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Apollo 13 and Earth of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
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Saturn The Giant
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Saturn The Giant |
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Forty years ago today (May 25, 1961) U.S. president John Kennedy announced [ http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html ] the goal of landing Americans on the Moon by the end of the decade. Kennedy's ambitious speech triggered [ http://www.wamu.org/special/moon.html ] a nearly unprecedented peacetime technological mobilization and one result was the Saturn V [ http://www.hrw.com/science/si-science/earth/spacetravel/ spacerace/SpaceRace/sec300/sec380.html ] moon rocket [ http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Rockets/ ]. Its development directed by rocket pioneer Wernher Von Braun, the three stage Saturn V stood [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-350/ch-3-1.html ] over 36 stories tall. It had a cluster of five first stage [ http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-000559.html ] engines fueled by [ http://users.commkey.net/Braeunig/space/propel.htm ] liquid oxygen and kerosene which together were capable of producing 7.5 million pounds of thrust. Giant Saturn V rockets ultimately hurled [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/ contents.html ] nine Apollo missions [ http://history.nasa.gov/apollo.html ] to the Moon and back again [ http://www.literature.org/authors/verne-jules/ round-the-moon/ ] with six landing on the lunar surface [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/ ]. The first landing, by Apollo 11 [ http://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/ introduction.htm ], occurred on July 20, 1969 achieving Kennedy's goal. Bathed in light, this Saturn V [ http://www.apollosaturn.com/frame-sv.htm ] awaits an April 11, 1970 launch on the third lunar landing mission, Apollo 13 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010519.html ]. |
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Lunar Farside from Apollo 13
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Lunar Farside from Apollo 13 |
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In April of 1970, after an explosion damaged their spacecraft, the Apollo 13 [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo13info.html ] astronauts were forced to abandon their plans to make the third manned lunar landing. Still, while coasting around the moon in their desperate attempt to return to earth they were able to photograph the moon's far side. The large, dark, smooth looking feature on the left in this picture is known as the "Mare Moscoviense". It was created by a lava flow filling in a large impact crater on the lunar surface. As suggested by the name, the Mare Moscoviense was first photographed by an early Soviet lunar probe. For more information about the picture see the NASA photo caption. [ http://139.169.29.11/images/pao/AS13/10075506.htm ] |
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A Meteoric View of Apollo 13
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A Meteoric View of Apollo 13 |
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Meteors, also called shooting stars, normally begin as bits of dust from the tails of comets or even small pieces chipped off asteroids. Falling toward Earth, these particles enter the atmosphere at extremely high speeds. Friction with the air heats them up and makes them glow brightly. Their rapid motion across the sky causes them to show up as bright streaks in photographs. In this picture, however, the bright streaks which appear to be meteor trails are believed to be two large pieces of the Apollo 13 [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo13info.html ] spacecraft, the service and lunar modules, reentering the atmosphere. For more information about the picture see the NASA photo caption. [ http://139.169.29.11/images/pao/AS13/10075539.htm ] |
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Earth Rise
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Earth Rise |
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During the 1968 Christmas season Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders flew the Apollo 8 [ http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-8/ apollo-8.html ] command module From the Earth to the Moon [ http://www.w3.org/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/ Literature/Gutenberg/etext93/moon10.txt ] and back (launched Dec. 21, achieved 10 lunar orbits, landed Dec. 27). The Apollo 8 [ http://www.nasm.edu/APOLLO/AS08/Apollo8_fact.html ] mission's impressive list of firsts includes, the first manned flight using the Saturn V rocket [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950829.html ], the first humans to journey to the Earth's Moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951128.html ], and the first to photograph the Earth from deep space [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950819.html ]. The famous picture above [ http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/AS8/10074963.htm ], showing the Earth rising above the Moon's limb as seen from lunar orbit, was a marvelous gift to the world. This was astronaut James Lovell's third mission. His last flight would be as commander of Apollo 13 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950708.html ]. |
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