Tag Archives: Missions
ISS Latest
The Space Station was a busy place this week – as Endevaour pulled into the driveway for a visit. There are a dozen spacefarers up there in all wokring on getting Tranquility bolted in and on line. And speaking of … Continue reading
Tagged International Space Station, Manned, Missions, NASA, Space, Space Shuttle Endeavour, Technology, TranquilityGetting Ready to Light that Candle
You might want to put March 8th in your blackberry calendar – because that is the day SpaceX has reserved the range at Cape Caneveral to launch its Falon 9 rocket for the first time. The company – founded by … Continue reading
Tagged Elon Musk, International Space Station, Missions, NASA, Space, Spacecraft, SpaceX, TechnologyThe Spirit is willing, but the wheels are weak
Six years after it first bounced onto the rusty regolith of Mars, the rover Spirit is alive and still…well…spinning. The rover is stuck in a sand trap and two wheels on it’s right side remain “muerte.” The team is still … Continue reading
Tagged Mars, Mars Exploration Rover, Mars rover, Missions, Regolith, Space, Spirit rover, TechnologyRise from the ashes?
Remember the Mars Phoenix? Could it rise from the ashes — or more accurately from a Dr. Zhivago like glaze of dry ice? NASA last heard from Phoenix in November 2008. The craft landed near the Martian North Pole about … Continue reading
Tagged Mars, Mars Phoenix, Missions, NASA, North Pole, Phoenix, Planet, Space, Spacecraft, TechnologyO'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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