Time Magazine Names NASA's Ares-I As "Best Invention of 2009"

By Nancy Atkinson - November 12, 2009 08:16 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Whoa. As many people noted on Twitter: Didn't see this one coming. Time Magazine named NASA's Ares rocket as the 2009 Invention of the Year. Ares beat out the what has been billed as the world's best paper airplane, the bladeless fan, rubber made from dandelions, and, my favorite, teleportation. I don't know who Time had for their judges, but obviously Buzz Aldrin wasn't among them. Check out his Huffington Post article where he says although the Ares I-X launched looked spectacular, Ares 1 needs to be scrapped.

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com