NASA Earth Observatory : Home FlyBoard Official | Official Site of the Flyboard in the US, Canada, Caribbean, Central America and South America Blood Moon Tunes: Music to Make Your 'Supermoon' Lunar Eclipse Rock As you settle in Sunday night (Sept. 27) to watch the supermoon lunar eclipse, kick back with some moon tunes as chosen by Space.com's staff. The moon has always fascinated humans, ever present and ever changing in the sky, and that fascination has inspired countless moon-based melodies. A full moon can mean romance or chaos and disaster; a thin silver sliver spells mystery, changeability or tranquility. Listen below to some moon favorites: NASA has contemplated the moon in song as well: Steven Williams from NASA's Planetary Science Division pulled together an infographic and long list of moon-inspired refrains. The infographic pulls out classic moon tunes, songs about the Apollo moon missions, and even songs for a rainbow of multicolored moons (from "Red Moon" by The Walkmen down to "Kiko and the Lavender Moon" by Los Lobos). To prepare for Sunday's eclipse, check out Space.com's viewing guide or catch up on the science behind it.
Vampire Woman turns heads at tattoo fest | Video | Reuters.com Our SpaceFlight Heritage: One giant leap, the flight of Apollo 11 Forty-six years ago today, the crew of Apollo 11 lifted off for the Moon - and the history books. Photo Credit: NASA Gregory Cecil July 16th, 2015 Forty-six years ago today, on July 16, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida – for the Moon. After two prior flights that went on to orbit the Moon by the crews of Apollo 8 and Apollo 10, the trio of Apollo 11 was ready to fulfill the late President Kennedy’s goal of, “… I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” The three spaceflight veterans included the mission’s commander, Neil Armstrong, the command module pilot Michael Collins, and lunar module pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. Each of them was experienced, having flown before on previous missions during the Gemini Program. In attendance for the launch was Charles Lindbergh, a guest of Neil Armstrong.
Our Spaceflight Heritage: The first steps of Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is photographed by Neil Armstrong during an EVA on the Moon. Photo Credit: Neil Armstrong / NASA Heather Smith July 20th, 2014 July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to ever walk on the moon, cementing America’s lead in the 1960s space race. Buzz Aldrin collecting a sample of the lunar soil. The landing successfully occurred at 3:17:40 p.m. Command and Service Modules in the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building. Apollo was a three-part spacecraft: the command module (CM), the crew’s quarters and flight control section; the service module (SM) for the propulsion and spacecraft support systems (when together, the two modules are called the CSM); and the lunar module (LM), to take two of the crew to the lunar surface, support them on the Moon, and return them to the CSM in lunar orbit. The CM, 12 feet (3.63 meters) long and shaped like a blunt cone, was at the front or top of the main spacecraft. When all was said and done?
Our SpaceFlight Heritage: Remembering Apollo 10 Photo Credit: John Young / NASA David Darling May 18th, 2014 On May 18th, 1969, at 12:49 p.m. The plume from Apollo 10’s Saturn V rumbles outward. Apollo 10’s main purpose was to test rendezvous and docking operations between the Command and Service Module (CSM) and the Lunar Module (LM) in lunar orbit. Up to this point, the mission had gone entirely to plan without any undue alarms. Splashdown took place in the Pacific Ocean at 12:52 p.m. Photo Credit: NASA A whole slew of records was set by the Apollo 10 mission. “I had flown two flights before, you know space is so beautiful when you look down at the Earth with all that you see – but all we had was the Hasselblad film and little 16 millimeter cameras, it was just short clips. Apollo 10 was the only mission in the series to lift off from Launch Complex 39B at the Cape and the first to carry a color TV camera aboard a crewed spacecraft. Snoopy’s fate however would be different from that of its kin. Welcome to The Spaceflight Group! Dr.
Gecko inspired anchors Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are honing the applications of a gecko-like gripping mechanism in the hope of making life a little less chaotic for those working aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The ever-inventive JPL workers have come up with a series of "astronaut anchors" for use both inside and outside the station, and have even equipped a robot with the tech, opening up the possibility of allowing it to safely operate on the exterior of the space station. Living in space is considerably more difficult than it is back on Earth. Everything is just that little bit more floaty, and whilst astronauts have an impressive arsenal of contraptions and railings to hang on to up there, it's inevitable that the general lack of gravity is going to hurt productivity. Using a biomimetic approach, NASA scientists are planning to give astronauts a new and highly versatile tool with which to manipulate the unruly microgravity environment. Source: NASA JPL
Some of the Apollo Missions High Resolution Film Scans Meet Margaret Hamilton, the badass '60s programmer who saved the moon landing Happy moon landing day! July 20, 2015 marks the 46th anniversary of Apollo 11's arrival on the moon. The lunar lander holding Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down at 4:18 PM eastern, and Armstrong became the first human in history to walk on the lunar surface at 10:56 PM. Huge amounts of aeronautical and hardware engineering effort went into the Apollo program from its birth in 1961 to its completion in 1972, as NASA and its partners designed the Saturn V rocket to get astronauts out of Earth's orbit, the command/service modules that orbited the moon, and the lunar modules that actually landed on the moon. But Apollo was also a major software project. The software for the guidance computer was written by a team at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory (now the Draper Laboratory), headed up by Margaret Hamilton. NASA, via Steve Milan "In this picture, I am standing next to listings of the actual Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) source code," Hamilton says in an email.
The Shuttle Enterprise NASA before powerpoint - click once Rare Historical Photos Pt. 8 [20 Pics] Mar 29 2013 Another roundup of the popular historical series of posts that we do. You can find the previous post here, and the start of the series here. Filming of The Matrix. Abraham Lincoln's hearse, 1865. F1 pilot ejects at extremely low altitude. Fidel Castro smoking a Cohiba cigar in Havana, Cuba. 1984. German engineers testing the Messerschmitt BF109 E3. In 1955 Marilyn Monroe left Twentieth Century Fox, to move onto bigger and better things. Golden Gate Bridge construction. 1937. Jack in the Box, 1964. Jimi Hendrix driving a dune buggy with an unidentified woman. Manhattan, New York City. Martin Luther King, Jr.' Mona Lisa being returned to its home at the Louvre in Paris, France after WW2. 1945. St. NASA before Powerpoint. New York World's Fair, railroad pageant. Niagara Falls during the freeze of 1911. The original Piggly Wiggly Store, Memphis, Tennessee. Saturn V lower stages under construction at Michoud Assembly Facility. See more photo posts
Smithsonian Campaign to Fund Conservation of Neil Armstrong's Spacesuit The Apollo 11 spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore when he became the first man to step on the moon 46 years ago July 20 is deteriorating, has been out of public eye for nine years, and is about to undergo extensive conservation. So on the anniversary of that “small step for a man,” the Smithsonian Institution announced a plan of action that is, in its own way, a giant leap for funding the job with what the Institution’s first federal Kickstarter campaign. With a goal of raising $500,000 in 30 days—by offering incentives such as exclusive updates to 3D printed facsimiles of the space suit gloves—museum officials hope to be able to unveil a restored spacesuit by the time of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing four years from now, in 2019. A year later, it will be part of a permanent “Destination Moon” exhibition already in the planning for 2020. Age and its original use have taken a toll on the artifact. They even took it to a commercial dry cleaner’s one time, Lewis says.