March 16, 2016

Astronauts Rise to Meet the Gemini 8 Challenge

While Gemini 8 wasn't the mission that coined the phrase, "Houston, we have a problem" (that would be Apollo 13) it was the first emergency in space. Gemini 8 actually marked two firsts in human spaceflight?the first time one spacecraft docked to another, and the first time astronauts were forced to make an emergency landing from orbit. What

Nov. 19, 2015

Does the Star Spangled Banner Still Wave on the Moon?

For this month's celebration of Flag Friday, what makes this particular flag stand out is not how old it is, but its location. Because a long time ago, in a dimension beyond earth-bound man, a flag waves boldly where only one other has gone before it - the moon.For most of you reading this blog, few may remember 46 years ago on Nov. 14, 1969, when

July 20, 2015

To the Moon and Back: An Astronaut Sailor Leads the Nation on a Voyage of Discovery

I wish I had either been born earlier or been a better student of history when I was younger. It wasn't until later in life that I fully grasped the masterful accomplishment of and the national pride in the early space program that, in less than a decade, went from an idea to a man standing on the surface of the moon. Looking back, I remember