Apollo 13 Infographic: How did they make that CO2 scrubber?
In the movie Apollo 13, an engineer comes into a conference room and dumps a bunch of hardware onto a table. The goal? Fit a square peg into a round hole. The problem? After an explosion crippled the Apollo 13 spacecraft, the three astronauts went into the Lunar Module for much of their flight home. […]
Flashback Friday: Goddard launches first liquid-fuel rocket in 1926
On March 16, 1926, Robert Goddard set out to do the impossible. He became the first person to launch a liquid-fuel rocket 93 years ago. Igniting a dream Although liquid-fuel rockets are mainstream today, in Goddard’s time they were a brand-new concept. Solid materials, namely gunpowder, were used for rocket launches prior to Goddard’s discovery. […]
VIDEO: Thought Leader Series – Applications of lessons learned from human space flight tragedies
Space exploration takes courage, tenacity and innovation. Tragically, it also claimed the lives of 17 brave souls in the Apollo 1 fire, the Challenger explosion and Columbia disaster. In the Feb. 25, 2019 installment of our Thought Leader Series, former NASA flight director Wayne Hale, Jacobs vice president Lon Miller and NASA Johnson Space Center […]
Mission Apollo Minute – Saturn V rocket
The Saturn V rocket was the fuel that put the Apollo program on the moon. The giant rocket clocked in with the following measurements: 363 feet tall, weighing 6.2 million pounds and generating 34.5 million newtons of thrust. The most powerful rocket that has ever flown was made up of three stages. Stage one included […]
This day in history: Friendship 7 launched
On Feb. 20, 1962, Friendship 7 launched. The mission made John Glenn the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. It also reestablished the United States as a contender in the heated space race. Before Glenn made history, the Soviet Union led the space race. They had already launched Sputnik (1957), the world’s first spacecraft. […]
Astronaut Friday: Ronald McNair
In honor of Black History month, today’s Astronaut Friday post is dedicated to remembering a truly remarkable space pioneer, astronaut Ronald McNair. In 1984, McNair became the second African American in space aboard Challenger for STS 41-B, just months after Guion Bluford had become the first aboard STS-8. An accomplished physicist and astronaut, McNair logged […]
This day in history: Johnson Space Center gets new name
It helps to have friends in high places. As the nascent space program under NASA was coalescing, its leader was Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. A native Texan, Johnson took a special interest in the space race and positioned his home state as a beneficiary. Johnson served as chair of the National Aeronautics and Space […]
Remembering those NASA lost
On Jan. 27, 1967, NASA lost astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Ed White in the Apollo 1 fire. On Jan. 28, 1986, tragedy struck again as NASA lost astronauts Dick Scobee, Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Gregory Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe as part of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. On […]
VIDEO: Thought Leader Series – International Space Station
In his State of the Union address on Jan. 25, 1984, President Ronald Reagan directed NASA to build an international space station within a decade. By 2000, ISS has its first permanent residents and has allowed human to live continuously in space ever since. On Jan. 24, 2019 Dr. Scott Copeland, Boeing senior manager of […]
This day in history: Independence Plaza opens
On a cold Jan. 23 morning in 2016, a new international landmark opened to the public. Time flies when you’re having fun, especially when you’re inside a Boeing 747 that used to fly the skies. Independence Plaza turns three this year. The monumental exhibit remains a cornerstone of the experience at Space Center Houston. Nowhere […]
