Happy Birthday, British Interplanetary Society

OK, not quite birthday time yet. This article notes that the venerable British Interplanetary Society (BIS) "the oldest space organisation in the world still in its original form," will be 80 years old in 2013. The BIS, whose most famous member was the late Arthur C. Clarke, did many pioneering studies of rocketry, beginning with a 1938 study of what it would take to send three astronauts to the Moon. The 1970's study Project Daedalus laid out, in detailed engineering terms, the requirements to send a mission to Barnard's Star. The BIS continues to link space enthusiasts, scientists, and engineers around the world. Many groundbreaking papers have appeared in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS), published since 1934. Visit them at http://www.bis-spaceflight.com/