Tag Archives: International Space Station
← Older posts |‘This Week In Space’ – July 20, 2010
The latest edition of “This Week In Space” is available for your viewing pleasure. Please take a look! Hello, and welcome. Our theme this week is detente – as in the easing of hostilities between rivals. It is what we … Continue reading
Tagged Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, Deke Slayton, International Space Station, Kennedy Space Center, Low Earth orbit, NASA, Space, Technology, Vance D. Brand‘This Week In Space’ – July 11, 2010
The latest edition of “This Week In Space” is now available for your viewing pleasure. Please give us a look… Hello and Welcome. We begin with a big orange caboose – if you will. The last space shuttle external fuel … Continue reading
Tagged Baikonur Cosmodrome, International Space Station, Kennedy Space Center, Lockheed Martin, Michoud Assembly Facility, NASA, Space, Space Shuttle, United Space AllianceThis Week In Space – June 20, 2010
The latest edition of “This Week In Space” is now available! Give us a watch… Hello and Welcome – I had a long interesting talk with the president of the Constellation Nation – ex officio – Mike Griffin. I asked … Continue reading
Tagged Baikonur Cosmodrome, Earth, Extrasolar planet, International Space Station, NASA, Space, Space exploration, University of Colorado-Boulder‘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 AtlantisObama's 'Space Summit'
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – FL – My head is spinning as I sit here waiting for President Obama to do what should have been done when the White House rolled out its budget for NASA: do the vision thing. I … Continue reading
Tagged Barack Obama, Columbia Accident Investigation Board, George W. Bush, International Space Station, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Pennsylvania Avenue, Space, Space exploration'This Week In Space' – April 10, 2010
The latest edition of “This Week In Space” is hot off the presses. Check us out! [youtubevid id="srrNVWJ72p0"] Hello and welcome – and happy Yuri’s night – hard to believe it has now been 49 years since the first human … Continue reading
Tagged Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, International Space Station, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Space, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Discovery, United StatesThis Week In Space – April 2, 2010
The latest edition of “This Week In Space” is available! Check us out [youtubevid id="wHjCsmKl7Yw"] Hello and welcome - I am taking the week off – doing some diving with my 17 year old son in the Cayman Islands…would love … Continue reading
Tagged Baikonur Cosmodrome, Constellation program, International Space Station, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Space, Technology, Tracy Caldwell DysonNew 'This Week in Space' – March 12, 2010
The latest edition of “This Week in Space” is now available. Check us out! [youtubevid id="hqycNoARYv4"] Hello and welcome – President Obama will finally say something about his plan for NASA – but there are still mixed messages coming out … Continue reading
Tagged Air and Space Museum, Film, International Space Station, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lori Garver, Low Earth orbit, Lyman Spitzer, NASA, Space, Space Shuttle program, SpaceX, STS-125New 'This Week In Space' – March 6, 2010
The latest edition of “This Week In Space” – hosted by Yours Truly, is out! Watch here! [youtubevid id="S5icnMDAGsI"] I gotta admit, I am getting a little tired of launching the program with the latest skirmish in the war over … Continue reading
Tagged Buzz Aldrin, International Space Station, Kay Bailey Hutchison, NASA, Space, Stanley Cup, Technology, United StatesShuttles and Astronauts
The Space Shuttle Endeavour was fresh off its night time landing at the Kennedy Space Center. The 6 person crew – led by Marine Colonel George Zamka – the guy they call Zambo – logged a successful mission to the … Continue reading
Tagged International Space Station, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Soichi Noguchi, Space, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Endeavour, Technology ← 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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