Remembering the architect of the Apollo 11 moon landing You could use many words to describe John F. Kennedy’s promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Daring. Naive. Visionary. Foolhardy. Just a month and a half before Kennedy’s May 25, 1961, address, the Soviet Union had beaten the […]
Superhero socks, astronaut diapers, and chasing your childhood dreams — it’s all there in Astro Maker’s first-person chronicles of six months aboard the International Space Station. Scott Tingle was the oldest of The Chumps. Of the 3,566 applicants to the 2009 astronaut candidate class, NASA selected nine to train for space flight. In keeping with tradition, […]
Before they set off into space, experienced zero gravity, or walked on the moon, astronauts like Neil Armstrong (AAE’55, HDR E’70) and Eugene Cernan (ECE’56, HDR E’70) were Purdue students using slide rules for their engineering, mathematics, and statistics courses. The Barron Hilton Flight and Space Exploration Archives, part of the Karnes Archives and Special […]
The Boilermakers of Vandenberg Air Force Base One of the first things a young cadet learns is how to properly shine military-issue leather shoes. ROTC programs are designed to model operational military units for which customs and courtesies — including a meticulously presented uniform — are the foundational basis for etiquette and conduct. Col. Chris […]
A sophomore aeronautical engineering student captures Purdue from a scientific perspective When Trevor Mahlmann sees a dot pass through the sky, he doesn’t wish upon a star — because it’s not happenstance that he is looking up. He knows the dot is not a shooting star or other object soaring through space. He is standing […]
My eight-month mission in simulated space exploration It was around 1:00 a.m., and we were huddled in a circle just outside our rooms. The cold nights were nothing new. We’ve been awakened by the ruckus of strong winds flapping our habitat’s vinyl covering against its metal frame. The winds of this storm were the strongest we […]
At age 10, Janice Voss (AAE’75) read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, a children’s book about space, time travel, and the gravitational pull of family. Immediately, Janice’s universe exploded. Within the pages of that classic science fiction book, Janice pinpointed her star, her endless fresh life — she wanted to be an astronaut. […]
One hundred years of problem solving started with one crazy idea. What came after was even crazier. Looking back on the spacesuit’s evolution to make sense of what’s coming next. “The spacesuit is a spacecraft. It does everything a spacecraft does, except reenter.” —Amy Ross (ME’94, MS ME’96) Few work uniforms have achieved iconic status […]
