Tag Archives: Low Earth orbit
← 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’ – June 6, 2010
Hello and Welcome to a special edition of “This Week In Space.” I am talking about what might very well be the beginning of a new era in space – the door might have opened with the successful inaugural test … Continue reading
Tagged Cape Canaveral, Elon Musk, Falcon 9, Low Earth orbit, Merlin (rocket engine), Space, SpaceX, SpaceX Dragon‘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 AtlantisNew '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-125The Politics of NASA's New Path
[youtubevid id="-5UFIQGCzGc"] Mr. Bolden goes to Capitol Hill this week… The NASA boss Charlie Bolden is a former Marine fighter and test pilot and astronaut and he is used to taking flak – after all he flew a hundred combat … Continue reading
Tagged Constellation program, David Vitter, International Space Station, Low Earth orbit, NASA, Space, SpaceX, Technology, Vietnam warOrion Agonistes
NASA’s budget rollout was confused – but so is the message – we do know this: the Obama White House would like NASA to get out of the low earth orbit taxi business – and instead get the private sector … Continue reading
Tagged Lockheed Martin, Low Earth orbit, Mars, NASA, Orion, Space, Technology, White HouseGood Night Moon
No bucks – no buck Rogers – Our sources tell us NASA is no longer headed back to the moon – or anywhere else for that matter. After spending upwards of 9 billion dollars to design the Ares 1 rocket … Continue reading
Tagged Ares I, Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, Human spaceflight, Lockheed Martin, Low Earth orbit, NASA, Orion, SpaceThe Big 'Y'
I was fast asleep when the Challenger exploded. It was almost high noon – but I had turned in only about three hours before. I had spent the night in a citrus grove in Polk County, Florida. I was a … Continue reading
Tagged Cape Canaveral, John Glenn, Low Earth orbit, NASA, Space, Space exploration, Space Shuttle program, Vandenberg Air Force BaseObama Ponders the Future of Human Space Flight
My name is Miles O’Brien and and I drive a truck. Now can I go to the Senate – and insist our space program gets a little more scratch – so we can once again scratch the surface of another … Continue reading
Tagged Bill Nelson, David Axelrod, Democratic, Houston, Low Earth orbit, NASA, President of the United States, Space, United States SenateMusk Fires Back
Even though the Augustine Commission did not pick a vehicle or a destination when it issued its report on the future of human Spaceflight to Obama - it was clear from reading the tea leaves in their report that the … Continue reading
Tagged Ares I, Elon Musk, Falcon 9, Human spaceflight, Low Earth orbit, NASA, Skype, Space, SpaceX ← 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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