Space Rocket History Archive

SCHIRRA: You’ve added two burns to this flight schedule, and you’ve added a urine water dump; and we have a new vehicle ... Read more

“The main trouble with the Mercury capsule was that most system components were in the pilot’s cabin; and often, to pack... Read more

This brings us to Project Gemini.  Gemini started after Apollo had begun, in part to answer a crucial question for Apoll... Read more

During the late 1920’s and throughout the 1930’s progress progress in rocket design was made in fits and starts with unc... Read more

The mode that Apollo would use to land on the moon was the most studied, analyzed, and debated decision made for the lun... Read more

The Pegasus satellite was named for the winged horse of Greek mythology.  Like its namesake, the Pegasus was notable for... Read more

The success of Apollo 4 gave good reason to believe that the Saturn V could be trusted to propel men into space. But NAS... Read more

What went wrong?  Even years after the investigators began to sift through the wreckage of Apollo 1 piece by piece, no o... Read more

“The S-II stage was a nightmare the minute it was conceived, and it only got worse from there. During the course of its ... Read more

The tragedy of Apollo 1 was widely reported in the Soviet Union. The Soviets sent condolences and letters to the familie... Read more

An ‘A’ type mission would be flown with a Saturn V and be used to test the Launch vehicle, spacecraft, and a high veloci... Read more

“We are the first to have given a rocket a speed of 3,300 mph.  We have thus proved that it is quite possible to build p... Read more

“…our building’s shaking here. Our building’s shaking! Oh it’s terrific, the building’s shaking! This big blast window i... Read more

The precise scope of the Gemini 3 mission remained uncertain until very nearly the eve of flight. In April of 1963, the ... Read more

The bright outlook that was prevalent in April turned dark in the late summer of 1964 when a series of natural disasters... Read more

Over 52 years ago, in the early hours of May 5th, 1961 the US prepared to launch its first man into space. Three weeks e... Read more

The success of Gus Grissom and John Young’s Gemini 3 flight paved the way for long duration space missions. The longest ... Read more

“At first, the sensation I got was that there was a pop, then there was a big explosion and a clang. We were thrown forw... Read more

After Scott Carpenter’s science heavy Mercury-Atlas 7 flight, Nasa’s next mission would concentrate on the technical and... Read more

Mercury-Atlas 9 was the fourth and final manned orbital flight of the Mercury program. The flight objectives were to: (1... Read more