Tag Archives: Space
← 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 Alliance‘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, TechnologyThis 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’ – June 13, 2010
David Waters is your host for the latest edition of “This Week In Space.” Check us out! It was a nail biter – sample return missions always are – but in the end JAXA pulled it out and the troubled … Continue reading
Tagged Earth, Hayabusa, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Kennedy Space Center, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Space, Technology‘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 Atlantis‘This Week In Space’ May 22, 2010
The lastest edition of “This Week In Space” is now out! Give us a watch… Hello, and welcome… We have a scoop for you this week – an exclusive interview with SpaceX founder Elon Musk – we’ll ask him how … Continue reading
Tagged 2001 Mars Odyssey, Chris Hadfield, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mars, Mars rover, NASA, Phoenix, Phoenix Mars Lander, Space, TechnologyThis Week in Space – May 8, 2010
Hello and Welcome from the Kennedy Space Center. The Space Shuttle Atlantis is on the pad – pointed in the right direction – marching toward what will likely be her last mission. The crew of 6 – led by commander … Continue reading
Tagged Apollo 13, Jim Lovell, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, Space, Space Shuttle, Space Shuttle Atlantis, TechnologyObama'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 ← 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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