#manned spaceflight

[lindahall]

Wernher von Braun – Scientist of the Day

Wernher von Braun, a German rocket and aerospace engineer, was born Mar. 23, 1912, in Wirsitz, then part of Prussia, now in Poland.

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[ndcirque]

On-time Artemis landings by SpaceX, Blue Origin possible, but face “great challenges” – Spaceflight Now

Not a surprise at all. The vehicle SpaceX has put forward has not flown to earth orbit yet, let alone being man rated or going as far as the moon. Blue Origin has never flown in space. (No their sounding rocket doesn’t count.) Their New Glenn rocket won’t fly until next year and their lander will be developed from what they learn from that.

I will give Blue Origin credit, their lunar lander vehicle at least looks, on paper, to have had some thought put into it for the rough and uneven lunar terrain. I look at the picture above of how SpaceX thinks their vehicle will look on the moon and laugh. It looks like some illustration from a pulp science fiction magazine in the 1950s. The lunar surface is way too rough. You try to land a top heavy pencil like that on end on the moon and it will just fall over.

I am a huge proponant of getting people out into space. We’ve spun in low earth orbit for far too long. The Artemis program though is the wrong design, put together for the wrong reasons, out of surplus shuttle parts. It is too expensive and will not be able to sustain the launch frequency required to have a sustained lunar program.

At best there will be one or two landings. At worst they will kill people.

[edwhiteandblue]

Hidden Histories: Cancelled Mercury Missions

Mercury Redstone's 5 and 6 were crewed suborbital flights scheduled for late summer and autumn of 1961. They were both cancelled that summer after...

Multiple crewed Mercury missions were planned but never flew. Here’s a look at what they would have consisted of.

[everythingisahoax]

90s Supermodel Fact of the Day

If Claudia Schiffer stood on Nadja Auermann’s shoulders, Germany would be halfway to putting a person on the Moon.

[bkfisher]

Cabin press. You watching this at work @sixthrangerknight ?

[historical-spaceflight]

This day in 1965, Astronaut Ed White becomes the first American to conduct Extra-Vehicular Activity, or Spacewalk, aboard Gemini 4. White was beaten to the punch to be first by Cosmonaut Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov, who conducted the first ever Spacewalk earlier in March.

White's EVA showcased NASAs own ability to conduct EVAs, critical for the future of the space program. White spent approximately 20 minutes outside the capsule, before reluctantly returning inside.

"I'm coming back in, and it's the saddest moment of my life."

Astronaut James McDivitt was Command Pilot aboard Gemini 4, and had assisted White with returning to the capsule which was proving difficult, due to an issue with the capsule's hatch which needed to be secured before returning to Earth.

Gemini 4 would be Ed White's only spaceflight. He would perish in the Apollo 1 fire only two years later, with Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee.

[thegikitiki]

State of Technology...

  Rocketdyne Saturn H-1 Rocket Engines, 1961

   Read More on Wikipedia

[egglybagelface96]

Young 1st LT. Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin during his days as an F-86 Sabre jock with the 16th FS, 51st TFW, Korea, 1953.

Aldrin flew a total of 66 combat missions, shooting down two MiG-15s.