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Eagle, the Apollo Mission's Lunar Module, landed on the moon exactly 40 years today (4:18 ET). You can listen to the audio clip of Eagle's descent to the moon here (150 seconds).

Eagle, and the subsequent lunar modules, were built in Bethpage, New York by Grumman Corporation.

At 10:56 p.m. ET, Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder and proclaimed: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."


Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong shortly thereafter. The two astronauts explored the lunar surface for two and a half hours, collecting samples and taking photographs.

They left behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen Apollo 1 crew, several scientific instruments and a plaque on one of Eagle's legs that read, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

Labels: NASA

Forty years ago today, at 9:32 am EST, Apollo 11 lifted off from Florida, en route to the moon. The video of the launch is below.



To mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, the John F. Kennedy Library is hosting a great website, called We Choose The Moon (www.wechoosethemoon.org). The website recreates the mission to the moon in real time and includes the actual audio transmission between mission control in Houston and the astronauts aboard Columbia (the command module) and Eagle (the Lunar Excursion Module) in the precise times that they did 40 years ago.

The transcripts of those recordings are also being sent via Twitter at @ap11_capcom; @AP11_EAGLE; and @AP11_SPACECRAFT.

Labels: NASA

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission that led to the famous "Earthrise" photo taken by astronaut William Anders. Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to orbit the moon.

Below is NASA's summary of Apollo 8's Christmas eve live television broadcast. To listen and view the broadcast, click here.

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts; Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders did a live television broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and Moon seen from Apollo 8. Lovell said, "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.

William Anders:

"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you".

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell:

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman:

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."

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Season's Greetings and Happy New Year. See you in 2009.

--Doug Jacobson

Labels: Miscellaneous, NASA

At a hearing held today by the House Science and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics on the status of NASA's Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) programs, Tommy Holloway, Chairman, of the ISS Independent Safety Task Force said that the current International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) restrictions on NASA are a threat to the safe and successful integration and operations of the ISS.

Mr. Holloway, who formerly served as Manager of NASA's Space Station and Space Shuttle programs, told the members of the Subcommittee that:

Currently the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR) restrictions and IP [International Partner] objections to signing what the IPs believe are redundant Technical Assistance Agreements are a threat to the safe and successful integration and operation of the Station. For example, a contractor workforce comprises a majority of the operations workforce and must be able to have a direct interface with the IP operations team to assure safe and successful operations. Their interactions and their ability to exchange and discuss technical data relevant to vehicle operations are severely hampered by the current ITAR restrictions. This is an issue across the ISS Program, but must be resolved soon to allow operations training for the first flight of the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) in the first part of 2008.

NASA depends heavily on U.S. contractors for technical support for Station integration and for operations. These contractors are the source of data and expertise that is critical in meeting schedules and performing mandatory work with the IPs. For example, the mission operations contractors comprise a majority of the operations workforce and must be able to have a direct interface with the IP operations teams to assure safe and successful operations. Currently the ITAR restrictions and the IPs' objections to signing technical assistance agreements are a threat to the safe and successful integration and operations of the Station.

Each U.S. contractor working with the European, Japanese, and Russian space agencies is required to apply for a Technical Assistance Agreement (TAA) from the State Department that governs their interactions with foreign entities for each specific relationship. U.S. aerospace and defense companies are accustomed to dealing with these TAA requirements in what has become a normal part of international business. However, when the Department of State approvals are too narrowly defined and come with many caveats, limitations, and provisos, they severely restrict Program management flexibility. The constraints imposed by the current processes result in lost time and opportunity to share critical data to enable a robust joint Program.

I would grant immediate relief in the form of an [ITAR] exemption to allow NASA contractors direct interaction with the IPs and their contractors to facilitate and accommodate all engineering and safety reviews, data exchanges pertaining to specific ATV/HTV hardware and software, Program management interactions, and flight operations including anomaly resolution.

Labels: ITAR, NASA