XPost: sci.space.tech, sci.space.policy   
   From: gherbert@gw.retro.com   
      
   I had thought I remembered that the first posts in the   
   then-brand-new sci.space reorg groups went out in   
   early January 1994, but reviewing Google records   
   found some from mid December 1993, one as early as   
   Dec 15, 1993.   
      
   That makes the reorg'ed groups, sci.space.tech,   
   sci.space.science, and sci.space.policy, now officially   
   slightly more than 10 years old.   
      
   Over that decade, we have seen a boom and a bust,   
   the rise of CATS as a serious economic and   
   ideological force to be reckoned with, more of   
   the same and many very new things.   
      
   We've seen a crop of new launch companies come along,   
   an amazing percentage founded by people who have used   
   these newsgroups on and off, and many of those companies   
   stuck their claws in the dirt and refused to fade away   
   even when the last few, very lean years hit.  People have   
   talked an incredible amount, and amazingly enough still   
   bent some metal and cured some composites and flown   
   some damn real stuff.   
      
   We are certainly not where we all hoped to be,   
   looking forwards from a decade ago.  But there has   
   been amazingly tenacious progress in many areas.   
      
      
   I would like to wrap up with two short recognitions.   
      
   First,...   
   I would like to again thank the people who helped out   
   in the early email discussions of the original sci.space   
   reorg and helped form and plan what we have today.   
   Though some have moved on, a large number of them   
   still participate today, and they all deserve credit   
   for having helped with the vision.  That list was,   
   from the first RFD:   
      
   prb@access.digex.net (Pat)   
   gary@ke4zv.atl.ga.us (Gary Coffman)   
   aws@iti.org (Allen W. Sherzer)   
   szabo@netcom.com (Nick Szabo)   
   amon@elegabalus.cs.qub.ac.uk (Dale Amon)   
   yoffa@ecs.umass.edu (Sarah Yoffa)   
   mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (Fred J. McCall)   
   kjenks@gothamcity.jsc.nasa.gov (Ken Jenks)   
   kenyon@possum.den.mmc.com (Warren Edward Kenyon)   
   jbh55289@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Josh Hopkins)   
   GLANDIS@LERC.NASA.GOV (Geoffrey A. Landis)   
   David.Anderman@ofa123.fidonet.org (David Anderman)   
   jim@pnet01.cts.com (Jim Bowery)   
   pgf@srl03.cacs.usl.edu (Phil G. Fraering)   
   matthew@phantom.oit.gatech.edu (Matthew DeLuca)   
   hvanderbilt@BIX.com (Henry Vanderbilt)   
   hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)   
   dietz@cs.rochester.edu (Paul Dietz)   
   leech@cs.unc.edu (Jon Leech)   
   henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)   
   gwh@soda.berkeley.edu (George William Herbert)   
   baalke@kelvin.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Ron Baalke)   
   yee@atlas.arc.nasa.gov (Peter Yee)   
   HIGGINS@FNALV.FNAL.GOV (Bill Higgins)   
   eugene@orville.nas.nasa.gov (Gene Miya)   
   Mark.Maimone@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Mark Maimone)   
   abrams@isu.isunet.edu (Steve Abrams)   
   alwin@isu.isunet.edu (Alwin Bleik)   
      
   I think a couple of those email addresses may still even   
   be valid ;-)   
      
      
   Second...   
   For reasons which remain murky, my wife, Lee, has   
   put up with the ten or so thousand hours and uncounted   
   dollars I have invested in aerospace projects and these   
   newsgroups over the last decade.  She has even been   
   consistently supportive despite the obvious insanity,   
   though that support has been known to take its own   
   uniquely special form sometimes:   
      http://gw.retro.com/employees/gherbert/scispacetech/StitchSmall.jpg   
      
   It is not alone that we reach for the future.   
      
      
   -george william herbert   
   gherbert@retro.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)