<![CDATA[io9: Space Age]]> http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: Space Age]]> http://io9.com/tag/space age http://io9.com/tag/space age <![CDATA[Is this the end of the Space Age? The Economist wants to know!]]> With the final Space Shuttle flight launching a week from today, the Economist wonders if this is the end of the Space Age: More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5817571&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The End of an Era in Space Flight, and the Beginning of Another]]> This image from NASA shows the Space Shuttle Endeavor waiting on the launch pad last night, with lightning streaking the sky. In 48 hours (delayed from this afternoon), the final launch of the Endeavor will mark the end of the Space Shuttle program. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5796937&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[R.I.P. Eldon Davis, the man who made coffee shops Space Age]]> There's no greater symbol of the raw optimism of the Space Age than Googie architecture, the gorgeously sharp architecture style used for restaurants, gas stations and other buildings. And Eldon Davis, who died last Friday, was a master of Googie. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5795937&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Jules Verne goes populuxe]]> This is steampunk turned inside-out. In the early 1960s, illustrator Peter P. Plascencia wanted to bring Jules Verne's ninteenth century visions to life for a Space Age audience. So he trimmed all the curlicues off, de-bronzed everything, and gave us these very Mad Men-looking pictures of a Verne adventure. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5756659&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Kim Kardashian drains the fun out of Barbarella]]> We were just feeling nostalgic for Barbarella, when Kim Kardashian unveiled a new photoshoot of herself doing a Jane Fonda pastiche. It's always nice to see space-age fashion back again, but this isn't the Barbarella we were hoping for. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5687132&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Space age fashion comeback crashes and burns]]> Even Lady Gaga can't make space age fashions cool again. She wore a bubble dress based on Pierre Cardin's designs last year, making waves. But when Cardin tried to bring back space-age fashions at Paris Fashion Week, but people sneered. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5652851&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Beautiful postage stamps from the "Mad Men" era celebrate spaceships and progress]]> The postage stamps of the 1950s and 1960s, from all over the world, are full of hope for the future. There are Soviet rockets, Nigerian stamps showing "the peaceful use of outer space," and Israeli paeans to industry. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5617107&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Blast into the space age with vintage science book covers!]]> Back when the conquest of space was still a thrilling new prospect and the Moon landing seemed certain to lead to a Moonbase, educational book covers celebrated the wonders of the stars. Here are some of our splashy, exciting favorites. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5583008&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Science Fiction Has Been "Dying" For A Long Time]]> Tired of people claiming science fiction is dead because real life has "caught up" with it? They've been saying that since Sputnik, points out Dave Truesdale over at Asimov's, responding to Neal Asher's rant about doomsayers who pronounce SF dead. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5435620&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[L.A. Cancels The Future!]]> This futuristic-looking gas station in L.A. was supposed to be completed in June 2007, but the client became "indecisive." Did United Oil decide that an optimistic, future-looking design wasn't the right look for a gas station in this day and age? Or did they wake up and realize that "futuristic," in this case, means "retro" and "googie"? (Which isn't a bad thing at all, I hasten to add.) More pics and details below. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5069497&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Coney Island's AstroLand Park Closing, A Victim Of The Real Future]]> For almost 50 years, AstroLand in Coney Island has been a symbol of our optimism about the Space Age and the conquest of the final frontier. But the park is closing this coming Sunday, a victim of a different vision of the future. Developers failed to reach an agreement with the park's owner, Carol Albert, over a new two-year lease of the property, presumably because Thor Equities saw a brighter future in condos or some other tower-block development. It's especially sad because AstroLand appears to be still popular — and wonderfully garish — judging from these AP photos. Click through to see pictures of the endangered alien monsters and spacecraft. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5047635&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The U.S. Needs A Space Race With China]]> China plans to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and a crewed spaceship during 2008. But that's not going to be enough to scare the United States into launching a new space race. And the U.S. really, really needs a new space race to get us to take space exploration seriously again. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=346927&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[ The first person on Mars may be a woman,...]]> The first person on Mars may be a woman, says a Kansas op-ed. For the first time ever, two female space shuttle commanders on separate missions met up in space. But NASA is facing questions about its plans to end the space shuttle program in 2010. [Kansas.com, KHOU.com] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=323332&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Super Lasers Of The Cold War]]> By the early 1980s, the Soviet Union will have a fleet of space shuttles far superior to our own, plus a network of space stations and a second fleet of orbital vehicles to service them. Oh, and mega laser weapons. That was the prediction in a 1974 book Soviet Conquest From Space. How did Peter James get it so wrong? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=323256&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[China Will Win The Next Space Race]]> What will it take to launch another space age to replace the one that ended with the Cold War? Maybe another space race. China is ramping up its efforts to put people back on the Moon, launch more lunar orbiters, and build its own space station. Already, China is challenging the U.S.' domination of space launches. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=322740&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Fashionable Shoes For Space Travel]]> An Italian company called Geox is marketing shoes and outerwear that are packed with patented technologies invented for use by astronauts in space. A semi-permeable membrane lines each shoe and jacket. The membrane is riddled with micro-pores big enough to vent sweat, but small enough to prevent water from getting into the shoe. Geox's shoes are popular with celebs like Angelina Jolie and the Pope, and Geox chairman Mario Moretti Polegato enlightens us as to why:
The name 'Geox' [is] from the Greek word geo for 'earth,' and 'x,' the letter symbolizing technology. Wearing these shoes makes you feel you are walking barefoot on earth and without the stink.
The best part? There are thigh-high suede boots fitted out with this space-age micro-pore crap. I hope the boys up in the International Space Station are strutting around in those. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=310339&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Space Is More Fun Without Space Travel]]> The end of the Space Age was the best thing that ever happened to science fiction, claims author Gerard J. DeGroot:
When the space age ended, the alien age began. In the early 1990s, the Disney Corporation decided to close down its Mission to Mars ride, itself a direct descendant of the Rocket to the Moon attraction Werner von Braun had helped to design. In its place came Alien Encounter, in which an extraterrestrial stows away on a spaceship. This made things easier for Disney, as one executive admitted: "One way for an attraction to remain timeless is for it to be based in fantasy, rather than reality."
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]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=307365&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[No Interstellar Future For You]]> Sure, when the Soviets launched Sputnik, it made us frantic. But then we lost the thrill of the race. Just ask astronomer Stuart Atkinson:
The Space Age is dead, it died of starvation and neglect, somewhere around 1980. Yes, we fed it and gave it money while it was young, and exciting, and sexy, while our love for it was bright and new, but when it got older, and needed more expensive care and more of our time and understanding we guided it to a comfy chair over on the far side of the room, made it a cup of tea, handed it a magazine and left it to look after itself
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]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=307346&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Sputnik Is Officially Old Fart Technology]]> Fifty years ago, the Space Age was born with the flight of Soviet satellite Sputnik, and with that came the age of Surveillance Paranoia. More Sputnik fetish photography available from your pals at NASA. More »
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