"The First 50 Years of Space: Every Single Launch... Ever!"

[james_davis_nicoll]

Popular Mechanics provides a graphic record of human activity in space up to June 15, 2007.

Unfortunately, now that I go look at the appropriate window, the graph doesn't seem to have loaded yet. Hrm. I'm thinking dial-up is the issue.

Comments

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

It's up and working now, so if you still can't see it, yep, probably dial-up.

It's kind of sad to see the number of US launches dropping off just when the number of "other" launches increases. I'm glad more countries are entering space, but wish the US wouldn't drop out.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I was very surprised in 2005 when I came across a graph (since lost) of tonnage launched into space by year that showed the peak being back in the 1960s.

Of course, we get a lot more out of each kilogram than we did two generations ago.

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

One has to consider why 'US' launches are 'dropping'.

In the first place most 'US' launches post the late 1960's are not birds I'd consider relevant to 'entering space' - they are commsats launched by commercial entities.

In the second place this is 2007, where satellite lifetimes are measured in years... Not 1967 where it was (mostly) 'cross our fingers and hope it lasts till Tuesday'.

Cheerleading on the numbers and wishing they were bigger mostly for the sake of making them bigger or the vain idea that being bigger means we are accomplishing more is idiotic.

[felis-sidus.livejournal.com]

Cheerleading on the numbers and wishing they were bigger mostly for the sake of making them bigger or the vain idea that being bigger means we are accomplishing more is idiotic.

Interesting. You seem to have found meaning in my post that wasn't there when I wrote it. Indeed, I hadn't realized I owned any pom-poms, let alone was waving them about.

[derekl1963.livejournal.com]

When you use terms like "It's kind of sad" and "wish the US wouldn't drop out", there aren't many other ways of interpreting it. When one doesn't mean to give an impression - using loaded and emotional terms is precisely the way not to go about it.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yep; the chart loads for me, but I can see how it might balk...nay, utterly refuse to perform...at dial-up speeds.

Thanks for the link!

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

It's also a flash application, so your problem may be that you don't have a recent enough version installed.