Latest Apollo program Stories
PASADENA, Calif., June 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE: JEC) announced today that, as part of the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) Transition Team, it received the NASA Group Achievement Award during a recent ceremony at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. NASA's MAF is a world-class facility that has been at the center of human space flight since the early 1960s. The NASA Group Achievement Award is given for an outstanding accomplishment...
In exploration, sometimes you find more than what you're looking for, including things that shouldn't be there. As the Apollo 17 astronauts orbited over the night side of the moon, with the sun just beneath the horizon right before orbital "sunrise," Eugene Cernan prepared to make observations of sunlight scattered by the sun's thin outer atmosphere and interplanetary dust from comets and collisions between asteroids. The idea was to have the moon block the brilliant direct sunlight...
The space and astronomy worlds have June 13 circled on the calendar.That's when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) expects the sample return capsule of the agency's technology demonstrator spacecraft, Hayabusa, to boomerang back to Earth. The capsule, along with its mother ship, visited a near-Earth asteroid, Itokawa, five years ago and has logged about 2 billion kilometers (1.25 billion miles) since its launch in May 2003.With the return of the Hayabusa capsule, targeted for June...
Ex-Grumman Launch Pad Foreman Speaks Out for the First Time in 40 Years PBS invites fans to help solve the mystery, 'Who is John F?,' with a pre-broadcast online story release at pbs.org/historydetectives PORTLAND, Ore., June 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, PBS enlists HISTORY DETECTIVES fans across the nation to solve a 40-year-old mystery: "Who is John F.?" -- and did he really help send Andy Warhol's art to the moon? HISTORY DETECTIVES has posted "Moon Museum" online today, two weeks...
A Soviet robot lost on the dusty plains of the Moon for the past 40 years has been found again, and it is returning surprisingly strong laser pulses to Earth."We shined a laser on Lunokhod 1's position, and we were stunned by the power of the reflection," says Tom Murphy of UC San Diego, who leads the research team that's putting the old robot back to work. "Lunokhod 1 is talking to us loudly and clearly." Almost forgotten in the lore of the Apollo-era space race, Lunokhod...
SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, along with NASA and the Lockheed Martin-led Orion industry team, successfully launched the first integrated Orion launch abort system flight test today. Conducted at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the test drew more than 1,100 attendees including space industry leaders, NASA center dignitaries and Congressional representatives. Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor to NASA...
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., May 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Pad Abort 1 flight test, a launch of the abort system designed for the Orion crew vehicle, lifted off at 7 a.m. MDT Thursday at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) near Las Cruces, N.M. The flight lasted about 135 seconds from launch until the crew module touchdown about a mile north of the launch pad. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The flight was the first...
The new Orion crew capsule was successfully launched on Thursday as part of a test of its launch-abort system. The launch-abort system catapulted the capsule from a desert launch pad at 7 a.m. and reached speeds of about 450 mph in just 2.5 seconds. The capsule landed about a mile north of the launch site as hundreds of onlookers clapped and cheered. The Orion launch-abort system is designed to whisk astronauts and the capsule to safety in case a problem on the launch pad occurs during...
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Within 97 seconds of an initial 500,000-pound blast of solid rocket motor thrust, Orion completed its first successful flight test of the launch abort system at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range near Las Cruces, New Mexico at 7 a.m. MT. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), the prime contractor to NASA for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, led the industry team's development effort on this new system that will significantly improve...
Guenter Wendt, the legendary pad leader who often was the last person astronauts saw before going into space, died at his home Monday morning in Merritt Island, Fla., within a few miles of NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Wendt had been hospitalized with congestive heart failure and suffered a stroke. He was 85.He worked at Kennedy for 34 years.Wendt, a naturalized American originally from Germany, spoke with a thick accent and made a reputation as a strict overseer of the launch pads and...
Latest Apollo program Reference Libraries
Ronald Ellwin Evans, Jr. was an astronaut that worked with NASA on the Apollo missions and served as a Captain in the United States Navy. Evans is one of the twenty-four astronauts to fly to the moon. . Evans was born on November 10, 1933 in St. Francis, Kansas. He graduated from Highland Park High School in Topeka, Kansas. Boy Scouts of America played a huge role in Evans youth as he attained the highest level of Life Scout. Evans then went on to study at the University of Kansas...
Vance Brand is an engineer and former test pilot and NASA astronaut. He was born Vance DeVoe Brand on May 9, 1931 in Longmont, Colorado. As a child, he was active in Troop 64 of the Boy Scouts of America and in the International Order of DeMolay. He graduated from Longmont High School and then went on to receive a Bachelor's degree in Business from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1953. Immediately after his graduation, Brand was commissioned as an officer and a naval aviator with the...
Frank Borman is a retired NASA astronaut and engineer. He was born Frank Frederick Borman, II on March 14, 1928 in Gary, Indiana. His father moved his family to Tucson, Arizona during Borman's childhood. He graduated from Tucson High School and then graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1950. Upon his graduation, he entered the United States Air Force and became a fighter pilot. He received his Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute...
William Anders is a former United States Air Force officer, NASA astronaut, businessman, and engineer. He is also one of the first three people to have left Earth orbit and traveled to the Moon. He was born William Alison Anders on October 17, 1933 in Hong Kong. As a child, he was active in the Boy Scouts of America and achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. Anders graduated from Grossmont High School in La Mesa, California. After receiving his high school diploma, he was accepted into...
Roger Chaffee was an American aeronautical engineer, a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy and a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program. He was born Roger Bruce Chaffee on February 15, 1935 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he graduated from Central High School. In 1957 he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University. That same year, he married Martha Horn in Oklahoma City on August 24. They had two children, Sheryl Lyn and Stephen. Chaffee was a...
