Friday, February 03, 2006
National Space Society's Heinlein Award Balloting Begins.
This year's voting for the National Space Society's Heinlein Award has begun. The Heinlein is given to those individuals who have made significant, lifetime contributions to the creation of a free, spacefaring civilization.
We voted for Dr. Peter Diamandis, Dr. Michael Griffin, and Burt Rutan, in that order.
Diamandis because of his lifetime of work trying to do just what the Heinlein award honors, the creation of a free spacefaring civilization.
Griffin because of his lifetime of service in the United States space program, for much of the 20th Century the only human space program of a government that is free. And also because he had the guts last year as NASA Administrator to state explicitly to the mainstream media that the bottom-line rationale for human space flight is human settlement of outer space. (Here.)
And Burt Rutan because of SpaceShipOne, SpaceShipTwo, and his own private space program operating out of Mojave, CA. If there is a space race today it is between private space ventures and government, and Burt and his gang are pacesetters.
The NSS has warnings on their ballot links asking that they not be copied, otherwise we would share the ballot on this blogsite. So join the NSS (here) and see the ballot for yourself. Then vote. Cancel our vote if you feel it's necessary. Reasonable minds could differ.
-tdr
UPDATED (2/4/2006): Balloting closes on February 12, 2006, leaving little time to vote. The NSS is an organization worthy of joining regardless.
We voted for Dr. Peter Diamandis, Dr. Michael Griffin, and Burt Rutan, in that order.
Diamandis because of his lifetime of work trying to do just what the Heinlein award honors, the creation of a free spacefaring civilization.
Griffin because of his lifetime of service in the United States space program, for much of the 20th Century the only human space program of a government that is free. And also because he had the guts last year as NASA Administrator to state explicitly to the mainstream media that the bottom-line rationale for human space flight is human settlement of outer space. (Here.)
And Burt Rutan because of SpaceShipOne, SpaceShipTwo, and his own private space program operating out of Mojave, CA. If there is a space race today it is between private space ventures and government, and Burt and his gang are pacesetters.
The NSS has warnings on their ballot links asking that they not be copied, otherwise we would share the ballot on this blogsite. So join the NSS (here) and see the ballot for yourself. Then vote. Cancel our vote if you feel it's necessary. Reasonable minds could differ.
-tdr
UPDATED (2/4/2006): Balloting closes on February 12, 2006, leaving little time to vote. The NSS is an organization worthy of joining regardless.
