Latest news with #Bowersox
Boston Globe
28-03-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
How Deborah Sampson posed as a man to fight in the Revolutionary War (and treated her own gunshot wound)
Sampson's bravery made history and led her to become the 'I think that's just because only more recently has her story really come out to the public,' Meg Bowersox, the manager of gallery interpretation at the Her story is notable as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of its founding. The accomplishments of Sampson (whose name is sometimes spelled Samson) and her remarkable rise from indentured servant to Revolutionary War icon was covered in newspapers in the years immediately following the American Revolution. But the media attention dropped off during the Civil War, according to Bowersox. 'After that, there was this kind of movement toward the Founding Fathers,' Bowersox said, and as the focus shifted toward those men, their stories ended up getting featured prominently in history textbooks, television, and movies. Advertisement An engraving of American Revolutionary War hero Deborah Sampson. Library of Congress Sampson spent her life overcoming obstacles, starting at a very young age. Born in Plympton in 1760, her family was so poor that At the age of 10, Sampson became Dressing as a man and joining the army was no easy feat, and it took her more than one try to pull it off. One of her attempts to enlist was documented in a Advertisement But that didn't stop Sampson from trying again. In 1782 (although some reports say 1781) Sampson successfully enlisted in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment using the name Robert Shurtleff as her alias, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's website. She was assigned to a light infantry company and initially worked as a scout, gathering information about British troops and their weapons, the website stated. During the 17 months she served in the Continental Army, she was wounded in combat at least once, according to Bowersox. According to several historical accounts, Sampson was shot in the leg and 'Some say that she left the bullet in. Some say she took it out herself,' Bowersox said. 'We really just don't know.' Sampson apparently managed to keep her secret until the summer of 1783, after she lost consciousness while serving in Philadelphia and a doctor discovered that she was female, according to the Secretary of the Commonwealth's After leaving the army on an honorable discharge, she returned to Massachusetts and On Feb. 20, 1804, Paul Revere Advertisement 'I have been induced to inquire her situation and character, since she quitted the male habit, and soldier's uniform, for the more decent apparel of her own sex; and since she has been married and become a mother,' Revere wrote. 'Humanity and justice obliges me to say, that every person with whom I have conversed about her, and it is not a few, speak of her as a woman of handsome talents, good morals, a dutiful wife, and an affectionate parent.' Revere wrote that Sampson's health was declining and her family was in need of financial assistance because 'they have a few acres of poor land which they cultivate, but they are really poor.' Sampson was ultimately granted a military pension, and spent her final years at This house at 300 East St. in Sharon is where Deborah Sampson lived until she died in 1827. Leon H. Abdalian She was buried in Rock Ridge Cemetery in Sharon, where a memorial was erected in her honor. Sampson's legacy lives on in other places, too, if you know where to look. A statue of Sampson stands in front of the Sampson was declared the official state heroine of Massachusetts in the 1980s and May 23 has been designated as 'Deborah Samson Day.' State officials also established the Advertisement In Plympton, where Sampson was born, a bronze plaque bears her name. It can be found on a large granite boulder that was dedicated by the Daughters of the American Revolution to pay tribute to Sampson's perseverance and service to her country, and to ensure that she would not be forgotten. 'One thing that we really love about her story is just how someone believed passionately about wanting to serve this country, and no matter what laws or or barriers were put in place, continued to find a way to serve for what they thought was right, which was independence and freedom,' Bowersox said. 'And I think that's just really cool.' In the town of Plympton there's a large granite boulder with a bronze plaque bearing Deborah Sampson's name. The Boston Globe/Globe Freelance Emily Sweeney can be reached at
The Independent
19-03-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Who else has been stuck in space? A short history of long spaceflights
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aren't the first to run late in space, and their 9 ½-month mission falls short of any endurance record. But never before has a quick trip morphed into such a long haul. The pair launched last June on a test flight of Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule, figuring to be gone eight days. By the time they splashed down with SpaceX on Tuesday, they had spent 286 days off the planet — 36 times longer than anticipated. 'If you look at it mathematically, by percentage of the original planned mission, this is the largest percentage extension," NASA's space operations chief Ken Bowersox. A former astronaut, Bowersox saw his own space station mission abruptly prolonged. He was up there with Don Pettit, who's currently aboard the orbiting lab, when shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry in 2003, killing all seven on board and grounding the shuttle fleet for more than two years. 'The reasons were terrible that we stayed longer on our mission," said Bowersox, whose planned four-month stay clocked in at more than five months. Here's a look at some others who found themselves stuck in space — by choice or not — along with some cool spaceflight statistics. Longest U.S. spaceflight NASA astronaut Frank Rubio saw his mission doubled in length — from 6 months to 12 months — after his assigned Russian Soyuz capsule took a micrometeorite hit while docked to the space station and leaked all its coolant. A replacement capsule was launched to bring Rubio and his two Russian crewmates home in 2023. His 371-day spaceflight is the longest by an American. NASA's first year-in-space astronaut was Scott Kelly; he logged 340 days at the space station in 2015 and 2016. His identical twin brother, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, also served as a NASA astronaut on short shuttle flights. World's longest spaceflight Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov spent 14 ½ months aboard the Mir space station in the mid-1990s. He volunteered for it. As a physician, he wanted to observe the changes in the human body and mind after a prolonged period of weightlessness. His 437-day spaceflight remains a world record. Polyakov died in 2022 at age 80. Longest spaceflight by a woman NASA's Christina Koch holds the title with her 328-day space station mission in 2019 and 2020. During that same flight, she performed the first all-female spacewalk alongside Jessica Meir. Koch is currently assigned to NASA's first Artemis crew, which will fly around the moon and back as early as next year. Most experience in space Russian Oleg Kononenko last year became the first person to crack 1,000 days in space over the course of a career. By the time he returned from the space station last fall, he'd logged an incredible 1,111 days aloft over five spaceflights — a combined total of more than three years. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is America's most experienced space flier with 675 days over three long station stints and one short private trip for Axiom Space. She's due to lead another Axiom crew to the space station later this spring. Because of her delayed homecoming, Williams moved into the No. 2 spot with 608 days in space over three missions. Female spacewalking records Williams became the most experienced female spacewalker in the world, thanks to her prolonged mission. She ventured out twice earlier this year for station repairs and maintenance, bringing her spacewalking career total to 62 hours. Over three space station missions, she performed nine spacewalks, one less than Whitson. But Whitson's spacewalks were shorter, totaling 60 hours. Overall spacewalking records Retired Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev holds the overall record with 16 spacewalks totaling around 80 hours. NASA's spacewalking champ is retired astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria with 10 spacewalks for a total of 67 hours. Number of space travelers A NASA tally shows 721 people have flown in space, including tourists on short hops and military X-15 pilots. Of that total, 102 are women. The first person in space was the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. The first American, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, followed on May 5, 1961. The first woman in space was the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983. Of those four, only Tereshkova is still alive. Number of current NASA astronauts NASA counts 47 on its active astronaut list. Twenty are women. That doesn't include several astronauts who have moved over to management roles at the space agency. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Associated Press
19-03-2025
- Science
- Associated Press
Who else has been stuck in space? A short history of long spaceflights
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aren't the first to run late in space, and their 9 ½-month mission falls short of any endurance record. But never before has a quick trip morphed into such a long haul. The pair launched last June on a test flight of Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule, figuring to be gone eight days. By the time they splashed down with SpaceX on Tuesday, they had spent 286 days off the planet — 36 times longer than anticipated. 'If you look at it mathematically, by percentage of the original planned mission, this is the largest percentage extension,' NASA's space operations chief Ken Bowersox. A former astronaut, Bowersox saw his own space station mission abruptly prolonged. He was up there with Don Pettit, who's currently aboard the orbiting lab, when shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry in 2003, killing all seven on board and grounding the shuttle fleet for more than two years. 'The reasons were terrible that we stayed longer on our mission,' said Bowersox, whose planned four-month stay clocked in at more than five months. Here's a look at some others who found themselves stuck in space — by choice or not — along with some cool spaceflight statistics. Longest U.S. spaceflight NASA astronaut Frank Rubio saw his mission doubled in length — from 6 months to 12 months — after his assigned Russian Soyuz capsule took a micrometeorite hit while docked to the space station and leaked all its coolant. A replacement capsule was launched to bring Rubio and his two Russian crewmates home in 2023. His 371-day spaceflight is the longest by an American. NASA's first year-in-space astronaut was Scott Kelly; he logged 340 days at the space station in 2015 and 2016. His identical twin brother, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, also served as a NASA astronaut on short shuttle flights. World's longest spaceflight Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov spent 14 ½ months aboard the Mir space station in the mid-1990s. He volunteered for it. As a physician, he wanted to observe the changes in the human body and mind after a prolonged period of weightlessness. His 437-day spaceflight remains a world record. Polyakov died in 2022 at age 80. Longest spaceflight by a woman NASA's Christina Koch holds the title with her 328-day space station mission in 2019 and 2020. During that same flight, she performed the first all-female spacewalk alongside Jessica Meir. Koch is currently assigned to NASA's first Artemis crew, which will fly around the moon and back as early as next year. Most experience in space Russian Oleg Kononenko last year became the first person to crack 1,000 days in space over the course of a career. By the time he returned from the space station last fall, he'd logged an incredible 1,111 days aloft over five spaceflights — a combined total of more than three years. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is America's most experienced space flier with 675 days over three long station stints and one short private trip for Axiom Space. She's due to lead another Axiom crew to the space station later this spring. Because of her delayed homecoming, Williams moved into the No. 2 spot with 608 days in space over three missions. Female spacewalking records Williams became the most experienced female spacewalker in the world, thanks to her prolonged mission. She ventured out twice earlier this year for station repairs and maintenance, bringing her spacewalking career total to 62 hours. Over three space station missions, she performed nine spacewalks, one less than Whitson. But Whitson's spacewalks were shorter, totaling 60 hours. Overall spacewalking records Retired Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev holds the overall record with 16 spacewalks totaling around 80 hours. NASA's spacewalking champ is retired astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria with 10 spacewalks for a total of 67 hours. Number of space travelers A NASA tally shows 721 people have flown in space, including tourists on short hops and military X-15 pilots. Of that total, 102 are women. The first person in space was the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. The first American, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, followed on May 5, 1961. The first woman in space was the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova in 1963. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983. Of those four, only Tereshkova is still alive. Number of current NASA astronauts NASA counts 47 on its active astronaut list. Twenty are women. That doesn't include several astronauts who have moved over to management roles at the space agency. ___
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA, SpaceX say Crew-10 launch on track for Wednesday despite "late breaking issues"
Mar. 8—Spokesman-Review reporter Nick Gibson is in Florida this week to report on Anne McClain's and NASA's SpaceX launch from the Kennedy Space Center. Follow along in print and online at CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The rocket launch taking Spokane astronaut Anne McClain and her fellow crew members to the International Space Station is moving forward as scheduled, pending the resolution of some technical issues, officials say. NASA and SpaceX officials convened Friday for a pre-launch debriefing to share some insight into the planning and preparation for the mission, while also touching on some "late breaking issues," as Ken Bowersox, NASA's associate administrator for the space operations mission directorate, put it. The two entities are working together to quickly address those issues, Bowersox said, before tipping his cap to the SpaceX team. It's been challenging but a growing experience for the space agency to keep up with their partners, he said. "They've been very flexible with us over the last couple years, coming up with new ways to handle almost anything that comes our way on the International Space Station," Bowersox said. McClain and her crewmates are expected to take off Wednesday at 4:48 p.m. PT, from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral's Kennedy Space Center. The mission is the 10th crew exchange with SpaceX through the space agency's commercial crew program, in which the space agency partners with corporations in order to make the staffing of the space lab safer and more reliable and cost efficient, the agency states. The mission will be the 10th crew to use SpaceX to get to the ISS. NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers, Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Takuya Onishi, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will join McClain on the mission. The space explorers will be riding in the SpaceX Dragon capsule "Endurance" previously used by Crew-3, Crew-5 and Crew-7. The capsule will be affixed to and propelled by a SpaceX Falcon 9, a semi-reusable two-stage rocket designed to lift off from the launching pad and return to earth to be reused. The Falcon is expected to return around 3 a.m. PT. Bowersox said the partnership with SpaceX has changed how the space agency views what may be a safe vehicle to transport their astronauts. Just 10 years ago, NASA was still of the perspective that each rig should be built from scratch. "We've all gotten to the point where we'll say, 'Oh, brand new vehicle? I'm a little bit nervous,'" Bowersox said. "Were they able to do everything right in production? How about giving us one of those flight-proven vehicles?" Steve Stitch, manager of the commercial crew program, said there were two issues discussed during Friday's flight readiness review. The coating on one of the thrusters for the latter stage of propulsion has degraded over repeated use, and both the agency and SpaceX are hoping to have a better understanding of an engine fire that broke out within a Falcon 9 rocket that launched 21 Starlink satellites in early March. The mission's team were polled on whether to stick with Wednesday's launch , and they unanimously decided to do so, he added. Stitch said every preparation for launch "is a bit like this, where we have a couple late-breaking issues that we got to work through," Stitch said. Stitch said the thruster coating protects them from becoming oxidized by the intense heat generated when they're fired. NASA and SpaceX are "hot firing" a replacement, in which the thruster is stress tested by being put through four normal mission cycles, "plus a couple extra contingency cycles," Stitch said. The engine fire appears to have been caused by a fuel leak that started 85 seconds into the Falcon 9's ascent, said Bill Gerstenmaier, vice president of build and flight reliability for SpaceX. Rocket grade kerosene hit the hot engine, but didn't ignite until 45 seconds after it returned to the landing pad, when enough oxygen was able to enter into the engine chamber, react with the kerosene and spark a fire. While the fire was contained to one engine barrel, as it was designed to do, Gerstenmaier said a landing leg was damaged by the blaze. The rocket tipped over, leading to a complete loss. 'While it's disappointing to lose a rocket after a successful mission, the team will use this data to make sure that every Falcon is more reliable on ascent and landing for this mission and for every other mission going forward," Gerstenmaier said. "Ultimately, we'll be safer because of what occurred on this flight." That incident came before the failure of a SpaceX Starship launch from their Texas base last Thursday. That craft, which company founder Elon Musk says will transport people to Mars one day, broke up and rained debris off the coast of Florida after the upper stage malfunctioned. It's much larger than the tech used for ISS transport and still in the testing phase. If the Crew-10 launch is delayed, Stitch said the agency has identified two alternatives: Thursday at 4:25 p.m. and Friday at 4:04 p.m. PT. "We're not going to launch before we're ready," Bowersox said. "We're always analyzing the data and making sure that the rocket is ready to go before we let the SpaceX team hit the button with our crew on board."
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Westminster High School's 125-year history, by the numbers
Westminster High School has a storied 125-year history, which Steve Bowersox, a history teacher at the school, brought to light for an audience of about 70 people on an overcast Saturday afternoon at Grace Lutheran Church in Westminster. Bowersox, 61, of Westminster, presented what he described as a 'light history' of Westminster for nearly an hour, with plenty of humor and charming anecdotes, followed by comments and stories from audience members with connections to the school. Many attendees enjoyed perusing school yearbooks from as long ago as the 1920s, and other artifacts on display. Westminster High School opened in 1899, in a building at the corner of Green and Center streets. A new art deco style building was constructed to house the school in 1936, at 121 Longwell Ave., which became East Middle School in 1971. Westminster alumni from those years were saddened to see the beautiful building demolished so a new East Middle School could be constructed on the same property in 2023. Frances Miller, a social studies teacher who taught from 1936 to 1972, was the only person to work in all three buildings, Bowersox told the crowd. 'There are so many mentions of the lockers in the articles because they had cloak rooms back at the old building,' Bowersox said. Westminster's first cohort met in the unoccupied City Hotel of Westminster after construction of the original schoolhouse was delayed, and five weeks of school were canceled, to be made up in the summer because the building had no heat, according to an 1899 newspaper article in the Democratic Advocate. Seven students graduated in the Class of 1900. There were 344 graduates in the Class of 2024, though graduating classes could be above 500 before a second public high school in Westminster, Winters Mill, opened in 2002. High school attendance was not commonplace until the 1900s, Bowersox said, and just 14% of Americans had completed high school in 1910. Public schools rose in popularity, in part, to help 'Americanize' children of recent immigrants, who arrived in the country in large numbers at this point in history. 'It took longer for children of color, girls, and children with special needs to gain access to free public education,' Bowersox said. 'Gradually, more states accepted responsibility for providing universal public education and embedded this principle in their state constitutions.' Mike Squirrel became the first Black student to graduate in 1965, more than a decade after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision ordered school desegregation. Bowersox said the school system found a Black girl with whom he could learn line dancing in junior high school physical education classes so that he didn't have to dance with a white student. The Westminster native died in Randallstown in 2016 at age 68. 'It took us a little while to get this figured out,' Bowersox said. 'We've gotten better.' Squirrel was well-liked by the Class of 1965, said classmate Peggy James, 77, of Westminster, who is also known by her maiden name of Hutchinson. 'We all got along with him,' James said, 'and he was voted the king of sports. We accepted him, but I heard many years later that he didn't come to any of our reunions or anything because he always felt left out, yet we all accepted him.' LuVear Owens was the school's first Black employee, a janitor who worked there from 1951 to 1966. Westminster High's first Black faculty member, English teacher Daisy Harris, taught at the school from 1966 to 1971. Westminster had no Class of 1950 because that was the year 12th grade was added. 'The greatest part about that was that we were the seniors for two years,' alumna Alice Lockard, 91, told the audience, 'and that's true of all the county schools, but it was fantastic.' Lockard said she remembers high school fondly, especially the school's spirited energy on Friday nights during football season. 'It was a great time,' Lockard said. 'It was the second home to most of us kids because we're talking about the era when we had black-and-white televisions coming into being, and not every home even had one of those, so school was very important to us, and WHS was very, very special.' The owl has seemingly been the school's mascot since the late 1920s when the school yearbook changed its name from 'The Mirror' to 'The Owl.' James said she designed a flag for the school in 1964, but the design may have been lost when Westminster eliminated flag-bearing majorettes from its marching band. Bowersox said he became interested in the high school's role in World War II, which snowballed into learning about the history of the school comprehensively. Schoolhouses were often used as community centers during the 1900s, and war-era Westminster offered night classes for residents to learn skills like welding, so they could better contribute to the war effort. 'During World War II, Westminster High School became a very, very important site,' Bowersox said. 'It's the biggest place around with a microphone, so if you've got information to get out to people, it's where a lot of meetings were held.' John Seaman, 76, who was principal from 2001 to 2008, said Bowersox's presentation was insightful. Seaman was originally responsible for hiring the history teacher. 'I was not a native to Carroll County, so I didn't grow up here, didn't go to school there,' Seaman said. 'Much of that I didn't know, so I found it extremely interesting to know the history of it and thrilled with what Steve's done and with what the historical society does. You need to know your roots.' Show Caption1 of 11 Steve Bowersox, historian and Career Coordinator at Westminster High, speaks about famous Westminster High alumni as the Historical Society of Carroll County celebrates the 125-year history of Westminster High School at Grace Lutheran Church on Saturday. (Brian Krista/Staff) Expand Seaman was principal of a school that was in danger of feeling divided, he said, as he was in charge of Westminster when Winters Mill High School began. The principal's most important objective was to foster a sense of unity and defuse tensions among faculty, some of whom chose or were selected to work at Winters Mill the following year. Bowersox's presentation was part of the Box Lunch Talk speaker series from the Carroll County Historical Society, which also celebrates the county's 188th birthday. The series will continue on Feb. 18 at noon with 'Six Decades of Entrepreneurship: Observations & Opportunities' by local businessperson Bill Brown, at 21 Carroll St., Westminster (Grace Lutheran Church). Historical Society of Carroll County Executive Director Jason Illari said the talk showed that history informs our sense of community today, and that relatively recent history can be as meaningful as things that happened a very long time ago. 'Steve is a perfect example of how history can be presented in a story-telling way,' Illari said, 'which keeps people engaged and having fun. It doesn't always have to be a dry lecture that goes on and on and on. And he's a history teacher at the school, so he's a professional, but I hope that a big takeaway for people is that they can see that history can be fun, it can be engaging, and it's not all about dates. It's more about the stories that we tell.' Have a news tip? Contact Thomas Goodwin Smith at thsmith@
