Maxime “Max” Faget (pronounced: fah-ZHAY) was one of the most important leaders in the history of America’s space program, but relatively unknown to the general public. He designed the Mercury capsule and was a key contributor to plans for spacecraft flown during NASA’s Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle Programs.
In Greek mythology, Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo. Artemis now is the name of NASA’s program to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024. In honor of Women’s History Month, musician Lindsey Stirling performed her composition, “Artemis,” on the roof of the Launch Control Center at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center.
During America’s first human spaceflight program, the eyes of the world often focused on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. As the nation’s Project Mercury astronauts were taking their pioneering steps into space, a centerpiece facility in this effort for astronaut training, crew quarters and spacecraft processing was Hangar S at the Cape.
On Feb. 15, 2020, a Northrop Grumman spacecraft was launched atop an Antares rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Cygnus capsule, christened the “S.S. Robert H. Lawrence,” will deliver more than 7,400 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station. The name honors the first African American to be selected as an astronaut.
NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour first arrived at her home spaceport, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, on May 7, 1991. Following exactly one year of completing assembly, rigorous tests and processing, the newest orbiter “set sail”into the skies over the Atlantic Ocean. The maiden voyage marked one of the most dramatic examples of the value of humans in spaceflight.
American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko participated in a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Twice as long as a typical crew, the effort was to learn more about the effects of microgravity on the human body.
During the summer of 1965, the United States began to pull even in the space race with the Soviet Union. The eight-day Gemini V endurance mission doubled America’s spaceflight record set two months earlier. It also tested technology that would help make longer missions possible in the future.
When a person is called a “rocket scientist,” it can be referring to someone who supports space exploration, or it can simply mean he or she is very intelligent. A “rock star” usually refers to a member of a successful musical band or someone highly renowned in a particular field. Dr. Brian May could be considered both.
In an address to Congress in 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to “land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth” before the end of the decade. With the flight of Apollo 12, 50 years ago, NASA achieved that goal a second time.
Building on the success of the first piloted Gemini mission, NASA prepared to launch its most ambitions flight to date – Gemini IV. During June 1965, two astronauts would not only stay in orbit four days, one would attempt America’s first spacewalk. It was another example of advancing technology enabling new avenues of exploration.