Tag: Space History
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Cosmos on your coffee table: These big books make a big impact for holiday giving
“Space Atlas,” “Space Stations,” “All Over the Map” and “The Universe Today Ultimate Guide to Viewing the Cosmos” are among newly released coffee-table books with cosmic themes. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) If you’re going to give somebody a book for the holidays, why not go big? In this age of ebooks, smartphones and tiny…
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How the Air and Space Museum signed up for a SpaceShipOne tribute to Paul Allen
The SpaceShipOne rocket plane is illuminated in blue light at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The Saturday night lighting served as a tribute to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who backed the prize-winning SpaceShipOne project. (NASM / Steven VanRoekel Photo) It wasn’t just Seattle’s skyline that turned blue on Saturday…
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Review: ‘First Man’ and ‘The First’ focus on the moon, on Mars … and on families
Ryan Gosling plays the role of NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong in “First Man.” (Universal Pictures Photo) Two big-name dramatic productions — “First Man” in theaters, and “The First” on Hulu — are putting the glorious past and potentially glorious future of space exploration on big and small screens. But if you’re expecting the Ryan Gosling…
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T-minus-1 year: The moon is on the rise as Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary approaches
NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag during 1969’s Apollo 11 mission to the moon. (NASA Photo / Neil Armstrong) Forty-nine years ago today, humans first set foot on a world beyond Earth — and by the time the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing rolls around, a year from now, there’s likely…
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Buzz Aldrin shares latest space vision even as questions swirl about his state of mind
Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin acknowledges that the change in tone on his Twitter account has “unfortunately resulted in an exchange or two.” (Buzz Aldrin via Twitter) Buzz Aldrin wants people to know that he has some cool new ideas about how to get to the moon — not just because they’re cool, but also…
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Astronaut Alan Bean, Apollo 12’s artistic moonwalker, dies at 86 after sudden illness
Astronaut Alan Bean poses for a portrait in front of a mockup of NASA’s lunar module in advance of his Apollo 12 moon mission in 1969. (NASA Photo) Artist-astronaut Alan Bean, the moonwalker who saw himself as different from the rest, died today at the age of 86 at Houston Medical Hospital. Bean’s death followed…
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Godspeed, Dick Gordon: Seattle-born Apollo 12 astronaut passes away at 88
Dick Gordon was command module pilot for Apollo 12 in 1969. (NASA Photo) The first Seattle-born astronaut to fly in space, Dick Gordon, passed away on Monday at his home in California at the age of 88, NASA and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation reported. He flew into orbit in 1966 as pilot for the Gemini 11 mission.…
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48 years after Apollo 11 moon landing, lunar dust bag sells for $1.8 million
A view from the Apollo 11 lunar module shows mission commander Neil Armstrong collecting a sample of lunar dust and rocks. At his feet is the handle for the sample collection tool. (NASA Photo / Andy Chaikin / CollectSpace.com) The 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing was payday for a Chicago-area lawyer who…
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Opportunity rover’s roll on Mars eerily echoes Apollo 16’s stroll on the moon
NASA’s Opportunity rover snapped a picture of its own tread marks as it passed by Orion Crater on Mars. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU) Forty-five years after the astronauts of Apollo 16 rode out on a rover to look over a crater on the moon, NASA’s Opportunity rover looked over a crater on…
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Apollo moon rocket engines finally fill a place of honor at Museum of Flight
David Concannon, who put together a team to find components from the F-1 rocket engines that sent NASA astronauts on their way to the moon, recounts the adventure at the Museum of Flight with the recovered components in the background. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) Almost 50 years after they were fired up, rocket engines that…