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Like a lot of people, "Rocket Boys" author and former NASA engineer Homer Hickam tuned into last night's premiere of "Cosmos," a reboot of Carl Sagan's 13-part science series. Unfortunately, he wound up being disappointed. The show's rather inauspicious beginning probably didn't help:

"What are you looking at, Dad?" "I'm watching the Chinese celebrate the completion of their moonlab, son. Look, there they are on the moon. See how happy they are?" ... When the boy looked up again, he noticed a sad expression on his father's face. "What's wrong, Dad?" "Well, son, you know we Americans were actually the first to land on the moon. I've seen pictures ... " The boy frowned. "We were first? How could that be? If we were first, how come we're not up there now?" ... "From what I can tell," he said, as they ambled...

Opposition to President Obama's bid to cancel the Constellation return to the Moon program has started to manifest itself among purveyors of popular culture. It has even inspired its first work of literature.

AS A FORMER NASA astronaut training manager responsible for crew training for shuttle missions, I was not entirely surprised by the initial reports of the sad, bizarre case of Lisa Marie Nowak. This isn't the first case of astronauts having difficulties in their personal lives. Usually, the straying astronaut simply resigns or retires, and everything is hushed up. But being charged with assault, attempted kidnapping and attempted murder is far greater than anything I ever observed or imagined could occur. Perhaps this tragedy will bring some of the agency's long-ignored problems into the open. First is the tremendous and unnecessary...

Families of the Sago miners, Governor Manchin, Mrs. Manchin, Senator Byrd, Senator Rockefeller, West Virginians, friends, neighbors, all who have come here today to remember those brave men who have gone on before us, who ventured into the darkness but instead showed us the light, a light that shines on all West Virginians and the nation today: It is a great honor to be here. I am accompanied by three men I grew up with, the rocket boys of Coalwood: Roy Lee Cooke, Jimmie O'Dell Carroll, and Billy Rose. My wife Linda, an Alabama girl, is here with me as...