Tag Archives: Astronaut Selection

Neil Armstrong: Ace Engineer and Hotshot Test Pilot

Posted on August 25, 2012 by asteitel

I walked in the house this afternoon to find a heap of emails, text messages, and voicemails about Neil Armstrong’s death. I was shocked. My next thought was that Armstrong will never be truly gone. When he stepped on the Moon on … Continue reading →

Posted in Apollo, Gemini, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 31 Comments

NASA’s Other Peanuts Traditions

Posted on August 20, 2012 by asteitel

Three years after JPL started what’s become the tradition of eating peanuts during launches, NASA developed another peanuts-based tradition. This one centers on Peanuts the cartoon strip rather than the legume, specifically the beagle Snoopy. Since the Apollo program, Snoopy has been … Continue reading →

Posted in Apollo, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Moon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Apollo’s Youthful Glow

Posted on August 11, 2012 by asteitel

Since Curiosity landed on Mars last Sunday night, the internet has been buzzing not about the Sky Crane that delivered the rover to the surface but about “Mohawk Guy.” Bobak Ferdowsi is a 32-year old flight director at JPL who looks more … Continue reading →

Posted in Apollo, Gemini, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Preserving Lunar History

Posted on May 29, 2012 by asteitel

Last year, NASA laid the groundwork to protect the Apollo landing sites as cultural and historic artifacts, and last week the Google Lunar X Prize Foundation agreed to respect these guidelines. This means the 26 teams trying to land the … Continue reading →

Posted in Apollo, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Carpenter versus Aurora 7

Posted on May 25, 2012 by asteitel

On May 24, 1962, NASA narrowly escaped its first fatality in space. When Scott Carpenter reentered the atmosphere at the end of his Aurora 7 orbital flight, no one in mission control knew where he was going to land. They … Continue reading →

Posted in Manned Spaceflight, Mercury | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Vintage Space Fun Fact: Rorschach Tests

Posted on November 14, 2011 by asteitel

When faced with a Rorschach test – the famous inkblots cards that are supposed to give a psychologist deep insight into your psyche – how are you supposed to answer? For the Mercury astronaut candidates, they knew their answers could make … Continue reading →

Posted in Apollo, Gemini, Manned Spaceflight, Mercury | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

A Return to the Right Stuff?

Posted on August 4, 2011 by asteitel

In previous posts I’ve talked about the changing culture of risk at NASA and about the qualities and characteristics that make astronauts stand apart from the rest of the population. Recently, I’ve begun to notice a correlation between these two facets of … Continue reading →

Posted in Apollo, Manned Spaceflight, Space Shuttle | Tagged , | 2 Comments