KTBB At Large

One Giant Leap: Part 5 – “Back to the Moon”

Paul — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:20:12 +0000

Apollo 17 left the moon on the final lunar mission in December 1972. Since then, the Space Shuttle has been America’s manned space program and it is slated to end in September 2010. NASA is in the early stages of a program called “Constellation” that will borrow heavily from the Apollo experience to return America to the moon for extended stays.

One Giant Leap: Part 4 – “The Cape”

Paul — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:42:40 +0000

Few people knew much about Cape Canaveral prior to Alan Shepard’s sub-orbital spaceflight in May, 1961. Prior to that flight, Cape Canaveral went about its business as a U.S. Air Force installation engaged in the development and testing of missiles for the purpose of delivering nuclear warheads. But the U.S. manned space program, and the huge undertaking of going to the moon, made Cape Canaveral a household name.

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One Giant Leap: Part 3 – “Gemini: Bridge to the Moon”

Paul — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:54:54 +0000

Many people who were around during the days of the Apollo lunar missions don’t recall the NASA manned space project that preceded the lunar landing effort. But without Project Gemini, the two-man missions that flew in 1965 and 1966, America would not have been able to fulfill Kennedy’s commitment to get to the moon by the end of the decade.

One Giant Leap: Part 2 – “Kennedy Goes All In”

Paul — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:18:12 +0000

The young president Kennedy was getting beat by the Russians. The Bay of Pigs had been a fiasco, as had a summit with Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev in Vienna. And now, the Soviet Union was clearly ahead in space. Kennedy committed the U.S. to getting a man on the moon. It’s probably that commitment, and his subsequent tragic death, that made it possible for the goal to be accomplished.

Link to Part 1.

One Giant Leap: Part 1 – “Where Were You?”

Paul — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:42:18 +0000

If you were alive and over the age of about five or six, chances are you remember where you were on the afternoon and evening of July 20, 1969. Part one recalls what happened when two American astronauts landed on the moon.