Among the Earth, among the stars. They/them plural system, 30, pan. This is a blog about retrofuturism, americana, technology, and everything space
596 posts
Carnellousthecat - Spacefaring - Tumblr Blog
IS MOON DAY!!! MOOOOON DAY!!!! THE DAY OF MOOOOON! HAPPY MOON DAY 🌝 (we landed on the moon today in 1969)
One Giant Leap for Mankind
Millions of people around the globe will come together for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games later this month to witness a grand event—the culmination of years of training and preparation.
Fifty-five years ago this July, the world was watching as a different history-changing event was unfolding: the Apollo 11 mission was landing humans on the surface of another world for the first time. An estimated 650 million people watched on TV as Neil Armstrong reached the bottom of the ladder of the lunar module on July 20, 1969, and spoke the words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
While the quest to land astronauts on the Moon was born from the space race with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, this moment was an achievement for the whole of humanity. To mark the world-embracing nature of the Moon landing, several tokens of world peace were left on the Moon during the astronauts’ moonwalk.
“We came in peace for all mankind”
These words, as well as drawings of Earth’s western and eastern hemispheres, are etched on a metal plaque affixed to a leg of the Apollo 11 lunar lander. Because the base of the lander remained on the Moon after the astronauts returned, it is still there today as a permanent memorial of the historic landing.
Microscopic messages from kings, queens, and presidents
Another artifact left on the Moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts is a small silicon disc etched with goodwill messages from leaders of 74 countries around the world. Each message was reduced to be smaller than the head of a pin and micro-etched on a disc roughly 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) in diameter. Thailand’s message, translated into English, reads: "The Thai people rejoice in and support this historic achievement of Earth men, as a step towards Universal peace."
Curious to read what else was inscribed on the disk? Read the messages.
An ancient symbol
The olive branch, a symbol of peace and conciliation in ancient Greek mythology, also found its way to the Moon in July 1969. This small olive branch made of gold was left on the lunar surface during Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s 2.5-hour moonwalk. The olive branch also featured on the Apollo 11 mission patches sewed on the crew’s spacesuits. Designed in part by command module pilot Michael Collins, the insignia shows a bald eagle landing on the Moon holding an olive branch in its talons.
We go together
As NASA’s Artemis program prepares to again land astronauts on the Moon, including the first woman and the first person of color, this time we’re collaborating with commercial and international partners. Together we will make new scientific discoveries, establish the first long-term presence on the Moon, and inspire a new generation of explorers.
Is aerospace history your cup of tea? Be sure to check out more from NASA’s past at www.nasa.gov/history.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!
i think he would kill it on space tiktok
This is the first image of Saturn's ultraviolet aurora taken by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope in October 1997, when Saturn was a distance of 1.3 billion kilometers from Earth.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/STScI
Interstellar (2014) dir. Christopher Nolan
What if … not all UFO’s are aliens?
Newborn stars in nebula RCW 7 © Hubble
Vehicles and Stations in Ad Astra: International Space Antenna Virgin Commercial Flight (under the banner of Virgin Atlantic) Lunar Rover Pirate Rover Cepheus Vesta IX Mars Rover Cepheus Pod Lima Project
I feel like Nostradamus may have just been an early science fiction author
So I'm watching someone play Still Wakes The Deep and it's neat and spooky and WAIT A FUCKING SECOND
IS THAT A FUCKING TRACKBALL? IN 1975?
Okay, look, trackballs date back to the 40s, but THAT IS NOT A 70'S TRACKBALL.
That is, in fact, a Reveal RA010 from 1993.
You're eighteen years off!
(And you made it look old, too, implying it isn't brand new in 1975. Damn it)
Uncredited cover art for a German edition of Thorne Smith's Topper, c. 1980s.
So I've made a post some time ago about how Starfield has a complete failure of design and lacks a clear aesthetic like Bethesda's previous games had. They claim to be "Nasapunk" but the ships in the game look nothing like anything Nasa has ever made.
With that in mind, I've made an Actual Rocket Ship to the best of my ability with the game's vanilla creator!
Above image is a pride flag with every color band represented by a NASA image. White is Earth clouds, pink is aurora, blue is the Sun in a specific wavelength, brown is Jupiter clouds, black is the Hubble deep field, red is the top of sprites, orange is a Mars crater, yellow is the surface of Io, green is a lake with algae, blue is Neptune, and purple is the Crab Nebula in a specific wavelength.
Syd Mead
A Solar Filament Erupts on the sun
Japanese cover of James Blish’s “Spock Must Die!” featuring the Enterprise as drawn by someone who’s only ever had it described to them in words