Posts in category

Apollo


Recollections of Spacefest V “The past is prologue” as I once heard. A once politicised and technology based race to the Moon has yielded innumerable spin-off benefits and technology, but has also served as a prologue to many other events. The birth and rise of the new commercial space industry. International Space Agency cooperation with …

America’s first space station, Skylab was launched into orbit on a Saturn V rocket in May of 1973. Three manned missions to the outpost were immensely successful. Repairs made to the orbital station during several spacewalks ultimately proved that it was possible for astronauts to conduct work in outer space, which gave NASA the confidence …

The launch of any new spacecraft cannot be regarded as ‘routine’; nor, indeed, can its inaugural checkout in orbit. The Skylab orbital workshop was an entirely new concept for the United States and a totally different spacecraft, larger, more spacious and in many ways far more complex, than any that had gone before. Shortly after launch, telemetry data indicated a premature deployment of the protective micrometeoroid shield and the No. 2 workshop solar array. The very future of the space station was hanging by a thread.

An overview of each Skylab mission, from launch of the orbiting space station through the once planned Space Shuttle rescue mission.

The last man to walk on the Moon decided to celebrate the 40th anniversary of this occasion at the place where his flight career started. Held Dec. 15 at the National Naval Aviation Museum, with 1,200 of his  friends, the event was split up into several different panel discussions. The morning panel included individuals such …

Forty years have passed since he left mankind’s last bootprint on the Moon, but Gene Cernan is a man focused on the future. He strongly believes that inspiring dreams within children, and encouraging STEM education is the path to a future where we walk on the Moon again. Cernan: “What we have to do is …