(Here is a link to the News section of this web page.)

Past Events

[2024 04 26] April 26, 2024. A Lunch & Learn in the NASA/JSC community: The Interstellar Ramjet: A Technical History.
Date: Friday, April 26, 2024
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Place: A hybrid event with Google Meet and NASA/JSC Gilruth Center Room #217 (Lone Star Room)
Speaker: Dr. Albert Allen Jackson IV
Presentation Title: The Interstellar Ramjet: A Technical History
Publicity Flyer: (PDF)
Speaker Biography:
Albert Allen Jackson IV entered the US civil service in January of 1966 as an engineer, first crew training on the Gemini Crew Trainer, then working on a simulator for the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle, and then becoming a full time Apollo crew trainer on the Lunar Module Simulator with the subsystem the Abort Guidance System. He returned to graduate work in physics in late 1970 gaining his Ph.D. in physics in January 1975 specializing in “applied” General Relativity. He returned to the Johnson Space Center working for McDonnell Douglas and Computer Science Corporation on flight planning software for the Space Shuttle Orbiter. In 1988 he moved to Lockheed Corporation working 5 years on solar system dust dynamics, and then 5 years on Orbital Debris. In 1998 he moved to Engineering Simulation and worked there for 12 years. He was a visiting scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston Texas for 30 years. Currently he is an astronautics consultant at Triton Systems LLC.
Abstract:
In 1960 Robert Bussard published a solution to the mass ratio problem for interstellar flight. He laid out the design of a starship that scooped interstellar hydrogen compressed it in a fusion reactor, extracted energy and produced thrust. The process is similar to a terrestrial ramjet. Bussard outlined the propulsion method, presented the equations of motion and made general assessments of performance and propulsion efficiency. Sagan suggested magnetic ‘scoops’ for collecting working matter from the interstellar medium. Fishback in 1969 calculated important limitations on the ramjet magnetic intake and quantified drag and radiation losses for the ramjet. Fishback showed there was a limiting Lorentz factor for an interstellar ramjet imposed by the material properties of the scoop source. Tony Martin expanded Fishback study and made some important observations. The main problem with the concept was using proton-proton reactions for fusion, this proves very difficult. In 1975 Dan Whitmire made progress towards solving the fusion reactor problem of the interstellar ramjet by noting that one could use the CNO process rather than the PP mechanism as method of fusion operation. Bond and Jackson suggested alternative ramjet operation using augmentation. An alternative to the Bussard Ramjet was presented in 1977. The Laser Powered Interstellar Ramjet, LPIR. This vehicle uses a solar system-based laser beaming power to a vehicle which scoops interstellar hydrogen and uses a linear accelerator to boost the collected particle energy for propulsion bypassing fusion reactor problems.
Post-Event Summary:
This was our first hybrid event in most ways. We used our new Google Pixel 8 smartphone, our new tripod, and two new lapel microphones.
Additional Notes:
Dated April 25, 2024, we have a news article from Scott Neuman of NPR, “He missed a chance to be the first Black astronaut. Now, at 90, he’s going into space.” The first few sentences are, “Edward J. Dwight Jr. has waited a long time for his ride into space. In the 1960s, he seemed poised to become America’s first Black astronaut. That dream was never realized. Now, at age 90, he’s about to finally get his shot, aboard a Blue Origin rocket.” As noted below, The Space Race is a new documentary movie which includes the aerospace story of Ed Dwight, who later became a sculptor. From this NPR article, “Dwight and Melvin became close friends. In recent months, they have worked together on The Space Race, a documentary released last year about the contributions and experiences of Black astronauts. Dwight’s own story is prominent in the film.”

[2024 02 26] February 26, 2024. A Lunch & Learn in the NASA/JSC community: A Tale of Two Translunar Aborts
Date: Monday, February 26, 2024
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Place: Online only (Zoom)
Speaker: Daniel R. Adamo, Astrodynamics Consultant and AIAA Distinguished Speaker
Presentation: (PDF) Here are the slides used for this presentation.
Speaker Biography: Daniel R. Adamo is an astrodynamics consultant focused on space mission trajectory design, operations, and architecture. He works with clients primarily at NASA and in academia. Until retirement in 2008, Mr. Adamo was employed by United Space Alliance as a trajectory expert, serving as a “front room” flight controller for 60 Space Shuttle missions. Along with console duties during simulations and missions, this job entailed development of trajectory designs, software tools, flight rules, console procedures, and operations concepts. Mr. Adamo began his career at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation where he developed and operated proof-of-concept software for computer-controlled polishing of optical elements. He has degrees in Physical Sciences and Optical Engineering from the University of Houston and the University of Rochester, respectively.
Abstract: The recent Peregrine robotic lunar landing abort due to a leaking oxidizer tank was an off-Earth navigator’s nightmare.  Overboard vent accelerations were literally all over the sky before attitude control was restored, and an uncontrolled lunar impact was impending before a more responsible disposal strategy was implemented.  These dramatic events recall still higher stakes in play after Apollo 13’s onboard explosion aborted its lunar landing attempt in 1970.  New insights regarding post-explosion vent accelerations threatening safe Apollo 13 return to Earth will be discussed.
Post-event summary: About 100 people attended this online-only event using Zoom. We recorded the Zoom event. The recording will be stored on the YouTube channel for another AIAA Houston Section event, SpaceGeekSpeak. Dave Hanson was our event co-host for this lunch-and-learn, providing Zoom hosting skills and other kinds of help. Douglas Yazell hosted the event as Chair of the AIAA Houston Section history technical committee. Our Section Chair John Rangel started the recording of the lunch-and-learn with comments about our Section and upcoming events. The Zoom chat includes AIAA Houston Section notes such as contact information, upcoming events, a description of SpaceGeekSpeak, and more. The Zoom chat will be included with the video recording, as I [Douglas Yazell] understand it. The Zoom chat until 12:52 PM is also available using this link.
Link to the video recording: Here is a link to the Zoom video recording of this event. We thank AIAA Houston Section’s SpaceGeekSpeak (Svetlana Hanson) for a convenient place on YouTube to store such a big video file.
Additional notes: 
“Dave Hanson is our co-host today. He is a retired NASA civil servant. He is also president of two electric vehicle (EV) clubs in the Houston area. One of those two clubs is the Johnson Space Center EV Enthusiasts Club (JEVEC). “Speaking of AIAA and related history, ‘The Space Race’ is a new two-hour documentary TV show which first appeared this month on the National Geographic channel, Hulu, and Disney+. This new TV show presents stories of Black American astronauts serving in space. The timing of this TV show premiere fits well with Black History Month, February 2024. Here is a link to a CNN article about this new TV show.”

• Here is a link to the excellent 2024 White House proclamation for Black History Month.
• Here is a link to the Galveston-based Juneteenth Legacy Project (J19LP) website.
• Here is a link to Houston’s Buffalo Soldiers National Museum website. The museum includes a display about the 1917 Camp Logan riot in Houston, a story which includes the 2023 overturnings of all related military court-martial convictions.
• Here is a link to the Houston Public Library African American History Research Center at the Gregory School. A visit to the Gregory School in Freedman’s Town, Fourth Ward, is like a visit to a museum.
• Gregory School presentation on George Washington Carver on February 28, 2024. The Gregory School, formerly known as the Gregory Institute, is presenting a George Washington Carver exhibit until May 11, and it is free and open to the public. The school in the historic Freedmen’s Town houses the African American History Research Center. Sheena Wilson, the director, will present a Zoom program about the school and the exhibit at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 28. To join the program, click
  https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86520457796?pwd=SgS9qBVy9dxFxfEaBEwXx46R0QhlA2.1us06web.
• Here is a link to the SHAPE Community Center in Houston.

Flyer: (PDF)

 

[2018 06 06] June 6, 2018. A Lunch & Learn in the NASA/JSC community: A Photographic History of Wildlife at and around NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Date: Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Place: Tietronix, 1331 Gemini Avenue, Suite 300, Houston Texas USA 77058
Speaker: Gary Seloff is an IT Manager at NASA/JSC with three decades of experience in imagery collection management and IT. For the past 10 years or so, he has been kayaking and taking photographs on Armand Bayou, Horsepen Bayou, Mud Lake, as well as on site at JSC and nearby areas.
Presentation: Wildlife on the campus of NASA/JSC includes bobcats, alligators, coyotes, snakes, lizards, and many kinds of birds, including herons, egrets, woodpeckers, owls, flycatchers, cardinals, mockingbirds, bluejays, sparrows, doves, bald eagles, and ospreys. 
Links: Here is a link to the photographs of Mr. Gary Seloff on Flickr, where he published more than 10,000 photographs and he has more that 10,000 followers. A free membership might be required to see the photographs.

Here is a link to the one-page PDF publicity flyer we used. Attendance was about 24 people.

A 2017 event (Lunch & Learn at NASA/JSC Gilruth Center):

Date: Friday, January 27, 2017
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Place: NASA/JSC Gilruth Center Lone Star Room
Subject: Reproducing an Apollo Applications Program Single-Launch Human Venus Flyby Trajectory
Speaker: Daniel R. Adamo, Astrodynamics Consultant
Here is a link to the publicity flyer (PDF). Here is a link to EventBrite web page.

[2016 10 04, October 4, 2016, Sputnik launch date anniversary] [Published here October 1, 2016] Lunch & Learn featuring invited guest speaker James Oberg, Soyuz TMA-19M Launch & Ascent Observations from ISS and Ground & Airborne Observers (Launch: December 15, 2015). Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below. Here is a link for this article of October 4, 2016.

[2016 04 22, April 22, 2016] [Published here March 13, 2016, updated April 18, 2016 and April 24, 2016] Lunch & Learn Friday, April 22, 2016. Please see the image below (click to zoom). The EventBrite web page link for publicity was excellent as always. As of April 18, 2016, we have 21 attendees on our list, with 12 meals pre-ordered. The BBQ (barbecue) meal was excellent, as always, thanks to Red River BBQ and Red River Catering. I believe I forgot to order the iced tea, but we had no other troubles. Attendance was 24 (pre-event online registration, with 12 meals pre-ordered), including our invited speaker and our event host.

Charts from our invited speaker, Dr. Albert A. Jackson IV: Link for a PDF file (3.5 MB), link for a PowerPoint file (the original file, 24.4 MB, 26 slides), and a link for a Keynote file (9.4 MB).

Presentation: Eugen Sänger, from the Silverbird to Interstellar Voyages. 

News Articles

[2024 11 13] Wednesday, November 13, 2024. An AIAA Houston Section Dinner Meeting featuring Wayne Hale, presenting, “From Sputnik to Artemis: Perspectives on Space Exploration for Tomorrow’s Missions.” Here is a link to his presentation ( 91 charts/slides, 10.5 MB PDF). Our event sponsor was Amentum.

Wayne Hale spent 45 years in the aerospace industry, both as a NASA Civil Servant and as a private industry consulting engineer. He also served as a member of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) for over ten years and a term as a member of the FAA Commercial Space Advisory Committee (COMSTAC). Wayne fully retired at the end of 2023.

Wayne has participated in space flight ventures that were successful and unsuccessful. He described his experience and especially that with recent or ongoing projects and how they may affect the future of space exploration especially as it concerns humans in space. His comments on NASA’s Commercial Crew program, the Artemis Program, Blue Origin, SpaceX, Boeing, and the competition with the People’s Republic of China were included.

[Twelve photos from this event are available using this link for the LinkedIn page of AIAA Houston Section.]

[2024 10 24] Thursday, October 24, 2024. This is my status report (10 slides, 18 MB) for AIAA Houston Section for our September council meeting. I am Douglas Yazell, an AIAA Houston Section retired member. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV (with Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas), not Region VII, though Region VII is the international Region. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

[2024 08 22] Thursday, August 22, 2024. This is my status report (10 slides) for AIAA Houston Section for our September council meeting. I am Douglas Yazell, an AIAA Houston Section retired member. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV (with Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas), not Region VII, though Region VII is the international Region. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

[2024 08 06] Tuesday, August 6, 2024, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section retired member. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV (with Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas), not Region VII, though Region VII is the international Region. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

[2024 07 28] July 28, 2024. Obituary. Larry Jay Friesen (September 7, 1946 – July 28, 2024), PhD, an AIAA Associate Fellow and a member of AIAA Houston Section. This document (PDF) is a Houston version of his life story, but it also explains that Dr. Friesen was born and raised in Kansas, including his undergraduate university education. This Neptune Society (cremation services) web page commemorates Dr. Friesen and mentions his birthplace, Salina Kansas. I [Douglas Yazell] will add a few notes about Dr. Friesen:

• Like many public high schools in the USA, his high school in Kansas publishes a public archive (PDF) of their yearbooks, as many as they can find. Dr. Friesen graduated in 1964, and that yearbook is included, but not the prior three yearbooks. I created some “Friesen” Keynote presentation slides (exported to PDF) from the 1964 yearbook. His late father Eric Friesen (1917 – 1993) taught math and coached the cross country track team in that school, so I included him. Dr. Larry Jay Friesen was in the cast of a play, Harvey as a senior in high school, and Wikipedia features this description of the play: “Harvey is a 1944 play by the American playwright Mary Chase. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work in 1945. It has been adapted for film and television several times, most notably in a 1950 film starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull.”
• When I searched for issues of our newsletter Horizons for our public archive, Dr. Friesen sent me quite a few issues (which I scanned and converted to PDF, then returned), more issues than any other source. The September 1990 issue is the first one we have named Horizons instead of Newsletter, and the earliest issue we found so far is the October 1977 issue.
• As mentioned in a document above, Dr. Friesen is the author of the 2012 book from Firefall Media in a series called Science Fiction by Scientists. The book is featured in a one-page article in the January / February 2013 issue of Horizons, newsletter of AIAA Houston Section. Here is a link to that one-page article, available to the public (PDF). The book is three novellas and the title of the book is Betrayal / Battle / Storm. The titles of the three novellas, in the order referenced in the book title, are Buddy System, Sail a Dusty Sky, and Armor in Aristoteles. The one-page feature article includes this biography of Larry Jay Friesen: “With a PhD from Rice University in Space Physics & Astronomy, Larry Jay Friesen worked at [NASA] Johnson Space Center from 1976 through 1998, mostly for McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed Martin. He currently teaches Astronomy and Physics at the University of Houston – Clear Lake. He was elected as an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He brings a wealth of accurate detail to the highly probable reality of his stories.”
• A family member told me Dr. Friesen was an expert on Edgar Rice Burroughs (1870 – 1950), creator of John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, Pelluidar, Carson of Venus, and much more. I recall the science fiction author Robert Heinlein (1907 – 1988) writing to defend the Burroughs science fiction, saying it was good science fiction for its time.
• A document above mentions a weekly or biweekly lunch in the NASA/JSC community which Dr. Friesen often or almost always attended. I joined them decades ago, and they told me it started with one man as an astronomy brown bag lunch. I suppose it moved to restaurants long before I attended. I sometimes think of it as an astrodynamics lunch. Four of us were still meeting about monthly just a few weeks ago, including Dr. Friesen, at 888 Bistro on El Camino Real. It is a good location with good food. We moved it from Wednesdays to Thursdays recently. We were starting early, as early as 11:15 AM, but noon is the usual time for lunch. The tradition might or might not continue.

[2024 05 20] Monday, May 20, 2024, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section retired member. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV (with Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas), not Region VII, though Region VII is the international Region. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity. AIAA created our Diversity Working Group in 2015, as I recall. An AIAA leader wrote a public note on this subject on June 2, 2020, saying AIAA needs to make the ultimate pivot.
3. Climate change. An AIAA leader discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America. As Naomi Orestes wrote in her 2019 book, Why Trust Science?, we can never know if scientists have settled on the truth, but we know when they have settled. (Eugenics in the USA was not an example of settled science.)
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections (Our contact person in Houston is a NASA/JSC civil servant.)
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2024 05 09] Thursday, May 9, 2024. A 43-second video from Dr. George Nield of the FAA in DC addressing AIAA Houston Section on the occasion of our 50th anniversary, June 6, 2012, at our dinner meeting in NASA/JSC Gilruth Center. Dr. Nield recorded this short video which we played back at our event. Dr. Nield was Chair of AIAA Houston Section in 1994 and 1997, the first to be Chair of our Section twice. He later launched into suborbital space on a mission with Blue Origin. That was Blue Origin NS-20 in 2022. AIAA Houston Section started in 1962 as a Chapter of IAS. AIAA celebrates its anniversary year as 1931, since two related societies were created in 1930 and 1932. From Wikipedia, “The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society (ARS), founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society (AIS), and the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences (IAS), founded in 1932 as the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences.”

[2024 04 26] Friday, April 26, 2024, Lunch and Learn, The Interstellar Ramjet: A Technical History, by Dr. Allen Albert Jackson IV.
Date: Friday, April 26,2024
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Place: A hybrid event with Google Meet and the venue NASA/JSC Gilruth Center Lone Star Room, Room #217, 18600 Space Center Blvd, Houston TX 77058. 
Details: Please use this link to see more details.

[2024 04 23] Tuesday, March 23, 2024, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section retired member. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV (with Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas), not Region VII, though Region VII is the international Region. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity. AIAA created our Diversity Working Group in 2015, as I recall. An AIAA leader wrote a public note on this subject on June 2, 2020, saying AIAA needs to make the ultimate pivot.
3. Climate change. An AIAA leader discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America. As Naomi Orestes wrote in her 2019 book, Why Trust Science?, we can never know if scientists have settled on the truth, but we know when they have settled. (Eugenics in the USA was not an example of settled science.)
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections (Our contact person in Houston is a NASA/JSC civil servant.)
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2024 03 11] Monday, March 11, 2024, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section retired member. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV (with Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas), not Region VII, though Region VII is the international Region. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity. AIAA created our Diversity Working Group in 2015, as I recall. An AIAA leader wrote a public note on this subject on June 2, 2020, saying AIAA needs to make the ultimate pivot.
3. Climate change. An AIAA leader discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America. As Naomi Orestes wrote in her 2019 book, Why Trust Science?, we can never know if scientists have settled on the truth, but we know when they have settled. (Eugenics in the USA was not an example of settled science.)
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections (Our contact person in Houston is a NASA/JSC civil servant.)
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2024 02 27] Tuesday, February 27, 2024. A few notes on our AIAA Houston Section officers on our 2023 – 2024 org chart, since it might not be up to date: 

• Chair: John Rangel (chair at aiaahouston dot org)
• Vice Chair: Julie Strickland (vice dot chair at aiaahouston dot org)
• Treasurer: Michael Boazzo (treasurer at aiaahouston dot org)
• Secretary: Thomas Bryan (secretary at aiaahouston dot org)
• Past Chair: Jorge Hernandez (jhernandez at bastiontechnologies dot com)
• History technical committee Chair: Douglas Yazell (douglas dot yazell at aiaahouston dot org)
• International Activities Committee (IAC) Chair for IAC Houston Section: Douglas Yazell (douglas dot yazell at me dot com)
• Astrodynamics technical committee Chair: Dr. Albert Allen Jackson IV (Al Jackson) al underscore Jackson aajiv dot net)
• Automation, Robotics/Communications, and Tracking technical committee Chair: Dr. Zafar Taqvi (ztaqvi at gmail dot com)
• STEM K-12 Chair: Dr. Edgar Bering  (eabering at uh dot edu)
• Svetlana Hanson (svetlana dot hanson at nasa dot gov)
• Public Policy Chair: Wayne Rast (4wrast at gmail dot com)
• Alicia Baker (Alicia dot f dot baker at hotmail dot com) 
• Joshua Kivijarv (jkiv189 at gmail dot com) [Young Professionals Chair]
• Andrew Meade (meade at rice dot edu) [Advisor for Rice University Student Chapter]

[2024 02 26] February 26, 2024. A Lunch & Learn in the NASA/JSC community: A Tale of Two Translunar Aborts
Date: Monday, February 26, 2024
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Place: Online only (Zoom)
Speaker: Daniel R. Adamo, Astrodynamics Consultant and AIAA Distinguished Speaker
Details: Please use this link to see more detail.

[2024 01 16] Thursday, January 16, 2024, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section retired member. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV (with Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas), not Region VII, though Region VII is the international Region. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity. AIAA created our Diversity Working Group in 2015, as I recall. An AIAA leader wrote a public note on this subject on June 2, 2020, saying AIAA needs to make the ultimate pivot.
3. Climate change. An AIAA leader discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America. As Naomi Orestes wrote in her 2019 book, Why Trust Science?, we can never know if scientists have settled on the truth, but we know when they have settled. (Eugenics in the USA was not an example of settled science.)
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections (Our contact person in Houston is a NASA/JSC civil servant.)
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2023 12 11] Thursday, December 11, 2023, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section retired member. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV (with Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arkansas), not Region VII, though Region VII is the international Region. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity. AIAA created our Diversity Working Group in 2015, as I recall. An AIAA leader wrote a public note on this subject on June 2, 2020, saying AIAA needs to make the ultimate pivot.
3. Climate change. An AIAA leader discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America. As Naomi Orestes wrote in her 2019 book, Why Trust Science?, we can never know if scientists have settled on the truth, but we know when they have settled. (Eugenics in the USA was not an example of settled science.)
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections (Our contact person in Houston is a NASA/JSC civil servant.)
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2023 11 21] Tuesday, November 21, 2023. Typing a summary of past issues of Horizons, newsletter of AIAA Houston Section. [Douglas Yazell] Today I did not find the newsletter web page available to me as a webmaster. I noticed that I typed a summary of contents of quite a few issues, but the next one to be summarized is an interesting issue. Elon Musk was our May 23, 2007 dinner guest and featured speaker, and the event is summarized with a short article. That video can still be found on the internet, here (edited, by Jon Berndt, probably) on YouTube, and elsewhere on the internet. NASA/JSC created a DVD recording of this 2007 event. They gave copies to AIAA Houston Section, and AIAA does not claim any ownership, so to speak. I still have at least one copy of that DVD here at my home. When I type these summaries of each newsletter issue, it becomes easier to search the contents of our past issues. The August 2007 issue is the next one to be summarized, so that is now being done here: 

• Page 1: Cover: A DIRECT Approach [Cover: The Jupiter vehicle proposed by the DIRECT Launcher team lifts off in this rendition by Phillip Metschan.]
• Page 2: Table of Contents and other information
• Page 3: From the Editor (Jon Berndt): An “Open Source” Lauch Vehicle Family?
• Page 4: Chair’s Corner by Douglas Yazell (Chair, AIAA Houston Section, 2007-2008)
• Page 5: Cover story: A DIRECT Approach, by Chuck Longton
• Page 10: Staying Informed, compiled by the Editor (Jon Berndt)
• Page 13: New Members: I recognize the name Glenn L. Ellis. I probably worked with him briefly, and we might have a mutual friend at Triton Systems LLC. Also, Douglas J. Zimpfer was a Draper Laboratory employee I met now and then. Benjamin W. Longmier was one of our most active members, and some of his work is documented on our website, mostly on the newsletter web page. He went to work for Franklin Chang Diaz’s VASIMR program here in the Houston Clear Lake area near NASA/JSC. He led the creation of a big event at Space Center Houston, co-led by AIAA Houston Section, the appearance of one speaker, Harrison Schmitt, the last person to step onto the Moon. That event is documented in our newsletter. Mr. Schmitt signed copies of his new book after his excellent presentation. Patrick E. Rodi was a Lockheed Martin Technical Fellow who is now a professor at Rice University. His scale model (he was the designer of the model, and the scale is about 1:80) of NASA Orion ETF-1 (on its rocket ready for launch of Engineering Test Flight-1, or ETF-1) is now on permanent display (since 2017) near the reception desk of the (near NASA/JSC) Freeman branch of the Harris County Library. I took a snapshot of that a few days ago, along with a snapshot of the sign giving him credit for the work. About 100 new members are listed on page 13.
• Page 14: AIAA Historic Aerospace Site (HAS) Plaque at NASA/JSC, by Aaron Morris, History Chair of AIAA Houston Section, 2006/2007. Three photos are included, one showing the plaque, one showing its location in NASA/JSC Rocket Park, and one showing four people at the HAS ceremony (former Chair Steve King, Aaron Morris, NASA/JSC Director Michael Coates, and invited speaker Milt Heflin of NASA/JSC.
• Page 15: Virgin Galactic Training for Travel Representatives, by Tara Hyland of Navigant Vacations.
• Page 17: The 2007 Annual Technical Symposium (of AIAA Houston Section), by Ellen Gillespie.
• Page 18: To Boldly Go, a student essay by Jarret M. Lafluer, Georgia Tech University Aerospace Engineering graduate student. [A more typical spelling of that name is Lafleur, so please excuse any typos. I am not sure which is correct, but I assume our editor got it right the first time.]
• Page 19: You’re a GO for Launch, a student essay by Lindsay Marek, an aerospace engineering student at the University of Colorado, Boulder
• Page 20: The Engineering Sciences Contract Group [at NASA/JSC], by Kira Blackwell and ESCG Staff
• Page 21: Employment Notice.
• Page 22: Space Settlement Design Competition, by Douglas Yazell
• Page 23: The International Space Development Contract 2007, by Beatriz Kelly-Serrato
• Page 25: Elon Musk of SpaceX Addresses AIAA Houston Section, by Michael J. Lembeck, PhD. A photo shows Mr. Musk at a round dinner table for about six or eight people before his lecture. The caption identifies Mr. Lembeck, Horizons editor Jon Berndt, and Mr. Musk at the table. My wife is also seen in that photo and at that table. We see her from her back, Mrs. Cartier-Yazell. She is not identified in the caption. Mr. Lembeck worked for NASA HQ in Washington DC before moving to the Houston area NASA/JSC community. Once he arrived here, he was working for Northrup Grumman. He was Chair of AIAA Houston Section for one year, as I recall, and we have a record on that on our website (an Excel/PDF document at the bottom of this web page, a history of officers of AIAA Houston Section). This dinner event/Elon Musk presentation date was May 23, 2007. The venue was NASA/JSC Gilruth Center.
• Page 26: Calendar
• Page 27: Cranium Cruncher, by Bill Miller
• Page 28: Odds and Ends, from Editor Jon Berndt
• Page 30: Conference Presentations, compiled by Editor Jon Berndt
• Page 32: Cooperative Agreement signed by AIAA and 3AF (www.3af.fr)
• Page 33: AIAA Section News
• Page 34: “The Back Cover,” so to speak.

[2023 10 12] Thursday, October 12, 2023, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section retired member. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity. AIAA created our Diversity Working Group in 2015, as I recall. An AIAA leader wrote a public note on this subject on June 2, 2020, saying AIAA needs to make the ultimate pivot.
3. Climate change. An AIAA leader discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America. As Naomi Orestes wrote in Why Trust Science, we can never know if scientists have settled on the truth, but we can know if they have settled. Eugenics in the USA was not an example of settled science.
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2023 09 11] Monday, September 11, 2023, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section member. John Rangel is our new Chair, following Jorge Hernandez. My status report includes climate change news, international activities in our Section, and history technical committee notes for our Section. International activities in our Section include France, Ethiopia, Peru, and Mexico. Note that Mexico is paired with AIAA Houston Section. My status report also includes notes on diversity, since I was a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG) from 2015 to 2023.

Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity. AIAA created our Diversity Working Group in 2015, as I recall. An AIAA leader wrote a public note on this subject on June 2, 2020, saying AIAA needs to make the ultimate pivot.
3. Climate change. An AIAA leader discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America. As Naomi Orestes wrote in Why Trust Science, we can never know if scientists have settled on the truth, but we can know if they have settled. Eugenics in the USA was not an example of settled science.
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2023 05 18] Thursday, May 18, 2023, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section member.  France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity. AIAA created our Diversity Working Group in 2015, as I recall. An AIAA leader wrote a public note on this subject on June 2, 2020, saying AIAA needs to make the ultimate pivot.
3. Climate change. An AIAA leader discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America. As Naomi Orestes wrote in Why Trust Science, we can never know if scientists have settled on the truth, but we can know if they have settled. Eugenics in the USA was not an example of settled science.
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2023 04 25] Tuesday, April 25, 2023, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section Council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section member.  France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity. AIAA created our Diversity Working Group in 2015, as I recall. An AIAA leader wrote a public note on this subject on June 2, 2020, saying AIAA needs to make the ultimate pivot.
3. Climate change. An AIAA leader discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America. As Naomi Orestes wrote in Why Trust Science, we can never know if scientists have settled on the truth, but we can know if they have settled. Eugenics in the USA was not an example of settled science.
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

Above: 

Back row, left to right: 

1. Douglas Yazell (Honeywell)
2. Two
3. Three
4. Four
5. Dzung Dung
6. Six
7. Seven
8. Eight
9. Nine
10. Ten
11. Eleven
12. Twelve
13. Thomas Payne
14. Douglas Johnson

Front row: 

1. One
2. Two
3. Three
4. Four
5. Five
6. Six
7. Seven

Above: 

Front row, left to right: 

1. Thomas Payne, Flight Control Supervisor
2. Two
3. Charlene Chadwick, Charlene Madden by 1993 (?)
4. Douglas Johnson, Guidance and Flight Control Manager
5. Donald Gavert, Guidance and Navigation Supervisor, moved to other tasks by 1998
6. Pierre Bayle, son of Guy Bayle (not pictured). Both worked in the flight control group

Middle row, left to right: 

1. John Ruppert. By 1992, he was a NASA/JSC civil servant in Houston.
2. Douglas Yazell, Honeywell
3. Viet Nguyen. He succeeded Thomas Payne. Viet was still in that role as of 1993. When I type Viet Nguyen on this web page, some accents appear above two letters. Since I am not sure of the best or correct spelling, I will not use the accents for now. Here is a link to an obituary web page. The photo is him, and the years 1958 – 2012 appear to be correct, and his name is given as Viet Hung Nguyen. Other information provided here relates to services in May of 2012, and a few condolences appear using a Tribute Wall link.
4. Jalon Leach. He succeeded Don Gavert as Guidance and Control Manager. 
5. Scott Fraser.

Back row, left to right: 

1. Karl Makowsky
2. Phil Schwartz
3. Three
4. Al Moyles. His first name is probably Alan. He was a former pilot. He retired in Canada.
5. John Nishimi. I am not sure that is John Nishimi, but one of my colleagues said yes on 3/26/2013. He was a Rockwell colleague, so he would know. 

Some other names I recall: Al Santana, Ernie Golan (Honeywell), Tom Gederberg (Honeywell, in the NASA/JSC community for a long time as of 4/25/2023, his link at LinkedIn), Tom Chase (Honeywell), Bob (Robert) Epple (Manager), Charlie (Charles) Unger. Note Gordon Kafer led the Honeywell flight control group in Clearwater Florida, reporting to the Rockwell International group in Downey California. The Florida team included Bill McGuire, Robert McAfoos (with Barrios in the NASA/JSC community in recent years as of 4/25/2023), Milt Reed (later moved to Honeywell in the NASA/JSC community), Ramen Singh, Dick Van de Voort (spelling?), Buddy Schubele, Tom Wimmert, and many more.)

[Douglas Yazell, 5/3/2023] Today one of the above people sent me a page from NASA/SP-2010-3408. It is Appendix B – Key Individuals. He sent a small image file, so I will include it here, and I will type those names. A Google internet search for NASA/PS-2010-3408 leads to this, “Designing for Flight Through Periods of Instability, NASA (.gov), https://www.nasa.gov › default › files › files, PDF, NASA/SP–2010–3408, Space Shuttle Entry Digital. Autopilot, Section 9.0 Lessons Learned, Larry McWhorter and Milt Reed, Feb. 2010.” That leads to a PDF document whose Reference 3 contains a link for NASA/SP-2010-3408, but the link is broken.

From NASA/SP-2010-3408, “Appendix B. Key Individuals. The following is a list of many of the individuals who contributed to the design, development, test, and evaluation of the Space Shuttle Entry FCS [Flight Control System]. These names reflect a rather hurried recent collective memory dump of several people who have been involved with the program for longer and shorter durations. There are undoubtedly many more names that should be on this list, and apologies are extended for these omissions.

[First column: these are not numbered, but I use a numbered list for easier formatting on this web page]

1. Ken Alder
2. Jim Bailey
3. Dave Bateman
4. Guy Bayle
5. Dale Bennett
6. Nick Berlage
7. Brian Bihari
8. Thom Brown
9. Clint Browning
10. Kyle Cason
11. Tom Chase
12. Dick Cleary
13. Doug Cooke
14. Wes Dafler
15. Mr. DeJulia
16. Ray DeVall
17. Ed Digon
18. Dave Dyer
19. Les Edinger
20. Joe Engle
21. Bob Epple
22. Dr. Steve Everett
23. Maury Fowler
24. Gordon Fullerton
25. Joe Gamble
26. Don Gavert
27. Dave Gilbert
28. Ernie Golan
29. Ken Hahn

[Second column:]

1. Phil Hamilton
2. Mark Hammerschmidt
3. Jim Harder
4. Hank Hartsfield
5. Russ Hendrick
6. Dr. Ken Illif
7. Dr. Dai Ito
8. Jack Jansen
9. Doug Johnson
10. Gordon Kafer
11. Paul Kirsten
12. Jake Klinar
13. Leo Krupp
14. Howard Law
15. John Lee
16. Chaing Lin
17. Greg Loe
18. Ken Mattingly
19. Robbie McAfoos
20. Bill McGuire
21. Larry McWhorter
22. Glen Minott
23. Al Moyles
24. Terry Mulkey
25. Dan Nelson
26. Viet Nguyen
27. John Nishimi
28. Lee Olsen
29. Bernie Olson

[Third column:]

1. Tom Payne
2. Dr. Robert Peterson
3. Ken Radde
4. Milt Reed
5. Bob Reitz
6. Buddy Schubele
7. Space Shuttle Astronauts
8. Ernie Smith
9. Scott Snyder
10. Butch Stegall
11. Howard Stone
12. Jeff Stone
13. Alan Strahan
14. Tru Surber
15. Tom Tanita
16. FSL Support Team
17. SAIL Support Team
18. John Thuirer
19. Ron Toles
20. Gus Tsikalis
21. Charlie Unger
22. Brenda Weber
23. Walt Williams
24. Dave Wilson
25. Phil Wilson
26. Vince Wong
27. Earl Woosley
28. John Yeichner
29. Michael Zyss

[2023 01 17] Tuesday, January 17, 2023, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity, https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/Diversity-and-Inclusion On June 2, 2020, our AIAA Executive Director published a public note on the subjects of diversity, equity, and inclusion, including these words, “We need to make the ultimate pivot and adopt a new approach …”
3. Climate, and our AIAA executive director discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2022 11 15] Tuesday, November 15, 2022, the date of our monthly AIAA Houston Section council meeting. Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity, https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/Diversity-and-Inclusion On June 2, 2020, our AIAA Executive Director published a public note on the subjects of diversity, equity, and inclusion, including these words, “We need to make the ultimate pivot and adopt a new approach …”
3. Climate, and our AIAA executive director discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2022 10 22] I am changing my weekly status reports (below) to monthly. AIAA Houston Section executive council meetings are typically held online on a Tuesday, so those meetings days will be my monthly deadlines. I will report on the same subjects shown below, summarizing my status since the prior meeting.

[2022 10 15] Saturday, October 15, 2022. Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity, https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/Diversity-and-Inclusion On June 2, 2020, our AIAA Executive Director published a public note on the subjects of diversity, equity, and inclusion, including these words, “We need to make the ultimate pivot and adopt a new approach …”
3. Climate, and our AIAA executive director discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2022 10 08] Saturday, October 8, 2022. Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity, https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/Diversity-and-Inclusion On June 2, 2020, our AIAA Executive Director published a public note on the subjects of diversity, equity, and inclusion, including these words, “We need to make the ultimate pivot and adopt a new approach …”
3. Climate, and our AIAA executive director discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2022 10 01] Saturday, October 1, 2022. Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity, https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/Diversity-and-Inclusion
3. Climate, and our AIAA executive director discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and ESSS
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2022 09 24] Saturday, September 24, 2022. Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity, https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/Diversity-and-Inclusion
3. Climate, and our AIAA executive director discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and ESSS
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2022 09 17] Saturday, September 17, 2022. Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity, https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/Diversity-and-Inclusion
3. Climate, and our AIAA executive director discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and ESSS
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2022 09 10] Saturday, September 10, 2022. Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity, https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/Diversity-and-Inclusion
3. Climate, and our AIAA executive director discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and ESSS
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2022 09 03] Saturday, September 3, 2022. Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity, https://www.aiaa.org/get-involved/committees-groups/Diversity-and-Inclusion
3. Climate, and our AIAA executive director discussed “the ultimate sense of urgency” in the Flight Path feature of the April 2021 issue of our national magazine, Aerospace America
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC, mirroring the AIAA International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and 3AF-MP
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections, AIAA Houston Section and ESSS
7. Peru-USA sister sections
8. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
9. Mexico, linked to AIAA Houston Section
10. History, AIAA Houston Section History technical committee (Chair: Douglas Yazell)

[2022 08 27] Saturday, August 27, 2022. Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles: The New Jim Crow, the 2010 book by Michelle Alexander, with the new 2020 introduction by Michelle Alexander. See this AIAA diversity web page for a list of similar books. A photo of a Houston area billboard is included from August 9, 2022. It was on the west side of the Gulf Freeway near the exit for Hobby Airport and visible to northbound traffic. Its message: Stop Drugs Houston dot org. Michelle Alexander calls this our recent iteration of our racial caste system, and those other books agree with her.
2. Diversity: (1) Nelson Piquet apologizes for racially charged comments, so the headline says. The article mentions diversity and inclusion. (2) The Unfortunate Truth, a documentary movie by Loki Mulholland about race matters. He includes his own family history in Georgia in the USA. (3) As I wrote in this format recently, Walt Disney and about 20 of his team were an official diplomatic delegation to South America in early 1941. Their mission was a charm offensive to counter the German influence on that continent. Results included the 1942 Disney movie Saludos Amigos and the 1944 movie The Three Caballeros. This article explains that when I viewed The Three Caballeros on the Disney+ streaming service, it was preceded by a single screen view of a text message about racism and discrimination of the bad kind in the movie. I decided to rewind, but once viewed, the message never appears again. Later I saw the same message preceding Saludos Amigos on Disney+, and this time I was ready. I recorded a video showing that text message, and it ended with a web page address, www.disney.com/storiesmatter. The elusive text message is included on that web page, and the web page provides four examples of such Disney movies, Dumbo, The Aristocats, Peter Pan, and Swiss Family Robinson. Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros makes six such movies. Song of the South is a controversial Disney movie which probably includes that text warning. The Disney web page lists eleven organizations which participate in the Disney advisory council.
3. Climate
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC
5. France
6. Ethiopia
7. Peru
8. Mexico
9. Mexico
10. History

[2022 08 20] Saturday, August 20, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity
3. Climate
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC
5. France
6. Ethiopia
7. Peru
8. Mexico
9. Mexico
10. History

[2022 07 09] Saturday, July 9, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Slides 1-10:

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity
3. Climate
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC
5. France
6. Ethiopia
7. Peru
8. Mexico
9. Mexico
10. History

[2022 06 18] Saturday, June 18, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles
2. Diversity
3. Climate
4. AIAA Houston Section IAC
5. France
6. Ethiopia
7. Peru
8. Mexico
9. Mexico
10. History

[2022 06 11] Saturday, June 11, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF, coming soon) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

(I list contents so that I can index what I published. Photos of the Emperor of Ethiopia in the USA from the JFK Presidential library website are no longer available – at least not with those links – so I am pleased that I published them.)

Ten slides:

1. Table of Contents, with a few news articles
   • Flickr – Two photographs using Creative Commons licenses. They show wildfires. One of the photographs shows an airplane helping to fight the fire.
   • US, UK, other G7 countries to ‘predominantly decarbonize electricity sectors by 2035’, Michelle Lewis – May. 27th 2022 3:31 pm PT, @michelle0728 [Electrek]
2. Diversity
3. Climate
4. AIAA Houston Section International Activities Committee (IAC), with sister sections in France (www.3af-mp.fr), Ethiopia (), and Peru. Mexico is linked with AIAA Houston Section, too, because of their proximity to each other.
5. France
6. Ethiopia
7. Peru
8. Mexico
9. Mexico
10. History

[2022 06 04] Saturday, June 4, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF, coming soon) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. Ten slides:

1. Table of contents and a few news articles
   • South to America. The 2022 Book by Imani Perry. “If you think, mistakenly, that American racism can be surmounted by integration, by people knowing each other, even by people loving each other, the history of the American South must teach otherwise. There is no resolution to unjust relations without a structural and ethical change.” I enjoyed this book thanks to our public library. That quote is the end of the second of two paragraphs on this subject. The prior paragraph includes this quote, “…we are still careful driving through Cullman County right by Madison County, where Huntsville is, because it was and is known as Klan country.”
   • Photograph (public domain): Historic rockets in Rocket Park of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama. The center offers bus tours of nearby NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
   • The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist terrorist and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Catholics, Native Americans as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals, Muslims, and atheists. [Wikipedia]
2. Diversity
   • GOAL 1: DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ARE WIDELY RECOGNIZED WITHIN THE AIAA COMMUNITY AS ESSENTIAL TO THE MISSION AND VISION OF THE INSTITUTE. OBJECTIVE 1: Increase awareness within the AIAA community of the importance of diversity and inclusion. [AIAA 2021-2023 Diversity & Inclusion Strategic Plan]
   • Baylor University will remove statue of slave-owning former university president. By Kate McGee, The Texas Tribune. Tuesday, May 24, 2022 [ABC 13 Houston]
   • Judge Lina Hidalgo releases data on gun violence in Harris County ahead of NRA Convention in Houston. Data suggests percentage of homicides in Harris County involving guns jumped 8% since 2018. Published: May 24, 2022, 7:45 AM. Updated: May 25, 2022, 2:29 AM [Click2Houston, KPRC, NBC]
   • “This harassment continued in Seabrook and Kemah, on and off, through the winter of 1980 to 1981. One person pointed a gun at Vietnamese people; someone brandished a pistol in an immigrant’s face. The moment was ripe for Klan intervention.
     “…
     “Beam later said that the white fishermen had believed that the government would arbitrate in their favor, but after two years without action, they finally turned to the Klan for help. The Klan used the moment to solidify a narrative of government failure first in Vietnam and now on the Texas coast.”
     “…
     “On February 14 [1981], between 300 and 400 people attended a Klan rally in Santa Fe, Texas.”
     [Bring the War Home, The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, the 2018 book by Kathleen Belew.]
   • A map from Google Maps shows NASA Johnson Space Center and three nearby cities, Seabrook, Kemah, and Santa Fe Texas.
   • The Ku Klux Klan, commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist terrorist and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Catholics, Native Americans as well as immigrants, leftists, homosexuals, Muslims, and atheists. [Wikipedia]
   • Opinion. Race. Trump isn’t out there with a gun, but he’s enabled this war against black people. White supremacy is as American as apple pie, as the latest killings in Buffalo show. Biden needs to take a stand against neofascists. Sat 21 May 2022 03.00 EDT. Last year Biden said America was not a racist country, and his vice-president, Kamala Harris, backed him on that. But these are lies, and those lies have their effect. If we operate on that level, how can we ever address the vicious legacy of racism and white supremacy? Cornel West.  [The Guardian]
   • “Opposition to whiteness is not the same thing as opposition to white people.” [George Lipsitz, in his introduction to his 1998 book]
   • “As a society, we can’t continue to do what we have always done, wandering down the same well-trodden pathways, left to wonder why things haven’t improved. We need to make the ultimate pivot and adopt a new approach that has us supporting, investing, and growing the untapped capacities and potential of African Americans and other underrepresented communities. We must bring those views, those perspectives, and those talents to address some of our most vexing challenges. Now is the time to become an inclusive and dynamic community at an historic moment in our nation’s history.”The aerospace community must lead. Diversity, inclusion, and acceptance are prime objectives for the Institute. [AIAA Statement on Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion from AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher. Written 2 June 2020]
3. Climate
   • Climate crisis. Global heating is cutting sleep across the world, study finds. Data shows people finding it harder to sleep, especially women and older people, with serious health impacts. Damian Carrington Environment editor. @dpcarrington. Fri 20 May 2022 11.00 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Indigenous activists among Goldman environmental prize winners. Recipients from around world demonstrate power of unified community action. Nina Lakhani in New York. Wed 25 May 2022 03.30 EDT [The Guardian]
   • People in US and UK face huge financial hit if fossil fuels lose value, study shows. Strong climate action could wipe $756bn from individuals’ pension funds and other investments in rich countries. Damian Carrington Environment editor. @dpcarrington. Thu 26 May 2022 11.00 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Egypt says climate finance must be top of agenda at Cop27 talks. Host of November’s summit wants focus to be on ‘moving from pledges to implementation’. Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent. Wed 25 May 2022 04.39 EDT [The Guardian]
   • [2019] The GOP’s climate change dilemma. It’s Frank Luntz vs. Grover Norquist in a battle for the GOP’s future. By David Roberts@drvolts Updated Aug 13, 2019, 9:30am EDT. …Luntz is famous for a 2002 memo to George W. Bush telling Republicans how to talk their way around environmental issues, which contains this notorious passage: “Voters believe that there is no consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate.” [Vox]
   • MAY 23, 2022 • 51M. Volts podcast: Lauren Melodia and Kristina Karlsson on energy inflation and how to tame it. Fossil fuels make inflation worse; renewables help solve it. [David Roberts, Volts]
   • MAY 25, 2022 • 1HR 5M. Volts podcast: Abigail Hopper on the trade case that is crushing the US solar industry. It’s not great. [David Roberts, Volts]
   • “Reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 requires the ultimate sense of urgency – it’s only 30 years into the future.” [AIAA Executive Director, April 2021, Aerospace America article]
4. The International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section, with three current international sister sections in France, in Ethiopia, and in Peru. Nine names and six email addresses are featured on Slide 4.
5. France (www.3af-mp.fr)
   • Grenoble takes on French state as burkini legal row reaches highest court. Dispute due to go before Conseil d’Etat in municipal bid to allow people to wear any kind of swimwear. Angelique Chrisafis in Paris. @achrisafis. Thu 26 May 2022 08.43 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Quebec moves to protect French language and restrict use of English. Premier says ‘we are proud to be a francophone nation in North America’ but English-speaking critics threaten legal action. Leyland Cecco in Toronto. Wed 25 May 2022 11.42 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Denise Campbell Bauer is an American diplomat serving as the United States ambassador to France and Monaco. Bauer served as Ambassador of the United States to Belgium from 2013 to 2017. After being nominated by President Barack Obama, she was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on August 2, 2013; she was sworn in the following August 7. She left office on January 20, 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the executive director of Women for Biden. [Wikipedia]
6. Ethiopia (https://www.ethiosss.org)
   • Geeta Pasi (born 1962) is an American diplomat [now retired]. She was the American ambassador to Djibouti from 2011 to 2014. She was appointed American ambassador to Chad in June 2016 and served until 2018. In September 2018, she left the ambassadorship to become Principal Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. On March 5, 2021, Ambassador Geeta Pasi presented her credentials to President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia. [Wikipedia]
   • US Amb. to Ethiopia Geeta Pasi to Retire, Amb. Tracey Ann Jacobson to be CDA. February 1, 2022. By domani spero [Diplopundit]
   • Ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson [Wikipedia]
   • Ethiopian Airlines Orders Five 777Fs As Cargo Demand Grows. May 26, 2022 [Aviation Week]
7. Peru
   • Ambassador Lisa Kenna [Wikipedia]
   • Ancient cypress in Chile [near Peru] may be the world’s oldest tree, new study suggests. The tree, in Chile’s Alerce Costero national park, is known as the Great-Grandfather and could be more than 5,000 years old. John Bartlett in Santiago. Thu 26 May 2022 05.00 EDT [The Guardian]
   • A photograph of a tree said to be the oldest tree in Joshua Tree National Park in California USA. I visited that park now and then from 1983 to 1992. [Flickr]
8. Mexico: Now linked with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV (Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas and Oklahoma), as well as Region VII (International). Ambassador Ken Salazar. [Wikipedia]
9. Mexico
   • Construction unearths pre-Hispanic archaeological site in Mazatlán. The site is likely part of an important ancient settlement, one expert said. Published on Monday, May 30, 2022 [Mexico News Daily]
   • Category 2 Hurricane Agatha makes landfall near Puerto Ángel, Oaxaca. Heavy rains and possible deadly flash flooding and mudslides predicted for Oaxaca and Chiapas. Published on Monday, May 30, 2022 [Mexico News Daily]
10. History
    • Polaris Program. The Polaris Program is a planned human spaceflight program organized by businessman and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman. Isaacman, who commanded the first all-civilian Inspiration4 spaceflight in September 2021, purchased flights from SpaceX in order to create the Polaris Program. The first two flights will use the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, while the third flight is planned to be the first crewed Starship flight. [Wikipedia]
    • Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson, a daily current events SubStack summary from an historian. [Letters from an American]
    • China’s Mars Rover Goes Dormant in Intense Dust Storm. Zhurong is taking a nap until the power situation improves. Amanda Kooser. May 25, 2022 11:58 a.m. PT [CNET]
    • Rattlesnakes thrive in California amid increasingly hot temperatures. Study finds Pacific rattlesnakes, which can’t control their own temperature, prefer places where the climate averages 80F. Katharine Gammon. Fri 27 May 2022 09.00 EDT [The Guardian]
    • Opinion. NRA. Shootings aren’t a sign America is ‘broken’. It’s working exactly as intended. I was a firearms exec for years. The industry used to adhere to self-imposed rules and norms – until gun makers and lobby groups like the NRA realized fear and extremism sold more guns. Wed 25 May 2022 15.29 EDT. Ryan Busse. The NSSF helped craft a new world of gun lobby extremism in which profits are all that matter. With the election of America’s first Black president, the lobby embraced conspiracy-mongering, racism and fear campaigns. Gun sales soared from less than 8m guns in 2008 to more than 16m in 2016. [The Guardian]
    • The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is an American national trade association for the firearms industry that is based in Newtown, Connecticut. Formed in 1961, the organization has more than 8,000 members: firearms manufacturers, distributors, retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s clubs and media. [Wikipedia]
    • Opinion. US news. Columbine happened 23 years ago. How is America still no further forward? Hamilton Nolan. There is no generous interpretation for the past 23 years of inaction. We all bear some of the blame. Fri 27 May 2022 02.40 EDT [The Guardian]

[2022 05 28] Saturday, May 28, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents (10 slides) and a few news articles
   • Flight delayed? Blame a spaceship. In Florida, a surging number of space launches has created a new type of travel headache. By Rebecca Heilweil May 14, 2022, 8:30am EDT [Vox & Recode]
   • It’s the dawn of a new space age — at least for billionaires. Space is having a moment, but regular Americans don’t seem that interested. By Terry Nguyen Feb 2, 2022, 8:00am EST [Vox]
   • Climate crisis. Critical climate indicators broke records in 2021, says UN. World Meteorological Organization says extreme weather wreaked heavy toll on human lives. Damian Carrington. Environment editor.  @dpcarrington. Wed 18 May 2022 04.00 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Cop27. ‘This is about survival’: will Cop27 bring action on Glasgow climate pact? Amid an energy crisis caused by war in Ukraine, climate experts say November talks must act on plans to limit global heating. Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent. Sat 14 May 2022 02.00 EDT. [The Guardian]
   • Our Plan For The Future. What is the Green New Deal? HOW YOU CAN HELP. The Green New Deal is a congressional resolution to mobilize every aspect of American society to 100% clean and renewable energy, guarantee living-wage jobs for anyone who needs one, and a just transition for both workers and frontline communities—all in the next 10 years. [Sunrise Movement]
   • Climate crisis. ‘World is at boiling point’: humanity must redefine relationship with nature, says report. Stockholm institute calls for ‘bold science-based decision-making’ to tackle climate, social and economic crises [The Guardian]
2. Diversity
   • AIAA Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan 2021–2023. GOAL 1: DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION ARE WIDELY RECOGNIZED WITHIN THE AIAA COMMUNITY AS ESSENTIAL TO THE MISSION AND VISION OF THE INSTITUTE. OBJECTIVE 1: Increase awareness within the AIAA community of the importance of diversity and inclusion. [AIAA]
   • WNBA star Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia extended by month. Lawyer for the Phoenix Mercury center expects cannabis case will be tried soon as the extension is relatively short [The Guardian]
   • Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia, briefly explained. What could it take to bring the WNBA superstar home? By Sean Rameswaram and Hady Mawajdeh May 12, 2022, 5:30pm EDT. Web production by Victoria Dominguez and Lauren Katz [Vox]
   • How the Buffalo massacre is part of US tradition: ‘We’ll continue to see killings’. Brandi Collins-Dexter of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center spoke to the Guardian about how the massacre is rooted in America’s long history of white supremacist violence. Sam Levin in Los Angeles. @SamTLevin. Wed 18 May 2022 12.25 EDT [The Guardian]
   • The fight to vote. Florida. Judge strikes down Florida governor’s ‘unconstitutional’ election map. Blow to Ron DeSantis as judge says new congressional districts made it harder for Black voters to elect their preferred candidates. Sam Levine. Wed 11 May 2022 13.56 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Opinion. Race. Why do white supremacists want to kill Black people? Derecka Purnell. What are the roots of this violence and how do we fight it? Wed 18 May 2022 06.11 EDT [The Guardian]
   • The White House. BRIEFING ROOM. A Proclamation on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, And Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2022. APRIL 29, 2022. PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS [The White House]
   • Opinion. Social media. Buffalo might never have happened if online hate had been tackled after Christchurch. Imran Ahmed. Social media giants Meta, Twitter and Google have done little to fight radicalisation, violating their own rules. Mon 16 May 2022 09.27 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Opinion. US news. Buffalo shooting: how white replacement theory keeps inspiring mass murder. Jason Stanley. This once fringe ideology, which was at the heart of Nazism, has gained mainstream traction thanks in part to the likes of Tucker Carlson on Fox News. Sun 15 May 2022 13.32 EDT [The Guardian]
   • TEXAS NEWS. A GOP power grab shatters 30 years of political progress for Black voters in Galveston County. Republicans dismantled the only Galveston County commissioners precinct in which voters of color held political clout. Author: The Texas Tribune, Alexa Ura. Published: 8:12 AM CDT May 20, 2022. Updated: 8:12 AM CDT May 20, 2022 [KHOU 11, CBS Houston]
3. Climate
   • Climate crisis in the American west. ‘Everything was orange’: US wildfires burning at furious pace early this year. Wind-driven flames tearing through dry vegetation exacerbated by the climate crisis in California and New Mexico. Gabrielle Canon and agencies. @GabrielleCanon. Fri 13 May 2022 14.53 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Buffalo shooting. Buffalo suspect may be latest mass shooter motivated by ‘eco-fascism’. Buffalo suspect allegedly calls himself ‘eco-fascist’ and blames migration for harm to the environment in document posted online. Oliver Milman in New York. @olliemilman. Tue 17 May 2022 02.00 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Fossil fuels. Shut down fossil fuel production sites early to avoid climate chaos, says study. Exclusive: Nearly half existing facilities will need to close prematurely to limit heating to 1.5C, scientists say. Damian Carrington Environment editor. @dpcarrington. Tue 17 May 2022 02.00 EDT [The Guardian]
   • EARTH. NASA’s ECOSTRESS Detects ‘Heat Islands’ in Extreme Indian Heat Wave. May 12, 2022 [NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology]
   • Volts podcast: Doug Thompson defends the deep state
     Learning to love bureaucracy. May 13, 2022 [David Roberts, Volts]
   • The Wikipedia article for COP26, 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, October 31 – November 13, 2021, a reminder about COP27 in Egypt (2022).
   • Science and nature books. Poisoned legacy: why the future of power can’t be nuclear nuclear symbol. Mounting tensions with Russia, a global pandemic and a reckless scramble for nuclear energy: the echoes of 1957 are alarming – we would do well to heed them [The Guardian]
   • Opinion. Climate crisis. We need optimism – but Disneyfied climate predictions are just dangerous. Techno-utopianism is popular precisely because it doesn’t challenge the status quo, and lets polluters off the hook. Fri 13 May 2022 03.00 EDT. George Monbiot [The Guardian]
   • Who turned on the heat? This has been the second hottest May on record for Houston. As of May 19, we have had 12 days of 90+ degree high temperatures. The average number of 90+ days for May is eight. [KHOU 11 CBS Houston]
4. The International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section listing nine names and six email addresses. We stay up to date with three sister sections in France, Ethiopia, and Peru.
5. France (www.3af-mp.fr)
   • France seeks mini attack drones. 13 MAY 2022. by Nicholas Fiorenza [Janes]
   • I worked on this surveillance drone project before 2011. Honeywell was working with U.S. Army Future Combat Systems. [Flickr]
   • My brother-in-law’s wife in France just now leased a Kia Niro. Photos are shown from the Edmond’s website. This is a small battery electric SUV. These vehicles help very much as we react to the human-induced climate emergency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They are also fun to drive. Maintenance is simpler and less expensive, too.
6. Ethiopia, Ethiopian Space Science Society
   • The Guardian Picture Essay. ‘People are dying’: Ethiopians escape war only to face hunger in Somaliland. On the streets of border cities refugees rely on food handouts, while overcrowding in camps exacerbates the effects of the drought crisis. by Sean Sutton. Thu 12 May 2022 01.00 EDT [The Guardian]
   • Photograph of an Ethiopian raptor. [Flickr]
7. Peru – Photograph of a street scene in Tacna Peru. [Flickr]
8. Mexico – AIAA Houston Section and Mexico in AIAA were recently linked in Region IV (formerly Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma), not just Region VII (International)
9. Mexico
   • 174 temporary shelters installed as BCS prepares for hurricane season. There could be 13 hurricanes in the eastern Pacific this year according to a safety official. Above-average hurricane activity is predicted this year for both the Pacific and the Atlantic. Published on Monday, May 16, 2022 [Mexico News Daily]
   • Photograph of a storm seen from Earth orbit approaching Mexico from the west. [Flickr]
10. History
    • The Polaris Program is a planned human spaceflight program organized by businessman and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman. Isaacman, who commanded the first all-civilian Inspiration4 spaceflight in September 2021, purchased flights from SpaceX in order to create the Polaris Program. The first two flights will use the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, while the third flight is planned to be the first crewed Starship flight. [Wikipedia]
    • Photographs of the Polaris Program [Flickr]

[2022 05 21] Saturday, May 21, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents with some news articles
   • Climate limit of 1.5C close to being broken, scientists warn-The probability of one of the next five years surpassing the limit is now 50%, up from 20% in 2020 [The Guardian]
   • Airline emissions-Just one of 50 aviation industry climate targets met, study finds-Charity’s report says nearly all targets set since 2000 have been missed, revised or quietly ignored [The Guardian]
   • Revealed: the ‘carbon bombs’ set to trigger catastrophic climate breakdown [The Guardian]
   • UNSTICKING STICKY VALVES — This time, can Boeing’s Starliner finally shine? Ten months later, another chance at a do-over for Boeing’s crewed spacecraft. [Ars Technica]
   • Climate limit of 1.5C close to being broken, scientists warn [The Guardian]
   • US fracking boom could tip world to edge of climate disaster [The Guardian]
   • China launches Tianzhou 4 cargo ship heading for space station [Spaceflight Now]
2. Diversity
   • Brittney Griner told me her fear of being alone and forgotten. Don’t let it come true [The Guardian]
   • Vladimir Putin defends anti-gay laws as bastion of global conservatism [The Guardian, 2013]
   • Brittney Griner’s detainment in Russia weighs heavy on WNBA as new season starts [The Guardian]
   • LGBT rights-Democrats in states across US seek to offer legal refuge to trans youth-Effort by state legislators follows California’s lead in responding to wave of Republican laws targeting transgender kids and families [The Guardian]
   • US news-US identifies more than 50 Native American boarding school burial sites-First-of-its-kind study establishes 408 federal schools as officials say number of children who died could be in the tens of thousands [The Guardian]
   • Tesla covers travel costs for workers seeking abortions [ABC 13 Houston, AP]
   • Race-Revealed: 93% of districts in major US cities unaffordable to Black residents-In most metro zip codes, majority of Black local renters don’t earn enough to afford median rents, National Equity Atlas found [The Guardian]
3. Climate
   • California’s new drought rules: will they be enough to halt the ‘alarming challenges’ ahead? [The Guardian]
   • The time has come to get off petroleum-The Global EV Drivers’ Alliance, comprised of EV driver associations in nearly 40 countries around the world, including Plug In America, has released the following statement… [Plug In America]
   • Iraq-Hundreds of Iraqis hospitalised as thick sandstorm blankets country-Flights suspended and authorities urge people to stay indoors as fifth sandstorm in a month hits Iraq [The Guardian]
   • Documentary-‘Dodged a bullet’: how whistleblowers averted a second US nuclear disaster-The Netflix docuseries Meltdown: Three Mile Island, revisits a 1979 nuclear accident and the cut corners that could have resulted in a disaster years later [The Guardian]
   • Climate crimes-New Mexico-How the oil and gas industry is trying to hold US public schools hostage-Fossil fuel interest groups are telling New Mexicans: let us keep drilling or the state’s education system will collapse [The Guardian]
   • Pakistan-‘We are living in hell’: Pakistan and India suffer extreme spring heatwaves [The Guardian]
   • From Weather Forecasting to Climate Change, NASA’s AIRS Builds a Legacy [California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA]
4. International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section-Nine names and six email addresses are listed
5. France-USA sister sections
   • President Richard Nixon’s Arrival Ceremony in France at Orly Airport with President Charles DeGaulle, February 28, 1969 [Photograph from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum]
   • Three photographs from a friend this week in Narbonne France.
6. Ethiopia-USA sister sections
   • NIppon Foundation (See slide 10.)-In response to the Ethiopian famine of the mid-1980s, the foundation began a program of agricultural education throughout sub-Saharan Africa that eventually reached 14 countries, improving farmers’ yields by up to six times in some places. [Wikipedia]
   • Photograph of a bird from Flickr using a Creative Commons license. The name of the bird is lilac-breasted roller. A map of the resident range of the bird is included. [Flickr]
7. Peru-USA sister section
   • Nippon Foundation (See slide 10.)-Peru National Program for Reproductive Health and Family Planning-According to conclusion of the Investigative Commission appointed by the Peru Congress, the Nippon Foundation was one of the organizations providing financial support for the forced sterilizations of impoverished Peruvians, initially laid out in the leaked documents of “Plan Verde” and subsequently executed by the Alberto Fujimori government as part of its National Population Program. [Wikipedia]
   • Peru’s leader and his wife investigated for allegedly plagiarizing master’s thesis [The Guardian]
   • Photograph of a booted racket-tail hummingbird. The photo is from Flickr using a Creative Commons license. [Flickr]
8. Mexico-The nation of Mexico is now a part of AIAA Region IV and linked to AIAA Houston Section. Mexico also remains a part of AIAA Region VII (International)
9. Mexico
   • 25% of airline traffic to be shifted from Mexico City airport to AIFA and Toluca [Mexico News Daily]
   • Those three places are shown on a map using maps.google.com
   • Photograph of an Aeromexico airliner using a Creative Commons license on Flickr
   • Photograph of an Volaris airliner using a Creative Commons license on Flickr
   • Photograph of an VivaAerobús airliner using a Creative Commons license on Flickr
10. History
    • The Washington Times was founded on May 17, 1982, by Unification movement leader Sun Myung Moon and owned until 2010 by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate founded by Moon. It is currently owned by Operations Holdings, which is a part of the Unification movement. [Wikipedia]
    • Throughout its history, The Washington Times has been known for its conservative political stance, supporting the policies of Republican presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. It has published many widely shared columns which reject the scientific consensus on climate change, on ozone depletion, and on the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. It has drawn controversy by publishing racist content including conspiracy theories about U.S. President Barack Obama and by supporting neo-Confederate historical revisionism. [Wikipedia]
    • Steven Alan Hassan is an American author, educator, PhD, and mental health counselor specializing in destructive cults. He has been described by media as “one of the world’s foremost experts on mind control, cults and similar destructive organizations,” though social scientists are divided on his work. He is a former member of the Unification Church, founded Ex-Moon Inc. in 1979, and in 1999 founded the Freedom of Mind Resource Center. He has written on the subject of mind control and how to help people who have been harmed by the experience. [Wikipedia]
    • Ryōichi Sasakawa [Wikipedia]
    • Sasakawa supported Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon in his anti-communist activities. [Wikipedia]
    • Nippon Foundation-The group also founded or funded a number of other organizations, such as the United States-Japan Foundation; The Sasakawa Peace Foundation; the Sasakawa Africa Association, an expansion of Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution to Africa; and The University of Houston’s Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture (SICSA). [Wikipedia]
    • Ryoichi Sasakawa: …Sasakawa made a fortune before he was 30… He also was—and is—a dedicated right-wing superpatriot who decries the social changes that are moving Japan away from traditional manners and mores. …His unbridled admiration for Benito Mussolini —”the perfect fascist and dictator” —lingers to this day. Indeed, Sasakawa sometimes boasts that he is the “world’s wealthiest fascist.” [Time magazine, 1974]

[2022 05 14] Saturday, May 14, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents
2. Diversity
   • You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation, the 2022 book by Julissa Arce
   • South to America, A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, the 2022 book by Imani Perry
   • University of California to waive tuition for Native students – but not for all [The Guardian]
3. Climate
   • NASA’s EMIT Will Map Tiny Dust Particles to Study Big Climate Impacts [NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology]
   • The NASA climate website, https://climate.nasa.gov/
   • Q&A: Daniel Cohan of Rice University on charting a path out of climate gridlock. In his new book, the atmospheric scientist and environmental engineering professor dives into diplomacy, technology and policy, arguing that action in all three areas is needed for progress against climate change. [Texas Climate News]
4. The IAC of AIAA Houston Section, which mirrors the IAC (International Activities Committee) of AIAA, The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Here is a link to the AIAA website.
5. France-The Statue of Liberty in the USA, featuring a photo of the statue from the Wikipedia article.
6. Ethiopia
   • The Ark of the Covenant. Some say this exists and is kept in Ethiopia. A photo of a painting is presented here. The photo is from the Wikipedia article.
   • Ethiopian drought leading to ‘dramatic’ increase in child marriage, Unicef warns [The Guardian]
7. Peru-A photo of a drawing of two cartoon characters from Walt Disney. The two characters are José Carioca of Brazil and Donald Duck of the USA. José was created for the 1942 feature movie Saludos Amigos. In early 1941, Walt Disney and his team of artists, technicians, etc., traveled to South America on an official mission of diplomacy on behalf of the USA. They visited Brazil and Argentina, but also Chile and Peru. They worked to counter the (Nazi) German influence.
8. Mexico-This nation of Mexico is now a part of AIAA Region IV and linked to AIAA Houston Section, though Mexico is also part of Region VII (International)
9. Mexico-An image of a lobby card from the 1944 Walt Disney feature movie, The Three Caballeros, which is the sequel to the 1942 feature movie, Saludos Amigos. This image features an image of the singer and dancer Amanda Miranda, as well of three cartoon characters, Donald Duck, José Carioca of Brazil, and Panchito Pistoles of Mexico. The first appearance of José, sometimes called Joe, was in Saludos Amigos. The first appearance of Panchito was in The Three Caballeros.
10. History
    • A photo of a Boeing 737 airliner from Alaska airlines, featuring a livery with Walt Disney cartoon characters; Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Pluto.
    • Could space-going billionaires be the vanguard of a cosmic revolution? [Opinion, Martin Rees, The Guardian]
    • Thousands flee New Mexico wildfire as blaze breaches containment lines [The Guardian]

[2022 05 07] Saturday, May 7, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents, and Revisiting the Christian fantasy novels that shaped decades of conservative hysteria, Demons, angels, and elite liberal conspiracies: Frank Peretti’s books sound like today’s headlines, by Aja Romano, Alissa Wilkinson, and Emily St. James [Vox]
2. Diversity
   • Florida’s examples of banned topics in math books derided as ‘political theater’, Education officials release four examples among the 54 math textbooks they rejected last week because of ‘prohibited topics’ [The Guardian]
   • “A Growth Mindset” (above)
   • “Who? Me? Racist?” (above)
   • What is “social emotional learning” — and how did it become the right’s new CRT panic? Right-wing culture warriors’ new obsession: Widespread “life skills” approach is actually sinister “Trojan horse” [Salon]
   • Dr. Michael Webb Named New Chief Academic Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Dr. Michael Webb has been named Tomball ISD’s new Chief Academic Officer. “Prior to joining Tomball ISD, Dr. Webb was the Director of Social and Emotional Learning (2016-2017) and the Senior Manager (2010-2016) in Houston ISD.” [I recorded his 2017 keynote address to Houston ISD New Teacher Academy. I enjoyed listening to it again this week. See above.]
   • Minneapolis police engaged in pattern of racial discrimination, inquiry finds. “The Minneapolis police department has engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination for at least a decade, including stopping and arresting Black people at a higher rate than white people, using force more often on people of color and maintaining a culture where racist language is tolerated, a state investigation launched after George Floyd’s murder by an officer found.” [The Guardian]
   • After years of progress on gay rights, how did the US become so anti-LGBTQ+? [The Guardian]
   • Italy court rules children should be given surnames of both parents, Practice of naming child after father only is ‘discriminatory and harmful’, constitutional court finds [The Guardian]
   • AIAA Statement on Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion from AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher, Written Monday, June 2, 2020. [“We need to make the ultimate pivot…”]
   • See slide 10 below for more about diversity (LGBTQ Pride Month)
3. Climate
   • Climate crimes, Documentary, ‘What we now know … they lied’: how big oil companies betrayed us all, In a powerful new three-part docuseries, the oil industry is put on trial as the extent of climate change awareness is revealed [The Guardian, PBS Frontline]
   • Ukraine has taught us all a lesson in moral courage, “…we around the world face a climate crisis brought on by fossil-fuel interests’ selfishness and shortsightedness.” [Opinion, Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian]
   • ‘We have a democracy problem’: how Texas voter suppression helps keep climate action off the table [The Guardian]
   • One-fifth of all crocodiles, snakes, and other reptiles are threatened with extinction [Vox]
   • NASA Wins 3 Webby Awards, 5 People’s Voice Awards for 2022, The JPL-managed NASA’s Global Climate Change and Solar System Exploration sites, along with JPL’s virtual tour, are among the winners. [NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology]
   • Time is running out for Biden’s EPA to act on climate, The Biden EPA could decide America’s climate future only if it finishes work in the coming months. [Vox]
4. International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section, mirroring the AIAA IAC [Lists nine names and six email addresses]
5. France
   • Private paradise: The French Polynesian island locking locals out of beaches, A huge tourist boom on Mo’orea Island has seen privatisation of coastline, with just three public beaches left [The Guardian]
   • Photo of Mo’orea Island from Flickr (Creative Commons license)
   • Photo of a Renault Twizzy on Mo’orea Island. The photo is from Flickr (Creative Commons license)
   • Macron dodges tomatoes in post-election walkabout, Triumphant French president promises to listen as he chooses working-class Cergy for first public appearance since vote [The Guardian]
6. Ethiopia: This week: “In addition to responding to the urgency of the attack on Ukraine, the State Department ‘continues to carry out the missions traditionally associated with diplomacy, like responsibly managing great power competition with China, facilitating a halt to fighting in Yemen and Ethiopia, pushing back against the rising tide of authoritarianism and the threat that it poses to human rights,’ he said. The State Department will continue to modernize, as well, to address emergence of infectious diseases, the climate crisis, and the digital revolution.” [Heather Cox Richardson, from Letters From an American. Here is a link to her Amazon page.]
7. Peru: This week: Two photos from Flickr featuring the late Dan Robert Karpan (1911-1986), a Disney cartoonist who worked on the 1942 Disney movie Saludos Amigos. In early 1941, the USA commissioned a Disney goodwill tour (with about twenty composers, artists, technicians, etc.) of South America, mainly to Brazil and Argentina, but also to Chile and Peru. Thanks to Alan Light (Images Alight) on Flickr for these two photos. The first photo shows a 1965 newspaper article featuring Mr. Karpan, along with a 1965 color sketch of Donald Duck by Mr. Karpan. Saludos Amigos features Donald Duck. The second photo features a 1965 snapshot of Mr. Karpan with two more sketches, one of which is Donald Duck. [A few days ago, I visited a friend and enjoyed Saludos Amigos at his home. Great movie! I also saw and enjoyed (at the same home on the same day) The Three Caballeros, the 1944 sequel to Saludos Amigos. Given our Peru-USA sister sections, and given our AIAA Houston Section partnership with Mexico, and given the history of Walt Disney and these two movies, I will enjoy seeing these two excellent movies again often.]
8. Mexico: Mexico is connected with AIAA Houston Section in Region IV, and Mexico is also in Region VII (International)
9. Mexico: This week. The 1944 Disney movie, The Three Caballeros. A nice image (a Disney mural, it seems) is featured showing Donald Duck, José Carioca, and Panchito Pistoles. “Joe” Carioca is a cartoon character from Brazil created for the 1942 Disney movie Saludos Amigos. Panchito is a cartoon character from Mexico created for The Three Caballeros. See above. The image with those three cartoon characters is from Steven Miller on Flickr (Creative Commons license). Slide 9 also features color images of Dora Luz (radio and screen star from Mexico) and Aurora Miranda (singing and dancing star from Brazil); neither image is copyrighted. They were obtained from the Wikipedia article about the movie.
10. History
    • My U.S. Congressman, Brian Babin, is also the Congressman for the territory which includes NASA/JSC. In his Sunday email of April 24, 2022, to constituents, he includes a link to an article from the Washington Times, with the headline, “Border chaos goes global as DHS nabs illegal immigrants from across the world.” This 2016 article from the Guardian advises against the use of the phrase “illegal immigrants.” From Wikipedia, “The Washington Times was founded on May 17, 1982, by Unification movement leader Sun Myung Moon and owned until 2010 by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate founded by Moon. It is currently owned by Operations Holdings, which is a part of the Unification movement.” The website https://freedomofmind.com of Dr. Steven Hassan discusses cult mind control. He was a victim of the dangerous cult of Sun Myung Moon, as explained on that website, which includes links to four books written by Dr. Hassan.
    • From AIAA Daily Launch, April 22, 2022, Starlink signs first inflight wifi deal. This deal is with JSX, an airline. We show routes flown in the USA by JSX, and we show some pleasant seating arrangements from JSX airliners from Embraer of Brazil.
    • Four LGBTQ flags are featured, since LGBTQ Pride Month is featured in the 2021-2023 AIAA Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan.

[2022 04 30] Saturday, April 30, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents
   • NASA’s Perseverance Rover Captures Video of Solar Eclipse on Mars, April 20, 2022, The Mastcam-Z camera recorded video of Phobos, one of the Red Planet’s two moons, to study how its orbit is changing over time. [NASA/JPL Cal Tech]
   • AIAA Houston Section member Al Jackson (Triton Systems LLC) submitted a paper to IAC 2022 and it was accepted on April 19, 2022. This is the 73rd IAC and the venue is Paris France. Dates: September 18-22, 2022. Presentation: “The Lunar Module Simulator: An Instructor’s Account.” Dr. Albert Allen Jackson IV worked on that project as a NASA civil servant during the Apollo years.
2. Diversity
   • Climate crisis, Interview, Jamie Raskin on the climate crisis: ‘We’ve got to save democracy in order to save our species’ [The Guardian]
   • Texas mother set for execution – yet evidence suggests she did not kill her child [The Guardian]
   • “At trial, one of the Texas Rangers who was first on the scene told the jury that he had found Lucio with her head down, making no eye contact and showing no apparent concern about Mariah. ‘Right there and then, I knew she did something. That’s one of the most common clues – someone with their shoulders slouched forward: they’re hiding the truth,’ he said. “That testimony was false. Several scientific studies have shown that you cannot deduce anything about a suspect’s guilt or innocence from their body language or facial mannerisms.”
   • FATAL SHOOTING, Officer dragged by traffic stop suspect before opening fire on him, Fulshear police say [2021, ABC 13]
   • ‘I’m at a money-hungry school’: Athletes angry as colleges shun chance to pay them [The Guardian]
   • ‘Birthing while Black’ is a national crisis for the US. Here’s what Black lawmakers want to do about it [The Guardian]
   • Opinion, What’s the real reason why Black celebs are still so angry with Will Smith? [Tayo Bero, The Guardian]
   • Black voting power, Florida, ‘A racist move’: Florida’s DeSantis threatens Black voter power with electoral maps [The Guardian]
   • US news, US professor wins $400,000 payout after refusing to call trans student a woman [The Guardian]
   • AIAA Statement on Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion from AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher, Written Monday, June 2, 2020. [“We need to make the ultimate pivot…”]
3. Climate
   • Our Role in Assuring a Cleaner, Greener Future [AIAA Executive Director, April 2021, Aerospace America, the magazine of AIAA, “…the ultimate sense of urgency…”, the climate emergency
   • Movies, Once You Know review – must-watch essay on climate change that tells us it’s already here [The Guardian]
   • Tesla has another record quarter in tumultuous period for Elon Musk [The Guardian]
   • US news, Biden launches $6bn effort to save America’s distressed nuclear plants [The Guardian]
   • New Nuclear Power Plants Are Unlikely to Stop the Climate Crisis, These plants take too long to build and bring online, and we don’t have that much time [Naomi Oreskes, Scientific American]
4. International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section, mirroring the AIAA IAC. AIAA Houston Section has three sister sections in France, Ethiopia, and Peru.
5. France: This week: Bourgoin-Jallieu, Rhône-Alpes, France. Image: Douglas Yazell, July 1, 2021. An excellent mural, an apparent tribute to the classic book, The Little Prince.
6. Ethiopia: This week: An image from Flickr (Creative Commons license) showing camels on a road in Ethiopia. I was looking for a good image of camels in Ethiopia.
7. Peru: This week: An image from Flickr (Creative Commons license) showing a family in Peru with a llama. I was looking for a good image with a llama. The family is wearing traditional clothing.
8. Mexico: AIAA Houston Section in Region IV is paired with Mexico, but Mexico is also in Region VII (International)
9. Mexico
   • Drought conditions now reported in more than half the country [Mexico News Daily]
   • ‘The lithium is ours:’ Senate approves AMLO’s mining reform, nationalizing the metal, The state will have a virtual monopoly on lithium extraction [Mexico News Daily]
10. History: Benjamin Franklin, a four-hour film on PBS by Ken Burns, now streaming
    • Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, known in the United States as Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding American troops in several battles, including the siege of Yorktown. After returning to France, he was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830. He has been considered a national hero in both countries. [Wikipedia]
    • Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes (29 December 1719 – 13 February 1787) was a French statesman and diplomat. He served as Foreign Minister from 1774 during the reign of Louis XVI, notably during the American War of Independence. [Wikipedia]

[2022 04 23] Saturday, April 23, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents, often with a few more articles on slide #1
   • Florida rejects 54 math textbooks over ‘prohibited topics’ including critical race theory (The Guardian)
   • Vladimir Putin defends anti-gay laws as bastion of global conservatism (The Guardian, 2013)
   • Public lands to reopen for oil and gas drilling in a first under Biden, Interior department raises royalty rates by 50% as administration juggles high oil prices and climate impact (The Guardian)
   • Acronyms for six professional societies specified in the AIAA 2021-2023 Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan for six heritage months are
     • NSBE (February, National Society of Black Engineers, Black History Month)
     • SWE (March, Society of Women Engineers, Women’s History Month)
     • SASE (May, Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month)
     • oSTEM (June, Out in STEM, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, LGBTQ Pride Month)
     • SHPE (9/15-10/15, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, National Hispanic Heritage Month)
     • AISES (November, American Indian Science and Engineering Society, 45 Years of Advancing Indigenous People in STEM, National American Indian Heritage Month)
       • Additional notes 4/20/2022:
       • Most people now call this month Native American Heritage month
       • A website of the federal government of the USA is https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov, which includes this statement, “November is National American Indian Heritage Month The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans.”
       • A website of the federal government of the USA is the website of The White House, which includes this document, “A Proclamation on National Native American Heritage Month, 2021″
       • NCAI is The National Congress of American Indians, and that website presents this sentence, “November is Native American Heritage Month, or as it is commonly refered to, American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.”
       • NCAI also has this campaign on their website as one of eight listed campaigns, Proud to Be: The Campaign to End Harmful “Indian” Mascots
2. Diversity
   • The 2021-2023 AIAA Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan
   • AIAA Statement on Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion from AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher, Written Monday, June 2, 2020. (“We need to make the ultimate pivot…”)
   • US House passes bill banning discrimination against Black hairstyles (The Guardian)
   • ‘Wear your crown, because change is coming’: Virginia joins states banning hair discrimination (The Guardian, 2020)
   • Republicans are dusting off a tried and true election strategy: hatemongering (Moira Donegan, Opinion, The Guardian)
   • JPL Commits to First-Ever Space Industry Diversity Pledge (NASA/JPL, Cal Tech)
   • Many workplaces now have committees titled with some combination of the words “equity,” “diversity,” and “inclusion,” with acronyms like D.E I. or E & I. The specific terms and their order can vary, as long as the title is indirect and includes every possible group so as not to highlight race and cause white people to feel threatened. In other words, as long as they don’t mention racial equity, racial justice, systemic racism, or whiteness in the title or description. Members are tasked with getting all forms of oppression on the table in a way that is sure to push racism off the table or at least make it difficult to address in any depth. [DiAngelo, in her 2021 book, Nice Racism]
   • Video shows police officer kneeling on Black man before fatally shooting him; Patrick Lyoya, aged 26, was killed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during a struggle after a traffic stop (The Guardian)
   • Officer dragged by traffic stop suspect before opening fire on him, Fulshear police say (ABC 13, from the year 2021)
   • “We see anti-Black sentiment in the immediate rejoinder to Black Lives Matter that all lives matter, that blue lives matter.” [Robin DiAngelo, 2018]
3. Climate
   • Elon Musk’s vision for the internet is dangerous nonsense (Opinion, Robert Reich, The Guardian)
   • Burger King ends all-vegan London branch trial amid prediction trend will become norm (The Guardian)
   • Think “NASA,” and what comes to mind? Astronauts? Mars rovers? Voyager and the Golden Record? How about Earth? In fact, NASA has been studying and monitoring the health of our home planet for decades, using balloons, aircraft, satellites, and even the International Space Station in the effort. “Sky High,” the 16th documentary in the series “JPL and the Space Age,” traces the efforts of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to measure greenhouse gases, from the pathfinding science instrument AIRS, through to today’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 aboard the space station. Documentary length: 60 minutes (Here is the link for the YouTube trailer.”
   • The Death of the gas station; As EVs hit the road, gas stations will have to adapt or risk going out of business. (Vox, recode)
   • Stop calling them “accidents”; From car crashes to environmental spills to workplace injuries, author Jessie Singer encourages us to reconsider the word “accident.” (Vox)
   • “…the ultimate sense of urgency…” AIAA Executive Director in the April 2021 issue of Aerospace America in the Flight Path feature, “Reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 requires the ultimate sense of urgency – it’s only 30 years into the future.”
4. The International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section, mirroring the AIAA IAC
5. Our France-USA sister section; L’astronaute Thomas Pesquet prend les commandes d’un avion humanitaire pour le compte d’une ONG (franceinfo)
6. Our Ethiopia-USA sister section
   • Photograph of the gate of the university in Addis Ababa Ethiopia [Wikipedia]
   • ESSS, website of The Ethiopian Space Science Society in Addis Ababa, our sister section
7. Our Peru-USA sister section
8. Mexico: AIAA Region IV now links AIAA Houston Section with Mexico, and Mexico remains part of AIAA Region VII (international)
9. Mexico
   • Photograph from Flickr (using Creative Commons licensing) of a B25J airplane with Panchito nose art. Panchito Pistoles was a cartoon character created for the 1944 Disney movie Saludos Amigos.
   • A link to Mexico News Daily (paywall after a few articles)
10. History: Back from the dead? Elusive ivory-billed woodpecker not extinct, researchers say (The Guardian)

[2022 04 16] Saturday, April 16, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents, with links to slides 2-10, each of which contains a link back to this Table of Contents (TOC) slide #1
2. Diversity, with a brief quote from our 2021-2023 AIAA Diversity Plan
   • Every week, we link to the public statement on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) from the AIAA Executive Director dated June 2, 2020, which includes this quote, “We need to make the ultimate pivot…”
   • A link (https://ostem.org) and notes about oSTEM, Out in STEM, from the oSTEM website. June is included in the 2021-2023 AIAA Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan as LGBTQ Pride Month.
3. Climate Emergency (Human-Induced), includes Global Climate Change Vital Signs of the Planet from the NASA climate website: carbon dioxide, global temperature, Arctic sea ice extent, ice sheets, sea level and “ocean heat added”
   • IPCC report: ‘now or never’ if world is to stave off climate disaster (Fiona Harvey in The Guardian)
   • Climate scientists are desperate: we’re crying, begging and getting arrested (Peter Kalmus, Opinion, The Guardian)
   • I test-drove the all-electric Hummer. Can it win over America’s EV skeptics? (Oliver Milman, The Guardian)
   • Putin’s war shows autocracies and fossil fuels go hand in hand. Here’s how to tackle both (Environment, Bill McKibben, The Guardian)
4. The International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section (mirroring the AIAA IAC), including six email addresses and nine names
5. France
   • Macron steps up warnings over French far right before first-round vote (The Guardian)
   • The Guardian view on Marine Le Pen’s surge: alarm bells ring (The Guardian, Opinion, French Presidential Election 2022)
   • Benjamin Franklin, A Film by Ken Burns (PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, “A new four-hour film which gives due credit to France for their essential help in our Revolutionary War.” [Douglas Yazell])
6. Ethiopia, with a link to the website of the since-2004 Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS)
7. Peru
   1. Fuel protests prompt Lima curfew as Ukraine crisis touches South America (The Guardian)
   2. A color animation cel with Donald Duck (representing the USA) and José Carioca (representing Brazil) from the 1944 Disney movie The Three Caballeros (the sequel to the 1942 Disney movie Saludos Amigos), published here with a Creative Commons license, and I included a note [thanks to Wikipedia] that Walt Disney traveled to South America-including Peru-in early 1941 with his team of artists and movie creators as official diplomatic team representing the USA as they worked to counter the influence in South America of (Nazi) Germany
8. Mexico, with a map showing Mexico is linked to AIAA Houston Section in Region IV as well as to Region VII, our international section; the six Sections of Region IV are also listed
9. Mexico
   • 90% support AMLO in Sunday’s recall vote, but fewer than 20% voted (Mexico News Daily)
   • A color photograph published with a Creative Commons license, of the nose art of a World-War-2 era B25J airplane featuring Panchito, full name Panchito Pistoles, the Disney cartoon character representing Mexico-with Donald Duck representing the USA-from the 1944 Disney movie The Three Caballeros, which is the sequel to the 1942 Disney movie Saludos Amigos
   • A black and white photograph, a lobby card, with the cartoon character Donald Duck (representing the USA) dancing with live Mexican actors and dancers (a first of its kind special effect, combining live-action actors with traditional animation) from the 1944 Disney movie The Three Caballeros, the movie which introduced a new cartoon character, Panchito Pistoles-representing Mexico)
10. History
    1. California cities spent huge share of federal Covid relief funds on police (The Guardian)
    2. Scientists find fossil of dinosaur ‘killed on day of asteroid strike’ (The Guardian)
    3. US indigenous communities to receive $46m to address global heating (The Guardian)

[2022 04 09] Saturday, April 9, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents and a few news items (current events regarding AIAA, diversity and climate)
   • Emmanuel Macron campaigning in France on 4/2/2022 prior to the first of two election days (1) 4/10/2022 and (2) 4/24/2022 (Two Sundays) (The Guardian)
   • The mayor of New York City urges LGBTQ+ of Florida to move to New York City (The Guardian)
   • Dyson launches Zone, air purifying headphones (Gigazine and The Guardian)
   • What’s really holding the world back from stopping climate change? (Rebecca Leber and Umair Irfan, Vox)
   • America’s Culture Wars Distract from What’s Happening Beneath Them, Opinion, Gary Gerstle (The Guardian)
2. Diversity, with a brief quote from our 2021-2023 AIAA Diversity Plan
   • White Outrage about Will Smith’s Slap (opinion, The Guardian)
   • California Reparations (The Guardian)
   • The 2014 Native American History Month poster (The Department of the Interior of the United States of America)
   • How Black North Carolinians Pay the Price (Vox)
   • Joe Biden Signs Landmark Law Making Lynching a Hate Crime (The Guardian)
   • Opponents of Mississippi’s Anti-Critical Race Theory Law Fear Whitewashing of History (The Guardian), also appearing on slide 10 below
   • Remarks by President Biden at the Signing of H.R. 55, The Emmet Till Antilynching Act (The White House)
3. Climate Emergency (Human-Induced), includes Global Climate Change Vital Signs of the Planet from the NASA climate website: carbon dioxide, global temperature, Arctic sea ice extent, ice sheets, sea level and ocean heat added
   • US transition to electric vehicles would save over 100,000 lives by 2050 – study (The Guardian)
   • Greta Thunberg to publish a ‘go-to source’ book on the climate crisis (The Guardian)
   • When will the world reach 1.5C of global heating? (The Guardian)
   • Scientists urge end to fossil fuel use as landmark IPCC report readied (The Guardian)
   • NASA Science Enables First-of-its-Kind Detection of Reduced Human CO2 Emissions (NASA)
4. The International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section (mirroring the AIAA IAC), including six email addresses and nine names
5. France
   • French election polls: who is leading the race to be the next president of France? (The Guardian)
   • Eurotunnel train breakdown causes further travel chaos (The Guardian)
   • Far-right politician booted out of Zinedine Zidane’s football club (The Guardian)
   • The rise and rise of France’s far-right Marine Le Pen (The Guardian)
6. Ethiopia, including “The Guardian view on Ethiopia’s war: a glimpse of hope” (Opinion, Editorial, The Guardian)
7. Peru: “Lost in the Andes,” the 1949 Disney Donald Duck (and his three nephews) comic book adventure story written and drawn by the Disney Legends artist Carl Barks (1901-2000). This book-length story takes place in Peru. This issue is often called the story about “the square eggs.” This led me to the contents of slide 9 (Mexico) this week, the 1942 Disney movie Saludos Amigos and its sequel, the 1944 movie The Three Caballeros. Note the connections to Walt Disney, Peru, Mexico, and Germany (Nazis) in early 1941 and later. I publish some Disney artwork here (on slides 7 and 9) using Creative Commons licensing. Also, see slide 10 below for more about Peru this week.
8. Mexico, with a map showing Mexico is linked to AIAA Houston Section in Region IV as well as to Region VII, our international section; the six Sections of Region IV are also listed
9. Mexico (see slide 7 above for the contents of this week)
10. History
    • The rise and rise of France’s far-right Marine Le Pen (Opinion, George Monbiot, The Guardian)
    • Peru to the World Expo in Houston Texas USA, Sunday, June 5, 2022, The Ballroom at Tanglewood, The Galleria, with links for this event (link one and link two)
    • Local jails are helping drive America’s mass incarceration problem (Vox)
    • Mass incarceration in America, explained in 22 maps and charts (2016) (Vox)
    • 2022 Peruvian protests (Wikipedia)
    • ‘I promised Brando I would not touch his Oscar’: the secret life of Sacheen Littlefeather (Native Americans, interview, 2021, The Guardian)
    • Opponents of Mississippi’s anti- critical race theory law fear whitewashing of history (The Guardian), also appearing on slide 2 above, “Many who observed the legislation pass, including Democrats in the statehouse, argued the bill represented a direct backlash against bipartisan efforts to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state’s flag, which occurred in 2020 [link from an NBC News article] after the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.”

[2022 04 02] Saturday, April 2, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents and a few news articles on this slide #1
   1. Are women’s bodies private property? In Idaho, apparently they are (The Guardian, Opinion Roe v Wade, Moira Donegan)
   2. Republicans’ midterms pitch: never mind the policy, here’s the culture war (The Guardian)
   3. Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing reveals Republicans’ racist fears (The Guardian, Opinion, Steve Phillips)
   4. My Congressman is Brian Babin of Texas Congressional District 36, which includes NASA Johnson Space Center. In his March 27, 2022 weekly email note to constituents, he presents one article from The Epoch Times and one article from The Washington Times. Here are the Wikipedia links for The Epoch Times and the Washington Times. [Douglas Yazell]
2. Diversity, with a brief quote from our 2021-2023 AIAA Diversity Plan
   • Black voters suffer another significant loss in the Supreme Court (Vox)
   • Republicans turn Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing into a political circus (The Guardian, Ed Pilkington)
   • As a historian of slavery, I know just how much the royal family has to answer for in Jamaica (The Guardian, Opinion, Trevor Burnard)
   • I did not ‘snub’ Kate Middleton. But Jamaica needs more than royal regrets over slavery (The Guardian, Opinion, Lisa Hanna)
   • Meghan to host Spotify podcast on impact of stereotypes on women’s lives (The Guardian)
   • ‘Everything’s going to pieces’: how a port took over a Black US neighborhood, Port Freeport in Texas has obtained 95% of property in East End as part of an extensive expansion – and many former residents are upset over being displaced (The Guardian)
   • Texas attorney general says school district’s Pride week ‘breaks state law’ (The Guardian)
3. Climate
   1. UN chief calls for extreme weather warning systems for everyone on Earth (The Guardian)
   2. The world’s forests do more than just store carbon, new research finds (The Guardian, Nina Lakhani)
   3. Climate action has been ‘a calamity’, says Senate Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse (The Guardian, Climate Crimes)
4. The International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section, mirroring the AIAA IAC
5. France
   • French urged to vote in presidential election as outcome ‘not guaranteed’ (The Guardian, Kim Willsher in Paris)
   • A photograph of the farmer’s market, or market (le marché) in Morestel, near Lyon, in France. Image credit: Douglas Yazell.
6. Ethiopia
   • Ethiopia: Tigray rebels agree ‘cessation of hostilities’ after government truce (The Guardian, AFP in Addis Ababa)
   • A 2013 color photograph of a city scene in Ethiopia, using a Creative Commons license.
7. Peru, Peruvian court approves prison release of ex-president Alberto Fujimori (The Guardian)
8. Mexico, with a map showing Mexico is linked to AIAA Houston Section in Region IV as well as to Region VII, our international section; the six Sections of Region IV are also listed
9. Mexico
   1. Pollution-triggered restrictions take 1.7 million vehicles off the road in capital (Mexico News Daily)
   2. President’s Boeing Dreamliner will be offered for wedding, 15th-birthday charters (Mexico News Daily)
10. History
    1. ‘A story of social justice’: a history of racial segregation and swimming (The Guardian)
    2. Will Smith went low by slapping Chris Rock. In his attempt to justify it, he went even lower (The Guardian, Opinion, Joseph Harker)
    3. Blue Origin launches 6 passengers to the edge of space and back (CBS News), “Joining Lai for the sub-orbital flight were philanthropists and space enthusiasts Marc and Sharon Hagle; University of North Carolina professor and world traveler Jim Kitchen; George Nield, president of Commercial Space Technologies and a former manager with NASA and the FAA; and “angel investor” Marty Allen.” [George Nield is a former Chair of AIAA Houston Section]
    4. Houston ISD enjoyed their Chavez-Huerta Day holiday Monday, March 28. 2022, so this article links to a 2019 presentation by Dolores Herta at TEDWomen

[2022 03 26] Saturday, March 26, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents slide with a few news articles, etc.
   • Advisory Board Calls for Measures To Narrow Aviation’s Gender Gap (AIN Online)
   • Stacey Abrams files lawsuit after being blocked from fundraising for Georgia governor campaign (The Guardian)
   • Star Trek makes Stacey Abrams president of United Earth – and stokes conservative anger (The Guardian)
   • There could never be an ‘Elona’ Musk – women are held to far higher standards than men (The Guardian, Arwa Mahdawi, The Week in Patriarchy)
   • Kim Davis violated gay couples’ rights in denying marriage licenses, judge rules (The Guardian)
   • Republican Hawley’s attack on supreme court nominee Jackson is wrong, says senator (The Guardian)
2. Diversity
   • Women’s History Month (link one, link two)
   • ‘Nostalgic racism is racism’: Disney criticised for Texas students’ performance (The Guardian)
   • Same-sex kiss restored to Toy Story prequel after backlash – report (The Guardian)
   • Are white Christians under attack in America? No, but the myth is winning (Alvin Chang, The Guardian, Opinion)
   • Hate Speech, Residents of multiple Houston neighborhoods report racist flyers in yards (ABC 13)
3. Climate
   • Is battling back-to-back disasters distracting us from fighting the climate crisis? (Jeff Sparrow, Opinion, The Guardian)
   • Shell directors sued for ‘failing to prepare company for net zero’ (The Guardian)
   • Ukraine war threatens global heating goals, warns UN chief (Fiona Harvey, The Guardian)
   • Extend life of key climate sensor that maps world’s forests, Nasa told (The Guardian)
   • European Space Agency suspends Mars mission with Russia (CNN)
   • Heatwaves at both of Earth’s poles alarm climate scientists (Fiona Harvey, The Guardian)
4. The International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section
5. France
   • Researchers in Valencia pinpoint unwritten rules of paella (The Guardian, Food)
   • A photo of a plate of paella using Creative Commons
6. Ethiopia
   • Ethiopia: Tigray rebels agree ‘cessation of hostilities’ after government truce (The Guardian)
   • Two photos of Ethiopia using Creative Common licenses
7. Peru
   • Machu Picchu: Inca site ‘has gone by wrong name for over 100 years’ (The Guardian)
   • A photo of Machu Picchu using a Creative Commons license
8. Mexico
9. Mexico
   • Fans unhappy as El Tri fails to score a goal against archrival US,
     The coming week will see if Mexico goes to the Qatar World Cup (Mexico News Daily)
   • Sheltering consumers against high gas prices to cost 205 billion pesos: think tank (Mexico News Daily)
   • A photo of Mexico (UNAM, the university in Mexico City) using a Creative Commons license
10. History
    • Elon Musk Has New Estimate for When Humans Might First Step on Mars (C|Net)
    • Russian mercenaries in Ukraine linked to far-right extremists (The Guardian)
    • International Sea Level Satellite Takes Over From Predecessor (JPL, Cal Tech, NASA)
    • Dred and Harriet Scott (https://constitutioncenter.org)
    • Harriet Scott (https://constitutioncenter.org)
    • The 14th Amendment and Gender Equality (https://constitutioncenter.org)
    • Elon Musk Sets New Target for First SpaceX Starship Orbital Flight (C|Net)
    • Elon Musk’s SpaceX sent thousands of Starlink satellite internet dishes to Ukraine, company’s president says (CNBC)

[2022 03 19] Saturday, March 19, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

1. Table of Contents page
   • Judge blocks Texas from investigating parents of transgender children (The Guardian)
   • ‘Don’t Say Gay’: Disney clashes with DeSantis over Florida bill (The Guardian)
   • Meet NASA’s Jacky Silva-Martinez, Gateway Program Human Systems Integration Lead (NASA/JSC Roundup)
   • Summer Institute for Sustainability and Climate Change, Purdue University (see slide 1)
   • Douglas Yazell and Jacky Silva-Martinez prepared a diversity presentation for AIAA Houston Section (Annual Technical Symposium 2021). The event was postponed, but the abstract was accepted.
   • Dave Hanson and Douglas Yazell gave a climate presentation at SpaceGeekSpeak, a weekly AIAA Houston Section event. Here is the link for the YouTube on-demand recording. This abstract was accepted for AIAA Houston Section Annual Technical Symposium 2021.
2. Diversity
   • National Women’s History Month
   • Guatemala increases punishment for abortions and bans same-sex marriage (The Guardian)
   • Texas abortion ban forcing thousands to cross state lines for procedure – study (The Guardian)
   • How the top tech brands are supporting Black Lives Matter (TechRadar)
   • ‘It’s a scare tactic’: Pamela Moses, the Black woman jailed over voting error, speaks out (The Guardian)
   • Disney accused of removing gay content from Pixar films (The Guardian)
3. Climate
   • Dave Hanson and Douglas Yazell gave a climate presentation at SpaceGeekSpeak, a weekly AIAA Houston Section event. Here is the link for the YouTube on-demand recording. This abstract was accepted for AIAA Houston Section Annual Technical Symposium 2021.
   • Thawing Permafrost Could Leach Microbes, Chemicals Into Environment (NASA/JPL, Cal Tech)
   • How oil companies rebranded deceptive climate ads as ‘free speech’ (The Guardian)
   • Is super-polluting Pentagon’s climate plan just ‘military-grade greenwash’? (The Guardian)
   • ‘Defining moment’: how can the US end its dependency on fossil fuels? (The Guardian, Oliver Milman)
   • ‘I can’t move my car’: Americans struggle as vehicle expenses rise (The Guardian)
   • A megalopolis of engineering: the verdict on London’s £18bn new Elizabeth line (The Guardian)
4. The International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section, mirroring the AIAA IAC
5. France-Photo from 1947 from this presentation, http://www.aviation-algerie.com, with thanks for Philippe Mairet and Pierre Jarrige. The photo shows a line of Spitfire airplanes in la Sénia, Provence, France.
6. Ethiopia-three photos from Flickr (Creative Commons licensing) showing scenes in Ethiopia
7. Peru-three photos from Flickr (Creative Commons licensing) showing scenes of Peru, including one photo of Peru taken from space in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
8. Mexico-linked to AIAA Houston Section in AIAA Region IV, but Mexico is also in Region VII (International)
9. Mexico
   • Once considered radical, former president Benito Juárez now a national hero (Mexico News Daily)
   • Mexican president lashes out at EU ‘lies’ over his media-bashing rhetoric (The Guardian)
   • Assessing Mexico’s National Guard: The Impact on Public Safety in Mexico and U.S.-Mexico Security (The Baker Institute, Rice University, YouTube)
10. History
    • Carlos Garcia-Galan gave an Artemis presentation (a NASA subject) for AIAA Northern Ohio Section, March 11, 2022
    • Ukraine receives more Starlink internet access terminals in fight against Russia (Florida Today)
    • Uproar as Mississippi signs bill to limit discussions of race in school lessons (The Guardian)
    • Blue Origin’s 20th Mission to Space, March 21, 2022, “Blue Origin today announced the sixth crew member joining New Shepard’s 20th mission will be Blue Origin’s Gary Lai, New Shepard Chief Architect. Gary joins the previously announced crew, which includes Marty Allen, husband and wife duo Sharon and Marc Hagle, Jim Kitchen, and Dr. George Nield.” (Blue Origin) Mr. Nield is a former Chair (twice) of AIAA Houston Section.
    • Fears for bees as US set to extend use of toxic pesticides that paralyse insects (Oliver Milman, The Guardian)
    • Lost and found: the extraordinary story of Shackleton’s Endurance epic (The Guardian)
    • A photo from Flickr (Creative Commons license) showing preparations for a climate action plan for the City of Fort Collins Colorado

[2022 03 12] Saturday, March 12, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

[2022 03 05] Saturday, March 5, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

[2022 02 26] Saturday, February 26, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

[2022 02 19] Saturday, February 19, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, 28 MB, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section. The last slide contains my essay, “Whiteness is Not the Same as White People.” 

[2022 02 12] Saturday, February 12, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, 32 MB, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

[2022 02 05] Saturday, February 5, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, 27 MB PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member. Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

[2022 01 22] Saturday, January 22, 2022, Weekly Status (11 slides, 21 MB (PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member: Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV, and Mexico is paired with Houston Section.

[2022 01 15] Saturday, January 15, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, 28 MB, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member: Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

[2022 01 08] Saturday, January 8, 2022, Weekly Status (10 slides, 55 MB, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member: Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV. A few details about these 10 slides:

1. Table of Contents, beavers heading north and the human-induced climate emergency, Emma Louden (Yale University PhD student) on Recruiting Equity, The Case for Storytelling in Sustainable Space, from the 11/17/2021 AIAA Diverse Dozen, Space Traffic Management.
2. Diversity: A quote from The 1619 Project, the last paragraph of Chapter 7, Politics by Jamelle Bouie; In Bristol, BLM Protestors Cleared of Toppling Edward Colston Statue; An editorial from one of the Colston Four; a quote from [Page 1047 (ebook), The 1619 Project, Chapter 18, the last chapter, Justice by Nikole Hannah-Jones]; A White House executive order regarding Native Americans.
3. Climate-the human-induced climate emergency. “A Christmas Carol Is Not Cozy and Its Message Should Still Haunt Us, It was intended to be a polemic about the poor,” by Robin Vintner, in The Guardian; “Fossil Fuel Firms Among Biggest Spenders on Google Ads that Look Like Search Results,” from The Guardian; “Greta Thunberg Says It Is ‘Strange” that Joe Biden is Considered a Climate Leader,” from The Guardian; ABC 13 changes its headline from “Freeze Watch Issued Amidst Record Heat,” to, “Mild New Year’s Eve, But Wild Weekend Weather.”
4. AIAA Houston Section International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France
   • Macron declares his Covid strategy (The Guardian)
   • Why Europe’s Muslims are braced for France’s stint running the EU presidency (The Guardian)
   • The flag of the European Union (EU) [Wikipedia]
6. Ethiopia
   • Photos from Ethiopia [Flickr]
   • Photo one
   • Photo two
7. Peru
   • Photos from Peru [Flickr]
   • Photo one
   • Photo two
8. Mexico
9. Mexico-Two color public domain photographs (from the JFK Presidential Library website) from the 1962 visit to Mexico by President and Mrs. Kennedy.
   • Photo one
   • Photo two
10. History-AIAA Houston Section History technical committee
    • Bill of Rights, The Really Brief Version, the first ten amendments to the U.S. constitution
    • A Proclamation on Bill of Rights Day, The White House, December 14, 2021
    • A Proclamation on Wright Brothers Day 2021, The White House, December 16, 2021
    • A photograph from Wikipedia, Wilbur Wright pilots the 1902 glider over the Kill Devil Hills, October 10, 1902. The single rear rudder is steerable; it replaced the original fixed double rudder.

[2022 01 01] Saturday, January 1, 2022, Weekly Status (11 slides, 27 MB) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member: Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

[2021 12 25] Saturday, December 25, 2021, Weekly Status (10 slides, 42 MB) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member: Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

[2021 12 18] Saturday, December 18, 2021, Weekly Status (12 slides, 38 MB) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section professional member: Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

[2021 12 11] Saturday, December 11, 2021, Weekly Status (10 slides, 28 MB, PDF) from Douglas Yazell, AIAA Houston Section: Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

[2021 12 04] Saturday, December 4, 2021, Weekly Status (17 slides, 32 MB, PDF) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and three AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

1. Table of Contents
   • The 1819 map related to the Adams-Onis Treaty showing Mexico and the USA.
   • Astronomers spot supermassive black hole duo that’s the closest to Earth yet (C|Net)
2. Diversity
   • West Virginia textbook battle shows how GOP turned its image from ‘blue blood to blue collar’, Before conservatives weaponized critical race theory, a violent 1974 clash over school books helped Republicans rebrand to appeal to white workers (The Guardian) “Racial identity was a fundamental issue for conservatives emerging from the civil rights era, as Connie Marshner makes clear in her explanation of why to care about school curricula in the first place. ‘Ours is an age of neo-ethnicity,’ she wrote. ‘Blacks are proud to be blacks, and want their public education system to foster that pride in their offspring; Chicanos want Chicano language, customs and attitudes taught to their children. Middle-class whites do not agitate for ‘white studies’ courses; the equivalent demand is for traditional American and Christian values,’ she wrote. For Marshner and the new right, traditional American and Christian values equaled the ‘neo-ethnicity’ of whiteness without calling it white. This, then, is one of the West Virginia textbook conflict’s legacies [ …]. It taught them how to fight against inclusive, culturally diverse and multi-ethnic education without saying you are fighting for a white-oriented, white-dominated and white-privileging curriculum.”
   • Lara Trump claims pricier turkeys are a liberal plot against Thanksgiving, Ex-president’s daughter-in-law tells Fox News leftwing Americans ‘don’t want us to have any shared traditions’ (The Guardian) [Compare this to the above article at the above bullet point]
   • US libraries report spike in organised attempts to ban books in schools (The Guardian)
   • AIAA Statement on Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion from AIAA Executive Director Dan Dumbacher, written June 2, 2020
   • ‘The gooey overlay of sweetness over genocide’: the myth of the ‘first Thanksgiving’ (The Guardian)
   • New York city hall removes Thomas Jefferson statue (The Guardian)
   • Indigenous activists want to change a California town’s racist name. Officials are pushing back (The Guardian)
   • Zendaya on her YouTube channel, “Zendaya at the Women’s March on Washington,” 4 years ago
   • Racist Slurs in Place-Names Have to Go, Say Geoscientists (Eos, Science News by AGU)
   • These 11 everyday words and phrases have racist and offensive backgrounds (Today)
   • America’s reckoning with systemic racism forces more critical look at everyday words, phrases that have racist connotations (ABC 7)
   • Just Say Black (Carmen Smith, Living Cities)
   • Remarks by President Biden at Signing of an Executive Order on Racial Equity (January 26, 2021, The White House)
   • “I hope it is clear that opposing whiteness is not the same as opposing white people. White supremacy is an equal opportunity employer; nonwhite people can become active agents of white supremacy as well as passive participants in its hierarchies and rewards. One way of becoming an insider is by participating in the exclusion of other outsiders.” [George Lipsitz, in his 1998 book, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, How White People Profit from Identity Politics.]
   • 11 Terms You Should Know to Better Understand Structural Racism (Aspen Institute)
   • Tennessee declines to act on first complaint under new law banning critical race theory, Grievance objects that curriculum on civil rights movement is ‘Anti-American’ and ‘Anti-White’ (The Guardian)
3. Climate-The Human-Induced Climate Emergency
   • Climate denial is waning on the right. What’s replacing it might be just as scary, The wrapping of ecological disaster with fears of rampant immigration is a narrative that has flourished in far-right fringe movements in Europe and the US (Oliver Milman, The Guardian)
   • Nobel-winning stock market theory used to help save coral reefs (The Guardian)
   • Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad (The White House, January 27, 2021)
   • Extreme Makeover: Human Activities Are Making Some Extreme Events More Frequent or Intense (The Guardian)
4. AIAA Houston Section International Activities Committee (IAC)
5. France
   • The rise of Éric Zemmour shows how far France has shifted to the right (Didier Fassin, Opinion, The Guardian)
   • Cementing ties with France, UAE places $19 billion order for warplanes, helicopters (Reuters)
6. Ethiopia-Presenting 26 color public domain photographs (slides 9-13) from the Kennedy Presidential Library with Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia visiting President Kennedy in Washington DC in the White House in 1963.
7. Peru
   • Jackelynne Silva-Martinez and Douglas Yazell prepared a presentation on diversity for AIAA Houston Section Annual Technical Symposium 2021. The abstract was accepted and the presentation was prepared. The event date was postponed a few times, and the presentation has not been made as of April 17, 2022.
   • On 28 July 2021, Pedro Castillo was sworn in as the new President of Peru after a narrow win in a tightly contested run-off election. The new Peruvian president Castillo appointed Guido Bellido, a member of Marxist–Leninist Free Peru Party, as prime minister. (Wikipedia)
8. Mexico (linked to AIAA Houston Section in Region IV, as well as being in Region VII, the international region)
9. Mexico
   • “The third major piece in the true story of the formation of the United States as a nation was the takeover of half of Mexico by war-today’s Southwest. This enabled the U.S. to expand to the Pacific, and thus open up huge trade with Asia-markets for export, goods to import and sell in the U.S. It also opened to the U.S. vast mineral wealth in Arizona, agricultural wealth in California, and vast new sources of cheap labor to build railroads and develop the economy.  The United States had already taken over the part of Mexico we call Texas in 1836, then made it a state in 1845. The following year, it invaded Mexico and seized its territory under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. A few years later in 1853, the U.S. acquired a final chunk of Arizona from Mexico by threatening to renew the war. This completed the territorial boundaries of what is now the United States.” [Elizabeth “Betita” Martinez, 1998]
   • The Sierra Club linked to the above Elizabeth Martinez document on July 22, 2020 in a post by Michael Brune. A short note from the Sierra Club president Ramón Cruz on that date introduced the post by Michael Brune.  The Sierra Club link to the Elizabeth Martinez document is now a broken link, but here is our AIAA Houston Section link to that 1998 document. I [Douglas Yazell] also found a link to that document on April 17, 2022, at the website of Phildadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) of the Religious Society of Friends. Here is the AIAA Houston Section link to that same version of the Elizabeth Martinez document.
10. History-The AIAA Houston Section History technical committee
    • NASA seeks ideas for a nuclear reactor on the moon (AP News)
    • Robert Jay Lifton convinced me that nuclearism is denial of reality. He was doing a 2017 book tour for The Climate Swerve. [Douglas Yazell, November 27, 2021]

[2021 11 27] Weekly Status (16 slides, 24 MB, PDF) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and 3 AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

[2021 11 20] Weekly Status (10 slides, 6 MB, PDF) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and 3 AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

[2021 11 06] Weekly Status (9 slides, PDF, 6 MB) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and 3 AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

[2021 10 30] Weekly Status (12 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and 3 AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV.

[2021 10 23] Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and 3 AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV. Topics this week include:

• SpaceGeekSpeak is a weekly AIAA Houston Section Saturday morning event created and hosted by Svetlana Hanson here in the NASA/JSC community. The subject is space exploration. Friends and family are welcome. Membership is not required. Since Pi Day 2020 (3/14/2020), this has been an online event. International attendees are often included from outside the USA. Attendance ranges from about five to 35 people. Presentations are sometimes invited.
• Command of the International Space Station (ISS) transferred to French astronaut Thomas Pesquet in early October 2021.

[2021 09 25] Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and 3 AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV. Also this week (on my history slide), Houston Section member Al Jackson (Triton Systems LLC in Houston) is presenting his paper (The Interstellar Ramjet: Engineering Nightmare) in Tucson Arizona at the meeting of the Interstellar Research Group, September 25-27, 2021.  [Douglas Yazell, September 25, 2021]

[2021 08 28] Weekly Status (12 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and 3 AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV. [Douglas Yazell, August 28, 2021]

• SpaceGeekSpeak, Saturday morning Zoom calls about space exploration, hosted by its creator, Svetlana Hanson. Two images of the pelican art project at Seabrook Classic Café near NASA/JSC, where we met weekly prior to the pandemic.
• Diversity: A 2019 book by Ijeoma Oluo. An upcoming diversity presentation in work by two presenters for Annual Technical Symposium 2021 (September). STEM and diversity: A Blue Lives Matter (includes anti-Black sentiment, per Robin DiAngelo in her 2018 book) organization, the Katy Independent School District (ISD) Police Department.
• Climate: An upcoming presentation in work by three presenters for Annual Technical Symposium 2021 (September).
• France-USA sister sections: Contact information, and an image of French astronaut Thomas Pesquet on the International Space Station, August 14, 2021.
• Ethiopia-USA sister sections: Contact information, and “Ethiopia starts building local rival to Facebook, Government wants its own social media platform to replace Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Zoom.” [August 23, 2021, The Guardian]
• Peru-USA sister sections: Contact information, and “Peru minister resigns after suggesting Shining Path rebels had CIA support.” [The Guardian, August 17, 2021] Also from that article, regarding President Pedro Castillo of Peru, “Castillo is scheduled to govern Peru until 2026, although political turmoil has been so intense in recent years that he is the country’s fifth president in five years.”
• Mexico: “Supreme Court orders Biden to revive Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ policy, Justices deny president’s effort to rescind Trump program, Blow to Biden as trio of liberal justices dissent in 6-3 ruling.” [The Guardian, August 24, 2021]
• History: Art by Robert McCall from a NASA website. December 20, 2019: 100 Years Ago: Birth of Space Artist Robert McCall. The famous image for 2001: A Space Odyssey, with a PanAm jetliner leaving a dual wheel space station in Earth orbit. An image featuring Arizona. Two more full page images.

[2021 08 21] Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and 3 AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico, since its members join Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in AIAA Region IV. [Douglas Yazell, August 21, 2021]

1. Table of Contents-Later weekly status reports using this format published a Table of Contents on this first of 10 slides
   • The car of a SpaceGeekSpeak attendee, Seabrook Classic Café, February 16, 2019. Image credit: Douglas Yazell. The car is a red Tesla Model 3. The license plate is EV007.
   • Space Geek Speak, a weekly gathering of AIAA Houston Section, Saturday mornings, https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83558603375
2. Diversity: Upcoming conferences from AISES (American Indian Science and Engineering Society) and oSTEM (Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). With over 100 student chapters at colleges/universities and professional chapters in cities across the United States and abroad, oSTEM is the largest chapter-based organization focused on LGBTQ+ people in STEM.
3. Climate: Global temperature up 2.1 F since 1880 (1.17 C). The guardrails are 1.5 C and 2 C. The NASA climate website.
4. International sister sections: Email addresses for contact persons are listed.
5. France, including this article, “Macron orders multiple inquiries into leaked Pegasus project data,” (The Guardian)
6. Ethiopia, including this article, “The looming famine in Tigray is an avoidable catastrophe,” (Opinion, George Monbiot, The Guardian)
7. Peru, including this article, “Leftwing rural teacher Pedro Castillo sworn in as president of Peru,” (The Guardian)
8. Mexico-linked to AIAA Houston Section in Region IV, as well as being part of Region VII (international)
9. Mexico: [From the Guardian] Don’t call us traitors: descendants of Cortés’s allies defend role in toppling Aztec empire; On the 500th anniversary of the Spanish conquest, people from Mexico’s smallest state Tlaxcala say their ancestors were liberators.
10. History: Svetlana Hanson is shown in a Flickr photo from 2013 as she works with children at a public library teaching the scientific method, the history of science, and how to build their own straw rockets. The children then launched their rockets and measured how far they could go.

[2021 08 16] From the NASA website, a feature article, Landsat 9: Continuing 50 Years of Eyes on Our Changing Planet. [Philippe Mairet and Douglas Yazell, August 16, 2021]

[2021 08 14] Weekly Status (10 slides, PDF) from Douglas Yazell: Diversity, Climate, History, and 3 AIAA Houston Section sister sections: France, Ethiopia, and Peru. Also, Mexico was recently added to AIAA Region IV, along with our existing territory: Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. AIAA Region VII remains our international region, with Mexico still included. [Douglas Yazell, Saturday, August 14, 2021]

1. Table of Contents (slides 2-10)
   • Seabrook Classic Café January 19, 2021, with a red Tesla Model 3; photograph by Douglas Yazell, Saturday, 1/19/2021, SpaceGeekSpeak (8:30-9:30 AM)
   • https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83558603375
   • Space exploration, membership not required, friends and family welcome
2. Diversity
   • OVERCONFIDENCE. Many workplaces now have committees titled with some combination of the words “equity,” “diversity,” and “inclusion,” with acronyms like D.E I. or E & I. The specific terms and their order can vary, as long as the title is indirect and includes every possible group so as not to highlight race and cause white people to feel threatened. In other words, as long as they don’t mention racial equity, racial justice, systemic racism, or whiteness in the title or description. Members are tasked with getting all forms of oppression on the table in a way that is sure to push racism off the table or at least make it difficult to address in any depth. [DiAngelo, Robin. Nice Racism (p. 161). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.]
   • A photograph from the website of the Katy ISD Police in the Houston metropolitan area featuring the flag of Blue Lives Matter
3. Climate
   • Major climate changes inevitable and irreversible – IPCC’s starkest warning yet (Fiona Harvey, Environment correspondent, The Guardian)
   • COP 26 in Glasgow, 2021, the climate event of the United Nations
4. The International Activities Committee (IAC) of AIAA Houston Section, which mirrors the AIAA IAC
5. France, featuring two NASA photos of French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (ESA)
6. Ethiopia, including this article, “Ethiopia conflict set to escalate after Tigray rebels refuse to withdraw” (The Guardian)
7. Peru
   • Scientists discover Machu Picchu could be at least two decades older than thought (The Guardian)
   • Peru: Fujimori cries electoral fraud – and unleashes torrent of racism (The Guardian)
   • A photograph of Machu Picchu [Wikipedia]
8. Mexico-Part of our international Region VII, but also linked to AIAA Houston Section in Region IV. Maps show more detail of AIAA Region IV.
9. Mexico
   • ‘Eye of fire’: Gas leak sparks huge blaze on ocean surface off Mexico (The Guardian-with the byline Reuters)
   • The Pemex logo [Wikipedia]
10. History-Flickr: Project Apollo Archive. Misc. JSC Scans S72-53472. Taken sometime in 1972, a color image of a work of art, such as oil on canvas (a painting). This image shows an Apollo crew capsule and service module orbiting the Moon and scanning its surface.

[2021 05 10] A four-second exposure photo of Starlink passing overhead in the night sky of Oregon, May 4, 2021, about nine hours after launch. As a retired astrodynamicist, Dan Adamo was easily able to know about the viewing opportunity. Mr. Adamo often updates his astrodynamics web page on the website of AIAA Houston Section. From his email note of May 5, 2021, “About 21:24 PDT (UTC -7 hours) on 4 May, my wife and I got to see 60 Starlink satellites fly over us after they were launched by SpaceX barely 9 hours earlier. The linear swarm of 2nd magnitude objects was about 7 degrees long at its closest approach. Attached is a 4-second trail of the swarm shortly after closest approach.” Here is a link to the photograph. [Douglas Yazell, May 10, 2021]

[2021 05 10] The late Kenneth W. Gatland (1924–1997) was a former President or Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS). This link provides an introduction to the work of Kenneth W. Gatland from Rob Hansen, whose website is described in this link. Here is a link to the Wikipedia BIS article. One reason for creating this news article is the fact that one of our AIAA Houston Section members is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, Dr. Albert Allen Jackson IV. He is also an AIAA Associate Fellow and the longtime Chair of the Astrodynamics technical committee of AIAA Houston Section. [Philippe Mairet, May 10, 2021]

[2021 04 13] Noting that AIAA features its Diversity Working Group, I call attention to the 2011 book, “The Diversity Index,” by Susan E. Reed. The cost for the Kindle book is only $3.99. She is a journalist whose forums include the New York Times and the Washington Post. This book is cited in the 2020 book “White Fragility,” by Robin DiAngelo. I checked out this Robin DiAngelo eAudiobook and this Robin DiAngelo eBook from the Harris County Freeman Library. There was no wait, despite the popularity of this Robin DiAngelo book during the summer of 2020. [Douglas Yazell, April 13, 2021]

[2021 03 07] Major Earth Satellite to Track Disasters, Effects of Climate Change. “The spacecraft will use two kinds of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to measure changes in Earth’s surface, hence the name NISAR, which is short for NASA-ISRO SAR.” Here is a link to the article of March 24, 2021, on the NASA website. Satellite launch date: 2022. The article includes two short NASA videos which are very entertaining. Durations: fifty-five seconds for the first video and four minutes for the second video. [Douglas Yazell, March 7, 2021]

[2021 03 08] Starships 2021 [Douglas Yazell, March 8, 2021] 

• SpaceX (their website)
  • Starship 10 flight, 6 or 7 minutes duration, maximum altitude 10 km, vertical landing, 3 Falcon rocket motors firing, then 2, then 1, then zero, then 1 again for the landing. Boca Chica TX. Someone recently proposed changing the name to City of Starship TX. Video replay available.
  • Starship User’s Guide (PDF, 6 pages, version 1, 2021). Excerpt: “CREW CONFIGURATION SpaceX was founded with the goal of making life multiplanetary. The Starship program is realizing this goal with the crew configuration of Starship. Drawing on experience from the development of Dragon for the Commercial Crew Program, the Starship crew configuration can transport up to 100 people from Earth into LEO and on to the Moon and Mars. The crew configuration of Starship includes private cabins, large common areas, centralized storage, solar storm shelters and a viewing gallery.”
• 100 Year Starship (their website). The most recent news article on the website is from 2019. This project started in 2011 with support from NASA/Ames and DARPA.

[2021 03 07] Call for Papers! USAIRE Student Awards 2021, What Aviation For Tomorrow’s World? USAIRE Student Awards by USAIRE & ORAJe. USAIRE: Aerospace Business Club, Since 1959, “Connect and empower leaders of today and tomorrow.” A Paris and Toulouse-based association bringing together the aerospace community. ORAJe: Aerospace & Defense Young Professionals Network. [Philippe Mairet, March 7, 2021]

[2021 03 06] NASA: Welcome to ‘Octavia E. Butler Landing’. March 05, 2021. First paragraph of the article: “NASA has named the landing site of the agency’s Perseverance rover “Octavia E. Butler Landing,” after the science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. The landing location is marked with a star in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).” [Douglas Yazell, March 6, 2021]

[2021 03 05] Diversity in Science and Engineering, a webinar from Rice University, September 9, 2020. Host: Neal Lane. Panelists: Shirley Malcolm and Richard Tapia.

[2021 03 04] Parastronaut feasibility project of the European Space Agency (ESA). Someone called this ESA article to my attention in an AIAA meeting of Saturday, February 27, 2021. First paragraph: “In a first for ESA and human spaceflight worldwide, ESA is looking for individual(s) who are psychologically, cognitively, technically and professionally qualified to be an astronaut, but have a physical disability that would normally prevent them from being selected due to the requirements imposed by the use of current space hardware.” Last paragraph: “It is clear that for this very innovative project not all expertise is available within ESA. ESA will have to work with experts in the field. At this point, it is difficult to estimate the amount of resources required. However, in view of the need to adequately engage with multiple stakeholders and the project duration, ESA will commit an initial budget of 1M€.” The article mentions diversity, inclusion, and representation. [Douglas Yazell, March 4, 2021]

• Diversity and inclusion in AIAA. This article presents the subject on the AIAA website.
• Waldo and Magic, Inc. This Wikipedia article discusses the two 1950 novellas by Robert A. Heinlein. Waldo is a 1942 science fiction short story published using the pseudonym Anson MacDonald. From Wikipedia, “The essence of the story is the journey of a mechanical genius from his self-imposed exile from the rest of humanity to a more normal life, conquering the disease myasthenia gravis as well as his own contempt for humans in general. The key to this is that magic is loose in the world, but in a logical and scientific way.”

[2021 03 02] National Women’s History Month. Please enjoy this list of links honoring trailblazers from both the recent and distant past.

1. A Proclamation on Women’s History Month, 2021, from the White House briefing room, March 1, 2021, Presidential Actions.
2. Julia Clark, an airplane pilot who earned her license in 1912 from the Aero Club of America, after persuading Glenn Curtiss to allow her to enroll as the first woman in one of his pilot training classes. Her graduation date was May 19, 2012. I came across two copyright-free photos of her on Flickr in the Southern Methodist University (SMU) DeGolyer Library Early Aviation album, which contains about 312 copyright-free photos from about 1911 to 1916. Ms. Clark died on June 17, 1912 in an airplane accident as a result of a solo test flight. Wikipedia features an article about Ms. Clark. The two photos in this Flickr album are an in-airplane portrait (probably from the same photo session as the photo used in her Wikipedia article) and a 1912 pilot training class portrait. The latter portrait uses this caption: “Description: Students of the Curtiss Aviation School standing in front of a Curtiss pusher. Left to right: Floyd E. Barlow, John G. Kaminski, Smith, W.A. Davis, Manmohan Singh, John Callan, Julia Clark, G. Milton Dunlap, and Kono Takeshi.” [Douglas Yazell, March 2, 2021]
3. Ijeoma Oluo, a Seattle native. Her 2018 book is, “So You Want to Talk About Race.” The Chapter 13 title is, “Why Are Our Students So Angry?” Wikipedia features an article about her, which mentions that the Seattle Metropolitan newspaper honored her in 2015 as one of the 50 most influential people in Seattle. The newspaper honored her again in a 2018 article as one of the 50 most influential women in Seattle. [Douglas Yazell, March 2, 2021]
4. The Houston Chapter of Women in Aviation. From their website, “WAI Houston Chapter is the Southeast Texas chapter of Women in Aviation International. Our diverse membership is composed of men and women, both aviation professionals and enthusiasts that support and promote the furtherance of women in all areas of aviation. We host several events that promote aviation as well as provide excellent training and networking opportunities. Additionally we work with local businesses to provide opportunities and scholarships for women interested in pursuing a career in aviation. All in all we are a fun group of aviation minded individuals dedicated to supporting and encouraging one another to follow our dreams.” [Douglas Yazell, March 2, 2021]
5. From the NASA website article of March 2, 2021: Kelly Latimer: Dryden’s First Female Research Test Pilot. [Philippe Mairet, March 2, 2021]
6. Carol Anderson, author of the 2016 book, “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide”. Here is a quote from a Goodreads online article. “In 2004, fifty years after Brown, “not a single African American earned a Ph.D. in astronomy or astrophysics,” according to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. In fact, of the 2,100 Ph.Ds. awarded in forty-three different fields in the natural sciences, not one of these doctoral degrees went to an African American. The refusal to implement Brown throughout the South even in the face of Sputnik—not only as the law or as simple humanity might have dictated but also as demanded by national interest and patriotism—compromised and undermined American strength. Now, in the twenty-first century, the sector of the U.S. economy that accounts for more than 50 percent of our sustained economic expansion, science and engineering, is relying on an ever-dwindling skilled and educated workforce.” [Douglas Yazell, March 3, 2021]
7. Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006), an author. From her Wikipedia article, “Audience: Publishers and critics have labelled Butler’s work as science fiction. While Butler enjoyed the genre deeply, calling it “potentially the freest genre in existence”, she resisted being branded a genre writer. Her narratives have drawn attention of people from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds. She claimed to have three loyal audiences: black readers, science-fiction fans, and feminists.” NASA: Welcome to ‘Octavia E. Butler Landing’. March 05, 2021. First paragraph of the article: “NASA has named the landing site of the agency’s Perseverance rover ‘Octavia E. Butler Landing,’ after the science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. The landing location is marked with a star in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).” [Douglas Yazell, March 6, 2021]
8. Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), abolitionist and political activist, per her Wikipedia article, which explains that she might soon appear in the USA on the $20 bill. From her Wikipedia article: “Years later, she told an audience: ‘I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say – I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.’ ” Also from her Wikipedia article: “Later that year, Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War. When Montgomery and his troops conducted an assault on a collection of plantations along the Combahee River, Tubman served as a key adviser and accompanied the raid. On the morning of June 2, 1863, Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore. Once ashore, the Union troops set fire to the plantations, destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies.” Again, from her Wikipedia article, “During a train ride to New York in 1869, the conductor told her to move from a half-price section into the baggage car. She refused, showing the government-issued papers that entitled her to ride there. He cursed at her and grabbed her, but she resisted and he summoned two other passengers for help. While she clutched at the railing, they muscled her away, breaking her arm in the process. They threw her into the baggage car, causing more injuries. As these events transpired, other white passengers cursed Tubman and shouted for the conductor to kick her off the train. Her act of defiance became a historical symbol, later cited when Rosa Parks refused to move from a bus seat in 1955.” I look for connections between AIAA and Harriet Tubman, and I find, starting in her Wikipedia article, this poetic connection: Ms. Tubman was the 1896 keynote speaker for the first meeting of this still-existing-in-2021 National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (NACWC), then known as National Federation of Afro-American Women, and their motto was and is, “Lifting as We Climb.” This motto was created to demonstrate to “an ignorant and suspicious world that our aims and interests are identical with those of all good aspiring women.” I am reminded of the lift we study aeronautics and astronautics in AIAA, and I am reminded that a standard aviation sequence of Euler angles is yaw, pitch, and then roll, all positive angles for a climbing, right-hand turn. [Douglas Yazell, March 6, 2021, updated March 7, 2021]
9. Gina McCarthy, the White House National Climate Adviser. This is an AIAA subject, as shown in this AIAA webinar of February 8, 2021, “Sustainability in Flight—Our Journey to Decarbonization.” Ms. McCarthy worked in administrations of the other major political party from about 1985 to 2005, as explained in this Vox article of March 2, 2021, “The Fauci of climate change? Gina McCarthy is in charge of Biden’s massive climate agenda. McCarthy, Obama’s EPA chief, is back with one mission: fighting climate change.” [Douglas Yazell, March 7, 2021]

[2021 02 09] AIAA Webinar: Sustainability in Flight—Our Journey to Decarbonization, 8 February 2021 1100 – 1200 (Eastern Standard Time). Here is a link to that web page. An on-demand recording is available there, open to the public and free of charge. “Leaders in aviation will share perspectives on the industry’s commitment to reducing their carbon footprint. The expert panel will discuss efforts underway and the significant cooperation, innovation, and education required among all industry stakeholders to deliver on this important goal. This timely discussion will outline the major focus areas and necessary advancements in the sector for the next five years and the long-term roadmap necessary to achieve this goal. Learn about the newest R&D technologies, key barriers to progress, and how the next generation of aerospace engineers can be part of achieving our low-carbon future. Explore how aviation executives and policy makers can work together now to be on the leading edge of such cooperation, setting the course for continued industry leadership in the new era of aviation sustainability.”

Welcome Remarks: Dan Dumbacher, AIAA Executive Director

Moderator: Ben Iannotta, Editor-in-Chief, Aerospace America

Speakers:

• Bruce Holmes, D.E., FAIAA, FRAeS, Chief Technology Officer, Alakai Technologies Corporation
• Arjan Hegeman, General Manager, Advanced Technologies, GE Aviation
• Amanda Simpson, Vice President Research and Technology, Airbus Americas

[2021 02 09] NASA Astronaut Millie Hughes-Fulford Dies. [From AIAA Daily Launch] The AP (2/8) reports that Millie Hughes-Fulford, “a trailblazing astronaut and scientist who became the first female payload specialist to fly in space for NASA, died following a yearslong battle with cancer, her family said. She was 75.” Hughes-Fulford “was selected by NASA for its astronaut program in 1983 and five years later, in June 1991, spent nine days in orbit on the shuttle Columbia, conducting experiments on the effect of space travel on humans as part of the agency’s first mission dedicated to biomedical studies, STS-40.”

[2021 02 09] NASA/JSC Oral History Project. Here is a link to that web page. [Philippe Mairet, February 6, 2021]

• Jean-Loup Chretien, a French astronaut. Here is the link to his oral history.
• James Calvin McLane, Jr. (1945-2015). Here is the link to his oral history. [Douglas Yazell, February 9, 2021]

[2021 01 31] Arthur Dula Recieved the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Social Sciences Award on October 20, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Here is a link to the article on the IAA website. The web page features a photo with this caption: Photo: from left to the right: Francisco Mendieta-Jimenez, Mexico, Marius-Ioan Piso, Romania, Arthur Dula, USA and Jean-Michel Contant, France. [Philippe Mairet, January 31, 2021]

• Additional notes from Douglas Yazell, January 31, 2021: Shen Ge put me in touch with Mr. Dula when we needed a report from the office of a copyright lawyer saying no copyright infringements were to be found with our AIAA Houston Section yet-to-be-started project of reprinting the 1952-1954 Collier’s Space Series, a series of articles in eight issues of Collier’s Magazine. We used eight bimonthly issues of Horizons, the newsletter of AIAA Houston Section, to complete the work, starting with the July / August 2012 issue. Our Horizons Collier’s team reprinted the entire series page by page and in high resolution, free for anyone to download and enjoy, using the PDF format. Members of the Horizons Collier’s team:
  • Arthur Dula: LibertyCon is a Tennessee Literary SciFi Convention. Its 2021 website features a biography of Mr. Dula on this web page, since Mr. Dula is the 2012 Science Guest of Honor for 2021. The biography includes, “the literary executor for major science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein.” The Heinlein Society website features a 36-page 2020 annual report. It links to upcoming science fiction conventions featuring the Heinlein Society, such as LibertyCon 2021. Another is Balticon 2021, a free virtual event, Memorial Day weekend, May 28-31, 2021.
  • Shirazi Jaleel-Khan in the office of Mr. Dula
  • John Sisson, creator of the blog, “Dreams of Space – Books and Ephemera, Non-fiction children’s space flight stuff 1945-1975.” Glancing at the 2020 blog entries, I especially like the blog entry, “Farms of the Future (1957),” a calendar with full color illustrations by Don Bloodgood and Forrest Shaffer. That was blog entry #700 from Mr. Sisson. Also from the 2020 blog entries, I like, “Space Stations (1962).”
  • Dr. Albert Allen Jackson IV, a member of AIAA Houston Section, and a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.
  • Scott Lowther, creator of the website Aerospace Projects Review.
  • Ron Miller, illustrator/author and creator of the website Black Cat Studios.
  • Melvin Schuetz, creator the the website, The Chesley Bonestell Archives of Melvin H. Schuetz.
  • The late Frederick Ira Ordway III (1927-2014). We used this CG Publishing web page link while we reprinted the Collier’s Space Series. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about Mr. Ordway.

[2021 01 28] The On-Board Computer System (LE SYSTÈME INFORMATIQUE EMBARQUÉ) of the NASA Apollo program, a web page on the French website, From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre à la Lune). The language of this web page is the French language, but even for readers unfamiliar with the French language, the images and the videos are valuable. Two complementary items are discussed, the DSKY (Display and Keyboard) and the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer). After seeing this web page, AIAA Houston Section member Dr. Albert Allen Jackson IV (a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society) called attention to this public NASA technical document (60 pages) from March of 1973, NASA Technical Note NASA TN D-7112, APOLLO EXPERIENCE REPORT – SIMULATION OF MANNED SPACE FLIGHT FOR CREW TRAINING. Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas 77058. [Philippe Mairet, January 28, 2021]

[2021 01 28] “U. S. History of Manual Crew Override,” by Gary Johnson, J&P Technologies, SAIC SMA Flight Safety Office. A recording of this Zoom meeting presentation is available online via YouTube. The date of the Zoom meeting presentation was Saturday, January 9, 2021. The first chart shown uses a date of December 11, 2020, since the January presentation was not the first presentation by Mr. Johnson using these charts. The manual crew override subject is NASA and its programs such as Apollo, Mercury, Gemini, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, Space Shuttle (Space Transportation System), and the International Space Station. The event of Saturday, January 9, 2021, was one in a series of weekly Saturday morning meetings (Space Geek Speak) from AIAA Houston Section. Since December 2018, attendees discuss space exploration topics with members, friends, and family (membership not required). Since March 2020 (Pi Day of 2020, or  March 14, 2020), this has been an online Zoom meeting instead of meeting in a local restaurant (Seabrook Classic Cafe). Since going online, the weekly meeting often features invited speaker presentations. Host and Space Geek Speak creator is Svetlana Hanson, a past Chair of AIAA Houston Section. Saturday morning weekly start time is 8:30 AM Central Time. Here is the link used every week for Space Geek Speak. [Douglas Yazell, January 28, 2021]

[2021 01 19] MLK Day of 2021 (Monday, January 18, 2021) and AIAA. An excellent online public recorded webinar event is available (link from YouTube) from AIAA Los Angeles – Las Vegas Section.  This link shows publicity for this AIAA LA-LV Section online, public, and recorded event. The ongoing AIAA annual SciTech event included an excellent MLK Day webinar event, too. If I find a public link for the recorded SciTech MLK Day webinar, I will post it here. This public link displays the publicity. I enjoyed the live event from home after paying SciTech registration as a professional member. Two levels of cost were available for me with SciTech 2021 registration. SciTech 2021 is a virtual event. [Douglas Yazell]

[2021 01 14] Astronaut Dr. William E. Thornton (1929 – 2021). Here is a link to a biographical article about him from astronautix.com. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article about him, including these first words, “William Edgar Thornton (M.D.) (born April 14, 1929; died January 11, 2021 in Boerne, Texas[1]) was a NASA astronaut. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from University of North Carolina and a doctorate in medicine, also from UNC. He flew on Challenger twice, the STS-8 and STS-51B missions.” In a section with the title, “Post-NASA Career,” the article continues with this, “Thornton retired from NASA effective May 31, 1994.[2] Thornton was later a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, and was an adjunct professor at the University of Houston–Clear Lake. He resided in Texas.” The location of UHCL is in the NASA Johnson Space Center community. [Philippe Mairet, January 14, 2021]

[2021 01 10, Douglas Yazell] AIAA SciTech Forum, 11-15 and 19-21 January 2021. AIAA Science and Technology Forum and Exposition. Virtual Event. As a professional member, I will enjoy that, though the event is virtual and I will be working about 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM every day teaching math in a public high school in the Houston area. Replays will almost certainly be available. AIAA SciTech Forum 2021 publicity: “Accelerating Innovation Through Diversity,” and “The 2021 AIAA SciTech Forum will explore how the diversification of teams, industry sectors, technologies, design cycles, and perspectives can all be leveraged toward innovation.” I am a member of the AIAA Diversity Working Group (DWG). See comments from our AIAA DWG Chair Jandria Alexander in the recent (September 2020) Aerospace America Flight Path feature (“Now is the Time”) and the two AIAA 2020 ASCENDx webinars parts one and two.  The two webinars are a single webinar using the title, “ASCENDxWebinar: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Aerospace Community and Workforce.” I am pleased to note that she talks about Black Lives Matter and expresses no reservations. AIAA SciTech Forum 2021 takes place less than a week after the USA Capitol invasion of January 6, 2021. My article below is relevant. Its date is January 1, 2020. Its subject is whiteness and the climate crisis.

[2020 01 01, Douglas Yazell] Whiteness and the Human-Induced Climate Crisis, featuring quotes from climate scientist Kate Marvel in her October 28, 2019, guest appearance on the Ezra Klein Show podcast

Climate scientist Kate Marvel was the guest of the Ezra Klein Show podcast of October 28, 2019. This is part 1 of in a series of 5 podcast episodes about the human-induced climate crisis. Part 5 is online now, too, featuring Mr. Klein’s guest David Roberts, a Vox (dot com) journalist for climate and energy. The Vox (dot com) website was co-founded by Ezra Klein.

See the website TED.com for Kate Marvel’s TED talk (Technology, Education, and Design). See her website, marvelclimate.com.

Her website contains a section called Day Jobs. It includes Columbia University and NASA GISS, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Stanford University, and Carnegie Institution.

Mr. Klein mentions that Ms. Marvel writes the column Hot Planet in the magazine Scientific American.

Below is a short segment I transcribed from the podcast episode featuring climate scientist Kate Marvel. I might summarize this as, “Whiteness and Human-Induced Climate Crisis.” She does a great job of adding to this discussion, even as she just scratches the surface.

[1:14:35]
[EK]
…what does it mean to live morally, taking climate change seriously, and recognizing that we are in a society that is heavily contributing to the climate crisis, and on the other hand, wanting to do something about it?

And as somebody who lives in this all day every day, and obviously has probably [?] of skills yourself, by the work you do, how do you think about the question of living morally in a very high-carbon society, a high-emission society, even as you, like, walk around every day with the knowledge of what that might mean for future generations?

[KM]
In a very scattered and a not very coherent way. This is something that I struggle with a lot, and it really upsets me, and I think maybe the closest I’ve every come to finding the framework for understanding that is realizing that I am a white person.

I am a white person in America, and that means I carry with me a sort of privilege. You know, we as white people, we benefit from white supremacy, even if we didn’t actively choose to participate in it. By not actively working to dismantle it, we are hurting people.

We are never going to be able, I think, in our lifetimes, to completely remove that, and, you know, it’s not necessarily a question of what we feel as individual people. It’s a question of a system that we as individuals are participating in.

And that’s not a very good answer, and it’s not an exact metaphor, but it is a way, I think, of thinking, and there is a literature about that, and there isn’t, necessarily, yet, about climate change, for, “How does one live in a world which is polluted with a bad thing that you are participating in whether you like it or not, and it is almost impossible to cut yourself off from it?”

[EK]
And what do you think of some of the literature, I mean, how does that speak out in your life?

[KM]
It’s ways to think about systems, it’s ways to understand the kind of false dichotomy of individual choice versus social change.

It’s, you know, it’s something that I’m just starting to explore right now, but it’s something that, I think, holds potential lessons for the climate movement, moving forward.
[1:17:07]

Notes from Douglas Yazell, January 1, 2020:

I write a column about the human-induced climate crisis in every issue (since the start of 2013) of Horizons, the newsletter of AIAA Houston Section. (I was the Editor for Horizons from 2011 through 2014, and all issues are available to the public at www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter.)

I am one of about 10 or 15 members of the AIAA Diversity Working Group. (I do not speak for the AIAA Diversity Working Group.)

The 2012 Climate of Doubt episode of PBS Frontline on television convinced me of the reality of the human-induced climate crisis. Prior to that, the subject was not on my radar. After that, I knew I could trust the NASA climate website(s), Climate Reality Project (which I discovered in 2015), national science institutes, 350.org, NOAA, etc., and I learned not to trust the Heartland Institute (which I never heard of until seeing that 2012 broadcast).

Professor Ian Haney-López appeared on the PBS television show Moyers & Company in February of 2014. He was new to me, but he convinced me that race is the number one problem in the USA, as he phrased it, as I recall. I bought and read his 2014 book, Dog Whistle Politics, and I continued with what has become a lifelong study, struggle, and focus on this subject. I often think of this topic as prejudice and discrimination, which leads to racism, misogyny, and more. The experts I trust explain that racism, as Ms. Marvel explains above, is a system.

In the podcast episode above, Ms. Marvel does not mention the denial common to whiteness and the human-induced climate crisis, but I like the quote, “In an avalanche, every snowflake pleads not guilty.” That quote is from George Lipsitz in his 2011 book, and he is quoting someone else. I have the audiobook version of that 2011 book.

[Updates to the above news article, Douglas Yazell, Friday, January 3, 2020] I listened to the following two YouTube videos today, and they fit well with the above article, and of course, there are many more, some of which I discovered already:

• Guest appearance (audio, no video except for one still image) by author Debby Irving (author of Waking Up White – and Finding Myself in the Story of Race) on NEXT Economy Now, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e91sKH0fQVE , Next Economy Now #127 – Debby Irving: How White People Can Advocate For Racial Justice, Debby Irving is a racial justice educator, author, and public speaker. A community organizer and classroom teacher for 25 years, Debby Irving grappled with racial injustice without understanding racism as a systemic issue or her own whiteness as an obstacle to it. As general manager of Boston’s Dance Umbrella and First Night, and later as an elementary school teacher in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she struggled to make sense of racial tensions she could feel but could not explain. In 2009, Debby took a graduate school course, Racial and Cultural Identities, which gave her the answers she’d been looking for and launched her on a journey of discovery. Now, speaking and leading workshops around the country, Debby devotes herself to exploring the impact white skin can have on perception, problem solving, and creating culturally inclusive communities. A graduate of the Winsor School in Boston, she holds a BA from Kenyon College and an MBA from Simmons College. Her first book, Waking Up White, tells the story of how she went from well-meaning to well-doing. 148 views, Sep 18, 2018.
• Guest appearance by journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates (author of the Beautiful Struggle, and author of Between the World and Me) at the Brennan Institute of New York University (NYU). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg7fskiOBKU, A Conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Melissa Murray, 10,871 views, Aug 14, 2019. NYU School of Law, 10.1K subscribers, January 31, 2019, Brennan Center for Justice

[2019 05 12] Victor Rhoder, A 1962 NASA Johnson Space Center (then Manned Spacecraft Center) Photographer, A 1961 Texas Southern University Graduate. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below. A related link: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/news/releases/1963_1965/. And I found a 1979 NASA/JSC Mars Penetrator report (online, available to anyone) written by five people, four of whom are from Houston Texas USA. Three of them are from NASA/JSC, and one of them is Victor Rhoder. Here is a link to that report. Here is a link to a photo in that report of a man from the test team, and the photo was probably taken by Victor Rhoder.

[2019 01 20] Sunday, January 20, 2019. George Nield and Wanda Sigur are two of three current candidates for AIAA President, and they both have ties to our NASA/JSC Community. As noted in his candidate document, George Nield was Chair of AIAA Houston Section not once but twice. Here is a link to an AIAA document (membership might be required) listing the three current candidates for AIAA President, Basil Hassan, George Nield, and Wanda Sigur. As noted in this document, George Nield was Chair of AIAA Houston Section for 1994-95 and 1997-98. (That document is not quite up to date, since it does not include 2018-2019. In a break with tradition, Svetlana Hanson is AIAA Houston Section Chair for both 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. Our tradition has been a service record for each Chair spending one year as Chair Elect and one year as Past Chair, in addition to one year as Chair. For 2018-2019, our Section suffered from too few candidates for our roles, so we are lucky that Svetlana Hanson volunteered to serve in this role.) Only George Nield and Svetlana Hanson have served more than one year as AIAA Houston Section Chair. As noted here, AIAA Houston Section recently started an informal weekly breakfast meeting from about 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM every Saturday at Seabrook Classic Café, where I enjoyed meeting Wanda Sigur twice in recent weeks. Membership is not required for these weekly breakfast meetings. Friends and family are welcome to attend. [Douglas Yazell, Chair, AIAA Houston Section History Technical Committee, douglas.yazell [at] me [dot] com.]

[2017 12 2] Published here December 3, 2017. Order of Magnitude, A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-1990, a 1989 NASA History Series book by Roger E. Bilstein of the University of Houston. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 11 26] Published here November 26, 2017. The 2012 video greeting from Dr. George Nield on the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebration of AIAA Houston Section. This 30-second (4 MB) video file is a great souvenir whose file information dates it as June 6, 2017. As he mentions in this video recording, he served twice in the role of Chair of AIAA Houston Section. Since our Section started in 1962, only Dr. Nield served twice in that role. Here is the link to that file.

[2017 07 15] Published here July 15, 2017. The 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport, an AIAA Historic Aerospace Site. Recent & Upcoming Events. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 06 30] Published here June 30, 2017. NASA Climate Science Plans CLARREO Pathfinder on the International Space Station. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below. (Click to zoom.) )

[2017 06 28] Published here June 28, 2017. A 3-minute video featuring the history of Horizons, newsletter of AIAA Houston Section. This provides a better history lesson than I (Douglas Yazell) remembered. Shen Ge and I created this video (and this YouTube channel for AIAA Houston Section) for a 2012 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for Horizons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8NSex0RhAk.

[2017 06 28] Published here June 28, 2017. A few links of interest to our history technical committee were emailed to us recently from Philippe Mairet of our French sister section 3AF MP.

• • From Air & Cosmos, June 27, 2017, Il y a 40 ans disparaissait Wernher von Braun, 40 Years Since the Death of Wernher von Braun. [In French] http://www.air-cosmos.com/il-y-a-40-ans-disparaissait-wernher-von-braun-96943.

• From the French website Capcom Espace (in French), a web page about the history of NASA Johnson Space Center, https://www.capcomespace.net/dossiers/espace_US/apollo/installations/centre_MSC.htm.

[2017 06 24] Published here June 24, 2017. John B. Charles publicized this event in JSC Today (email news for NASA/JSC civil servants): Honoring First African-American Astronaut Trainee. The event will recognize Major Robert H. Lawrence, United States Air Force (USAF), on the 50th anniversary of his selection as the first African-American astronaut trainee on June 30, 1967. Lawrence was in the third group of pilots selected for the USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program, a secret piloted reconnaissance platform in low-Earth orbit. That program was cancelled in June 1969. Tragically, he died in the crash of a training jet aircraft in December 1967; but, had he survived, Major Lawrence would almost certainly have been transferred to NASA in August 1969, along with seven other MOL pilots who flew the early shuttle missions and later led NASA. Local elected officials, NASA astronauts current and past and others will offer tributes to Maj. Lawrence. In addition, a new portrait of Major Robert H. Lawrence will be unveiled. Event Date: Saturday, June 24, 2017 Event Start Time:2:00 PM Event End Time:5:00 PM. Event Location: Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, 3816 Caroline Street. [No PDF version of the JPEG image below is provided, since the only links are in the website of AIAA Houston Section, www.aiaahouston.org.] We have some event photos from Douglas Yazell (iPhone 5 camera) and Michael Oelke (Canon DSLR camera).

[2017 05 29] Published here May 29, 2017. Two Recent Climate Change Events in the NASA/JSC Community. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 05 07] Published here May 7, 2017. AIAA Houston Section Annual Technical Symposium (ATS 2017). Here is a link to the ATS 2017 web page. Some presentatoins (charts, slides) will be available there. This year AIAA Houston Section is joined the by Human Systems Integration (HSI) Employee Resource Group (ERG) of NASA Johnson Space Center to present ATS 2017. The first ATS was probably ATS 1975. It was led by Norman Chaffee and Chester Vaughan. ATS 2017 morning keynote: Overview of the Orion Cockpit. Speaker: STS-110 astronaut Lee Morin. Luncheon keynote: Human-Induced Climate Change Requires Urgent Action. That sentence is the title of the 2-page position statement of the American Geophysical Union. Speakers for the luncheon keynote:

• Dr. André Droxler, Rice University Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Science, and Rice University Baker Institute for Public Policy Scholar.
• Dr. Stephanie Thomas, Public Citizen. PhD, Southern Methodist University Department of Earth Science. A lead organizer for People’s Climate March in Houston, Saturday, April 29, 2017 in Clinton Park at the Port of Houston, with a crowd of about 700 people (news article below). [A week earlier, March for Science – Houston attracted a crowd of about 15,000 people in and around City Hall on Saturday, April 22, 2017 (news article below).]
• Doug Peterson, Exploration Green Conservancy. Downtown Houston has an excellent park, Discovery Green. Now the NASA Johnson Space Center community has Exploration Green. A huge 1960s-era golf course has now been converted into this park. Flood control, recreation, hiking, biking, walking, environmental protection, wetlands, islands, and more. The first Clear Lake City homes were built here with the NASA/JSC community in mind. This area is now called the Houston Clear Lake area. Exploration Green: 200 acres. 80 acres of lakes, open water, wetlands, and islands. Exploration Green is open already with 20 or 30 entry points. Phase 1 of 5 will be complete in 2017. Exploration Green is divided into 5 sections.

Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

AIAA Houston Section International Activities Committee (IAC) mirrors the AIAA IAC. ATS 2017 included a presentation from Peru via Skype by Saul Perez and Ruth Quispe, thanks to our since-2017 Peru-USA sister section creation. Our sister section in Peru is the Arequipa chapter of SCAP, an astrobiology science society. Our Houston contact person for this sister section activity is Jackelynne Silva-Martinez, an ATS 2017 presenter in Houston. Another ATS 2017 presenter is Chris Y. Taylor. While in Shanghai China for his work, he once enjoyed dinner with several people from our since-1987 Chinese sister section, the Shanghai Astronautical Society (SAS) of the Chinese Society of Astronautics (CSA). ATS 2017 included a display of items from the NASA/JSC collections of the late James C. McLane, Jr. He led the lunar receiving laboratory and, earlier, the vacuum chamber test facility of NASA/JSC during and after the Apollo era. We thank Julie Barnes of NASA/JSC for the display at ATS 2017. The collection was delivered to NASA/JSC in 3 large (?) pickup trucks. A news article below summarizes some of those details. The late James C. McLane, Jr. co-founded our AIAA Houston Section Chinese sister section relationship in 1987. If we find people to continue that tradition in 2017, we can celebrate its 30th anniversary. [We are now celebrating in 2017 the 10th anniversary of our since-2007 French sister section relationship with 3AF MP, www.3af-mp.fr, which includes Toulouse France. Since 2017, we also enjoy an Ethiopia-USA sister section relationship with the Addis Ababa Ethiopia branch of the Ethiopian Space Science Society, ESSS.]

As the ATS 2017 poster below shows, Dr. Edgar Bering led the Engineers as Educators workshop from 9:00 AM to noon in the NASA/JSC Gilruth Center Lone Star Room.

[2017 04 30] Published here April 30, 2017. People’s Climate March in Houston, Clinton Park, Port of Houston, Saturday, April 29, 2017. Here is a link to the PDF version (6 MB) of the image file below.

[2017 04 29] Published here April 29, 2017. Earth Day at Exploration Green, a new Houston Clear Lake Area Park, Saturday, April 22, 2017, in the NASA/JSC Community. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 04 23] Published here April 23, 2017. Yuri’s Night Houston 2017. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 04 23] Published here April 23, 2017. March for Science – Houston, In Solidarity with the March for Science in Washington DC, Saturday, April 22, 2017. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 04 16] Published here April 16, 2017. The 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport; An AIAA Historic Aerospace Site; Recent & Upcoming Events. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 03 18] Published here March 18, 2017. Please see the news article using this link or, to avoid scrolling down later, this link. Those links go to the news article published on the AIAA Houston Section International Activities Committee (IAC) web page. The title of this news article is Toulouse Nuts (the restored 1944 TF-51 Mustang) in Houston in 2017; The 2016 Oshkosh AirVenture Grand Champion. 

[2017 02 25] Published here February 25, 2017. Famous Figures: Carl Huss. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 02 22] Published here February 22, 2017. AIAA Houston Section Movie Event: Hidden Figures. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 02 04] Published here February 4, 2017. Congratulations to the New AIAA Region IV Associate Fellows Including Former AIAA Houston Section Chair Michael Oelke. Congratulations to new AIAA Fellow John Valasek of Texas A&M University. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 01 21] Published here January 21, 2017. Pi as a Continued Fraction thanks to Ramanujan? Here is the link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2017 01 02] Published here January 2, 2017. Affirmative Diversity: Goals & Timetables. First in a series by Douglas Yazell, former AIAA Houston Section Editor (2008, 2011-2014) on the subject of diversity, inspired by the AIAA Diversity Working Group. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2016 12 18] Published here December 18, 2016. The 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport, Monthly Wings & Wheels Events Continued for All of 2016, A 2009 AIAA Historic Aerospace Site. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2016 12 16] Published here December 16, 2016. Beyond Time: French Caver Michel Siffre and NASA: Born in 1939, Notable Cave Endurance Stays (Science Experiments): 1962, 1972 (in Texas), 2000. Here is a link for the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2016 12 12] Published here December 12, 2016. McLane Collections Accepted by NASA/JSC. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2016 11 27] Published here November 27, 2016. Selected 2009-2016 Aerospace Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Here is a link to the PDF version of the JPEG image below.

[2016 10 29] Published here October 29, 2016. Gone But Not Forgotten. Robert Anderson “Bob” Hoover, Pilot, 1922 – 2016. AIAA Houston Section member Dr. Patrick Rodi told us about this great loss. Robert “Bob” Hoover, one of the greatest “stick-and-rudder” pilots of all time, has died at 94. See story at,
http://abcn.ws/2eDXhsM
I was able to witness Bob’s routine in his Shrike Commander on a number of occasions. His mastery of energy management was amazing to watch. The integral of all the world’s piloting skill dropped a few percentage points with his passing. See,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7R7jZmliGc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXyDRG9za3c

Here is a link to the PDF version of the image below.

[2016 07 04] Published here July 4, 2016. Horizons newsletter archive adds years 1977 – 2004. This AIAA Houston Section Horizons newsletter archive web page is www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter. 

[2016 06 27] Published here June 27, 2016. Suddenly Tomorrow Came, the Audiobook. A Ted Kenny project for AIAA Houston Section. From the 1993 book by Henry C. Dethloff, Suddenly Tomorrow Came, a History of the Johnson Space Center. The entire book and one page per chapter of artwork is already published by NASA. How can we add tables, figures, photographs, and captions?

[2016 06 27] Published here June 27, 2016. The 1940 Air Terminal Museum. An AIAA Historic Aerospace Site. The monthly Wings & Wheels event. Here is the link for the website of the museum.

[2016 06 10] Published here June 10, 2016. Joseph Guy Thibodaux, Jr. (November 27, 1921 – April 26, 2016). An AIAA Fellow. AIAA Houston Section Chair 1969 – 1970. A NASA Watch article brought this sad news to us and provided two links, one link for an obituary and one link for an oral history and a biography.

Glenn Jenkinson was Vice Chair Technical when Dr. Garland Bauch was our Section Chair for 2000 – 2001. Glenn supervised starting up a Propulsion technical committee for our Section led by Guy. Our newsletter Horizons will shows Guy in that role on the organization chart, for about two years starting about July 1, 2002. I (Douglas Yazell) attended the initial meeting (in a NASA/JSC building near the back gate) thanks to an invitation from Glenn. Norman Chaffee attended. Quite a few of Guy’s retired engineers attended, including Hubert (Hugh) Brasseaux, my great tennis friend from the Bay Area Racquet Club. Glenn arrived late with cookies he ordered from a grocery store. The cooks were late with that task. Astronaut Franklin Chang Diaz attended, too. For the 2003 – 2004 AIAA year, I was our Section’s Vice Chair Technical, and Guy resigned from that role as Chair of that technical committee. His many members were more interested in hunting and other hobbies once they retired.

I was Vice Chair Technical for 2003-2004, so one of my jobs was being the General Chair of our Section’s Annual Technical Symposium (ATS). We held the event on Friday, April 16, 2004, at NASA/JSC. I called our first in-person planning meeting for Halloween day 2003, October 31, 2003. All of our meetings took place at Mediterraneo Cafe on Upper Bay Road. We met every two weeks for a while, then every week. Ellen Gillespie, Tsutsumi Sophia Bright, Murugan Subramaniam, and more. Others joined our planning group, but a big boost for me was having Norman Chaffee and Guy Thibodaux join our planning meetings. I was a clumsy leader, but I learned some things. That was my introduction to Guy. Chester Vaughan later joined our planning meetings, too. We aimed to find 54 presentations (54 presenters for our 3 concurrent sessions). Only a few weeks before the event, we needed 18 more. Ellen Gillespie at United Space Alliance found Bob Smith (?), a manager who liked AIAA. He ordered all of his team to make presentations, so we found our last 18 presentations. That was ATS 2004. Looking back, we had no ATS the 3 years before ATS 2004, and if I counted correctly (www.aiaahouston.org/history_technical_committee), ATS 2004 was the 25th occurrence of ATS, an anniversary we did not know about at the time. The archive.org website saved related information from our former website, www.aiaa-houston.org. For example, even some presentations (PowerPoint or PDF) can still be found using this link.

ATS 2 took place in 1976. We have no record for now of ATS 1. Our Section started in 1962. Horizons (our Section’s newsletter) probably started in late 1971 or early 1972, and our first archived issue is now a 1977 issue. The name Horizons was not used initially. The only other year to omit ATS was 1997, the year before Dr. George Nield was our Section Chair for a second time; only he has been Section Chair twice.

Two issues of Horizons featuring Guy Thibodaux are mentioned below, so here are those two links. The first link is for the April / May 2013 issue. Here is the link for the high-resolution version of that issue. In fact, that issue refers to the mention of Guy in the July 2010 issue, too, so that link is here. That link fails to use our Horizons directory, so I should update it, but I will probably postpone that.  The second link is for the May / June 2014 issue.

Guy Thibodaux will be missed and never forgotten. As I told him once, probably at a 2011 NAL-JSC-hosted climate change meeting at NASA/JSC Gilruth Center, I glanced at his NASA biography and noted that he NASA Exceptional Service Medal (TWICE in 1969!). I told him that was insanely great, or something like that. He modestly replied that NASA handed out a lot of those at the time. I replied that I was so impressed that he won that medal TWICE in the year that people first walked on the Moon! Guy will be missed and and never forgotten.

[NASA Alumni League – Johnson Space Center Chapter (NAL-JSC) organized two climate change meetings; September 2011 and October 2011. See the NAL-JSC website for their link to those charts and a description of the meetings. By 2012, I learned that human-induced climate change requires urgent action, as IPCC’s first Chair Bert Bolin wrote in the conclusion of his 2007 book (A History of the Science and Politics of Climate Change: The Role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), and as the AGU stated in their updated position statement title in August of 2013.]

[2016 04 18] Published here April 18, 2016. Philippe Mairet and I (Douglas Yazell) just now discovered this NASA history website for the Mercury program. The link leads to a gallery of photographs and much more.

[2016 01 06] AIAA Houston Section dinner meeting of December 3, 2015.
Ethiopian Delegation Visits AIAA Houston Section

[2016 01 02] January 2016. The 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport, Houston Texas USA. An AIAA Historic Aerospace Site. This web page’s monthly news article about this museum.

[2016 01 02] Published January 2, 2016.
March and June 2015: The 50-Year Anniversary of the First Spacewalks

[2015 12 16] December 16, 2015. Upcoming monthly event (Saturday, December 19, 2015) at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport, an AIAA Historic Aerospace Site. 

[2015 12 12] December 12, 2015. News about the causes of the 2011 Texas drought:

[2015 12 02] December 2, 2015 A NASA Alumni League JSC Chapter event: Gemini 7/6 Remembered; A 50th Anniversary Celebration of Gemini 7/6

Gulfgate and the start of NASA in Houston Texas USA
NASA history
[2015 11 23] November 23, 2015: The 1962 start of the NASA Manned Spaceflight Center (MSC) in Houston, now the Johnson Space Center. It is easy to forget that this is where NASA in Houston started. It was not in the Houston Clear Lake area. Gulfgate. Here is an exact address from a Texas state government document:

Farnsworth & Chambers Building, 2999 S. Wayside, Houston, Harris County, Texas 77023

Below are a few images:

The bottom left image above is the Hal Beck group. See the back cover of the May 2011 issue of Horizons, newsletter of AIAA Houston Section. One of two archives can be found here using this link for www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter. That issue is sometimes called our March / April 2011 issue. The image was published in the NASA JSC Roundup newsletter, but our AIAA caption might have a more complete list of the names of those people.

The upper right image is from a Texas state government FTP website, so to speak. A link is provided here. That is Robert Rowe Gilruth with 6 of the 7 Mercury astronauts.

Michael Oelke provided the other photo this week. A friend of his visited this place recently. The statue on the right is a statue of Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space. A tribute to John Glenn appears in the left side of that photo.

[2015 11 21] November 21, 2015. Mark Boslough, PhD, in the recent issue of The Flight Plan, the newsletter of AIAA Albuquerque Section. See the November 2012 climate change TEDxABQ talk (Mankind can Bet on Global Warming, and Win) by Dr. Mark Boslough using this link.

[2015 11 03] Tuesday, November 3, 2015 dinner meeting presentations (3):

Dr. Bruce A. McCarl of Texas A&M University, a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize laureate (charts, 46 slides, 3 MB, converted by us to PDF from PowerPoint)

Ian Mills, NASA/JSC International Space Station (ISS) Robotics Operations Group. He is a team leader for the group which installed climate science instruments RapidScat and CATS (Cloud Aerosol Transport System) on ISS, moving them from the SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule. His PowerPoint charts, his charts converted by us to PDF format, and his movie file are below:

• PowerPoint charts, 9 MB, 23 charts
• PowerPoint charts converted by us to PDF format, 3 MB, 23 charts (slides)
• Movie file, .mov format, 12 seconds, 2 MB

Douglas Yazell, event organizer, Councilor 2015-2017, AIAA Houston Section. Introductory charts (14 slides, 2.3 MB, PDF).

Dinner meeting title used in our publicity; “Climate Change Engineering, Science, & Public Policy.”

Experiment: With a standard YouTube license, we try the embed code here:

Flooding Houston,Texas flood video 26.05.2015, and we can search for the URL using that title. Slides above from Douglas Yazell show scenes like this (Texas flooding of May 27, 2015). See charts from Dr. McCarl (above) to know if he made a connection between the climate crisis and those slides from Douglas Yazell. We sent those charts to Dr. McCarl before our dinner meeting of November 3, 2015.

Newsletter article in work December 27, 2015

Draft newsletter article (incomplete, revision 4) about this dinner meeting event of November 3, 2015: Climate Change Engineering, Science & Public Policy. (PDF, 3 MB).

AIAA Houston Section used to place such charts on our opening web page in a section called Kickin’ Up Some Dust, as I recall. We could use a page on our current website to place such charts now. For our Section’s Annual Technical Symposium, we already have pages on this website. For dinner meetings, Lunch & Learns, etc., what better place than our Section’s history technical committee’s web page? So I put them here for now. [Douglas Yazell, November 5, 2015]

[2015 11 06] Friday, November 6, 2015: A NASA/JPL Cal Tech press release:

Just in time to publish with the dinner meeting presentation above from Mr. Ian Mills, today we find a NASA/JPL California Institute of Technology press release, NASA’s RapidScat Celebrates One-Year Anniversary.

[2015 11 06] Friday, November 6, 2015: Photographs from the AIAA Houston Section delegation’s visit to China in 1992 (Shanghai, Beijing, etc.):

Delegation member Tuyen Hua rescanned 376 of his photographs from this 1992 visit to China. He then Photoshopped the images to sharper and larger resolutions. Here is the link to his Flickr album which he made available for anyone to enjoy, view, download, etc.

[2015 11 08] November 8, 2015: A project for our technical committee: polish that plaque?

Photos of three Rocket Park plaques are available in the list below. These are iPhone 5 snapshots by Douglas Yazell (November 2015):

• Plaque: AIAA Historic Aerospace Site Johnson Space Center 2005, outdoors in Rocket Park. That is from November 2015. Here is a link to an image showing that plaque when it was new!
• Plaque: Little Joe rocket, outdoors in Rocket Park
• Plaque: ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) indoors in Rocket Park (under the Saturn V crew vehicle, or capsule).

[2015 12 03] Tuesday, December 3, 2015: Dinner meeting:

See www.aiaahouston.org for details about this upcoming meeting, featuring the Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS).

Members of our AIAA Houston Section History technical committee, updated August 17, 2021:

• Chair 2015-present: Douglas Yazell, Honeywell aerospace engineering, 1981-2011 (in the NASA/JSC community since 1992), Horizons newsletter editor April 2011- June 2014
• Note: Ted Kenny, NASA/JSC (Chair of this history technical committee, 2013-2014).
• Note: Chester A. Vaughan, retired from Boeing and NASA/JSC, was Chair of this history technical committee prior to Ted Kenny.

We are always looking for new professional members. See the organization chart for contact information. Additional contact information is douglas [dot] yazell [at] me [dot] com.

The Audiobook for the 1993 NASA-Commissioned book, Suddenly Tomorrow Came… A History of the Johnson Space Center, by Henry C. Dethloff

• Ted Kenny initiated this audiobook project. Good progress has been made as of August 7, 2013, but an entire single chapter has not yet been recorded. Among other examples of progress, he set up a sound recording studio and two people worked on sample readings with help from documented instructions and advice.
• A few readers are lined up already: the author Henry C. Dethloff, Ted Kenny, Norman Chaffee (NASA, retired), Ellen Gillespie (formerly with United Space Alliance), Dr. Steven E. Everett (The Boeing Company), and Douglas Yazell.
• We are rounding up readers and proofers as of August 2013, and we restarted the audiobook project as of August 2015.
• Henry C. Dethloff is the author of quite a few excellent books. His vita is presented here.
• A PDF version of the book is available here from a NASA website: Suddenly Tomorrow Came… A History of the Johnson Space Center.

Oral Histories

Norman Chaffee of the NASA Alumni League (NAL) JSC Chapter (NAL JSC) asked Ted Kenny for help with the NAL JSC oral history project, since Ted Kenny had an audio recording studio set up in his office area at NASA/JSC. Ted Kenny said yes.

Douglas Yazell suggested an oral history for Dr. Albert Allen Jackson IV, also. Al Jackson has been the AIAA Houston Section astrodynamics technical committee Chair since 2007 or even long before 2007. Douglas Yazell will just use his smartphone to record the conversations about Al Jackson’s career, then transcribe those recordings. Only Word and PDF documents will be kept. They can be stored on this web page.

A few notes about Al Jackson’s career are noted here. He was a NASA/JSC civil servant for almost five years, including Apollo 11-13. He led the team working on the backup lunar module simulator. He left NASA to earn his PhD in physics at the University of Texas in Austin. He dabbled in academia (University of Saint Thomas in Houston), then returned to the NASA/JSC community to work for Lockheed (later called Lockheed Martin), including work on orbital debris. He later worked for Jacobs in the JSC community. He is retired as of September 2014. He continues to publish conference papers about subjects such as detecting starships.

Al Jackson wrote in Horizons (the AIAA Houston Section newsletter, starting with a first article in the April 2002 issue) about the importance of the Collier’s space series in his youth. Wernher von Braun led a team of editors, writers and artists (Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman, and Rolf Klep) for that 1952-1954 series of articles in the weekly magazine Collier’s. That series appeared in 8 issues of Collier’s. Al Jackson wrote about that in Horizons for the 50th anniversary of the Collier’s series. Around the time of the 60th anniversary, Al Jackson was part of our Horizons Collier’s team, and Horizons became the first to reprint the Collier’s series page by page in high resolution. We used 8 issues of Horizons. That started in the July / August 2012 issue of Horizons.

Al Jackson was our presenter in 2007 for a lunch-and-learn, Wernher von Braun’s Long Road to Mars. We used the conference room in the NASA/JSC Mission Control Center’s building, and attendance was about 130 people. Most of his charts from that presentation are available on our Section’s web page for his technical committee: http://www.aiaahouston.org/astrodynamics_technical_committee/

Al Jackson is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, an AIAA Associate Fellow, and a Visiting Scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Al Jackson recently nominated the late Frederick Ira Ordway to be an AIAA Fellow, and (before Ordway died) the nomination succeeded. Mr. Ordway was the science and technical adviser for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Newsletters

• AIAA Houston Section newsletters (now called Horizons) archived on a national AIAA SharePoint website with no membership required
• The primary web site for the AIAA Houston Section Horizons newsletter as of July 1, 2012, is http://www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter/. We aim to keep ten years of an archive here. Since the newsletter started (called “Newsletter” before it was called “Horizons”) in 1971, we are building a full archive on the national AIAA Sharepoint website as we find the old issues and convert them to PDF files.

Goals

• Document the history of AIAA Houston Section, which started in 1962 as the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences (IAS) Houston Section. AIAA did not exist until 1963, but claims 1931 as its initial year, since AIAA was formed by joining IAS (created in 1932) with The American Rocket Society (ARS), which started in 1930 as The American Interplanetary Society (AIS). AIAA splits the difference between 1930 and 1932 to celebrate 1931 as its starting year.
• Scan historic section documents and make them available on this web page.
• Invite speakers with expertise in our profession for occasional lunch-and-learns and dinner meetings.
• Support our section’s Annual Technical Symposium in May of each year.
• Celebrate the history of our profession: aeronautics and astronautics.
• Conduct one to four lunch-and-learns per year.
• Meet in person three to four times per year.
• Keep in touch with and support the national AIAA History technical committee.
• Contribute to historical documentation of the history of NASA/JSC.
• Contribute articles to Horizons, newsletter of AIAA Houston Section.

Events

The 1940 Air Terminal Building at Hobby Airport was selected as a national AIAA Historic Aerospace Site in Janaury 2008, thanks to work by the museum volunteers and members of AIAA Houston Section. Drew Coats at the museum suggested this status to Douglas Yazell, and Douglas Yazell wrote the nominating report with help from Chester Vaughan and the excellent museum web site. Emily Springer traveled to Houston for a ceremony at the museum to award a large, bronze plaque. A similar AIAA Historic Aerospace Site plaque is on display honoring NASA Johnson Space Center (2005) in the same way. That plaque is on a granite base donated by NASA. It stands outdoors between the Saturn V building and the main gate.

Documents and Previous Events

• AIAA Houston Section officers since our first year (1962-1963). Updated 2017 06 17. Excel. PDF. Numbers.
• Documents from our section’s 25th anniversary in 1987, celebrating its history from 1962-1987 (from the annual report by the 1987 AIAA Houston Section Chair Karen Godek):
  • Section Chairs 1962-1987 (See a few lines above for the same list from 1962 too the present day.)
  • Certificate for 1987 AIAA Houston Section Members
  • Booklet celebrating 25 years of section history
  • Honors & Awards dinner program from June of 1987
  • Horizons Newsleter from February of 1987
• Organization Chart for 2016 – 2017. Downloaded June 17, 2017. PDF.
• Organization Chart for 2015 – 2016
• Organization Chart for 2014 – 2015 (See www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter for archived organization charts near the end of each issue.)
• On June 8, 2016, I (Douglas Yazell) noticed that www.jsc.nasa.gov/aiaa is archived at archive.org. I found Horizons issues (www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter) from 1998, 1999, and 2000. Some of those were not yet archived at www.aiaahouston.org/newsletter. I am starting that process now, and I will do that for the SharePoint archive web page (AIAA), too. Some of those issues at archive.org are HTML only, and others are both HTML and PDF. New issues for our AIAA Houston Section archive are 1999 01 (HTML), 1999 06 (HTML), 1999 09 (HTML and PDF), 1999 10 (HTML and PDF), 2000 01 (HTML), 2000 03 (HTML and PDF), and 2000 05 and 06 (HTML and PDF). When we have both HTML and PDF, we prefer the PDF, but both have advantages. Note that 1999 06 contains a report of the International Space Station Service Vehicles Conference, a successful event created by our Section. It also contains a nice news story from the Los Angeles Times about Apollo 8. Frank Borman told President Nixon’s office that they had better prepare a speech in case the two Apollo 11 astronauts died on the Moon. William Safire prepared the never-used speech, and the entire text of that speech is published here.