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Page 32 of 45
Apollo historian Matthew Hersch writes:Thanks to the radio telemetry streaming from Apollo 11’s Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, the engineers at Mission Control could tell, second by second, just how bad the astronauts’ predicament was getting as they prepared to make the first landing on the ...
July 20, 2009
| By Mike Klesius
On July 17, 1969, even as Apollo 11 headed for the moon, there was still a chance the Soviet space program could salvage a modicum of pride. The race to beat the Americans to a manned landing had long been lost, even before the devastating explosion of the N1 moon rocket—the Soviet answer to NASA's...
July 17, 2009
| By Tony Reichhardt
As the first lunar explorers prepared to launch, artist Paul Calle was in the room, quietly sketching away.
July 17, 2009
| By Michael Klesius
A great irony of Apollo 1 is that it kicked off the third and final phase of the manned space program, and its most anticipated, with utter tragedy. The deaths of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee on January 27, 1967, in a command module fire during a launch pad test caused the manned Apollo...
July 16, 2009
| By Mike Klesius
“Your job is not to envision the future, but to enable it.” – Antoine de St. ExuperyOriginally, I had not planned to write anything for the blog today; the web is already inundated with retrospective-, perspective-, nostalgia-laden, crying-in-my-beer pieces on today’s 40th anniversary of the Apollo...
July 16, 2009
| By Paul D. Spudis
As a five-year-old growing up in Oklahoma in the 1940s, Jerry Elliott had a vision that he'd someday travel into space. His family was amused, but Jerry had the last laugh. He graduated with a physics degree from the University of Oklahoma—the first Native American to do so—then went to work for NA...
July 15, 2009
| By Tony Reichhardt
When you’re 200 miles up, it’s easy to hide what you’re up to.
August 2009
| By Michael Cassutt
Alan Bean’s moonscapes show what photographs can’t.
August 2009
| By The Editors
A collection of otherworldly paintings goes on display at the National Air and Space Museum.
July 15, 2009
| By The Editors
Those grainy, black and white television images of Neil Armstrong making his one small step onto the lunar surface...Do they fill you with awe? Or maybe, just a little, do they make you want to lean forward, annoyed, and play with the rabbit ears on your 1960s TV set, give it a hard slap on the top...
July 14, 2009
| By Mike Klesius
It's probably premature to declare SpaceX an established launch company on the basis of yesterday's successful orbiting of Malaysia's Razaksat satellite (see video below). I doubt they'll want to gloat too long, given the technical and financial risks inherent in the rocket business, and the diffic...
July 14, 2009
| By Tony Reichhardt
It was July 15, 1969, the eve of Apollo 11's launch. There was electricity in the air at a huge banquet at Cape Canaveral in honor of rocketeer Wernher von Braun. The dinner was organized by Fifi Booth, seated at the far end of the table in the photo below. Click here for a larger version. As direc...
July 13, 2009
| By Mike Klesius
The space shuttle glows in photographs taken by one of its own technicians.
July 13, 2009
| By The Editors
Space historian Matthew Hersch writes in:On June 16, 1968, three astronauts left their homes in sunny Houston, and with little fanfare or press attention, quietly voyaged into space. They hadn’t been astronauts for very long: physician Joe Kerwin, selected in 1965, was the first of NASA’s new scien...
July 10, 2009
| By Tony Reichhardt
Random events, improbabilities, the domino effect, good luck, bad luck. It's no secret that these things conspire to engrave names on history. The space program of the 1960s was a great example.Consider the path of Mike Collins, Apollo 11's command module pilot. He was originally assigned to fly on...
July 09, 2009
| By Mike Klesius
How much should we spend on America’s space program? Does NASA’s budget need an infusion of billions of dollars? The way these questions are answered gives some indication of why one believes we have a space program, what it should be doing and whether money is the key needed to unlock the barrie...
July 08, 2009
| By Paul D. Spudis
Apollo "onboard voice" recordings captured the moon astronauts' conversations -- cussing and all -- when no one else was listening.
July 07, 2009
| By Tony Reichhardt
...what would you have said as you stepped onto the lunar surface in 1969? The folks at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in England want your suggestions (but only if you live in the U.K., sorry). They'll choose the five best recorded messages, turn them into radio signals, and bounce them ...
July 06, 2009
| By Tony Reichhardt
Roger Launius, a senior curator in the National Air and Space Museum’s Space History Division, recently gave a talk near the Museum’s newly restored Lunar Module called “Apollo and the So-Called Moon Landing Hoax” (allow pause for an eye-roll). He drew quite a crowd, including many museum employees...
July 03, 2009
| By Pat Trenner
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