
OTD in 1969, NASA launched one of the unsung heroes in America’s bid to land a man on the Moon. Today @AmericaSpace remembers the many-faced flight of Apollo 9. […]
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![]() Artist’s concept of Apollo 13 astronauts Jim Lovell and Fred Haise exploring Fra Mauro. The Lunar Module (LM) Aquarius is visible in the background. Their lost surface explorations subsequently passed to Apollo 14 crewmen Al Shepard and Ed Mitchell. Image Credit: Teledyne Brown In an alternate universe, Jim Lovell and Fred Haise should have […] ![]() Jim Lovell and Fred Haise participate in lunar surface training in February 1970. Their target was the Moon’s Fra Mauro foothills. Photo Credit: NASA Had the cruelty of fate not intervened, a half-century ago, this month, the fifth and sixth humans ever to set foot on another world twice have walked on the dusty […] ![]() Apollo 13 back on Earth. Photo: NASA By the middle of April 1970, Project Apollo—America’s effort to land a man on the lunar surface—had reached one of its most decisive points of crisis. As described in last weekend’s AmericaSpace history feature, an explosion rocked the Apollo 13 spacecraft, halfway to the Moon, destroying one […] ![]() Astronauts gather in Mission Control at the height of the crisis. Seated (from left) are Deke Slayton, Jack Lousma and John Young, with Ken Mattingly and Vance Brand standing. Photo Credit: NASA Fifty years ago, this week, the lives of three humans literally hung in the balance, more than 200,000 miles (320,000 km) from […] ![]() Gene Kranz (in foreground) watches the Flight Day 3 TV broadcast from Apollo 13. Photo: NASA Fifty years ago today, on Saturday, 11 April 1970, the third mission aimed at landing humans on the Moon got underway, with a spectacular launch from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. As recounted […] |