Project Talent Blog

Homer Hickam: How one Rocket Boy Achieved His American Dream

Homer Hickam is a former NASA, a New York Times bestselling author, a Vietnam War veteran, a small town hero, and a Project Talent participant from Big Creek High School in War, West Virginia. His memoir, Rocket Boys, is an account of his youth spent designing and launching rockets with his friends in his hometown of Coalwood, West Virginia

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Janis Joplin: Project Talent Participant, Woodstock Legend

In August of 1969, half a million people gathered in Bethel, New York to attend the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Some of the most celebrated musical artists of the era took to the Woodstock stage, including the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix. The lineup also included music legend and Project Talent participant, Janis Joplin.

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Project Talent and the Vietnam Experience

In 1983, Project Talent participants were the subject of a groundbreaking study called Lives after Vietnam (Card, 1983). Approximately half of all males from the class of 1963 who participated in Project Talent either enlisted or were drafted into service during the early years of the Vietnam War.

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The Ranger 9 Mission

In March of 1965, NASA launched Ranger 9, the last in a series of probes to the moon. It would never return from its one-way mission, but it would provide Americans with their first real glimpse of space in a ground-breaking live television broadcast.

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Welcome to the new Project Talent Blog!

We are delighted to launch the new Project Talent blog, a forum for the project’s staff and participants to share conversations, reflections, and insights. We will be updating the blog with information we think you will find thought-provoking, enlightening and at times, entertaining!

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