Space Forum / Space Flight / December 2003

I had thought I remembered that the first posts in the
then-brand-new sci.space reorg groups went out in
early January 1994, but reviewing Google records
found some from mid December 1993, one as early as
Dec 15, 1993.

That makes the reorg'ed groups, sci.space.tech,
sci.space.science, and sci.space.policy, now officially
slightly more than 10 years old.

Over that decade, we have seen a boom and a bust,
the rise of CATS as a serious economic and
ideological force to be reckoned with, more of
the same and many very new things.

We've seen a crop of new launch companies come along,
an amazing percentage founded by people who have used
these newsgroups on and off, and many of those companies
stuck their claws in the dirt and refused to fade away
even when the last few, very lean years hit.  People have
talked an incredible amount, and amazingly enough still
bent some metal and cured some composites and flown
some damn real stuff.

We are certainly not where we all hoped to be,
looking forwards from a decade ago.  But there has
been amazingly tenacious progress in many areas.

I would like to wrap up with two short recognitions.

First,...
I would like to again thank the people who helped out
in the early email discussions of the original sci.space
reorg and helped form and plan what we have today.
Though some have moved on, a large number of them
still participate today, and they all deserve credit
for having helped with the vision.  That list was,
from the first RFD:

prb@access.digex.net (Pat)
gary@ke4zv.atl.ga.us (Gary Coffman)
aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer)
szabo@netcom.com (Nick Szabo)
amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk (Dale Amon)
yoffa@ecs.umass.edu (Sarah Yoffa)
mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (Fred J. McCall)
kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (Ken Jenks)
kenyon@possum.den.mmc.com (Warren Edward Kenyon)
jbh55289@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Josh Hopkins)
GLANDIS@LERC.NASA.GOV (Geoffrey A. Landis)
David.Anderman@ofa123.fidonet.org (David Anderman)
jim@pnet01.cts.com (Jim Bowery)
pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering)
matthew@phantom.oit.gatech.edu (Matthew DeLuca)
hvanderbilt@BIX.com (Henry Vanderbilt)
hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz)
leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech)
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
gwh@soda.berkeley.edu (George William Herbert)
baalke@kelvin.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Ron Baalke)
yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee)
HIGGINS@FNALV.FNAL.GOV (Bill Higgins)
eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov (Gene Miya)
Mark.Maimone@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Mark Maimone)
abrams@isu.isunet.edu (Steve Abrams)
alwin@isu.isunet.edu (Alwin Bleik)

I think a couple of those email addresses may still even
be valid ;-)

Second...
For reasons which remain murky, my wife, Lee, has
put up with the ten or so thousand hours and uncounted
dollars I have invested in aerospace projects and these
newsgroups over the last decade.  She has even been
consistently supportive despite the obvious insanity,
though that support has been known to take its own
uniquely special form sometimes:
  http://gw.retro.com/employees/gherbert/scispacetech/StitchSmall.jpg

It is not alone that we reach for the future.

-george william herbert
gherbert@retro.com