Just ask San Francisco, Milan or even Des Moines: Landing a larger-than-life sculpture by Claes Oldenburg in your city is an artistic triumph. But if we want our own, we need to act fast. He's in his '80s. And yes, he’s still taking commissions.
In 2005, while tethered to a robotic arm 220 miles above the surface of the Earth, Sacramento native and UC Davis grad Stephen Robinson made one of the most famous—and dangerous—spacewalks inhistory. His mission: to remove debris from heat tiles on the belly of the Space Shuttle to prevent the craft from burning up on re-entry. On Feb. 7, our hometown astronaut returns to space for his fourth, and likely last, NASA voyage. He’s living proof why, yes, sometimes it really does take a rocket scientist.
