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Honorary Members Should you wish to contact the
society or require general information please contact ASTRA
using the following Email address: Should you encounter any problems
with this Web
Page please
email: Prof.
Terence Nonweiler invented
the Waverider re-entry vehicle, which was to have been the
man-carrying spacecraft for Britain's space programme based
on Blue Streak and cancelled by Harold 'Macmillan in 1960.
He was then at Queen's College, Belfast, and became
Professor of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at Glasgow
University in 1962, later Dean of the Faculty of
Engineering; he arranged for the Engineering Faculty to host
ASTRA's 'Man and the Planets' conference in 1974. He joined
the Scottish branch of the BIS in 1962 and became an
Honorary Member of ASTRA at the same time as Archie Roy. He
too participated in ASTRA's book projects, as a result of
which -ASTRA adopted the Waverider as its 'flagship' and
changed the society's logo to incorporate it in 1978. Prof.
Nonweiler became Professor of Applied Mathematics at the
University of Wellington in 1974 and contributed to the June
1997 Waverider issue of our journal Asgard. In December 1999 ASTRA was shocked to
learn that Prof. Nonweiler had past away. It is normal
practice to place members details to the Obituaries page,
but it this case as Prof. Nonweiler was had such an impact
on ASTRA and it's activities I have left the above
information within this page and now provide a link to
ASTRA's Obituaries
page, Dr
Jim Randolph began supporting
the Waverider concept in 1984, when he was Manager of the
Starprobe project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena. He has visited ASTRA's Waverider project several
times and became an Honorary Member in 1990, when he was
head of NASA's Space Physics Division, shortly before
participating in the first International Waverider symposium
at the University of Maryland. He has now returned to JPL as
Advanced Projects Director, and he too is a contributor to
the June 1997 Asgard. Roy
Gibson was Director-General
of the European Space Agency in the late 1970's and later of
the British National Space Centre, creator of the British
National Space Plan cancelled by Margaret Thatcher in 1987.
In 1986 he negotiated on ASTRA's behalf with the Director of
NASA when Dr. Jim Randolph had created the possibility of
launching a Waverider
payload from the Space Shuttle, and he lent his support to
the 'Crossroads in Space' proposal by Duncan
Lunan (Council
Member) and Bill Ramsay
(Active
Member). In 1992 ASTRA formed an alliance with
the Space Settlers Society, which had come into being (by
several removes) out of ASTRA's London branch, and was
instrumental in the formation of the House of Commons
All-Party Space Committee. The two societies had several
Honorary Members in common, including Roy Gibson, but as a
result of the merger several Space Settlers Honoraries were
added to the ASTRA list. Sir
Micfiael Marshall was
chairman of the All-Party Space Committee until the general
election, but did not stand for reelection in
1997. David
Atkinson, MP, and
George
Robertson, MP, were founder
members of the All-Party Space Committee. George
Hay is a science-fiction
editor who founded ASTRA's first London branch, out of which
the Space Settlers Society evolved. Ben
Bova is a science-fiction and
fact writer, former science fact editor of Omni, and
chairman of the National Space Institute (USA) at the time
of its merger with the L5 Society to form the National Space
Society. Dr
Graham Duncan is an expert in
space medicine living in Canada. Aldo
Rabaiotti Space writer who
has put in long hard work on behalf of both Space Settlers
and the Free Space Society from 1981 - 1991 when he was made
an Honorary Vice Chairman of Settlers.
Founders - Prof. Oscar Schwiglhofer | Prof. Archie Roy
David Atkinson MP | Ben Bova | Dr Graham Duncan | Roy Gibson
George Hay | Sir Micfiael Marshall | Prof. Terence Nonweiler
Dr Jim Randolph | Aldo Rabaiotti | George Robertson MP
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