
OTD in 1967, #Apollo1 astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White & Roger Chaffee were lost when a flash fire swept through their spacecraft. On this day, AmericaSpace & the world remembers their ultimate sacrifice. […]
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![]() Truly the voyage of Apollo 8 over the Christmas period in 1968 carried with it the most profound message of the Greatest Story Ever Told: a message of peace, goodwill and harmony to the inhabitants of Planet Earth. Photo Credit: NASA Five decades ago, in December 1968, three men were launched atop […] ![]() View of Earth from Apollo 8, showing the day-night terminator crossing from Brazil to the north-eastern United States. Photo Credit: NASA Five decades have now passed since the largest and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status—the gigantic Saturn V—set off from Earth, bound for another world, with a human crew aboard. At […] ![]() For some time, the exact content of Apollo 8 (whether circumlunar or lunar-orbital) remained undecided. The crew patch, originally sketched by Jim Lovell onto his kneeboard during a cross-country T-38 flight with Frank Borman, illustrates the ambiguity and enormity of their mission. Image Credit: NASA Since July 1969, astronaut Mike Collins has achieved worldwide […] ![]() Due for release later in 2018, “First to the Moon” traces the lives of the Apollo 8 crew and their remarkable voyage to the Moon. Image Credit: Paul Hildebrandt/FirstMoonMovie.com “If I have seen further,” the great English scientist Sir Isaac Newton once remarked, writing about the Dutch philosopher and physicist René Descartes, “it […] ![]() Since December 2000, a multi-national mix of Americans and Russians, Japanese and Italians, Dutchmen and Canadians, a Briton and a Frenchman have celebrated Christmas aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Photo Credit: NASA As Santa commences his yearly traverse across the world this evening, in search of those whose exploits over the past […] ![]() The Apollo 1 prime crew consisted of (from right) Commander Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger Chaffee. Photo Credit: NASA In the windowless blockhouse at Pad 34 at Cape Kennedy, Deke Slayton heard the call of “rookie” astronaut Roger Chaffee and glanced over to a monitor which showed the […] ![]() With a fire unavailable, the Christmas stockings of consecutive International Space Station (ISS) crews have been hung by the hatch—with care, of course. Photo Credit: NASA For the first time, a woman will record as many as two Christmases spent away from the Home Planet tomorrow (Sunday), whilst orbiting Earth aboard the International […] ![]() Apollo 8 in December 1968 marked the first occasion on which humans had departed Earth’s gravitational “well,” entered cislunar space, and traveled to the Moon. The flight design originated from the “E-mission” of Apollo 3. Photo Credit: NASA Fifty years ago, this week—just three days before Christmas 1966—NASA announced the names of a […] |