What am I seeing? (NASA edition)
Is this space ship opening its jaws?
Apollo-Soyuz
Previous image: The Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA) as seen from the Gemini 9. The ATDA was described by the Gemini 9 crew as an "angry alligator."
Docking spacecraft together became an ongoing project. Astronaut Robert L. Gibson, STS-71 mission commander, shakes the hand of cosmonaut Vladimir N. Dezhurov, Mir-18 commander in 1995.
Posing with Mercury?
A tourist posing with a Mercury capsule?
Mercury 13
Previous image: Jerrie Cobb poses next to a Mercury spaceship capsule. Although she never flew in space, Cobb, along with 24 other women, underwent physical tests similar to those taken by the Mercury astronauts with the belief that she might become an astronaut trainee. All the women who participated in the program, known as First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs), were skilled pilots. Dr. Randy Lovelace, a NASA scientist who had conducted the official Mercury program physicals, administered the tests at his private clinic without official NASA sanction. Cobb passed all the training exercises, ranking in the top 2% of all astronaut candidates of both genders. Political pressure and internal opposition lead NASA to restrict its official astronaut training program to men despite campaigning by the 13 finalists of the FLAT program.
Here, seven of the women who once aspired to fly into space stand outside Launch Pad 39B where the Space Shuttle Discovery stands poised for liftoff on the first flight of 1995. They trained to become astronauts for America's first human spaceflight program back in the early 1960s. Although this FLATs effort was never an official NASA program, their commitment helped pave the way for the milestone Eileen Collins set: becoming the first female Shuttle pilot. Visiting the space center as invited guests of STS-63 Pilot Eileen Collins are (from left): Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Truhill, Sarah Ratley, Myrtle Cagle and Bernice Steadman.
Fishing expedition?
Fishing for parts in the ocean?
Command Module recovery
Until the Space Shuttle, NASA space craft splashed down in the ocean.
Here, the Apollo 16 Command Module bobbles in the waters of the central Pacific Ocean during recovery operations. The prime recovery ship, USS Ticonderoga, is in the background. A recovery helicopter hovers overhead. The Apollo 16 crew, astronauts John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II, and Charles M. Duke Jr., were picked up by helicopter and flown to the deck of the ship on April 27, 1972, approximately 215 miles southeast of Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean.
In the previous image Navy Divers install a stabilizing flotation collar around Gordon Cooper's Mercury space capsule nicknamed "Faith 7" shortly after splashdown.
Spectator in chief?
Did President Johnson attend a NASA launch?
Apollo 11 liftoff
Vice President Spiro Agnew and former President Lyndon B. Johnson view the liftoff of Apollo 11 from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 am EDT on July 16, 1969, a few months after Johnson left office.
Astronauts in ponchos?
Did the Apollo crew wear sombreros in space?
Goodwill tour visits the Vatican
After the Apollo 11 mission astronauts, Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins took part in the GIANTSTEP-APOLLO 11 Presidential Goodwill Tour, which emphasized the willingness of the United States to share its space knowledge. The tour carried the Apollo 11 astronauts and their wives to 24 countries and 27 cities in 45 days. In Mexico City, they were given sombreros and ponchos and swarmed by thousands, as seen in the previous image.
The Apollo 11 astronauts and their wives also received a papal audience by Pope Paul VI in the Papal Library, St. Peters Cathedral at the Vatican.
Moon jumper?
Where is the propeller on this helicopter?
Apollo 11 Lunar Module
Neil Armstrong practiced landing on the lunar surface in a Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (one month before the lunar landing in the previous image) on June 16, 1969. The total duration of the lunar simulation flight was five minutes and 59 seconds. Maximum altitude attained was about 300 feet.
This image of Apollo 11 Lunar Module’s ascent stage is photographed from the Command and Service Modules in lunar orbit. This view is looking west with the earth rising above the lunar horizon.
Science project?
A rocker with duct tape and chewing gum?
Apollo 13-post explosion
Previous image: In April 1970 the crew of Apollo 13 constructed the "mail box," a jury-rigged arrangement in the Lunar Module to use the Command Module lithium hydroxide canisters to purge carbon dioxide following an oxygen tank explosion. Lithium hydroxide is used to scrub CO2 from the spacecraft's atmosphere. Since there was a limited amount of lithium hydroxide in the Lunar Module, this arrangement was rigged up to utilize the canisters from the Command Module. The "mail box" was designed and tested on the ground before it was suggested to the problem-plagued Apollo 13 crew men. Because of the explosion of one of the oxygen tanks in the Service Module (SM), the three crew men had to use the Lunar Module as a "lifeboat."
This view of the damaged Apollo 13 Service Module was photographed from the Lunar Module/Command Module following jettisoning. An entire panel was blown away by the apparent explosion of oxygen tank number two. Two of the three fuel cells are visible just forward (above) the heavily damaged area. The Lunar Module "Aquarius" was jettisoned just prior to Earth reentry by the Command Module "Odyssey". Their saga was re-told in the 1995 film “Apollo 13.”
Kung-fu masters of space?
Are astronauts Frank Borman, Neil Armstrong, John Young and Donald "Deke" Slayton as swashbuckling as they appear in this 1964 photo?
Mercury 7 Survivalists
Maybe. But they were taking part in desert training outside Reno, Nevada. Portions of their clothing have been fashioned from parachute material. The purpose of this training was to prepare astronauts in the event of an emergency or faulty landing in a remote area.
In this 1960 photograph, the seven original Mercury astronauts participate in U.S. Air Force survival training exercises at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada. Pictured here, from left to right are: L. Gordon Cooper, M. Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Virgil I. Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald K. Slayton.