STP133 - Unsung Heroes: Roger Easton - The Man Behind Vanguard 1 and GPS - with Richard Easton
On March 17th 1958, Vanguard 1 launched into space becoming the 4th artificial satellite to reach orbit. It remains the oldest object still in orbit, so we’re using this 65th anniversary to do something celebrate an unsung hero.
The designer of Vanguard 1 was Roger Easton who is also the man behind GPS which has absolutely changed life on earth. We interview Roger’s son Richard to find out more about both Vanguard 1 and GPS. In 2013 Richard co-authored a book with Eric Frazier called “GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones.”
Richard Easton:
www.gpsdeclassified.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RDEIL
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-easton-53a91a13/
Things That Have Caught Our Eye This Week:
Kazakhstan Impounds Property Of Russian Cosmodrome Operator In Baikonur:
https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-impounds-russian-baikonur-cosmodrom-operator/32317248.html
NASA to reveal Artemis 2 moon astronauts on April 3:
https://www.space.com/nasa-announce-artemis-2-astronauts-april-2023
Axiom Space reveals prototype spacesuit for Artemis astronauts on the moon:
https://www.space.com/axiom-space-artemis-moon-spacesuits-revealed
Mercury re-rising: Stoke Space to balance past and future at historic Florida launch pad:
https://www.space.com/historic-launch-complex-14-stoke-space-john-glenn
SpaceX Dragon capsule splashes down with Crew-5 astronauts after 157 days in space:
https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-5-astronauts-splashdown-success
Relativity Space aborts launch of Terran 1, the world's first 3D-printed rocket, twice in 1 day:
https://www.space.com/relativity-space-terran-1-rocket-aborts-2nd-launch-try
ULA rolls 1st Vulcan Centaur rocket to launch pad for testing (photos):
https://www.space.com/ula-rolls-vulcan-centaur-launch-pad-photos
SpaceX's Starship has 50% chance of success on 1st orbital flight, Elon Musk says:
https://www.space.com/starship-success-odds-first-orbital-flight-elon-musk
SpaceX launches fresh Dragon cargo ship to space station, lands rocket at sea:
https://www.space.com/spacex-go-crs-27-launch-international-space-station
Liftoff on Mars! Perseverance rover captures amazing video of Ingenuity helicopter flight:
https://www.space.com/mars-helicopter-ingenuity-47th-red-planet-flight
International Space Station fires thrusters to dodge space junk:
https://www.space.com/international-space-station-dodge-space-junk-march-2023
Chinese rocket stage crashes to Earth over Texas:
https://www.space.com/chinese-rocket-stage-crashes-earth-over-texas
Image Credits: Naval Research Laboratory
Space and Things:
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Emily Carney
A veteran of the United States Navy, Carney became a freelance writer back in 2008 and started a blog called This Space Available, which is now hosted by the National Space Society. In 2022 she started working as Content Director for Celestis – the first company to have successfully conducted Memorial Spaceflight Missions.
In 2011, Carney founded a facebook group Space Hipsters. Originally intended to be a place to share news and insights amongst friends, this community has now grown to close to 30,000 members including astronauts, engineers, scientists, historians and space flight enthusiasts from around the globe.
NSS Blog: https://space.nss.org/category/this-space-available/
Medium Blog: https://emilycarneyspace.medium.com/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/EmilyLCarney
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmilyCarneySpace/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilycarneyspace/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilycarneyspace/
Dave Giles
Giles is a singer/songwriter from London, England who has always had a passion for space flight. Since his early years he’s been looking skyward and though he ended up wielding a guitar for a living, space exploration is alway on his mind and one of his most popular songs is about astronaut Gene Cernan, ‘The Last Man On The Moon’.
In 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, Giles visited all of the crewed space vehicles flown by NASA from Freedom 7 to the Space Shuttle Orbiters.
Full info: https://www.davejgiles.com
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/davejgiles
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davejgilesmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davejgiles
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-giles-1286ab1a3/
