Quest Spaceflight

Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Quest Editor Chris Gainor discusses Australia's history of tracking spacecraft in Earth orbit and beyond in Quest 33.2.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

In 1959 NASA Astronaut Deke Slayton gave a presentation on the flying the Mercury spacecraft. The text is reproduced in Quest 33.2.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

An interview with space science pioneer James A. Van Allen is featured in Quest 33.2.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Quest 33.2 explores the evolution of NASA launch services at the Kennedy Space Center.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Quest 33.2 takes a look inside the Mission Evaluation room in Houston that operated during Apollo and shuttle missions.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

The Atlas ICBM was used in NASA's human space program, but not the Titan I missile. David K. Stumpf discusses the reasons in Quest 33.2.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

When did the first handheld calculators fly in space? The story is in Quest 33.2.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Quest 33.2 features an interview with private spaceflight pioneer Mike Melvill.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Quest 32:2 is coming soon!

[NASA History Office @NASAhistory]

May 5, 1961: Freedom 7 soars into space with NASA astronaut Alan Shepard aboard—the United States’ first human spaceflight.

65 years later, this same pioneering spirit fuels the Artemis missions working to establish a long-term lunar presence.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

The work of Range Safety Officers is explored in our oral history interview in Quest 33:1.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

https://t.co/FH3bJyjrcM

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Quest 33:1 includes a personal memoir of the Lunar Module simulator that Apollo astronauts used to simulate landings on the Moon.

[NASA History Office @NASAhistory]

Triumph turns to near disaster 60 years ago this morning

At 11:41 am March 16, 1966, rookie astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott launched aboard Gemini VIII. Within 6 hours, they had accomplished the first ever docking of two spacecraft in orbit. It was a milestone that the Apollo program depended on. Without proving that two vehicles could safely link up in space, there would be no Moon landing.

But 27 minutes after docking, their spacecraft began to spin uncontrollably. Armstrong and Scott found themselves in danger of losing consciousness as they spun at around 1 revolution per second. Armstrong, cool-headed under extreme duress, was able to disable the misfiring thruster and stabilize the spacecraft, saving their lives.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Today is the 100th anniversary of Robert Goddard's historic first flight of a liquid fuelled rocket. Read about Goddard's life in the current issue of Quest.

[NASA History Office @NASAhistory]

We remember Elliot See and Charles Bassett

60 years ago on Feb 28, 1966, tragedy struck the NASA family when See and Bassett's T-38 jet crashed. Assigned as the prime crew for Gemini IX, they were en route to attend a rendezvous simulation in preparation for their mission.

[NASA History Office @NASAhistory]

60 years ago today, the world saw the first photos taken from the surface of the Moon!

Nine images from Luna 9—the first spacecraft to survive a lunar landing—were received in Moscow Feb 4–5, 1966, but also intercepted and released by the Jodrell Bank Observatory in England.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Quest 33:1 is at the printers. It features a major article on Robert H. Goddard to mark the 100th anniversary in March of his historic first liquid-fuel rocket flight.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Quest 32:4 includes an historic Hughes Aircraft document on the beginnings of geostationary communications satellites.

[Quest Spaceflight @QuestQuarterly]

Quest's oral history interview in issue 32:4 features John Neer, the founder of Space Imaging.