Today marks anniversaries for two American space ventures. Forty-nine years ago, Pioneer I was the first spacecraft launched by a nascent NASA. Originally slated to go to the moon, Pioneer I fell quite a bit short due to a programming error which caused the 2nd stage rocket to shut down early which then threw off the planned trajectory of the spacecraft. Although it didn't reach its intended mark, Pioneer I still gathered some useful scientific information. As mentioned in a previous post, CrackedPot's father was a quality control engineer with NASA, but he didn't join them until 1959.
CrackedPot's father did work on the successful Apollo 7, which launched on this day in 1968. This mission lasted 10 days, much longer than any of the Soviet space missions. It was also the first time live tv images were seen from a manned spacecraft. As was his habit, CrackedPot's father brought back a mission patch when he returned home from either Cape Canaveral or Houston. (CrackedPot doesn't know which place he was at, only that he went. Back in those days, the parents never thought to share this sort of information with a small teacup.)
No comments:
Post a Comment