Anyone who has followed this site over the past few years will notice a few constants about what I write about – technology, gaming, social commentary, and space and rocketry. Given the depth of the articles I’ve written on the subject, my absolute love of that last category, space, and rocketry, is well documented. Even […]
Haven’t we been down this road before? Didn’t I already do a 60th Birthday post for NASA earlier this year? Yes, yes I did. However, that post was for the July 29th, 1958 formation of NASA as an agency, the signing of the National Aeronautics and Space Act. In the 2 months following that date in 1958, […]
Project Mercury was the United States first manned space flight program. This film gives a good overview of the Mercurty Spacecraft, it’s launch into orbit on an Atlas Missile, and the training of the Mercury 7 Astronauts for the stresses and demanding requirements of space flight. As it would happen, Project Mercury would have 6 […]
If you ever wanted to see and hear a complete space flight, YouTube user LunarModule5 has you covered: One of his hobbies is to compile together actual audio and video of missions, combined with simulator produced visuals and some minor editing into complete, comprehensive overviews of entire flights. Mercury-Atlas 6 is one such mission. The […]
What launch anniversary would be complete without the requisite NASA film from the era about the mission. In this case, this hour long video on Mercury-Atlas 6, John Glenn’s historic first Earth orbit by an American in the Friendship 7 spacecraft. 55 Years Ago: The Flight Of Friendship 7 As I said, this is an […]
On February 20th, 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in his Mercury capsule, Friendship 7. It was a short, 3 orbit mission, but regardless, an American had orbited the Earth and returned safely, which was a key goal of Project Mercury from the get-go. Of course, Glenn wasn’t the first […]
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, died today. Just a few minutes ago I received the call from my mom letting me know this. At the time, I had just fired up a game, wanting to relax a little before work. I noticed she called as I loaded the game up, and […]
Ah, project Mercury – the United States “Man In Space” program. Sure, it wasn’t the first to put a man in space, or in orbit (The Soviets would do that with Vostok 1 in 1961) but it was still a necessary step towards what we eventually would accomplish. Of course, anything going into space needs […]