Digital Meld

How Stuff Works has an entertaining read regarding the 10 greatest achievements. The article is 11 pages in length… we’ll sum it up for you here:

10. Explorer 1, the First U.S. Satellite (1958)
09. Hubble Space Telescope, the Universe Unveiled (1990-present)
08. Chandra X-ray Observatory, the High-energy Universe (1999- present)
07. Pioneer 10, Flight to Jupiter (1972-1997)
06. Apollo 13, Brilliance at Mission Control (1970)
05. Space Shuttle, a Reusable Spacecraft (1972-present)
04. International Space Station, Living in Space (1998-present)
03. Mars Pathfinder, Robot on the Red Planet (1996-1997)
02. Freedom 7, the First American in Space (1961)
01. Apollo 11, a Walk on the Moon (1969)

What? No duct tape or Velcro on the list? FOR SHAME!

In all honesty having worked at NASA for about a year (JSC 2000-2001) I am completely amazed at how much this government entity gets done with it’s limited funding, check out Roving Mars for what I mean. NASA is far from perfect, the bureaucracy of Washington is still in play in NASA facilities but the brilliance of their dedicated employees help to overcome most of those bureaucratic hurdles. I’d personally like to see more funding for NASA and Space exploration and less on bloated pork.