Spaceflight Insider

News Archive / Tagged: Apollo

  • Christopher Kraft leaves behind powerful legacy with passing

    Steve HammerJuly 22nd, 2019

    JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Texas -- Although his name isn't as well-known as Alan Shepard, John Glenn or Neil Armstrong, without the efforts of Christopher C. Kraft, NASA would likely never have left orbit let alone sent men to the Moon. Kraft passed away on Monday, July 22 at the age of 95.

  • ‘Lunar’ short film an ode to the Space Race

    Derek RichardsonMay 28th, 2017

    Utilizing a mix of various photography and animation techniques, Austrian artist Christian Stangl created a short film called "Lunar", which tells the story of humanity’s first voyages to another world.

  • Funeral service held for Eugene Cernan in Houston

    Jason RhianJanuary 24th, 2017

    KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — When most people think of the 12 men who first walked on the Moon, they probably don't think of Eugene Cernan. They should. Cernan, a naval aviator, was one of the core astronauts that made the Apollo Program's historic landings possible. His life after NASA was as important as his time with the agency training to ride fire.

  • Jack Crenshaw: the space pioneer you never heard of

    Collin SkocikMarch 27th, 2016

    The Apollo missions had two objectives laid down by President John F. Kennedy: to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to the Earth. A critical part of the second objective, returning safely to the Earth, was a trajectory that would bring the spacecraft back from the Moon and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.

  • Apollo 14’s Edgar Mitchell passes away at age 85

    Eric ShearFebruary 6th, 2016

    Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell passed away on Feb. 4, 2016, peacefully at a hospice located in Lake Worth, Florida. He was the sixth man to walk on the Moon, as the lunar module pilot of Apollo 14. His time in space totaled nine days and one minute, including 9 hours and 23 minutes on two moonwalks.

  • Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographs Apollo landing sites

    Laurel KornfeldNovember 23rd, 2015

    NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), capable of descending as close as 31 miles (50 km) from the lunar surface, has photographed all six of the Apollo landing sites in unprecedented detail. The sites were chosen with the goal of exploring different geological terrains on the Moon's surface. All are located on the Moon's near side, which faces the Earth.

  • Our Spaceflight Heritage: The shocking launch of Apollo 12

    Collin SkocikNovember 14th, 2015

    On Nov. 14, 1969, at 11:22 a.m. EST (15:22 GMT), at Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the second manned Moon landing mission launched. The gigantic, 363-foot-tall Saturn V rocket boosted a tiny, three-man capsule carrying Commander Pete Conrad, Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean to the Moon.

  • George Mueller, ‘Father’ of the Space Shuttle, passes away

    Scott JohnsonOctober 18th, 2015

    Dr. George E. Mueller, the leader of NASA's human spaceflight programs in the 1960s, died of congestive heart failure on Monday, Oct. 12, 2015, at his home in Irvine, Cal. He was 97 and is survived by his second wife, Darla; two children from his first marriage, Jean Porter and Karen Hyvonen; two stepchildren, Wendy Schwartzman and Bill Schwartzman; 13 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.

  • The ‘Voice of Apollo’ falls silent: Remembering Jack King

    Joe LatrellJune 12th, 2015

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — When Apollo 11 lifted off Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A, the voice that was heard was that of John W. (Jack) King, the former head of Public Information at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. King passed away on June 11, 2015 – he was 84. King, a resident of Cocoa Beach, […]

  • MoonLIGHT lunar laser ranging array to continue work of Apollo

    Rae Botsford EndMay 16th, 2015

    Moon Express announced on Friday a new agreement with The National Laboratories of Frascati (LNF), which is part of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), and with the University of Maryland (UM), which will bring a new set of lunar laser ranging arrays to the Moon over a series of missions. The arrays will be […]

  • Our SpaceFlight Heritage: 50th Anniversary of Pegasus 1

    Gregory CecilFebruary 16th, 2015

    On Feb. 16, 1965, NASA launched the first of three Pegasus missions from Launch Complex 37-B out of Cape Canaveral. The mission (A-103) consisted of two spacecraft, Pegasus 1 and Apollo Command Module Boiler Plate 16 (BP 16), both placed atop the Saturn 1 rocket SA-9. Pegasus 1 was designed to study the frequency of […]

  • OPINION: Tone down the political rhetoric around space issues

    Collin SkocikSeptember 7th, 2014

    The partisan divide in America is deep and frightening. There seems to be little, if any civil discourse between the two prevailing political ideologies of the day—liberal and conservative. And since President Obama canceled the Constellation Program, many on the right have attempted to claim the space platform as their own.

  • Bruce McCandless, Capcom for Apollo 11, visits Kennedy Space Center, discusses historic mission

    SpaceFlight InsiderJuly 21st, 2014

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — Bruce McCandless II was on site at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex for the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing this week. McCandless served as Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for the first lunar spacewalk.

  • Apollo 11: Fact and Fiction

    Collin SkocikJuly 20th, 2014

    Forty-five years ago today, the tiny lunar module “Eagle” set down gently—too gently, actually—on the surface of the Moon, and mankind has never been the same since. We now live in a world in which man has walked on another world. After four decades, we have yet to come to terms with the magnitude of […]

  • Our Spaceflight Heritage: The first steps of Apollo 11

    Heather SmithJuly 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. The purpose of the Apollo 11 mission was to perform a manned lunar landing, fulfilling President John F. Kennedy’s goal of: “We shall go to the moon in […]