “This Week In Space,” hosted by Yours Truly! Check us out on Friday for the latest on the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the ISS, probes on Mars, a Skype interview with … Continue reading
Tagged Hubble Space Telescope, International Space Station, NASA, Skype, Space, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Endeavour, TechnologyHubble Hugger-In-Chief
I just finished a great Skype interview with Mr. Hubble Space Telescope himself, astronaut (ahem! now former astronaut) John Grunsfeld. Fresh off last summer’s hugely successful STS-125 Hubble Servicing Mission, Grunsfeld has stepped down from the astronaut corps to join … Continue reading
Tagged Astronomy, Baltimore, Hubble Space Telescope, Institutions, Observatories, Optical and Infrared, Space Telescope Science Institute, STS-125The Hubble Constant: High Interest
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Hubble Repair Missions. After all, I cut my teeth on the space beat covering the legendary STS-61 mission in December 1993 – the first, the most dramatic – and … Continue reading
Tagged Astronomy, Florida, Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Lagrangian Point, NASA, Space, Spacecraft, TechnologyParting Shot from Atlantis
The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis is now in the homestretch of a mission for the record books. The crew is cleaning up the orbiter. Mike Massimino says the place is littered with “garbage” and looks like a teenager’s … Continue reading
Tagged Edwards Air Force Base, Florida, Hubble Space Telescope, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Space, Space Shuttle Atlantis, TechnologyHubble Spacewalk Gallery
Tagged Add new tag, atlantis, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle program ← Older postsO'Brien BLOG »
Science for Sale »
posted March 13, 2013 by Miles O'Brien
HINKLEY, Calif. – We all love a neat, tidy Hollywood ending to a David and Goliath story. Sadly, in the real world, they are hard to come by. More often than not, the little guy might win a battle, but Goliath prevails over the long haul — winning the war.
Before I went to Hinkley, I did, of course, watch the movie once again. As it turns out Erin Brockovich is accurate in many respects.
You might remember the woman who gets a big check at the end of the movie after the down-on-her-luck, crusading legal assistant has brought a giant utility to its knees for polluting the groundwater beneath the tiny desert town half way between L.A. and Las Vegas.
In the movie, she was known as Donna Jensen (and played by Marg Helgenberger). There is no real-life Donna Jensen — the details of her story are a composite of several real-life travails.
But Roberta Walker was the main inspiration. Naturally, it was not long after I met her that I asked her what she thought of the movie.
Read the rest of the post and see the video story here.
About Miles
Miles O’Brien is a veteran freelance broadcast and web journalist who focuses on science, technology & aerospace.
He is the Science Correspondent for PBS NewsHour, and a regular correspondent for the PBS documentary series FRONTLINE and the National Science Foundation Science Nation series.
For nearly seventeen of his thirty years in the news business, he worked for CNN as the Science and Space Correspondent and the anchor of various programs, including American Morning.
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