Driving on the Moon: Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene A. Cernan makes a short checkout of the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the early part of the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity at the Taurus-Littrow landing site.
Space Food: The Best and Worst
via boingboing
Mmm mmm “Bite-sized, ready-to-eat, intermediate-moisture and dry foods…” - Space Rules
Thanks to redcloud and snopes.com Space Rules can conclusively confirm the Neil Armstrong story really is apocryphal.
When Apollo Mission Astronaut Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, he not only gave his famous “One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind” statement, but followed it by several remarks - usual com traffic between him, the other astronauts and Mission Control. Before he re-entered the lander, he made the enigmatic remark “Good luck, Mr. Gorsky.”
Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet Cosmonaut; however, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian nor American space programs.
Over the years, many people have questioned him as to what the “Good luck, Mr. Gorsky” statement meant. On July 5, in Tampa Bay, FL, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26 year old question to Armstrong. He finally responded. It seems that Mr. Gorsky had died and so Armstrong felt he could answer the question. When he was a kid, Neil was playing baseball with his brother in the backyard. His brother hit a fly ball which landed in front of his neighbors’ bedroom window. The neighbors were Mr and Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, he heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky, “Oral sex? Oral sex you want? You’ll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!”
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(via morgancsnyderjr) (via my-ear-trumpet) I’ve read this brilliant story on the Internet before however I fear it is apocryphal. If anyone can shed some light on this or direct me to a reliable source please get in touch. - Lyall |
Apollo 12 Flight Plan, September 1969
Billy doesn’t remember how he got hold of the complete flight plan for this lunar landing in 1969, but he did. And has it today. It’s printed on regular Xerox paper, about 200 pages and 2” thick.
One of the funnier notes is that the crew was not allowed to “purge” (flush the toilet) within sight of the earth. All purges were to be made on the back side of the moon! —BP
[NOTE: It’s for sale. Make us an offer
Astronauts micturate (urinate) and defecate too.
Alan L. Bean, Lunar Module pilot of Apollo 12, stands next to Surveyor 3 lander. In the background is the Apollo 12 lander, Intrepid.
The average age of the NASA engineers in Mission Control on the night of Apollo 11’s splashdown was 28 years old…
When Space Shuttle Atlantis left Earth on May 11, 2009, the average NASA civil servant’s age was 47. (source)
This is one of the reasons why the space program is struggling to stay relevant. All the young, aggressive innovative thinkers are working for companies like Google and Facebook, while aerospace is stuck entrenched in the ‘heritage’ designs and stagnant architectures…
The NASA of the 1960s went from nothing to putting a man on the moon in 11 years… Nowadays theres no way we could do that before 2020, and we have done it before…
I often think about how we need to get young people excited about space exploration again…
Regardless of my personal views on God or religion, I love this…and always will.
Apollo 8 saved 1968, in some ways…
What will save us?
To everyone travelling through space aboard the magnificent and life sustaining spaceship Earth have a safe and happy Christmas.
And happy Christmas to those astronauts and cosmonauts lucky enough to be in orbit around Earth on the International Space Station.
“In Event of Moon Disaster”, a speech prepared for Nixon to read in the event that Appolo 11 would not be able to leave the moon, which would have marooned the astronauts via fancybrand
