tags: A Rocket of His Own, TIME magazine, astronomy, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, space travel, Saturn V rocket, The Seven Wonders of America, Marshall Space Flight Center, Neil deGrasse Tyson, streaming video
TIME magazine recently went to interview astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson and noticed a huge crate had been delivered to his office at the American Museum of Natural History. He was kind enough to open it on-camera. The back story of this gift is that Neil was adamant that ABC News include the Saturn V Rocket on its list of The 7 Wonders of America. The folks at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama were so grateful, they sent Neil a replica.
This video just goes to show that boys never really grow up, but their toys sure do [listen to the entire audio recording]
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It's amusing that the model has the painted roll pattern for SA-500F, the non-flight Facilities Integration Test stack. :)
I do so love his enthusiasm. His recent lectures at The Rose Center were fascinating, in part because of that irrepressible enthusiasm.
that is SO cool... i'm in the wrong business... :)
I love it! Despite being this big TV star and media personality, despite being this world-renowned astrophysicist and head of the Haden Planetarium and all, he is, at his heart, still the little nerd kid who gets a thrill out of big rocket ships.
That simple, child-like thrill is what still drives me in what I do. I too get to play with expensive toys just so I can make really cool looking space ships.
Neil is truly one of my heroes. A man of many accomplishments who still knows how to be a little kid; still in touch with that simple thrill to this day. I love this.
These guys are actually building their own rockets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Suborbitals
Their first test launch is scheduled to take place about a month from now at sea off the coast of the Danish island Bornholm.
They built their own sea launch platform for that...
And they are going to tow the platform + rocket out from Copenhagen with their own submarine...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC3_Nautilus
Their blog is well worth a look if you can read Danish/Norwegian/Swedish or if you can stomach a google translation:
http://ing.dk/blogs/rumfartpaadenandenmaade
No pun intended, but I love how down to Earth Neil is in his explanations. He really is an inspiration in how to communicate science to the general public.