No doubt modern smartphones are far more powerful than the computers used on Apollo missions, yet such comparisons underplay the amazing technology employed by NASA during these missions to get us there. MIT-designed Apollo Guidance Computer was crashproof, operating according to a hierarchical system which allocated energy based on program importance; this allowed energy distribution…
Apollo 11 was an historic United States spaceflight which successfully sent humans to land on the moon. This mission marked an achievement in their national mission of outpacing Soviet Russia in space exploration. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history when they transitioned from their command module Columbia into Eagle, then fired its engine for…
On the third EVA, Cernan and Schmitt drove to Van Serg crater where they collected house-sized rock, took gravimeter readings, deployed more experiments, but ran out of both water and oxygen and had to retreat back to LM. Once inside, they relaxed. However, upon closer inspection they saw that the amount of sunlit land on…
Six Apollo lunar landing missions explored various geologic terrains on the near side of the Moon. This collection of images shows each site explored along with footprints left by astronauts between landing sites. Apollo 14 conducted research at Fra Mauro Crater for evidence of impact melt breccias and rock ages from Imbrium Basin. This mission…
Apollo and Peter Davis, trained search-and-rescue dogs, arrived at the World Trade Center 15 minutes after South Tower collapsed and quickly began searching the rubble piles for survivors – earning themselves the Dickin Medal for their efforts. James Symington drove Trakr and Genelle Guzman across 15 hours from Nova Scotia, Canada, to Manhattan in aid…
NASA’s Apollo program consisted of six missions which used command modules and lunar modules to land astronauts on the Moon. On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set sail from Columbia’s command module and entered their lunar module Eagle, landing successfully and surveying its surface before calling home: “Houston Tranquility Base here:…
Once Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took off from the Moon aboard an ascent stage of LM, they met with Michael Collins in the command module – although NASA engineers assumed Eagle would crash onto its lunar surface, gravitational analysis suggests otherwise – possibly creating an historical artifact! The Eagle’s Orbit Neil Armstrong made history…
As captivating as Miller’s IMAX footage is, what truly distinguishes Apollo 11 is its audio archives. Ranging from back-room chitchat to the haunting Moog-infused score, Apollo 11 highlights just how many technicians and flight control teams were necessary to send three brave men on an ambitious journey around our moon and back safely. As in…
On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin opened Eagle’s hatch to begin the first lunar surface EVA mission. Their two and half hour moonwalk included setting up science experiments, photographing their surroundings, reading an inscription plaque, reading aloud the plaque text, reading aloud an inscription plaque message from spacecraft Apollo 11, reading aloud from it…
