Jul 11

Space Rocket History #20 – Tiros 1 and Echo 1 – The First Weather and Communications Satellites

Posted on July 11, 2013 by spac9750

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS

“Who can say what contraption the future will bring?
There can be not a doubt, some more wonderful thing.

And if anyone ventures the future to scan,
Why indeed should it not be your old Weather Man?

Have you noticed how often in times that are past
We have used new inventions to improve the forecast?

Television is coming, it is not far away;
We’ll be using that too in a not distant day.

Photographs will be made by the infra red light
That will show us the clouds both by day and by night.

From an altitude high in the clear stratosphere
Will come pictures of storms raging far if not near

Revealing in detail across many States
The conditions of weather affecting our fates….” By George Mindling (Weather Bureau), 1939

Thor-Able

TIROS -1

First Picture From TIROS-1

Echo-1

Echo-1 Mockup

Jul 04

Space Rocket History #19 – Little Joe: Mercury’s Test Vehicle

Posted on July 4, 2013 by spac9750

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS

“The designers made the Little Joe booster assembly to approximate the same performance that the Army’s Redstone booster would have with the capsule payload. But in addition to being flexible enough to perform a variety of missions, Little Joe could be made for about one-fifth the basic cost of the Redstone, would have much lower operating costs, and could be developed and delivered with much less time and effort. And, unlike the larger launch vehicles, Little Joe could be shot from the existing facilities at Wallops Island.”

Little Joe 6 Launch

480px-Little_Joe_on_launcher_at_Wallops_Island_-_GPN-2000-001883

Little Joe on the Mobile Launcher

Monkey_Sam_Before_The_Flight_On_Little_Joe_2

Sam the Monkey

Mounting the Capsule

Little Joe: Mercury’s First Steps from James Duffy on Vimeo.

Jun 27

Space Rocket History #18 – Luna 2 and 3

Posted on June 27, 2013 by spac9750

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS

While the Mercury 7 were fulfilling their roles as symbols of space exploration, Korolev once again was offering the real thing. He now prepared to undertake the most demanding mission yet. The mission that would accomplish the next step in Korolev’s program of lunar exploration. He would attempt to photograph the far side of the moon.

Luna 2

Luna 2 Attached to Rocket

Far Side of the Moon Photographed by Luna 3

Luna 3

434px-Soviet_Union-1959-stamp-photo_of_moon

Luna 3 Stamp

Jun 20

Space Rocket History #17 – The Mercury 7

Posted on June 20, 2013 by spac9750

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | TuneIn | RSS

On April 1, 1959, Robert Gilruth, the head of the Space Task Group, Charles Donlan, Warren North, and Stanley White selected the first American astronauts. The “Mercury Seven” were Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., John H. Glenn, Jr., Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Donald K. “Deke” Slayton.