50 Highs and Lows Since Sputnik

He gives rare interview ... to Australian accountants

(NEWSER) - Fans of the space program are in for a treat: The normally reticent Neil Armstrong sat down for an hourlong interview about that moon landing of his with, of all outlets, the Certified Practicing Accountants of Australia. Some highlights:

• 50-50: "I thought we had a 90% chance of getting back safely to Earth on that flight but only a 50-50 chance of making a landing on that first attempt. There were so many unknowns ..."
• Close call: When Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the moon's surface in the Eagle, the on-board computer was guiding them toward a rocky, steep area. "Not a good place to land at all," says Armstrong. "I took over manually and flew it like a helicopter out to the west direction, got into a smoother area without so many rocks and found a level area and was able to get it down there safely before we ran out of fuel." There was "something like 20 seconds of fuel left."

NASA wants to put humans in orbit around Mars by 2033

(NEWSER) - NASA wants to put humans into Mars' orbit by 2033, with the goal of having astronauts return to Earth with a canister of Mars rocks that would have been collected earlier and put into orbit. The goal was unveiled this week by an internal NASA study group working on the agency's Mars program with the goal of finding ways for NASA's human and robotic sides to integrate their work. More»

He, Google execs back new space venture

(NEWSER) - After hanging out in the deepest depths of the oceans , how does a Hollywood super-director top himself? By space mining, of course. James Cameron has teamed up with two Google billionaires, several ex-NASA officials, and some other ambitious investors to form Planetary Resources Inc., a space exploration company that seems to have its sights set on mining near-Earth asteroids for materials such as iron and nickel, reports the Wall Street Journal . More»

Kennedy Space Center is looking for tenants

(NEWSER) - Wondering where to park your space shuttle? Consider Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center. "We’re putting out the word officially and unofficially that Kennedy Space Center is open for business," says a chief architect at the facility. "I have a lot of facilities that we, NASA, no longer need," adds Kennedy’s director. "I don’t have the money to maintain them, I don’t have the money to tear them down. They’re just going to sit and rot"—unless someone rents them out. The available facilities include a launchpad, two mobile launch platforms, two maintenance hangars, and a 15,000-foot runway. More»

Beijing unveils new goals for space exploration

(NEWSER) - Might China soon be the new king of space? With NASA cooling its jets and Russia misfiring repeatedly on rockets and satellites, Beijing is steadily working toward filling the void. It unveiled a five-year plan yesterday to launch a space lab, collect samples from the moon on an unmanned mission, and build a more powerful spaceship for its astronauts by 2016, reports the New York Times . More»