Apollo 1
January 28, 1967
Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee are dead. There was a fire on the launch pad yesterday afternoon during a ground test. I heard it on the radio on the way home from work. I had to pull over. I sat in the car for a long time before…
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Apollo 1
January 15, 1967
The crew of the first Apollo mission has been named for months: Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee. Their spacecraft is AS-204. They're scheduled to launch in February. I have been following Grissom since 1961 and White since his spacewalk. Chaffee is new to me. I looked him…
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Gemini
November 15, 1966
Gemini 12 splashed down yesterday and the Gemini program is over. Ten missions. Ten crews. Every major skill required for a Moon landing has been demonstrated. Rendezvous, docking, long-duration flight, spacewalks. We started two years ago not knowing if any of this was possible. We know now.
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Gemini
March 17, 1966
The Gemini 8 mission nearly ended in catastrophe yesterday. Neil Armstrong and David Scott were in an uncontrolled spin — one revolution per second — when Armstrong managed to use the reentry thrusters to stop the tumbling. They had to abort the mission. Armstrong is home. But reading the account…
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Gemini
December 15, 1965
Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 rendezvoused in orbit yesterday — two American spacecraft flying within a foot of each other, 185 miles above Earth. Nobody has ever done anything like this. The pilots waved at each other through their windows. I couldn't understand why I was so moved until Betty…
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Gemini
June 3, 1965
An American walked in space today. Ed White opened the hatch on Gemini 4 and floated outside for twenty-three minutes, tethered to the spacecraft, floating over Earth. The mission commander had to order him back inside. White said it was the saddest moment of his life.
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Mercury
September 12, 1962
President Kennedy spoke at Rice University today. "We choose to go to the Moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard." I read the whole speech in the paper. I read it twice. The neighbor Harold says it's still a waste of money. I told Harold the…
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Mercury
February 20, 1962
John Glenn orbited the Earth three times today. I took a half-day from work and watched on television. When his capsule came down in the Atlantic I realized I had been holding my breath for most of the last four hours. Three orbits. An American in orbit. Finally.
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Mercury
May 26, 1961
President Kennedy told Congress we're going to the Moon. Before the decade is out. That's 1969, eight years from now. The Moon. My neighbor Harold says it's a waste of money. I told Harold that people probably said the same thing about Columbus. Harold said Columbus didn't cost four billion…
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Mercury
May 5, 1961
An American is in space. Alan Shepard, Navy Commander and test pilot, rode Freedom 7 to the edge of space and back this morning. Fifteen minutes and twenty-two seconds. It wasn't an orbit — the Soviets did that weeks ago — but it was something. It was ours.
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