NASA
Amelia's Astronaut Connection
The grandson of Amelia Earhart's photographer will carry her scarf higher than she ever did—into orbit.
October 23, 2009 |
By Jill Michaels
Devils’ Advocates
Some people go to Las Vegas to gamble, others to learn about Mars.
September 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Last Breath
As NASA prepares to shut down a historic wind tunnel in Virginia, some hope for a stay of execution.
September 10, 2009 |
By Michael Klesius
Back to Surveyor Crater
Over the next year or so, NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) will be systematically photographing the Apollo landing sites from orbit. Here's the most recent view, showing the Apollo 12 landing site where Pete Conrad and Alan Bean came down in Nobember 1969, near the same spot where the...
September 04, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Mars, and Step on It
When it’s not the journey but the destination that counts.
September 2009 |
By Michael Klesius
Magnificent Isolation
Rather, the end of it. The crew of Apollo 11 didn't realize how magnificent it was until they were thrust into a frenzied world after 19 days of quiet quarantine. From the moment they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, they'd been penned up like three men in an episode of The Twil...
August 11, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
The Art of a Moonwalker
Alan Bean’s moonscapes show what photographs can’t.
August 2009 |
By The Editors
Secret Space Shuttles
When you’re 200 miles up, it’s easy to hide what you’re up to.
August 2009 |
By Michael Cassutt
For All Mankind, or just for scientists?
In an essay published recently in the New York Times, novelist Thomas Mallon made a provocative comment: "If any real scandal attaches to Project Apollo, it’s the extent to which hard science was allowed to dominate the astronauts’ hours on the moon. With less geology and more ontology, they might ...
July 31, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Apollo Disappointment Industry
Space historian Matthew Hersch writes:This year marks the 40th anniversary not only of Apollo 11’s historic moon landing, but of the vigorous public debate that accompanied it—debate that, decades later, shows no signs of weakening. Human spaceflight has always been controversial, and condemnation ...
July 31, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The moonwalkers' doctor, and sometime bartender
Riding in a helicopter with the Apollo 11 astronauts following their Pacific Ocean splashdown on July 24, 1969, Bill Carpentier might have had a thousand questions for the first men to return from the moon. But there would have been no point in asking. Even if Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins hadn't ...
July 30, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Andrew Dawson's handmade space program
Twenty years ago, performer/director Andrew Dawson, who calls his type of art "physical theater," accepted a challenge. Could he create a one-man show using only a table as a stage? With such a small set, he realized he'd need a big subject. "And I couldn't think of anything bigger than going to th...
July 30, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
N none
The Soviets called it the N1, and kept it secret, of course. What a hard secret that must have been to keep, considering just how awesome this rocket was. A tall, ultra-steep cone, it was a bit more 19th century in appearance, more science fictiony-looking, than the square shouldered and cylindrica...
July 28, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
Mike's graffiti
It's diamond shaped. And it's the crown jewel of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, displayed on the first floor in the Milestones of Flight Gallery. It's the Apollo 11 command module, the heat shield charred from entering Earth's atmosphere at Mach 35.Last Sunday, July 19, as the Apoll...
July 27, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
To shave or not to shave
The astronauts of the 1960s were mostly a crewcut bunch, but by 1969 fashions were changing, and Apollo crews returning to Earth had to make a decision: Should I shave off my moon beard? Most did, but a few experimented with new looks when they got back. Mike Collins of Apollo 11 (right), kept hi...
July 24, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The many colors of the moon (and Earth)
The first two expeditions to the moon, in December 1968 and May 1969, sent back conflicting reports on its color when viewed up close. The Apollo 8 astronauts described the surface as whitish gray, like "dirty beach sand," in the words of Bill Anders. Tom Stafford's Apollo 10 crew saw tans and brow...
July 23, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Apollo Seven
Dispense with the nostalgia already. Let's argue about the future.Forty years after the first moon landing, with most of the Apollo astronauts pushing 80 and older, it's a major news event when seven of them, including four moonwalkers, assemble under one roof. This time they passed on an umpteenth...
July 22, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
Dishing on "The Dish"
In 2000, “The Dish” (watch the trailer) was the most popular movie in Australia. Half fact, half poetic-license, it highlights the role that Australia’s Parkes Observatory played in televising the first steps made on the moon. One reviewer wrote “…a real sense of the importance of it to the commun...
July 21, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
A baby boomer in the White House
Like many people over the age of 45, Barack Obama reminisced yesterday about the Apollo 11 moon landing and what he was doing at the time. The President recalled sitting on his grandfather's shoulders in Hawaii, waving to the Apollo astronauts as they returned on recovery ships.Unlike most people, ...
July 21, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
