Recently in Space Category

Picture credit - Rex Features

I have it on good authority that Spandau Ballet will be the first band to perform in space on Virgin Galactic's Enterprise.

The band will perform outside the Earth's atmosphere when commercial flights begin on Sir Richard Branson's new commercial spacecraft, Enterprise, unveiled Tuesday. 

Spandau Ballet will have five minutes of weightlessness to perform one of their hits, which will include either 'I'll Fly For You', according to founding member Steve Norman, 'Gold' or 'True'.

Six passengers and two pilots are permitted on board, cameras, microphones and equipment will all be automated and operated from Earth.

Spandau Ballet are currently celebrating a reunion and 30th anniversary with a world tour.

But at Flightglobal we've thought of more topically intergalactic performers like David Bowie performing Starman and Space Oddity, or Elton John with his Rocket Man. Babylon Zoo to sing Spaceman or even Sarah Brightman singing I Lost My Heart To A Star Ship Trooper.

If you were one of the passengers on board who would you like to perform for you?

And also, I've got to let you in on a little secret - I made a date with them. (Laughter) I invited them to dinner on the thirteenth of August, right after you come out of quarantine.

And incidently [sic], the speeches that you have to make at this dinner can be very short. And if you want to say fantastic or beautiful, that's all right with us. Don't try to think of any new adjectives; they've all been said.

One question, I think, all of us would like to ask. As we [saw] you bouncing around in that boat out there, I wonder if that wasn't the hardest part of the journey. Was that - did any of you get seasick?

I had a telephone call yesterday. The toll wasn't, incidently, as great as the one I made to you fellows on the moon. (Laughter) I made that collect, just in case you didn't know.

This post was written by Will Horton, Flight's Washington, D.C. intern

Today, you will undoubtedly hear multiple times, is the fortieth anniversary of when man walked on a celestial body other than our own--the Moon.

It was a grand feat, but one question still looms in the minds of some of the foremost individuals involved in spaceflight: What, exactly, did Apollo achieve?

Last Thursday NASA gathered a panel of speakers to consider just that. (Flight International posed the same question in its comment accompanying the 14 July issue.) Their assessment of the Apollo programme's legacy reached two provoking conclusions.

First, Apollo's main legacy is that it could not be replicated today. Second, Apollo is actually hurting the space agency as it prepares for Constellation, its next manned space programme.
(Those conclusions were ironically reached on the very same stage George W. Bush in 2004 announced his intentions to send astronauts back to the Moon and eventually Mars.)

(Photo by Will Horton)

Speaking at the event, at NASA's Washington, D.C. headquarters were, from left to right:

• Moderator, Steven J. Dick, NASA Chief Historian


• John Logsdon, Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History, Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Washington


• Roger Launius, Senior Curator in Space History, National Air and Space Museum


• Michael Neufeld, Chair of the Division of Space History, National Air and Space Museum, author of Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War


• Cristina Guidi, Deputy Director, Constellation Systems Division, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters


• Craig Nelson, author of Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon

Debunking Legacy Myths
When the Eagle landed, the conventional wisdom going was that the United States had beaten the USSR.

But it was not until the end of the Cold War the West realized the USSR was not even close to reaching the moon. When Apollo 11 landed, Craig Nelson said, America was the only entrant in the space race--a race motivated not by science but by politics.

"It was not done for science. It was done to beat the Soviets. But we kept going back until the money ran out to conduct science experiments," Michael Neufled said.

And those science experiments did garner a huge amount of information about the Moon and on other topics, but it was always clear that "science rode piggyback on the program to go to the Moon," Roger Launius said. There were more science-focused missions planned towards the end of the programme, but they were later axed under budget constraints.

Apollo Impossible for NASA Today?
The panel's consensus of Apollo's main legacy is not at all inspiring or poetic: NASA today could not accomplish the Apollo programme because of bureaucracy. It would be required to take enormous risks, which it would not do today since NASA has become too risk-averse, John Logsdon argued.

The risk-aversion may be partially blamed on the public taking it as a given every mission will be successful.

"We're trying to educate the public," Constellation programme manager Cristina Guidi said, "that there will be failures and we will learn from those failures. But there will be failures."

Apollo Hurting NASA Today
The Apollo programme, without any doubt, inspired generations.

(NASA)

It started with Apollo 8, whose iconic Christmas photograph of a fragile Earth floating in space brought reconciliation to America in 1968. The Vietnam War had escalated, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, and there were the riots at the democratic national convention. The photograph would go on to help inspire the Earth Day movement.

And then the holy grail: Neil Armstrong setting his foot down on the Moon.

Suddenly the public found NASA with comprehensible goals it could follow. What is there not to understand about putting humans on another celestial body?

Nature recently conducted a survey asking 800 authors who had published in the journal in the past three years if Apollo inspired them. Half said yes. But were they, and the general public, inspired under false pretences that spaceflight is meant to achieve high-profile results like landing on the Moon instead of more earnest scientific expeditions?

Now NASA faces a conundrum. It has committed to Constellation but cannot gain public support for it.

"We don't have clear rationale for the public," Roger Launius said.

While the public found a goal in Apollo--beat the Soviets--it established the precedent there must always be a single overarching goal to justify a programme. That view is incompatible with the complexities and multi-mission requirements of spaceflight that is focused on scientific gains, not political motives.

In hindsight, knowing the Soviets were never close to reaching the moon, Apollo's more scientific missions would be scrapped, and Apollo would give the public the wrong perception about the agency, should NASA have never conducted the Apollo programme?

Your comments are always welcome.

This is a countdown to the launch of Apollo 11 from WeChoosetheMoon.org

Flightglobal's sister titles New Scientist and Computer Weekly also covered the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing.

Computer Weekly coverage

New Scientist coverage

Seattle author and photographer Michael Class has used digital composite photography to place his twelve year-old son, Anthony, in the cockpit of the Spirit of St. Louis with Charles Lindbergh, in the laboratory with Thomas Edison, on the baseball diamond with Lou Gehrig, and on the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

"I wanted to capture the interest of today's kids," says Class, "by turning American history into a grand time travel adventure." His result is Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame, and is recommended for grades 6-12.

"The book's vivid narrative and captivating photographs transported me through space and time," says Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin. "I felt that I was once again standing on the surface of the Moon in 1969. Anthony and the Magic Picture Frame tells it like it really was in America's early space program - the adventure, the risks, and the rewards. I almost believe that Anthony was there! I think that parents and teachers will appreciate the inspiring message this unique history book holds for America's next generation. I recommend this book to all young Americans, may they take us to the stars and beyond."

Flight International magazine issue 14-20 July 2009 celebrates 40 years since the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

The first of these articles is The long walk back to the Moon where Flight International's special anniversary report assesses the robustness of the USA's current lunar ambitions in a post-Cold War era and the spacecraft it might use to revisit the Moon. Continue reading...

In Return to the Moon, the article highlights president John F. Kennedy's speech in May 1961 to a joint session of Congress which launched what became humanity's most ambitious technical achievement with its promise that the USA would "commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth". Continue reading...

Picture credit NASA

As part of the anniversary feature, Flight International revisits cutaway drawings of the Apollo 11 vehicles including the Command Module, Saturn V and the Lunar Lander.

Read 'One small step for Man...' which is the original text of the magazine's report in 24 July 1969 issue.

Flight International's reports on the Moon landing

24 February 1966 Heavyweight payload 

12 June 1969  NASA's plans to land on the Moon detailed

24 July 1969 Journey to the Moon  

31 July 1969 Apollo 11 comes home

31 August 2008 How man will return to the Moon

See hundreds of images of the Apollo programme dug up from our own archive and put into a gallery on AirSpace.

Four cuddly teddy bears have been blasted to the edge of space by Cambridge University, in an effort to attract youngsters to the subjects of science and engineering.

The bears were attached to a helium balloon and launched 30,000-metres into the atmosphere from Churchill College, Cambridge University.

They wore space suits (designed by schoolchildren from the city) and were fitted with GPS system and a camera to track their progress as the teddies withstood freezing temperatures.

Aiyana Stead, 12, helped make the space suits, said: "This was a really fun thing to do. The best bit was when we set the balloon off with the bears."

Kane Robbins, 12, added: "I really enjoyed launching the teddy bear into space."

The project was overseen by the Cambridge University spaceflight team - a student-run society set up two years ago.

Ed Moore, one of its 10 members, said: "There can be few more worthwhile things for us to do than to try and provide that spark for the current generation of school kids."