Governmental Aerospace Programs
The Federal Aviation Administration, air mail, space programs and military aviation
Apollo 11 video: Lost and (someday?) found
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
Why do NASA launch times depend on lighting conditions?
It's all about the solar beta angle.
July 14, 2009 |
By Michael Klesius
LIFE's den mother to the astronauts
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
Watch an F-18 come to life in under four minutes
Another video too cool not to pass on: Speeded-up assembly of an F/A-18F Super Hornet:
July 13, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Recreating Frank Tinker's 1937 dogfight
While a group of well-wishers recently marked the 100th birthday of Spanish Civil War pilot Frank Tinker, one aficionado took it a step further by simulating one of the American-born aviator's most famous victories, a shoot-down of a Messerschmitt Bf-109 in July 1937. See the video here:
July 13, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Shuttle in a Different Light
The space shuttle glows in photographs taken by one of its own technicians.
July 13, 2009 |
By The Editors
Lunar mission in a bottle
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
Astronaut Odds, Long and Short
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
Would More Money Improve NASA?
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
What the astronauts really said
Apollo "onboard voice" recordings captured the moon astronauts' conversations -- cussing and all -- when no one else was listening.
July 07, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
If you had been Neil Armstrong....
...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
"Did SO!"
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
One-way moon trips and other desperate measures
Space historian Matthew Hersch writes in:
It is difficult to imagine it now, but in 1967, Americans and Soviets were literally dying to get to the moon. That year, three American astronauts lost their lives in the Apollo 1 launch pad fire, and a Soviet cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov, died when the ree...
July 02, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
NASA's Giant Cinematic Leap
You want to rediscover the vibe of 1969? Then rediscover the 1970 film Moonwalk One. With shots of camping, idling, beer-drinking middle America on hand in Florida to witness the launch of Apollo 11, interspersed with images of VIPs like Johnny Carson at the Kennedy Space Center, a box-jawed Wernhe...
July 01, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
Where the Wild Things Are
We’re about to get a peek at the solar system’s
final frontier.
July 2009 |
By Guy Gugliotta
The Billy Mitchell Court-Martial
Courtroom sketches from aviation's Trial of the Century.
July 2009 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Fire Hazard
Where there’s smoke, there’s pollution. How can airport firefighters green it up?
July 2009 |
By Sam Goldberg
Unmanned Traffic Jam
To the Federal Aviation Administration, civilian
UAVs are the new barbarians at the gate.
July 2009 |
By Douglas Gantenbein
The Dawn of Discipline
A B-47 pilot remembers when an airplane—and Curtis LeMay—stiffened the spine of the Strategic Air Command
July 2009 |
By Walter J. Boyne
Nine new astronauts, and not a loser in the bunch
NASA's newly named Astronaut Class of 2009 had better be a patient lot, because they probably won't reach orbit anytime soon. But they can look forward to walking on the moon if and when we return there sometime in the 2020s. And even if we don't, it must be pretty satisfying to be one of only nine...
June 30, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
