Roger D. Launius, senior curator in the Division of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., will be delivering a presentation entitled "Access to Space: The Case of the Space Shuttle" on Georgia Tech's campus.  The presentation, sponsored by the School of Aerospace Engineering, reviews the history and legacy of the Space Shuttle Program, and will take place on January 31st from 11:00am – 12:00pm in Guggenheim Room 442.

The presentation will discuss how the program served a venerable role in spaceflight and deserves an overall positive assessment in history.  The Space Shuttle provided three decades of significant human spaceflight capability and stretched the nature of what could be accomplished in Earth orbit much beyond anything envisioned previously. Most significantly, since the American human spaceflight program has always been focused in national prestige, the Space Shuttle served as a symbol of American technological verisimilitude.

Launius is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the American Astronautical Society, and associate fellow of the AIAA. He also served as a consultant to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003 and presented the prestigious Harmon Memorial Lecture on the history of national security space policy at the United States Air Force Academy in 2006. He is frequently consulted by the electronic and print media for his views on space issues, and has been a guest commentator on National Public Radio and many major television network news programs.