NASA 
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SOURCE: Centre Daily Times (PA)
1/18/2022
The Dark Side of NASA Under James Webb
by Ken Lawrence
Evidence suggests that NASA cut corners on safety to beat the Soviets in the space race; the phrase "the lowest bidder" resonated throughout the space community in the early 1960s.
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SOURCE: Inverse
12/5/2021
Amy Shira Teitel: Why is Space Such a Boys' Club?
"Space skews predominantly male, especially Apollo-era space history because that was the era when little boys growing up were being told, 'You can be an astronaut, too'!"
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11/21/2021
Adulation for Today's Space Race is Misplaced. So is Nostalgia for the First One
by Catherine Devlin
It is impossible not to compare today’s billionaire space race to the iconic celestial competition of the 1960’s. But what if neither is worthy of adulation?
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SOURCE: NPR
9/30/2021
Despite Controversy, NASA Won't Rename Space Telescope
Critics argue the James Webb Telescope honors a NASA administrator who sanctioned employment discrimination against gay and lesbian astronomers during the 1950s and 1960s.
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8/1/2021
Ike Would Like the New Private Space Race
by Yanek Mieczkowski
Wary of government spending and the entanglement of public money with private contractors, Dwight Eisenhower would find much to like in today's billionaire space race.
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SOURCE: ArtVoice
2/28/2021
The Exploration of Space as a Project of Humanity
by Joseph Preston Baratta
The exploration of space as an international objective hopefully points the way toward planetary unity beyond nationalism.
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SOURCE: The New York Times
7/9/2020
Campaign Urges NASA to Rename the John C. Stennis Space Center
The center, in Mississippi, is named for a former senator who opposed civil rights legislation and the Supreme Court ruling that desegregated the nation’s public schools.
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5/31/2020
Fly me to the Moon: Covering the Early Space Program
by Ron Steinman
Will people struggling to get through a normal day be inspired by a renewed space program? Will either the government or the media commit for the long haul? At least I knew there was a time when we all had it in us. For the future, only time will tell.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
2/25/20
Katherine Johnson should also be remembered for desegregating higher education
by Crystal R. Sanders
The mathematician’s experience showed how valuable diversity can be for inspiring scientific progress.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
2/24/20
Katherine Johnson, ‘hidden figure’ at NASA during 1960s space race, dies at 101
Mrs. Johnson, who died Feb. 24 at 101, went on to develop equations that helped the NACA and its successor, NASA, send astronauts into orbit and, later, to the moon.
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SOURCE: NY Times
11/13/19
NASA Renames Object After Uproar Over Old Name’s Nazi Connotations
Scientists said an object four billion miles from Earth would be given a Native American name: Arrokoth. Its previous, informal name, Ultima Thule, had links to the Third Reich.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
8/30/19
Why Soviets Sent Dogs to Space While Americans Used Primates
The goal for the Cold War rivals was the same: to prove that animals could survive in orbit so that people could, too. But why did the Soviets use dogs, while the Americans used primates?
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SOURCE: The American Prospect
7/19/19
Fifty Years After the Moon Landing, Recalling One Small Misstep
by Tad Daley & Jane Shevtsov
Why did the first humans to set foot off Planet Earth plant the flag of only part of Planet Earth?
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SOURCE: NY Times
7/16/19
Ed Dwight Was Set to Be the First Black Astronaut. Here’s Why That Never Happened.
For a brief moment, the civil rights movement and the space race came together.
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SOURCE: New Yorker
7/20/19
Lyndon Johnson’s Unsung Role in Sending Americans to the Moon
As chairman of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, a White House advisory group, Johnson moved quickly to “dominate Washington space activities."
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7/18/19
Apollo: America’s Moonshot and the Power of a National Project
by David Carlin
President Kennedy understood that his “goal [would] serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.” We need similar thinking today.
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SOURCE: History.com
7/17/19
The Amazing Handmade Tech That Powered Apollo 11’s Moon Voyage
A surprising number of the Apollo spacecraft’s critical parts ended up being crafted and assembled by hand, by a vast battalion of little-known and little-heralded workers back on earth.
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SOURCE: NY Times
6/21/19
Jill Lepore Reviews Seven New Books About the Apollo 11 Mission
by Jill Lepore
“At no point before the actual moon landing did any majority of Americans support the mission to land on the moon,” Lepore says in this podcast.
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SOURCE: The New York Times
June 23, 2019
How NASA Sold the Science and Glamour of Space Travel
by Clyde Haberman
At the time of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission in the 1960s, some Americans had reservations about the wisdom of reaching for the stars when troubles swelled on Earth.
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6/23/19
The Moon Landings Have a Nazi Problem
by Fraser MacDonald
As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings, the Nazi provenance of some technology and personnel is too often kept at bay.
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