Computer control of spacecraft systems assisted Armstrong during descent. At certain altitudes, an abort was no longer an option and an abort procedure could only be carried out with clearance from NASA. On 20 July, Armstrong detached Eagle from Collins and began its powered descent towards the lunar surface, eventually conducting his inaugural two and…
An exciting new website provides diehard space fans with an incredible way to relive the moon landing as it happened. A wealth of audio recordings has long been accessible online; air-to-ground communications between controllers have also been preserved. But thousands of hours of supplementary conversations between controllers have remained unseen for decades – until now….
Early Wednesday morning, the Moon suddenly lit up red like an extravagant rosebud in the predawn sky for an extended period – an unprecedented celestial event known as a super blood moon eclipse. Lunar eclipses begin when the Moon enters Earth’s outer shadow, the penumbra, before moving further inward and entering its darker umbra. What…
NASA began exploring the Moon long before Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot there, sending unmanned spacecraft missions that provided invaluable data about landing techniques and helped scientists understand its environment. These missions gave NASA vital knowledge about landing techniques while providing scientific understanding of what life might look like on the…
The Apollo program, which ran from 1961 to 1972, reached its pinnacle on July 20, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the Moon. Their decisions regarding approach, technology, organisation and funding had an outsized influence on human spaceflight and continue to shape today’s space exploration efforts. The…
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…
Apollo 11 immediately captured world imagination upon launch, drawing global interest as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin embarked upon mankind’s first steps ever on the Moon. It made history. They disassociated Eagle from Columbia, and began exploring the Moon’s surface. Furthermore, they deployed scientific equipment and collected samples of lunar materials. Launch Apollo 11 was…
Nations around the globe tailor their space exploration missions to reflect wider national interests, with France targeting scientific goals; Russia looking to further extend their global predominance; and China hoping to displace America as technological leader. NASA’s Artemis project follows suit; its inaugural launch, set for 2024, will send an uncrewed Orion capsule past the…
As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s Apollo 11 rocketed away, an eager crowd watched it lift off at Cape Kennedy. Following four hours of restful flight time, their astronauts started their first lunar excursion mission. Science experiments that measured the composition of solar wind were employed, as well as a laser reflector to identify our…
