So we know the biggest rocket that ever was, was the mighty Saturn V that took NASA’s Apollo astronauts to the Moon. But what about the biggest rockets that never were? Could there have been some other rockets that, had they been built, would’ve rivalled the Apollo era’s champion launcher? Read more…
Various nations have produced rockets of different shapes and sizes down through the years, but a question that often comes to the fore is which was the biggest of them all? As it takes objects with a large mass a considerable amount of energy to move against the pull of Read more…
The second human Moon landing might have ended in disaster 36 seconds after liftoff. It was 14 November 1969 and the mighty Saturn 5 rocket carrying the crew of Apollo 12 was steadily ascending into the Florida sky when it was hit by lightning. The mission’s commander, Charles “Pete” Read more…
In July 1969, those who could gathered around available television sets and radios for the moment that human life would leave their first trace on the Moon. At 0256 GMT Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Lunar Module Eagle. As his left foot touched the lunar surface, he declared the Read more…
When most people take their vacation for the year they tend to do their best to completely take their mind of their work and as I boarded the long flight to Orlando Florida and I did my very best to do just that! And while I had many exciting things Read more…
With the anniversary of the passing of one of the most iconic figures in mankind’s space exploration program, it affords us an excuse to re-examine the short but history-making space mission we all know today as Apollo 11. Landmark events in human exploration and scientific discovery can often capture the Read more…
2013 marked 40 years since Skylab, NASA’s first post-Moon landings human spaceflight project, was sent into orbit. Here is an overview of this rather forgotten series of missions. So what was Skylab? Skylab was the first and so far last all-American space station to orbit the Earth. It Read more…
This year has started off with perhaps a little more promise than the last, not only did the world not end but a new Mayan calendar has started, mysterious planet Nibiru did not crash into the Earth and nor did we get wiped out with any comets/ aliens/ or stellar Read more…
Since before the dawn of history we have admired our planet’s amazing moon and enjoyed its beautiful light.Since the 1600s we have known that some of the other planets of the Solar System have multiple moons.This started some astronomers thinking; perhaps we do have more than one moon! If Read more…
Three years later after the first men walked on the Moon, the Apollo 16 mission, launched 16 April 1972 , landed men on the moon successfully for the fifth time and as the second such ‘J’-Mission to have been executed, again utilised the Lunar Roving Vehicle. This mission also took Read more…
Once upon a time rockets were exciting symbols of a glorious and exciting future when everyone would get their chance to have a holiday on the Moon. Well the future is now and the lunar resorts are still not here. Launch vehicles are another dull but necessary piece of civilisation’s Read more…
A few years ago there was a vogue among historians to write about ‘counterfactuals’.A counterfactual examines the importance of an event for subsequent history by asking what if that event had taken a radically different course.What if the Nazis had invaded the UK in 1940? What if Napoleon had won Read more…
Apollo 18, a movie hybrid of horror and science fiction is stirring up a lot of interest. Your intrepid reporter decided to see what the fuss was about. Here is a brief review and my thoughts on the movie’s accuracy. Well, I splashed out the price of a movie Read more…
The Lunar Module was an iconic spacecraft which carried two-man crews to and from the Moon’s surface during NASA’s Apollo Program of the 1960s and ‘70s. Along with the Saturn 5 rocket and the Apollo Command and Service Modules (CSM), the Lunar Module is the third of the trinity of Read more…
Apollo 15 was sent to the Moon in July 1971, its primary mission goals to explore the spectacular Hadley-Appenine region, carry out scientific experiments from orbit and evaluation of new and improved Apollo equipment,including the Lunar Rover. Here is the story of possibly the most ambitious Apollo moon landing. Read more…
Apollo 18 is a SF/Horror movie presented as newly-found film footage taken by the fictional crew of a lost 1970s lunar landing mission. The Apollo 18 film uses real NASA movie footage from the Moon (some of it doctored with CGI) and new studio-shot footage with actors and special effects Read more…
Forty years ago, NASA’s Apollo 14 mission landed the fifth and sixth men on the Moon. Apollo 14 was a triumph for one man in particular. Alan Shepard fought debilitating illness for the chance to walk on another world. On 31 January 1971, Alan B. Shepard Jr. was NASA’s Read more…
Christmas 1968 saw three men from Earth make a remarkable and unprecedented voyage of exploration. A dramatic and hurriedly planned mission gave the crew the first human view of the Moon’s farside and the whole human race saw our homeplanet in a new way. This is the story of Apollo Read more…
NASA’s next manned spacecraft will be the Orion, a capsule which will be carried into space by a rocket. Weighing 25 tonnes, each Orion will carry up to six people. Accommodation on board is cosy at best, cramped at worst. Orion was intended to take astronauts to the Moon and Read more…