Word: shepards
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
AARON MCKINNEY, one of two men who killed Matthew Shepard in 1998, claiming on ABC News that he attacked the college student for drug money, not because Shepard...
When the first American flew into space in 1961, Burt Rutan was a 17-year-old college freshman. Listening to news of Alan Shepard's groundbreaking suborbital flight on the radio, Rutan was euphoric. He too hoped to go into space one day--and was disappointed that a cautious NASA had allowed the Soviets to beat the U.S. to the prize. "We could have had the first man in space," Rutan recalls, "and we sent a monkey instead...
...taste zero-gravity one day. It didn't work out that way. After NASA reached the moon in 1969, its focus shifted to unmanned probes, orbital experiments and a costly low-orbit shuttle system. The imagined future of Everyman as astronaut evaporated. This year, more than four decades after Shepard's flight, only two Americans have made the jump into space from U.S. soil--both launched not by NASA but by Rutan's tiny company, known for build-your-own-airplane kits...
Despite its Flash Gordon looks and unorthodox design, SpaceShipOne was able to more than match Shepard's trailblazing journey. In June it became the first privately funded spacecraft. In October it clinched the $10 million Ansari X Prize as the first such craft to travel to space twice in two weeks. Thanks to the backing of two starry-eyed billionaires...
...Branson, Virgin will be able to lower the price: "This isn't just a pipe dream. We will get this to the point where thousands of people can go into space." He and Rutan plan to be aboard the first Virgin Galactic flight. A mere 46 years after Alan Shepard, if all goes according to plan, Rutan will finally, personally, get to experience his zero-gravity dream...