NASA Office of Logic Design

A scientific study of the problems of digital engineering for space flight systems,
with a view to their practical solution.

2005 MAPLD International Conference

Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
Washington, D.C.

September 7-9, 2005

Roger D. Launius
Division of Space History, National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian Institution

Roger D. Launius is chair of the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Between 1990 and 2002 he served as chief historian of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A graduate of Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa, he received his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, in 1982.

He has written or edited several books on aerospace history, including Space Stations: Base Camps to the Stars (Smithsonian Books, 2003), which received the AIAA’s history manuscript prize; Flight: A Celebration of 100 Years in Art and Literature (Welcome Books, 2003), edited with Anne Collins Goodyear, Anthony M. Springer, and Bertram Ulrich; To Reach the High Frontier: A History of U.S. Launch Vehicles (University Press of Kentucky, 2002), with Dennis R. Jenkins; Imagining Space: Achievements, Possibilities, Projections, 1950-2050 (Chronicle Books, 2001), with Howard E. McCurdy; Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite (Harwood Academic, 2000), with John M. Logsdon and Robert W. Smith; Innovation and the Development of Flight (Texas A&M University Press, 1999); NASA & the Exploration of Space (Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 1998); Frontiers of Space Exploration (Greenwood Press, 1998); Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership (University of Illinois Press, 1997) with Howard E. McCurdy; Organizing for the Use of Space: Historical Perspectives on a Persistent Issue (Univelt, Inc., AAS History Series, Volume 18, 1995); and NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program (Krieger Publishing Co., 1994).

His interests and hobbies include baseball, ranting about politics and religion, and movies. He is also undertaking research to find the "perfect margarita." His favorite quote of late is, “non illegitimi carborundum.”

 

2005 MAPLD Panel Session  - "Why Are Space Stations So Hard?"

2005 MAPLD International Conference Home Page

Home - NASA Office of Logic Design
Last Revised: February 03, 2010
Digital Engineering Institute
Web Grunt: Richard Katz