The Voyager space probes, the furthest man-made objects from Earth, were launched 40 years ago this upcoming week (in the case of Voyaged 2, launched August 20th 1977 – Voyager 1 was launched later, in September of 77), and as such NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are doing a bit of a celebration, to […]
Tag: space history
Here’s Some Random Rocket Launches – Have A Great 4th Of July!
It’s the 4th of July tomorrow and, being quite honest, I had nothing quite planned to write today or tomorrow. However, to keep up with the spirit of Xadara, my love of space, and in a classic “Happy Birthday America” bit of patriotism, I’ve decided to just flood you with some random rocket launches in […]
50 Years Ago, The Tragedy Of Soyuz 1
On April 23rd, 1967, the Soviet Union launched the first manned mission of their new Soyuz program. The Soviets had not launched a crew in 2 years, realizing that to get anywhere close to beating the Americans at a race to the moon they would need to produce a new spacecraft that could conduct a […]
56 Years Ago, Vostok 1
Amazingly, I don’t have much to share today on Vostok 1. I covered most everything I could possibly need to cover on the mission last year, and, suffice it to say, there amazingly isn’t that much video or special content out there on this mission – at least, nothing I’m quite feeling like sharing at […]
NASA Day Of Remembrance
On the tail end of January each year, NASA does its “Day of Remembrance” where they honor the astronauts who have died not just in active missions but also in training accidents, tests, or other situations. Of course, the heavy focus is spent on 3 particular missions: Apollo 1, STS-51L, and STS-107. Apollo 1, as […]
Apollo 1 News Reports
News spread rather quickly following the fire of Apollo 1. This was back when news really focused on telling the story, rather than on what ratings it will bring in – certainly a different time in media. In any case, many news reports, or snippets from such, are available online. Here are a few more […]
Ad Astra Per Aspera
Apollo 1, 50 Years Later
Project Mercury And You – 1961 Convair Training Film
Ah, project Mercury – the United States “Man In Space” program. Sure, it wasn’t the first to put a man in space, or in orbit (The Soviets would do that with Vostok 1 in 1961) but it was still a necessary step towards what we eventually would accomplish. Of course, anything going into space needs […]
The Soyuz Rocket Turns 50!
With nearly 2000 launches to its name, the Soyuz rocket turns 50 years old today – it’s first launch was on November 28th, 1966, carrying a payload known as Kosmos 133, Kosmos being a universal codename for “unknown” Soviet Satellites. This craft was, in reality, the first test flight of the boosters namesake, the Soyuz […]
The Legacy Of Project Gemini – 1967 NASA Film
As mentioned in the previous article, the Gemini Project, NASA’s 2nd manned space program, ended on November 15th, 1966. The 10 manned missions over 2 years proved that humans could do everything needed in space to make a successful flight to the Moon. All that would be left would be to prove out the Apollo […]
50 Years Ago, The End Of The Gemini Program
On November 15th, 1966, Gemini XII, the final mission of the United States Gemini program returned to Earth, marking the end of space program to prove humans could do work outside of their spacecraft, could survive in space for the possible 2 week long duration moon missions would take, and lastly to prove two spacecraft […]
Those Damn Rocket Engines
45 Years Ago, The Sad End Of The Worlds First Space Station: Salyut 1
The Sputnik Moment
The story of Sputnik 1 is far more than just a simple satellite going into orbit. When Sputnik 1 launched in October of 1957, the United States was caught by absolute surprise. How could the Soviets beat the Americans into putting up an artificial Satellite? What did this mean they could do next? What would […]