“Well, it’s the Fourth of July; summer’s almost over,” my mom proclaimed each year as the nation’s birthday approached. more

I’ve been a fan of the space program for a long time. I’m old enough to remember standing in the front yard of our home in Pittsburgh in 1957 watching expectantly for the Russian-launched Sputnik to pass overhead in the night sky, and also listening to the grainy beep . . . beep . . . beep . . . the satellite produced for radios around the world. more