"The People, the Politics, and the Promise that Launched America into the Space Age" Companion book to the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary series.

Ballantine Random House
Joined December 2018
Huh? NYT’s Tom Stafford obit reports Gemini 7 was “launched a few hours before Gemini 6 left its landing pad.” GT 6 left on Dec 4, ‘65; GT 6A launched Dec 15, 3 days after the dangerous Dec 12 sudden shutdown. And what is its “landing pad”? @nyttypos @wmcdonaldnyt @paxr55
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And oops from me also. In my haste I botched the second line. It should read: GT 7 left on Dec 4, ’65; GT 6A launched Dec 15, three days after the dangerous Dec 12 sudden shutdown. Thanks.
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The innovative turn-around schedule launches of GT 7 and GT6A in a few days was a risky labor intensive operation by the crews at Launch Complex 19 at Cape Canaveral. It would have been impossible to accomplish in “a few hours.”
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Jane Pauley looks back at Newton Minow, a one-time chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, whose many accomplishments were overshadowed by the withering criticism he laid at the feet of commercial television in 1961. cbsn.ws/3RKPGf0
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A good day to recall a pivotal moment in Frank Borman’s NASA career which took place not in space but in a congressional meeting room in Washington DC. Sadly it appears no film cameras recorded the moment. (It was later somewhat fictionalized in “From the Earth to the Moon”.)
April 17, 1967: Astronaut Frank Borman probably saves the future of the Apollo program on this day. On Capitol Hill, he joins Jim McDivitt, Donald Slayton, Wally Schirra and Alan Shepard to testify before the House Science & Astronautics Committee about the Apollo 1 fire. 1/6
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A footnote to this story. When Borman was traveling to testify on Capitol Hill, he rode in NASA Administrator James Webb’s famous Checker. Webb made one request. From Borman’s NASA oral history:
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Another good Frank Borman story. His role in preventing Vice President Spiro Agnew from using the Apollo 13 crisis as a photo op.
April 14, 1970: As Mission Control is dealing with the emergency on Apollo 13, astronaut Frank Borman takes an urgent call from Robert Gilruth, director of the Manned Spacecraft Center. “Vice President Agnew is on his way here. Can you do me a favor?” 1/4
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RIP Frank Borman (1928-2023)
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“Is Utopia Really Possible?” touches off a Soviet science fiction mania. By one count, 250 articles are published in Russian in the next decade on space flight, far more than in the U.S. A 1924 Soviet film “Aelita: Sunset of Mars” (1st tweet) imagines a trip to the planet. 2/2
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Oct. 2, 1923: An article titled “Is Utopia Really Possible?” appears in Russian newspaper Izvestia, promoting space travel to expand humanity’s horizons. The piece notes that U.S. scientist Robert Goddard’s rocket experiments provide a possible means to escape Earth’s orbit. 1/2
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Telstar broadcast 23 minutes of live TV of the 1963 March on Washington to European networks. Soviet TV was to carry the live feed, but canceled it five minutes prior to broadcast.
Published #OTD 60 years ago: Kay Gardella's media column on the March on Washington.
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Members of former President Lyndon B. Johnson's family, including former US First Lady Lady Bird Johnson and NASA Administrator James E Webb pose with a bust of Johnson during a ceremony naming the Center in the honor of the former President in Houston, Texas.
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Here it is - the first photograph taken from the south pole region of the Moon! Credit: @isro
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RIP Dr. Frank Field (1923-2023) veteran NBC weatherman who in the ‘60s was pressed into service on space broadcasts. On March 16, 1966 he was on phones trying to cover marine conditions in the sea south of Japan for the emergency recovery of Gemini VIII.
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Wonderful little-known Soviet space artifact. Dating this just after March 1965 seems correct especially as Leonov’s spacewalk is given special attention and the image of Korelev’s R-7 rocket design is still top secret.
Iranian-Azerbaijani rug (ca. 1965) celebrating the successes of Soviet space travel.
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Ancient and modern, an afternoon reading @ChasingMoonBk in the shadow of a Neolithic standing stone
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