The document discusses several topics related to technology in space, including: 1) Conspiracy theories about events like Pearl Harbor, JFK's assassination, and 9/11, and how doubting the moon landings seems un-American. 2) A successful test launch of the Max Launch Abort System to demonstrate an alternate system for future astronauts. 3) A photograph from the Apollo 17 spacecraft showing the crescent Earth rising above the lunar horizon. 4) NASA and German scientists studying system tests on the telescope assembly of the SOFIA flying observatory. 5) NASA's dedication of a model of the hybrid wing body aircraft concept being tested at Glenn Research Center.

1. Technology in Space

2. Who doesn’t love a good
conspiracy theory? Americans are
particularly susceptible to them,
and, why not? We seem to have
been the victims of so many
conspiracies – Pearl Harbor, JFK,
RFK, MLK, Watergate, IranContra,
the Bush Jr. elections, 9/11, Wall
Street, entrenched bureaucracy, to
mention just a few.
But to doubt that American
astronauts in the Apollo program
landed on the Moon seems
downright un-American. To not
believe in the lunar landings is a
slap in the face to science and the
American space program, and to
the thousands of people who
assisted in the lunar landings.

3. MLAS Launches
NASA successfully
demonstrated an
alternate system for
future astronauts.
The launch of the
Max Launch Abort
System, or MLAS,
took place on July 8,
2009, at 6:26 a.m. at
NASA's Wallops Flight
Facility, Wallops
Island, Va.

4. The crescent Earth rises above the lunar horizon in this
spectacular photograph taken from the Apollo 17 spacecraft in
lunar orbit during final lunar landing mission in the Apollo
program.

6. In the darkened
interior of NASA's
SOFIA flying
,
observatory NASA
and German
scientists study the
results of system
tests on the
telescope assembly,
including the
gyroscope, system
software and wide-
field and fine-field
imagers.

7. Hybrid Wing Body Model
NASA's Glenn Research
Center dedicated a
model of the hybrid wing
body, a futuristic aircraft
concept, on July 8, 2009.
The center is testing parts
of a new propulsion
system that can be
embedded in the wing of
the airplane. Developed
by NASA and Boeing, the
plane is called a hybrid
wing body because its
wings and fuselage blend
together in a triangular
shape.

8. Unlike Earth the
moon does not
have air, food
and water, so it
would take a lot
of effort for
humans to live
and work there,
wrote Raina
Huang, a student
at Bexley High
School in
Columbus, Ohio,
and finalist in the
second annual
NASA Lunar Art
Contest.