Thomas P. Stafford, one of NASA’s most influential early astronauts and a defining figure of the Space Race, has died at 93. His career traced the arc of America’s push into space—from the tense competition of the Gemini era to the first handshake in orbit between Cold War rivals.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and an Air Force test pilot, Stafford entered NASA in the second astronaut group in 1962. He quickly became known for his calm precision, technical mastery, and ability to command complex missions. Stafford flew four times: Gemini 6, the first rendezvous in space; Gemini 9, a demanding mission that advanced EVA and docking procedures; Apollo 10, the full dress rehearsal for the Moon landing that brought him within nine miles of the lunar surface; and Apollo‑Soyuz, the historic 1975 joint mission that symbolized a thaw in U.S.–Soviet relations.
His contributions extended far beyond the cockpit. Stafford played a central role in shaping spacecraft design, safety standards, and mission planning during Apollo and into the Shuttle era. He chaired influential advisory groups, helped modernize U.S. spaceflight systems, and remained a trusted voice in aerospace policy for decades.
Thomas Stafford embodied the blend of courage, intellect, and diplomacy that defined NASA’s golden age. His work helped carry the United States to the Moon and opened the door to international cooperation in space—a legacy that continues to guide exploration today.
[Cross posted to my Truman's Conscience American History Blogmanac]
The crew of Apollo 10, from the left, Eugene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford
Artemis II now stands on the edge of a long‑awaited return to deep space, with NASA targeting an April launch window for the first crewed journey to the Moon in more than fifty years. After months of troubleshooting helium and hydrogen issues in the Space Launch System’s upper stage, engineers have completed repairs, installed fresh batteries, and cleared the rocket for rollout to Pad 39B later this month.
The ten‑day mission will send astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a sweeping lunar flyby—an arc that will carry them farther from Earth than any humans have ever traveled. NASA’s flight readiness review reaffirmed that the crew is fully integrated into the decision‑making process, joining briefings to weigh the risks inherent in humanity’s first deep‑space voyage of the 21st century.
Launch opportunities stretch from April 1 through April 6, with a backup window on April 30. The schedule remains sensitive to final pad operations and weather, but the agency’s tone has shifted from caution to confidence. After the uncrewed Artemis I proved the hardware, Artemis II becomes the moment where the program’s ambitions meet human presence—four people strapped atop a 322‑foot rocket, carrying our species’ oldest dream back into the dark.
The SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with an Orion capsule, part of the Artemis II mission, at the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida. Photograph: Cristóbal Herrera/EPA
A magnetar is an ultra‑magnetized neutron star—the compact, city‑sized core left behind after a massive star explodes as a supernova. What sets magnetars apart from ordinary neutron stars is their staggeringly powerful magnetic fields, which can reach 10 trillion to 1 quadrillion gauss, making them the most magnetic objects known in the universe.
Despite being only about 20 kilometers (12 miles) across, a magnetar packs more mass than the Sun into that tiny sphere. This extreme density and magnetic intensity create violent, unpredictable behavior: bursts of X‑rays, gamma‑ray flares, and occasional “starquakes” when the crust cracks under magnetic stress.
Magnetars are rare—only a few dozen have been identified in the Milky Way—but they play an outsized role in high‑energy astrophysics. Their magnetic fields decay over thousands of years, powering dramatic outbursts and possibly even fast radio bursts (FRBs), the mysterious millisecond‑long radio flashes detected across the cosmos.
Recent observations have become even more exciting: astronomers have now witnessed the birth of a magnetar for the first time, catching the telltale “chirp” pattern in the fading light of a superluminous supernova—direct evidence that a newborn magnetar was powering the explosion. This new discovery underlines Einstein's prediction over a century ago. The timing of the luminosity spikes increased at a rate that aligned precisely with expectations from his general relativity theory.
A spinning magnetar twists space-time itself, causing the disk of material around it to wobble and produce the ultra-bright flashes of this peculiar kind of supernova. Credit: Joseph Farah and Curtis McCully of Las Cumbres Observatory.
Steven Spielberg has spent nearly fifty years exploring one question more than any other: What would it mean to meet intelligent life from beyond our solar system? With Disclosure Day, his latest and most mature film on the subject, Spielberg returns to the terrain that defined his early career—but with the perspective of a storyteller who has spent decades wrestling with humanity’s hopes, fears, and cosmic loneliness.
From the beginning, Spielberg’s aliens were never just aliens. They were mirrors—reflecting who we are, what we fear, and what we long for.
In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg imagined extraterrestrials as beings of overwhelming intelligence and benevolence, communicating through light, sound, and awe. That film was built on the optimism of the late 1970s, a belief that contact with the unknown might elevate us rather than destroy us. The aliens were teachers, not conquerors, and humanity’s role was to listen.
By the time he made E.T., Spielberg shifted from cosmic spectacle to intimate empathy. E.T. wasn’t a visitor from the heavens—he was a lost child. The film suggested that intelligent life might not be incomprehensible at all; it might be vulnerable, emotional, and capable of forming bonds across impossible distances. Spielberg’s extraterrestrials became a metaphor for the outsider, the misunderstood, the one who simply wants to go home.
Then came War of the Worlds, a darker turn shaped by a post‑9/11 world. Here, the aliens were not benevolent or curious—they were unstoppable, inscrutable, and terrifying. Spielberg wasn’t abandoning his earlier optimism; he was acknowledging that contact with the unknown could also expose our fragility. The film’s power came from its realism: how ordinary people, not governments or generals, would experience the unimaginable.
Disclosure Day synthesizes all three visions. Spielberg’s new extraterrestrials are neither saviors nor monsters—they are civilizations, with motives, histories, and internal debates of their own. The film imagines first contact not as a single event but as a negotiation between species, each trying to understand the other without triggering catastrophe. It is Spielberg’s most adult exploration of alien intelligence: curious like Close Encounters, empathetic like E.T., and edged with the existential tension of War of the Worlds.
What emerges is a portrait of intelligent life that feels both wondrous and unsettling. Spielberg suggests that extraterrestrials, like us, may be shaped by their own traumas, triumphs, and fears. They may not come to save us or destroy us—they may come because they, too, are searching.
With Disclosure Day, Spielberg completes a thematic arc he began nearly half a century ago. His aliens have grown with him, evolving from symbols of innocence to embodiments of cosmic complexity. And in doing so, Spielberg offers his most profound message yet: that the universe is vast, intelligent, and alive—and that our greatest challenge is not surviving contact, but understanding it.
When I arrived at the University of Florida in 1977, I fully expected to become an astronomer. The dream was real — the calculus, unfortunately, was not. Once I realized the math wasn’t going to click for me, I shifted to my alternate plan and majored in U.S. history with a pre‑law track.
But my fascination with astronomy and the sciences never faded. I didn’t lose interest; I simply hit a mathematical wall. So I became what so many of us become — an armchair astronomer, endlessly curious and always looking up.
The arrival of the Internet and digital media only intensified that curiosity. Suddenly the universe felt closer, more accessible, and my lifelong interest found new ways to grow.
This blog gives me the space to indulge that insatiable pull toward the cosmos and the sciences more broadly. Which brings me to one of my favorite features here: the Astronomy Photo of the Day, a small daily window into the wonders of the universe that first captured my imagination all those years ago. Here is today's offering:
The red “monster” in today’s image is Cometary Globule CG 4, a striking molecular cloud about 1,300 light‑years away in the constellation Puppis. Despite its comet‑like appearance, CG 4 is enormous: its “head” spans 1.5 light‑years, while its faint, dusty tail stretches nearly 8 light‑years into space. (For scale, the distance from Earth to the Sun is only eight light‑minutes.)
CG 4 is a stellar nursery, a region where cold hydrogen molecules gather under gravity to form new stars. Its elongated tail may have been sculpted by the shockwave of a nearby supernova or by intense radiation from massive, hot stars. In fact, CG 4 and neighboring globules all point away from the Vela Supernova Remnant, at the heart of the vast Gum Nebula.
The edge‑on spiral galaxy ESO 257‑19 appears just beyond the globule, but it lies more than 100 million light‑years farther away — safely out of reach of this cosmic “monster.”
Coach Jon Sumrall opened up telling everyone Coach Spurrier was at the practice and addressed the team about winning. He also had Bob Stoops at spring camp as well to meet the team. He included that the coaches clinic he has created had Urban Meyer as well.
Talking about practice he indicated he was not as happy today as he was with day 3 explaining that he thought the previous day was solid as opposed to day 4 being inconsistent. He went on to say there was a LOT they needed to inprove as they were a long way from where he wanted them to be. CJS also talked about what he expected from the players and his philosophy of believeing most football games aren't won they are lost and you can't beat anybody until you learn to stop beating yourself. Coach made it clear he felt they were a long way from figuring out how to not beat themselves.
The presser was informative and it he made it clear he is not a man of patience and his goal is preparing and coaching the team to win now. So far I like him and he seems to be saying and doing all the right things. He has this old Gator alum filled with hope and expectatons. All we can do now is see how it plays out. Watch the presser for yourself and feel the good vibes as well:
NASA has resolved a key technical issue on the Artemis II spacecraft, completing repairs on a persistent helium leak that had threatened to delay the mission’s schedule. Engineers replaced a faulty seal in the upper‑stage quick‑disconnect system, a component essential for pressurizing propulsion lines during flight. The fix was verified through a series of pressure tests, giving mission managers renewed confidence in the vehicle’s readiness. Additional maintenance, including battery replacements and seal inspections, has also been completed as NASA works through its pre‑launch checklist.
With the helium system now functioning properly, NASA is shifting its attention toward final integrated testing and crew preparations. The agency has identified several potential April launch windows, keeping the mission on track for its planned lunar flyby—the first crewed voyage of the Artemis program. Artemis II represents a major step toward returning humans to the Moon, testing life‑support systems, navigation, and deep‑space operations that will shape future lunar landings. The successful repair marks a meaningful milestone as NASA moves closer to launching its first astronauts beyond low‑Earth orbit in more than fifty years.
Nasa's SLS rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft sits inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, as technicians work to fix a helium flow fault ahead of the Artemis II Moon mission. (Photo: Nasa)
All that's left now is the waiting for the SEC tournament to start with my Gators the #1 seed. At the moment they are projected to be the fourth #1 seed in the NCAA MBK Tournament. This is the first time since the 2013 - 2014 season the Gators finished atop the regular season standngs.
There is a feeling that the new Gator football coach, Jon Sumrall, has the same vibe as Coach Todd Golden of the 2025 defending national champion men's basketball team as spring practice has gotten underway. To date the University of Florida is the only NCAA school to win the national championships of football and basketball in the same academic year, 2007 - 2008 as the painting above shows. I'm looking forward to the possibility of that happening again with these two dynamic coaches prowling the sidelines looking for glory. G A T O R S, baby.
The artist known for his famous anti-war song "I feel like I'm fixin' to die rag" at Woodstock in August of 1969 succumed to Parkinson's disease on Saturday, March 7th at 84. McDonald's appearance, along with his band The Fish was catapulted into national stardom with an anthem that struck the nerve of a generation protesting the Vietnam war.
I was 13 when I first heard the song at the movie theatre. Woodstock was an "R" rated film and at the time you needed to be accompanied by an adult to gain entrance to any cinema showing a film with that restricted age limit. It was my first time seeing a movie with the rating that all my friends at school could only talk about as something being off limits to us. I was fortunate to have a neighbor over hear that I wanted to see it and she offered to take me. Though she was my mother's age she told me she was interested in "experiencing it" and offered to take me along if she could get the okay from my mom. I remembered she was midly amused our neighbor, who had a bit of a bohemian streak, would actually have me along. Of course I was mesmerized from the opening scene of a cinamatic look at Max Yasgur's farm with Crosby, Still, and Nash's "Long Time Gone" playing to the very end as Jimi Hendrix playing over a view of the now scattered remnents of a crowd that had swollen to over 350,000 for three days of the arts and music festival as it was billed.
I never indulged in more than his one song that drove his fame as it was outside the range of my taste at the time. I was more of a Hendrix/Who/Ten Years After fan that was featured in the film within a range of diffferent styles and tastes. It is the passing of icons such as McDonald that invades the conscious reality of my mortality now that I am past the age of 50. Now each time when I hear the strains of "....be the first one on your block to be sent home in a box" I would think I'm now closer the the end than I am from the beginning. Though his career would cover a range of styles and genres over the next 50 years it was that one song that defined him. From what I read he never tired of singing it when an event based on some social or theme centered resistence called for it. He had five children and is survived by his wife.
I had given up blogging for a while for a variety of reasons too numerous to matter at this point. But as I near retirement I am contemplating being more active in the fields of interest that drive my insatiable curiosity on a variety of subjects and activites. As an avid follower of space exploration, astronomy, science, art, a new era in Gator Football, aging, music and e.t.c. I find my insatiable thirst to just simply "know" is still the same as the last time I posted in May of 2020. Blogging takes a certain discipline I have not been able to cultivate. One of the reasons I paused as long as I have is I have OCD (Obsession Compulsion Disorder). IOW, I am a perfectionist and it takes me quite a while to actually get through a post to the point I'm ready to submit it. But alas, here I go again trying to share my interests with the like minded that are unfortuneate enough to stumble upon this humble attempt to sound meaningful in my exploration of eclectic interests that I find fascinating. So drop a comment if you can add to any of my observations to give clarity to what I see.
As an aficionado of psychedelic and acid rock in its formative
years in the mid to late sixties my favorite female vocalist by far and hands down
is the iconic Grace Slick of The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson
Starship, and finally a solo artist.She
would eventually transition to be an author and painter.Endowed with classic beauty and a melodic and
yet powerful voice she is rightly called the Queen of Acid Rock.The first time I heard “White Rabbit” she was
like one of the sirens from the Odyssey that pulled me right into the counter-culture
music of rebellion set to music.I have
had a crush on her for almost as long as I can remember.For me, she was catapulted to my attention by the horror of the Rolling Stones
film “Gimmie Shelter” when it was the first time I had seen her and Jefferson Airplane perform. The group dealing with
the festival dynamic of violence that emerged during their set that eventually led to a member of the Hell’s Angels stabbing a man brandishing a pistol during the Stones' set is still burned into my mind.
Though I can’t quote her verbatim, because I simply
couldn’t find it, she once said something in an interview that really turned my
head and was revealing and showed just how aware she was of her world and her
place in it.To paraphrase it went something
like this: "We were taking drugs and
thinking it would lead us to a higher plane of consciousness and awareness that
would lead to more creativity when all it did was make us dumb and lazy." Though I think that was a given to most of us
that was the sheen that provided the shimmering glamor of the rock world that
came out of England and gestated in San Francisco to what would eventually be
the music that would define a generation.Come October, the month when the redoubtable Ms. Slick was born, I will
honor her with a slide show in my sidebar.Until then here is one of my favorite photos of her at Woodstock on an early
Sunday morning August 17th, 1969.Enjoy.
Scherman, Rowland. Jefferson Airplane performing at Woodstock: Grace Slick on stage, with audience in background, August 17, 1969. Rowland Scherman Collection (PH 084). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
With natal dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic
gas, this colorful and chaotic vista lies within one of the largest star
forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy, the Great Carina Nebula. The
telescopic close-up frames a field of view about 80 light-years across, a
little south and east of Eta Carinae, the nebula's most energetic and enigmatic
star. Captured under suburban skies improved during national restrictions, a
composite of narrowband image data was used to create the final image. In it, characteristic
emission from the nebula's ionized sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms is mapped
to red, green, and blue hues, a color palette also popular in Hubble Space
Telescope images. The celestial landscape of bright ridges of emission bordered
by cool, obscuring dust lies about 7,500 light-years away toward the southern
constellation Carina. Enjoy.
As an old hippie that found himself in his formative years in the
late 1960s I, like most of my generations, latched on to the music of the
period to help define who I was. Though at
the time I wasn’t cognizant enough to be aware of the minute distinctions of
the music of the period, I just knew I liked what I heard coming out of my
transistor radio. I was enamored with groups
like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors and etc. As to whether or not they were a “San Francisco”
based band ala one of Bill Graham's Fillmore West related venues band or from
the British music invasion was of little consequence. I gobbled it up as fast as my meager
discretionary funds that I was in possession of as an early teen allowed me to. But for some reason I missed this group and
this song, “Fresh Air” by the Quicksilver Messenger Service from their album
Just for Love, 1970.
I am vaguely aware of seeing their albums in the usual retail
music venues of the period but I never was aware of anything they did that
passed by my ear. But this week I stumbled
upon this song when I was looking for something else that introduced me to this
incredibly talented and profoundly progressive band. What’s
so striking to me is how fresh this song sounds today like it was recorded last
week. And the vocals by Dino Martini are
incredibly melodic and haunting as is the guitar work by the late John Cipolina.
How I missed hearing this song is amazing to me. I’m sure it had the requisite
air play but for some reason I never connected with it. Now I can’t hear it enough as I’ve really
been playing it lot this past week since I ran across it. If you are like me or are someone of a
different generation doing a little music exploration here is this golden
nugget of the past remastered. Enjoy.
Donald J. Trump's recent obsession and promotion of hydroxychloroquine reminds me of an anecdote regarding character, medicine in general, and one's relationship with personal responsibility for healthcare that demonstrates the fact that it depends on one's point of view when it comes to others and their relationship with medication and medicine.
Anecdote: An old lady, on her way to a summer resort, kept pestering the conductor to tell her when they would reach Ellenville. Finally, harried by her constant questioning, he pleaded with her to bother him no more, that he would tell her as soon as they reached the town. Becoming busy with all his duties, the train reached and passed Ellenville with the conductor forgetting all about the old lady. Suddenly recollecting her anxiety about the place, he backed up the train and as it pulled into the little station, he hurried out and told the women, "Here you are now- in Ellenville. I'll help you with your luggage."
"Oh, thank you," replied the dear old lady. "Never mind. I'm not getting off here. My daughter just told me that when I got to Ellenville, it would be just about time to take another of my pills."
On
July 21st 2011 at 9:57 UTC STS-135, the last NASA manned space mission landed,
effectively ending for the foreseeable future the United States' domestic space
program. The shuttle Atlantis landed with its final four-member crew
officially ending the Space Shuttle program. It has been nearly a decade since
NASA astronauts used a domestic American space program to send its astronauts
to the International Space Station and solely relying on the good offices of
Roscosmos, the Russian space program, to ferry them back and forth. This
use of the Russian space program as a taxi cab for our astronaut crews to man
and return ISS crews averaged around $60-$80 million dollars and flight.The big news for NASA and its supporters and
followers is today, Tuesday, May 20th the astronaut crew for NASA’s
Crew Dragon Demo-2 or its official designation SpX-DM2, is scheduled to arrive
at Cape Canaveral to begin its preflight activities forit’s planned Wednesday, May 27th
launch date from pad 34A.
The
SpX-DM2 crew will be the first two manned astronaut crew since NASA shuttle
mission STS-4 launched on June 27th, 1982.The two astronauts will be Spacecraft
Commander Douglas G. Hurley and Joint Operations Commander Robert L.
Behnken.This will be the third spaceflight
for both.In a twist of irony Commander
Hurley was a member of the crew for STS-135 the last space shuttle mission
referenced above that ended America’s domestic human spaceflight program. Now Commander Hurley will find himself in the inaugural
NASA mission to kick off a new era of the United States domestic human
spaceflight program officially ending its sole reliance on Rocosmos transportation
to low earth orbit and the ISS.
This
author/blogger as a longtime space enthusiast and follower is pretty excited at
the prospects of this new era.
Aspirational plans to kick off planned missions beyond the currently restricted
LEO (low earth orbit) expeditions will be welcome and refreshing. This is supposed represent our first
tentative steps leading to future expeditions to the moon, mars, and beyond. I am
excited to use this blog to follow the arc of this new era for all that are
interested. Stay tuned.
On January 19, 2006, 19:00 UTC New Horizons was launched from Cape Canaveral on its way to make a flyby of the known center piece of the Kuiper Belt, Pluto. Within a short 8 months of its launch on a mission that would take nine years the International Astronomical Union had redefined Pluto to a 'dwarf planet' taking away its lofty status int he Solar System as one of the nine known planet I had memorized from childhood. By the time New Horizons had arrived to flyby the last planet to be visited in our Solar System there was no planet to observe. It was now one of many common objects drifting around our star in a a centuries long dance through the heavens that had been stripped of its mysterious wonder of being the last planet to be visited. and regulated to the status of a 'dwarf planet.'
But for many of us the wonder, mystery, and awe remains and I waited with baited breath as New Horizons arrived at its scheduled rendezvous for its closes approach on July 14th, 2015 at 11:50 UTC. I had followed its progress for nine years, fretted through its famed software glitch on Independence day 2015, was awed by its brief visit to Jupiter's lesser charges: Ganymede, Europe, Callisto, and Io, and finally to its first flirtatious glance of Pluto itself and its largest moon Charon.
I will be posting much more about Pluto and what New Horizons uncovered for those of us still enraptured by its mystery but for now I wanted to post my two favorite images to date of the celestial body that in my mind is still our ninth planet. The first is the most know and beautiful shot of its approach. But the later is a shot taken after its flyby going away with a look at its "backside." As I've said there will be much more posed on this mysterious celestial marvel, despite the IAU's attempt to diminish its status in our Solar System.
Pluto on approach by New Horizons
New Horizons' view as it recedes in the distance after it's closest approach
Were still 152 days out from opening day kickoff against the University of Massachusetts Minutemen at The Swamp but that doesn't mean the discussion can't start for the possiblities the new football season has in store for the Jim McElwain led Gators. I was optimistic last year for Coach Mac's inaugural season and I wasn't disappointed.
The 2015-2016 season still reflected the damage done by the floundering last year of Will Muschamp that left the team in disarray with no identity and without a prospect of a starting QB to take the reigns and lead the offense. But Coach Mac took the team and did something Muschamp was never able to do: to make the whole of the team greater than the sum of its parts and have the team perform beyond expectations.
Now that Treon Harris has been tentatively moved to a TE/WR position [though he's still listed on the roster as a QB] the starting QB position is reported to be a wide-open contest between Purdue graduate transfer Austin Appleby and Oregon State transfer red shirt sophomore Luke Del Rio, son the former head Coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. For me expectations are high for the new set of QB's due to Coach Mac's reputation for QB development and the putting together high powered offenses. I'm really excited and looking forward to what Coach Mac has cooked up for the new season beginning on Saturday, September 3rd. Here's Coach Mac talking about what his expectations are for the Gator offense in the lead up to the Orange & blue Game on Friday night [April 8th] at 7:00PM on the SEC Network:
Sounds like he's pretty clear with what he wants out of his offense for this preview of the team dynamic with a new set of QB's. The schedule looks favorable to help the team develop the quarterbacks for the offensive scheme Coach Mac wants and to prepare it to perform up to expectations that he and the fans expect.
One day a botanist found a beautiful plant by the wayside. He sat down to analyze it. He pulled it apart and examined each segment under a microscope.
When he had finished he could tell the color of the flower, its classification, and the number of stamens and pistils and petals and bracts, but the life and the beauty and the alluring fragrance were gone.
Though Jim Morrison was the driving force of The Doors when they first formed it was Ray Manzarek that was the critical cohesive element of the band that kept the brilliant sum of its parts together and helped them be greater than the whole. The prototypical AOR FM band in the 70's and 80's were an icon of the time that marched to a different drum with Morrison leading the way. Most Doors songs had a catalogue of tunes with lyrics that did not follow the thematic doggeral lyrics of the day about drugs, sex and rock n' roll. They were a deeper examination of the psyche that explored struggles with the human condition on several levels. When Morrison died they went on to produce two more efforts: 'Other Voices' and 'Full Circle' with Manzarek singing the lead. Though not commercially successful 'Ships With Sails' from 'Other Voices' has the classic doors sound with Manzarek voicing lyrics that still had that Doors/Morrison feel and flavor. Manzarek died in Germany of cancer at 74.
