I love hearing from people who love space. If you have questions, stories to share, things you always wanted to know about the early space age, or just want to say ‘hi,’ drop me an email at amyteitel@gmail.com.
Circle me on Google+, follow me on Twitter as @astVintageSpace, and look me up on Facebook and follow my Vintage Space page.
I’ve followed your blog for about a year, and I have to thank you for all that you have researched and written for us. My background seems to be a bit different from yours, but I definitely share your fascination with what you appropriately call “Vintage Space.” I work as a tradesman (architectural metal work), and so my career has little to do with the aerospace industry, past or present, but for some reason, about two years ago, I started to become interested in the stories of our beginnings in manned space flight. I hate to admit that YouTube was what pointed me in that direction, but that’s how it happened. I’m not sure exactly what I saw first, probably some Apollo footage, but soon after I began to just hunger for information about early US and Soviet space programs. I’ve since purchased and quickly read every book I could find on the subject, including many books written by early astronauts, the last of which was “All American Boys” by Walt Cunningham. It’s all been really amazing stuff to learn about and I really appreciate your many posts/articles because they often go into detail about interesting subjects that are only given cursory mention in many of the books I’ve so far read. Your story about the tests with the Rogallo wing is a good example. Congratulations on the new website. I will surely visit it as often as I’ve visited your blog in the past.
I also want to say that I appreciate the attention you have given to the Gemini program, which, to me, is the most fascinating of all; when NASA really seemed to strive, as they learned the techniques needed for Apollo, back in James Webb’s day, before the bureaucracy seemed to get bigger and the budget got smaller. I noted in one post you wrote some months back that you purchased your first model, a Saturn 1B, I believe, and you discussed the various paint schemes that NASA used. You then provided us with photos of every manned launch (and some unmanned) from Mercury through ASTP which I thought was very cool. But I believe you also mentioned somewhere that of all the beautiful birds NASA flew, the sleek lines of the Gemini/Titan were the ones you found most appealing..This too, is an appreciation I share with you, and so I thought you might be interested in this:
http://www.redarrowhobbies.com/GEMINI.html
There are many Gemini/Titan models out there to be had but few that actually fly. This one does and looks just beautiful to me. It’s not cheap as far as models go, so if you want a G/T model but have little interest in the amateur end of rocketry it might be worth looking at some others. For me, it’s perfect because I’m interested in learning about amateur high power rocketry and I think flying one would be fun and a small tribute to a part of human history that I find fills me with both pride and wonder. It’s also about the closest I think I’ll get to being a part of the space program (although one can still dream). I plan to purchase one for myself after I finish a few smaller rocketry projects, and hopefully fly it around the anniversaries of the various Gemini launches. I thought it may be of interest to you given your background. If it is and you do get one, please share with us your experience as you did with the Saturn.
Thank you again for your blog and now your website. Also thank you for the various Carnivals of Space. The many links you provide are all very interesting. I spend hours reading them when they come out. And your latest post on preserving lunar history was superb. I’m a big fan of what you do, please keep it up, you rock!