Apollo 15, a manned lunar landing mission in 1971, was the first to land in a mountainous region, and the first to use a lunar rover to drive along the surface. A lesser-known accomplishment of this mission: launching a small sub-satellite into lunar orbit. The task was crudely done: an astronaut pushed a button and [...]

The Augustine Commission is recommending cancellation of the Ares I rocket—which NASA spent hundreds of millions of dollars on as its future manned orbital launcher (for earth-orbital missions.) This is supposed to save money. Instead, that group advised NASA to alter and use an existing commercial rocket—developed by the employers of commission members—which is not [...]

Donn Eisele, an Apollo astronaut, had one flight: Apollo 7. This was the shakedown flight to test out “America’s moonship”and put the country back on track after the tragic Apollo 1 fire. Eisele performed his job well on the mission. But he had problems nonetheless which contributed to his short career as an active astronaut. [...]