Forget an Apollo 11 national park on the moon, let's focus on next big mission | Santhosh Mathew Undoubtedly, the moon landing is one of the most celebrated events in human history. An estimated 600 million television viewers around the world watched the Apollo 11 astronauts walking on the surface of the moon on 20 July 1969. Even for today's standards with easy access to broadcasting, I do not know any other event that could attract such a worldwide attention. Today marks the 44th anniversary of moon landing and provides an opportunity to look at the renewed interest in space exploration from a different perspective including the efforts to redirect asteroids, mining them and going to mars. Despite the lingering criticism of the space program, we cannot abandon a future in space. Not surprisingly, when the moonwalkers returned to earth, many earthlings asked this very same question. Such criticisms are not unique or limited to any country or culture. There were six successful moon landing missions between 1969 and 1972 with one aborted mission, Apollo 13.
Commercial Crew Program SNC's Dream Chaser test flight craft arrived at NASA Dryden to begin tests of its flight and runway landing systems while NASA astronauts will be at Langley to fly simulations of a Dream Chaser ... Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems of Louisville, Colo., completed its first major, comprehensive safety review of its Dream Chaser Space System. Federal and state transportation experts tour Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to learn about new spaceport activities.