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Category Archives: Gemini
Sandwiches in Space
Most of NASA’s Apollo program files are publicly available, in many cases digitized and accessible online. But there’s one picture from the Apollo 12 files that I’ve never been able to find much information about: a picture of a suit … Continue reading
Posted in Apollo, Gemini, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Moon
Tagged Al Bean, Apollo, Apollo12, Dick Gordon, Gus Grissom, John Young, NASA, Pete Conrad
6 Comments
The Gemini Paraglider on SciAm’s Space Lab
Most regular readers of Vintage Space will know that I’m obsessed with the Gemini Paraglider, the landing system that should have made splashdowns obsolete starting in the early 1960s but (to make a long story short) just couldn’t keep pace … Continue reading
Posted in Gemini, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Mercury
Tagged Gemini, Landing Systems, Landings, Paraglider, Rogallo
4 Comments
McDivitt’s Trials With Orbital Rendezvous
Orbital mechanics and the challenges of orbital rendezvous isn’t a simple thing to explain, particularly as a non-scientist breaking it down for other non-scientists. But it’s a central part of the Apollo mission profile, so it comes up a lot … Continue reading
Posted in Apollo, Gemini, Manned Spaceflight
Tagged Ed White, Gemini, Gemini 4, Jim McDivitt, NASA, Rendezvous
8 Comments
Gene Cernan and I Walk Into a Bar; or, Swearing Around the Moon
In all his official NASA portraits, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan looks stern. All the Apollo-era astronauts were photographed unsmiling, almost as though it would give tax paying Americans the sense that their national heroes took their roles deadly seriously … Continue reading
Vintage Space Favourites of 2012
The past twelve months have been very good ones. I’ve met and worked with some incredible people, ventured into the (often awkward) world of podcasts and webcasts, and have read and written more than I ever did in grad school. … Continue reading
Apollo’s Rotor Reentry Revisited
Regular readers of Vintage Space undoubtedly know that I love landing systems, particularly the creative ideas that were too complicated to gain traction in the 1960s. Among unrealized systems, my favourite has to be the Rogallo wing, the inflatable glider … Continue reading
Posted in Apollo, Gemini, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Unmanned Spaceflight
Tagged Apollo, Gemini, NASA, Rogallo, Rotor, Rotor Reentry
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Another Use for Rogallo: Saturn Recovery
Regular readers are doubtless aware that I love the Rogallo paraglider wing. NASA had had no shortage of uses for this triangular, two-lobed sail design in the 1960s. It was the system that should have landed the Gemini spacecraft on … Continue reading
Posted in Apollo, Gemini, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Mercury
Tagged 1961, Apollo, Booster Recovery, Gemini, Mercury, NASA, Paraglider, Rogallo, Rogallo Paraglider, S-IC Stage, Saturn Booster
2 Comments