It is with great sadness I have learned of the death of Curtis Peebles, aged 62, on June 25, from NASA's History Division (PDF, page 18). Curtis was the author of a dozen of books and over 40 articles on space topics ranging from UFOs, to the Cold War (notably "Guardians: Strategic Reconnaissance Satellites") and lifting bodies ("Flying Without Wings: NASA Lifting Bodies" and the "Birth of the Space Shuttle"). Curtis graduated from California State in 1985 and became a freelance writer in 1977 contributing to several magazines including the British Interplanetary Society's (BIS) "Spaceflight." He began working at the then NASA Dryden in 2000 and his last published work was on NACA aircraft and their contributions to flight published by NASA in 2014. Curtis and I collaborated on "The Emblems of the Astronauts" article published in the June 1983 BIS Space Education magazine, and we shared a passion for the USAF Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program. He was also very helpful in my research for the book "Disaster and Accidents in Manned Spaceflight" published by Springer-Praxis in 2000. Curtis, a BIS Fellow, was always very friendly, helpful and enthusiastic in his work and he will be sadly missed. My thoughts are with his family and those who knew and worked with him in his various projects and at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. |