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MSL Sky Crane on Scientific American’s Guest Blog
Regular readers of Vintage Space will know that I’m fascinated by landings – the challenges of both landing on Earth and on other planets. Within this latter vein, I’ve lately become completely...
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Taking Gemini to the Moon
Apollo 8 is usually synonymous with Christmas — at least among spaceflight enthusiasts. In 1968, NASA made the daring decision to send Apollo 8 into lunar orbit in the name of getting American men to...
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The Life and Times of Don McCusker
I got an email from a reader a few months ago who was particularly pleased that an old post mentioned his father, Don McCusker. McCusker was a North American Aviation test pilot and one of the few men...
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Can Russia Save ExoMars?
The latest budget for NASA for FY 2013 sees the agency’s Mars exploration program taking a huge hit – it will get $318 million less than FY 2012. This funding cut has forced NASA to withdraw from the...
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The X-15′s First Glide
Crossfield stands in front of the X-15. Credit: The Scott Crossfield Foundation online It was a chilly morning on June 8, 1959 when Scott Crossfield climbed into the cockpit of the X-15 rocket...
View ArticleMercury’s Staggering Recovery Crews
Splashdown landings, those iconic ends to Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, weren’t as simple as they seemed. While dropping a capsule into the ocean was a simple way to land, pulling the capsule...
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Gearing Up for the Sky Crane
The first image from the surface of Mars taken by Viking 1 in 1976. Credit: NASA This Sunday night around 10:31 PST, the Mars Science Laboratory Sky Crane will deliver the rover Curiosity to the...
View ArticleLearning to Land on the Moon
Bringing anything airborne down for a safe landing takes considerable skill, but landing on other planets presents a whole world of new challenges. In preparation for the Apollo lunar missions,...
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Reducing, Recycling, and Reusing on Mars
An artist’s concept of the Phoenix lander landing. Landers with retrorockets, a tried and true technology for landing on Mars. Credit: NASA Two weeks ago, NASA announced it’s next Discovery class...
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The Gemini Paraglider on SciAm’s Space Lab
The Gemini paraglider; I believe this is a half-scale model in testing at Edwards Air Force Base. Credit: NASA (archives) Most regular readers of Vintage Space will know that I’m obsessed with the...
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