A statement from the publishers of LAUNCH Magazine

NEW YORK CITY—First, we want to thank all of you who have supported us from the very first issue of LAUNCH Magazine and have continued to “hang in there” with us during this hiatus. We are truly fortunate to have such loyal readers and advertisers. It has been a pleasure to get to know so many of you.

We appreciate your patience, and we want you to know that we will resume publication of LAUNCH with the June issue, which will be published in late May. This will be followed by three more issues of the magazine this year, and a full schedule of six issues in 2010. All current subscriptions will be automatically extended by two issues (the number of issues we missed during this hiatus).

President Obama and Spaceflight

NEW YORK CITY—The new administration's space policy is the focus of the Spring 2009 issue of Ad Astra magazine, on press now and soon available to the more than 15,000 members of the National Space Society.

The magazine takes an in-depth look at the many challenges facing NASA as President Barack Obama mulls over his choice for a new administrator for the space agency. However, the new president indicated—with his budget proposal in late February—that he intends to "stay the course" in retiring the aging space shuttle fleet and replace it with Ares I and the Orion next-generation spacecraft.

Also in the new issue of Ad Astra:
—Writer James Oberg's look at the threat posed to spacecraft by orbiting debris.
—A feature on the funding controversy over NASA's planned Mars Science Laboratory rover.
—An analysis of improvements to the quality of life on Earth we can expect from future space applications.
—And much more! Ad Astra is published quarterly by MM Publishing Inc. in New York City. The magazine is available only through membership in the National Space Society (www.nss.org).

I am writing this on a plane on my way home to New York after a trip to Dallas—where I attended a luncheon honoring Walter Cunningham and the 40th anniversary of his Apollo 7 flight.  On October 11, 1968, Walt and crewmates Wally Schirra and Donn Eisele became the first astronauts to fly an Apollo spacecraft, and returned America to orbit nearly 22 months after the Apollo 1 fire.