[iowamark]

Loki rockets like this one were used by James Van Allen in the mid-1950s to collect data on the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Van Allen tethered the military-surplus rockets to high-altitude weather balloons that carried them to 50,000 feet before ignition. Van Allen termed the rocket-balloon devices ‘’rockoons.”

[iowamark]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Van_Allen

[Huskrrrr]

Prof. Van Allen was still teaching undergrad physics when I attended U. of Iowa. I still remember being amazed by him and his “Hawkeye” satellite built in Iowa City.

[jcon40]

Good article.

Obviously an interesting man that is missed by more than just his family.

[cloudmountain]

TIME is a one-way street, sort of like our human waste leaving us.

I have always loved sci-fi and I always knew that the "fi" stood for FICTION.

[Covenantor]

IGY was a big subject in my grade school and the Soviet launch of Sputnik I as you can imagine caused a big stir among us boys. All the bad space movies, TV shows, and comic books suddenly coming to life!

The article makes it sound as if all the Sputniks were cylindrical. Not so. Sputnik I was a highly polished sphere about 2 foot in diameter with four back swept antennae. I remember this very clearly because I painted a beach ball with aluminum paint ( best I could do back then ) and and wired 4 thin dowels to it as a school project.

We were flat out rocket crazy for years. Even got russkie space stamps for my collection.

[NonValueAdded]

♫ Rocky Roccoon ... ♫

[Tucker39]

Were the Van Allen Radiation Belts around Earth named for him? Do I have the correct name? That’s what’s lodged in my little six-volt brain, anyhow.

[dennisw]