Tag: Apollo 11

The Lunar Modules That Were Built But Never Flown

In November of 1962, the Grumman company headquartered in Bethpage,  New York  won the contract to build the Lunar Module that first carried American astronauts to the Moon. Grumman, a well known defense contractor famous for navy fighter aircraft wanted to be a part of the coming race to space, but they...

Apollo at Forty

Forty years ago humans embarked on a dangerous journey from which their safety and return could not be guaranteed. Not since humans first journeyed far from the savanna’s of Africa or set sail across vast oceans has any trip been so defining of the spirit that lives in all...

Houston We Have a Problem….Again

“With a few exceptions, we have the technology or the knowledge that we could go to Mars if we wanted with humans. We could put a telescope on the moon if we wanted,” “The technology is by and large there. It boils down to what can we afford?” Norman...

On This Christmas Eve

Forty years ago tonight America was bringing to a close a year that saw much turmoil and unrest. America’s survival through the problems at home and abroad that marked the sixties was tested as we struggled to find ourselves through the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King,...

The Art of Imitating Life

This past weekend I ventured down to the Kennedy Space Center to catch the annual airshow on the grounds of the space center complex. While there I took the time to catch the 3D IMAX film “Magnificent Desolation”. When I had first seen this movie several years ago needless...

A Dangerous “Trek” to Tranquility Base

Astrobotics has announced an exciting and ambitious effort to land a robotic rover on the lunar surface at the site of the Apollo 11 landing as part of the Google LunarX Prize competition. Dubbed the “Tranquility Trek” they plan to land and explore the historic site where humans first...