Astronaut Bruce McCandless born 1937

Bruce McCandless II, born June 8, 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts, went into space twice. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1958, and received flight training from the Naval Air Training Command in Pensacola, Florida and in Kingsville, Texas.

He was selected as an astronaut in the NASA Astronaut Group 5 at age 28, the youngest member of the group. He served as mission control capsule communicator (CAPCOM) during Apollo 11.  He served as CAPCOM for Apollo 14, as well as astronaut support crew.  He was reassigned to the Skylab program, serving as CAPCOM for Skylab 3 and Skylab 4.

His first mission was aboard Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-41-B) as mission specialist in February 1984. During the mission he performed the first untethered spacewalk, using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), traveling 322 ft away from the shuttle. He spent eight days in space.

His second mission was aboard Discovery (STS-31) as mission specialist in April 1990. He was planning to conduct an EVA with fellow astronaut Kathryn Sullivan to fix and array that could not be deployed through ground control, but the problem was fixed without the need of an EVA.  He returned to Earth after 5 days in space.

McCandless passed away in December 2017.

Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Jerry Elliot High Eagle, Osage Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee

Jerry Elliott High Eagle, born in 1943 in Oklahoma City, was one of the first Native American employed at NASA.  His contributions as lead retrofire officer during the Apollo 13 disaster earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Although facing racial discrimination from the professors at University of Oklahoma, he received a degree in physics, being one of the first Native Americans to achieve such an accomplishment. He joined NASA as a flight mission operations engineer in 1966.  He was Program Staff Engineer during the Apollo-Soyuz Program.

He was the only Native American in mission control during Apollo 11's successful moon landing.  He was lead Retrofire Officer during the Apollo 13.  For his work on helping bring the astronauts home safely, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.

His name "High Eagle" was given to him by tribal elders when he turned 41.

"First Man" released 2018

First Man, released in the US October 12, 2018, is the award winning movie showing the life of Neil Armstrong and the mission that made him become the first man to walk on the moon.  Ryan Gosling played Armstrong.  

First Man won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.  It was nominated for three more: Best Sound Editing, Best Production Design, and Best Sound Mixing.

It won a Golden Globe for Best Original Score.  

Lunar Orbiter 5 launched 1967

Lunar Orbiter 5, launched August 1, 1967, was the last of NASA's Lunar Orbiter program, designed to take images of the Moon's far side. It reached the Moon on August 5 and took pictures from August 6-18, including photos of Tranquility Base, the future site of the Apollo 11 landing.

NASA deorbited it and it struck the lunar surface on January 31, 1968.

Salyut 1, first space station launched 1971

Salyut 1, the first space station ever, was launched by the Soviet Union April 19, 1971. After Apollo 11 landed on the moon in July 1969, the Soviets shifted the emphasis of their space program to orbiting stations, with a possible moon landing later in the 1970s.

They began construction of Salyut 1 in early 1970 and planned to launch on April 12 to coincide with Yuri Gagarin’s history flight on Vostok 1 technical problems postponed the launch until April 19.

The first crew to arrive was aboard Soyuz 10, launched April 22 with Vladimir Shatalov, Aleksei Yeliseyev and Nikolai Rikavishnikov.  They managed to ‘soft-dock’ with Salyut 1 but hard-docking had to be aborted due to technical malfunctions.  However, after undocking, toxic fumes began to fill the capsule during re-entry and Rukavishnikov lost consciousness, but all crew members were recovered successfully.

The second crew, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev, launched in Soyuz 11 June 6, 1971 and docked with Salyut 1 and transferred to the space station.  They were able to carry out some of their tasks but after 23 days, their mission was cut short due to problems aboard the station.  They transferred back to Soyuz 11 and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.  A pressure relief valve malfunctioned during the descent, depressurizing the capsule, suffocating the crew.

The Soviets then moved Salyut 1 to a higher orbit to be sure it would not be destroyed too early through orbital decay.  While this maneuver was being fulfilled, the Soviets worked on an effort to redesign the capsules so pressure suits could be worn during launch, docking, re-entry, etc. 

Their efforts took too much time and in September, Salyut 1 was running low on attitude control gas.  On October 11, 1971, the Soviets fired the main engines for a deorbit maneuver and the space station burned up over the Pacific Ocean.

Gene Cernan, last man on the moon, born 1934

Eugene "Gene" Cernan, born March 14, 1934 in Chicago, Illinois, was the last man to walk on the moon.  He made two trips to the moon on separate occasions, the first in Apollo 10 and the second in Apollo 17. 

His first mission in space was on Gemini IX with Tom Stafford in June 1966.  They were selected as the backup crew but the primary crew (Elliot See and Charles Bassett) was killed in a crash on February 28, 1966.  Cernan and Stafford performed rendezvous procedures that would be used on Apollo 10.

He and Stafford went into space on Apollo 10 in May 1969 on what would be the final "dress rehearsal" for the moon landing, which Apollo 11 accomplished two months later.

His final flight was as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972. It was the last mission of the Apollo program.  He and Harrison Schmitt performed three EVAs for about 22 hours.  He was the last man to climb up the ladder into the Lunar lander.

Cernan published his memoir The Last Man on the Moon in 1999.

He passed away in January 2017 at 82 years old.

Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, born 1930

Neil Alden Armstrong, born August 5, 1930, was the first man on the moon in 1969.  He made his first space flight aboard Gemini VIII in March 1966 and his second (and last) flight on Apollo 11.  He uttered the famous line:

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.

Armstrong passed away on August 25, 2012 after complications from coronary artery bypass surgery.  He was 82.

Below is a clip of the first moon landing with clips inserted of the lunar rover, which was not on Apollo 11.

Apollo 11, first manned mission to land on the moon, launched 1969

Apollo 11 crew (L-R): Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin

The first manned mission to land on the moon, Apollo 11, was launched July 6, 1969, with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.  The lunar lander Eagle touched down on the surface, July 20, when Armstrong broadcasted his famous line "The Eagle has landed!"  While he and Buzz Aldrin spent just under a day on the moon, Collins orbited alone in the Columbia, the lunar orbiter.

They returned to Earth July 24.

Apollo 10 launches 1969

Apollo 10, the fourth manned mission in the Apollo program and the second to travel to the moon (Apollo 8 was the first), launched May 18, 1969.  The mission was a "dress rehearsal" for an actual landing on the moon by Apollo 11, two months later.

On board were Commander Thomas P. Stafford (from Oklahoma!), Command Module Pilot John W. Young, and Lunar Module Pilot Eugene A. Cernan.  The Command Module was given the nickname Charlie Brown and the Lunar Module was dubbed Snoopy.

During the descent stage in the Lunar Module (Snoopy), the craft began to roll because Stafford and Cernan made duplicate commands in the computer.  Snoopy rolled over eight times before they brought it under control, just 2 seconds before crashing onto the moon's surface.

Also, the crew of Apollo 10 reported hearing strange music on the far side of the moon.  Some suggested aliens but most likely, it was interference between the lunar and command (Charlie Brown) modules.

Mariner 6, spacecraft to Mars, launched 1969

Mariner 6, one of two probes to explore Mars, launched February 25, 1969.  Mariner 7 launched the following month.  Mariner 6 made its closest approach to Mars on July 31, 1969, less than a week after Apollo 11's mission.  As a consequence, Mariner 6's achievements did not receive the attention it should have.

Happy birthday, Buzz Aldrin!

Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, born January 20, 1930, was the second man to walk on the moon, following Neil Armstrong July 21, 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission.  A Presbyterian, Aldrin held communion on the surface of the moon, but it wasn't broadcast since there was a suit against NASA brought on by an atheist against the reading of Genesis by Apollo 8.

Aldrin retired from NASA in 1970.

Luna 16 lands on Moon, blasts off again 1970

The Soviet spacecraft Luna 16 landed on the moon September 20, 1970, grabbed a sample of moon dirt and its upper stage blasted off just a day later.  It returned to Earth September 24 with 101g of lunar soil.

It was the first unmanned mission to return from the moon with soil samples and the third overall mission, behind Apollo 11 and Apollo 12.  Results of its analyses were similar to those of the samples returned from Apollo 12.

In other words, we coulda told them that!

"The Eagle Has Landed" July 20, 1969

Apollo XI Crew: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin

I remember watching this on television at a friend's house while the events unfolded.  While Michael Collins circled the moon in the lunar orbiter, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men ever to walk on the moon.  Neil stepped onto the surface about 11am ET (they hadn't established lunar time yet) proclaiming in a speech that was not plagiarized, "That is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."  Twenty minutes later, Aldrin joined him on the moon.  Their total EVA was about 2 1/2 hours taking samples of the lunar surface and conducting experiments.  After almost 22 hours on the moon, Aldrin and Armstrong took off to rendezvous with Collins.  They splashed down July 24.

Happy birthday, Buzz Aldrin!

Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., born this day in 1930, was the second man to walk on the moon, after Neil Armstrong July 21, 1969.  In recent years, he's appeared on "The Big Bang Theory" and has been a proponent of a manned mission to Mars.