Take the “Saturn V” Quiz!
Welcome to our Friday quiz (released early on Thursday)! Since we colonials celebrate this little thing called “Independence Day” on July 4th, and many will be off-the-grid and into other festivities, I’m releasing this quiz a wee-bit early. All week we’ve been posting about the countdown for Apollo 11, and the Saturn V. This week’s quiz is all about the Saturn … Read More
Preparing Apollo 11: Countdown Demonstration Test
Forty-five years ago this week, Apollo 11 was undergoing the countdown demonstration test, which ended successfully on July 3, 1969. The countdown demonstration test took the launch vehicle, spacecraft, launch crew and flight crew through a complete countdown, including fueling the vehicle. Altogether the CDDT was a six-day operation, including the loading of nearly 6 million pounds of propellants. On … Read More
Take the “What Landing Site Is This?” Quiz
Welcome to our Friday quiz! I’m not sure of the difficulty on this one, it is hard to decide. I thought it was fairly easy, and I backed off some of the clues from the first draft. Looking forward to seeing the results! This quiz will be available, but prize eligibility will end on Sunday at midnight US EDT. This quiz, one prize: (drawn from … Read More
Preparing Apollo 11 – Loading RP-1
45 years ago today, June 25, 1969, the first stage of the Apollo 11 Saturn V was loaded with fuel. The first stage of the Saturn V burned RP-1 (kerosene) as fuel with liquid oxygen as the oxidizer. Since this stage was the only launch vehicle stage with non-cryogenic fuel, it could be loaded in advance, even prior to the … Read More
Preparing Apollo 11: The May 20 Rollout
On May 20, 1969, just two days after the launch of Apollo 10, the third Saturn V of the year headed to the pad. This was the one… Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing attempt, scheduled for a July launch. Today’s video is an edited excerpt from the Rollout track contained on our Apollo 11: Men on the Moon … Read More
Preparing Apollo 11
Through the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission (launch on July 16), we’ll be presenting a series of features detailing the preparations for the launch. Featuring edited excerpts from our Apollo 11: Men on the Moon 3-DVD set, our first entry concerns the arrival and erection of the spacecraft and launch vehicle, the sixth Saturn V to be launched. Activity … Read More
Take the Project Mercury Quiz!
Welcome to our Friday quiz! Since we’ve been featuring Project Mercury all week, we’ll continue with a quiz on: Project Mercury. This quiz will be available, but prize eligibility will end on Sunday at midnight US EDT. This quiz, one prize: (drawn from the high scores): One copy of our Freedom 7 set. (If you already have this set I will make a substitution) Since we’re offering … Read More
“That’s a real fireball outside.” But just how much?
Every spacecraft that achieves orbital velocity must somehow give up that velocity to return to Earth. For Mercury, this meant paying off the energy into an ablative heat shield, a protective covering on the blunt end of the spacecraft designed to “ablate,” or burn off slowly, protecting the spacecraft within. After entry, Mercury detached its heat shield, which would deploy … Read More
Getting out of Mercury… through the top!
Today’s Mercury feature examines a method of egress always planned but only used once – getting out of the Mercury spacecraft through the top. The explosive side hatch on Mercury is well known, and the normal method of egress at the end of the Mercury missions became the side hatch. Shepard squeezed out of the hatch after the spacecraft had been … Read More
Pigs CAN Fly… on Mercury… almost…
Our Mercury set is 6-DVDs packed with over 24 hours of material. This week we’re highlighting some of our favorite finds from the Project Mercury experience. What does a fledgling group of engineers do when they need to test a brand new spacecraft? Find subjects to test inside the spacecraft, during flight. Before the original seven astronauts, before even Sam, … Read More