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Last week marked several important dates in the history of space exploration. Forty years ago last Thursday, an unknown 27-year-old Soviet pilot named Yuri Gagarin took flight in the small spherical Vostok capsule. His one-orbit, 108-minute flight made him the first man to travel in space and marked one of the most important events of the 20th century. Twenty years later, also on Apr. 12, the space shuttle Columbia entered space. The 54-hour maiden voyage of the reusable spacecraft signified the dawning of a new age of exploration...
...Despite anxieties in Japan and Australia that the dying craft could miss its trajectory and hit land, Russian ground controllers successfully steered it to its final watery resting place some 2,900 km southwest of the Pitcairn Islands. Most of the giant 136-ton structure, which had been in orbit since 1986, burned up as it re-entered the earth's atmosphere. About six fragments survived to splash down...
...during a ceremony in the woods for family and friends. If you're an ocean lover, Eternal Reefs Inc. in Atlanta will place your ashes inside an artificial reef for $850 to $3,200. Celestis, a company based in Houston, will launch your ashes into Earth's orbit. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Timothy Leary are among the 100 people who have taken this stellar ride. The cost: $5,300. Spring for $12,500, and you can get shot toward the moon...
Eventually, no amount of rocket-jock calm could hide the fact that Mir had become a deathtrap. Once parts of the glinting International Space Station went aloft, it was clear there was no need to keep the old outpost in orbit. So now, more than 15 years after it was launched on what was to have been a three-year flight, Mir will splash into history, its mission finished but its story only beginning to be told...
...Clarke. Back in 1964, he published a short story about an international race to the moon via "sun yacht." In The Wind from the Sun, Clarke detailed the competitors' various sail designs and their resultant difficulties in tacking to keep the sails facing the sun while making one orbit around the earth to gain escape velocity for breaking away and heading out to the moon. WILLIAM M. STEIN Arlington, Mass...