drew@drewexmachina.com
This is the second part of a series on the First Race to the Moon. The first part, covering events up to November 1958, is “The […]
As 1959 opened, the newly created NASA appeared to be well on its way with Project Mercury. In January 1959 the Space Task Group (STG) based […]
Before World War II, the field of rocket technology development was dominated by small groups of enthusiastic visionaries such as the American Rocket Society as well […]
As the Cold War deepened in the 1950s, Americans developed an ever worsening case of paranoia about its primary adversary, the Soviet Union. These fears were […]
As NASA started its first full calendar year of existence on January 1, 1959, groups of engineers and managers were busy starting up the various programs […]
Ask the typical space enthusiast to name the first reusable piloted spacecraft and the most likely answer would be NASA’s Space Shuttle. While the Space Shuttle’s […]
On October 1, 1958 – days short of the first anniversary of Sputnik – the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officially came into being. After […]
Ask any space enthusiast about “The Moon Race” (especially those of a particular age like myself) and the competition between the United States and the old […]
The launching of the first Sputnik satellites in 1957 and 1958, which had masses as great as 1.3 metric tons, clearly demonstrated that the Soviet Union […]
At the dawn of the Space Age, the United State space program looked very different from today’s and was dominated by the Department of Defense. And […]
During the six months following the launch of the Soviet Union’s second satellite, Sputnik 2 (see “Sputnik 2: The First Animal in Orbit”), public attention was […]
One of the more enduring images of the opening months of the Space Age was the failure of the Vanguard TV-3 launch attempt on December 6, […]
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