For All You NASA History Buffs

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By Cecilia Stoner

I’m a big Apollo-era fan. I have been since the day I was born. Ok... so maybe not that long. But my interest in NASA does extend way back to when I first watched Apollo 13 in fifth grade. Before then I didn’t know NASA existed, or anything much about the moon landings except for the fact that Neil Armstrong, not Lance, was the first man to walk there. I began researching and reading up on this agency that sends people blasting into space, and by ninth grade, I knew my NASA history front and back. Ask any of my friends – I am the most NASA-obsessed person to ever walked the planet. Why? I suppose space exploration just holds so much excitement and adventure to me. The idea of walking on the moon or doing experiments in microgravity while looking down on earth from above is thrilling. I simply can’t imagine anything more exciting. I’m always looking for someone to share my excitement for NASA and space exploration with, and few people have that. INSPIRE has given me a chance to develop that knowledge further, and I’m so happy to be a part of this community. But before I get too cheesy on y’all about just how much I love INSPIRE and NASA and STEM, I thought I’d share a couple of my sources of inspiration for those of you curious about learning more.

___ Carrying the Fire. This is an autobiography written by Michael Collins, the third and typically-overlooked astronaut aboard the Apollo 11 mission. He was actually turned down as an astronaut applicant 2 times before he was finally accepted, and he went on to be a reliable crew member and wonderful author. The book really puts you in the shoes of an astronaut, it’s great!

___ Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Holst wrote this orchestral suite to describe the planets, not just in terms of data and pictures, but through music. The segment on Jupiter is my personal favorite.

___ BBC’s From the Earth to the Moon Series. Starting with Alan Shepard’s flight and culminating with Apollo 17, the series depicts the processes and missions of NASA in its early days with the fledgling space program. I found the series not only informative (it’s where I got a bunch of my space knowledge!) but interesting as well. Each episode features either a specific mission, program, or event. I’d have to say my favorite is “Spider” where the story follows Tom Kelly and the development of the Lunar Module. :)

__ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C. While it’s not as thrilling or active as the NASA facilities and centers, the museum hosts the Wright Brothers’ first successful airplane as well as the Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia.

___ The Alan Bean Gallery (http://www.alanbean.com/index.cfm). Alan Bean was the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 12 and an astronaut aboard Skylab III. Now he is a painter, and much of his work is space-themed. I thought it was particularly interesting that he textures his paintings with footprints from the Apollo spacesuits and different tools from the lunar missions. Check out the link to see!

___ NASA Centers! Lastly, try checking out any of the 10 NASA centers around the country. I’ve made it to 3 so far (Kennedy, Langley, and Stennis) and they all have been amazing sources of knowledge and activity in the NASA world.  
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