My Breathtaking Ride From Earth to the International Space Station
The rumble of power just got stronger and more insistent as we heard the countdown in Russian through our headsets and then, “Pusk.” Liftoff. It was a very different sensation than my two Shuttle launches, much more gradual and linear as the vehicle burned off enough fuel to lighten for liftoff. The initial acceleration didn’t…
Doctors Aren’t Actually Bound by the Hippocratic Oath
A binding agreement, as much a social contract as Social Security or Medicare, the traditional Hippocratic Oath holds those who swear to it to a strict code of professional and personal conduct. Contrary to popular belief, though, most doctors never take this oath—and, actually, most of us are probably glad they never do. Original Hippocratic…
NASA’s Robonaut Is Getting Some Weird-Looking Legs
NASA’s Robonaut spacefaring robot has already taken over a fair few of the ISS crew members’ more menial tasks, and next year it’s going to get even more useful, as NASA kit the guy out with a pair of giant legs. Where was this guy when Sandra Bullock needed him? Going bipedal in early 2014,…
How NASA MacGyvered the Crippled Apollo 13 Mission Safely Home
When mission commander James A. Lovell uttered his gut-wrenching warning, “Houston, we have a problem,” neither he nor the army of NASA engineers back on Earth really knew if his crew would—or even could—make it back home. In the 72 hours that followed Apollo 13’s disastrous oxygen tank explosion, NASA engineers worked feverishly to find…