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‘Exploration, Inc.’: Corporate America and the nation’s exploration evolution As the federal government attempts to cut costs, including at NASA, corporations and private investors are venturing further into the realm of exploration innovation.
Dec. 24, 1968
Earth rises over the horizon of the moon in a photo taken by the astronauts on Apollo 8. It has been over 40 years since Apollo 17, the last manned American lunar landing.
NASA
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AP
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Nov. 22, 1960
Astronaut Alan Shepard Jr., poses in the Mercury spacecraft at Cape Canaveral in 1961. Shepard was the first American to fly in space and one of only 12 Americans to walk on the moon. He died July 21, 1998, at the age of 74. The space race of the 1960s served as merely one of many aspects of the Cold War, a catalyst for some of the world’s most inspiring technological and exploratory breakthroughs.
AP
July 20, 1969
Astronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, is seen on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong took this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. During the Cold War, the government opened the nation’s coffers for NASA, producing a series of technological discoveries and exploration firsts. These developments also served to galvanize the nation and fuel citizens’ collective imagination.
NASA
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AFP
March 9, 2012
The U.S. space shuttle Discovery, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as it is readied for display. The Discovery flew the third-to-last mission of the space shuttle program. The end of the shuttle program has left many wondering what NASA’s next, great breakthrough will be even as the agency is on track for yet another budget cut.
Bruce Weaver
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AFP/Getty Images
March 27, 2012
A sounding rocket launches from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., as part of the Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment. Five rockets were launched from the site before dawn for the ATREX mission to help scientists understand the upper-level jet stream, 60 to 65 miles above Earth's surface. (See more photos of the rocket launches. )
NASA
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AP
Feb. 13, 2012
Staff assistant Kathleen Llewellyn distributes copies of President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget request upon its arrival at the Senate Budget Committee room on Capitol Hill. The budget features the lowest request for NASA in four years.
Kevin Lamarque
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Reuters
Feb. 13, 2012
President Obama speaks about his budget plan to students at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale. In the president’s budget request, NASA would receive $3 billion for human spaceflight projects, including funding for a new rocket and deep-space capsule. However, the request also includes $830 million to continue a program created under Obama to “jump-start commercial companies striving to build new rockets and capsules that will eventually send astronauts to the international space station,” as reported by Washington Post staff writer Brian Vastag .
Jewel Samad
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AFP/Getty Images
Feb. 22, 2012
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, third from right, checks out a replica of the Mars Science Laboratory rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. President Obama's proposed budget calls for a 20 percent cut in NASA's planetary budget, forcing a restructuring of the Mars exploration program.
Damian Dovarganes
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AP
Oct. 29, 2007
Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, while promoting his latest book, has called for an increase in funding for NASA . During his March 7 testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Tyson asked, “How much would you pay for the universe?” The question was repeated heavily on the Internet, spliced into viral videos and prompting the #Penny4NASA movement. Supporters of the movement call for NASA’s funding to be raised to a full penny per dollar in tax revenue received.
Helayne Seidman
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For The Washington Post
March 13, 2008
Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of Space X, stands with one of the company's space capsules. Musk, co-founder of payment giant PayPal, is one of many outside of the government who seek to make commercial space travel viable and, ultimately, profitable.
Markham Johnson
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Bloomberg Markets via Bloomberg News
March 15, 2012
Virgin Group founder Richard Branson is pursuing his own plans for space exploration with the creation of Virgin Galactic. On March 20, he announced that Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceflights would be planned for 2013, with actor Ashton Kutcher as the company’s 500th passenger. Tickets for a trip 68 miles above Earth run passengers roughly $200,000.
Paul J. Richards
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AFP/Getty Images
May 4, 2011
In this handout photograph taken with high powered telescopes from the ground, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flies in full feather-wing mode on a rapid descent from its drop altitude of 51,500 feet, over Mojave, Calif. Virgin Group founder Richard Branson hopes to send the first of 500 passengers on a suborbital trip in 2013.
Virgin Galactic/Clay Center Observatory
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Reuters
Oct. 17, 2011
Guests and media watch as Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo takes flight carrying SpaceShipTwo over Spaceport America, northeast of Truth Or Consequences, N.M. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan have both voiced concerns about the emergence of commercial spaceflight, saying they are worried it could lead to safety issues and eventually cost taxpayers regardless, according to DailyTech .
Frederic J. Brown
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AFP/Getty Images
March 25, 2012
Explorer and "Titanic" filmmaker James Cameron talks with his crew in front of the Deepsea Challenger following the testing of the submersible in Jervis Bay, south of Sydney. Cameron completed the world's first solo dive to the deepest known point on Earth in the specially designed submarine. He reached the "Challenger Deep," the lowest point of the Mariana Trench, on March 26.
Mark Thiessen/National Geographic
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via Reuters
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Section:/national/on-innovations
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