While watching all the preparations for the launch of the Artemis rocket, it occurred to me that many NASA flights over the years were named for Greek gods and goddesses. For instance, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were appropriate names for what those missions were like and what they planned to do. The god Mercury is often depicted with winged sandals so that he could fly fast. He was the patron of travelers. The Gemini flights carried two...

Despite NASA’s many accomplishments like the moon landing, the Space Shuttle and the Space Station, there were bound to be errors and mistakes, large and small along the way. Want to hear a few that I was aware of? During one of the Shuttle flights one of the females got her long hair caught in a piece of equipment and it pulled a bunch of her hair out. Ouch! NASA bosses (all men at the time) made a rule that all the women had to restrain their...

Imagine feeling that you are lost in space.  In the early days of spaceflight, Mission Control couldn’t always talk to the Astronauts, leaving them feeling out of touch with Earth.  The silence must have felt eerie. Communication in those days had to be sent and received by ground stations which were part of the NASA Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network.  This network consisted of stations spread around the globe but there were gaps...

After Challenger With the renewed interest about the Challenger accident from the Netflix series, I’ve been asked about what happened afterward. Reflecting on the aftermath of the accident has given me time for introspection. Everyone knows about the Rogers Commission which determined that a leaking O-ring on one of the boosters was the cause of the loss of Challenger and that the problem could be fixed. One thing that could not be fixed was...

When a gaggle of airplanes fly overhead, you can be certain that it means a special event.  I’ve witnessed a bunch of these flyovers, some exhilarating, some sorrowful and some proud.  I’ve spotlighted several of them in this story. When astronauts finished their training for a flight, they’d fly the NASA jets to Cape Canaveral and swoop around the launch pad where their Shuttle stood.  It was a sign to all the workers who came out to watch...