I apologize for the intrusion after months of silence on this list,  
but I have to pass along some tragic news.  For those of you who have  
not heard, Matt Bowes, who ran the Space Liberates Us (http://
spaceliberates.us) blog, died earlier this month in a motorcycle  
accident in Massachusetts.  He had just started a new school year at  
Olin College in the Boston suburbs after spending the summer working  
as an intern at Masten Space Systems in California.

Matt was one of the first people to accept to accept the invitation  
to participate in the Space Bloggers Summit at ISDC, and was perhaps  
the most enthusiastic about the event. (See http://spaceliberates.us/
news/the-space-blogger-summit-at-isdc-2007/).  I got to meet with him  
only briefly at ISDC, as well as exchange some emails with him, but  
came away with the impression of a young man intensely motivated not  
just to blog about space, but to help make it more accessible to the  
public.  Those of us who have had our own youthful enthusiasm ossify  
into skepticism and cynicism could learn a thing or two from him.

Some blog posts about Matt's all-too-short life:

http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=4616
http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/009773.html#009773
http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2007/09/a_death_far_too.html
http://selenianboondocks.blogspot.com/2007/09/another-sad-day-in-
rocket-land.html

Here is an obituary with a link to a guestbook:

http://www.legacy.com/WashingtonPost/DeathNotices.asp?
Page=Notice&PersonID=94344491

Sincerely,
Jeff Foust
j...@thespacereview.com