Apollo 10 Crew Finds Floating Turds

Though Apollo 10 was a very successful mission, a declassified NASA transcript reveals that Tom Stafford, John Young and Gene Cernan had a little stinky situation arise. It's okay to laugh -- even professional, highly trained, space-exploring astronauts think poop is funny.... It was literally all shits & giggles on Day 6 of their mission when they discovered some floating feces inside their capsule. 

CDR: Tom Stafford             CMP: John Young          LMP: Gene Cernan

"NASA Johnson Style" ("Gangnam Style" Parody)

NASA and its astronauts have achieved many great things -- moon landings, the Hubble Telescope, sending Voyager 1 to interstellar space -- but their greatest badge of honor could possibly be the fact that they somehow managed to make a pretty freakin' sweet parody of "Gangnam Style". (Truly turning the impossible into the possible here, folks.)

NASA Johnson put this video out in December of 2012 to spark public interest in the space program. And. It. Rocks. Mike Massimino, veteran of two Space Shuttle missions that serviced Hubble, looks on disapprovingly in the video... but eventually even he breaks down and gets into it. Clay Anderson, Mission Specialist who has 152 days logged aboard the International Space Station, shows us his KILLER dance moves and also three time extra-vehicular activity spacewalker, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, makes several happy cameos.

[Lyrics below]

[Follow Mike Massimino and Clay Anderson on Twitter if you dig their moves.]

"NASA Johnson Style" lyrics: 

NASA Johnson Style

Johnson Style

Welcome to NASA's Johnson Space Center

We are coming in hot so don't burn up as we enter

We do science everyday that affects your daily life

Throw them up for manned space flight

Science everywhere

As we engineer the marvels

That fly though the air 

And take us way beyond earth's levels

Science everywhere 

Because we engineer the marvels

That fly though the air 

Flys us through the air

Control the mission out of Johnson

This is ground, hey!

And this is space, hey!

Tell me Houston what's the problem 

It's okay!

It's okay!

Because there's flight controllers on the job today 

NASA Johnson STYLE!

Johnson STYLE!

NA, NA, NA, NA NASA Johnson STYLE!

Johnson STYLE!

NA, NA, NA, NA NASA Johnson STYLE!

EYYYYYY science daily!

NA, NA, NA, NA, NASA STYLE!

EYYYYYY it's amazing!

NA, NA, NA, NA ey ey ey ey ey ey!!

Orbiting earth, international space station

Where we work and live in space with a crew from several nations

Got Japanese, and Russians, that European charm 

Throw them up, like the Canada Arm

Kicking out research

29k cubic feet, revolves around the earth

Science microgravity, revolves around the earth

Columbus, JEM, and Destiny

Kicking out research

Kicking out research

Train the astronauts at Johnson

To go to space, hey!

To go to space, hey! 

Cause the missions of tomorrow 

Start today, hey!

Start today, hey!

As we engineer the future day by day

NASA Johnson STYLE!

Johnson STYLE!

NA, NA, NA, NA NASA Johnson STYLE!

Johnson STYLE!

NA, NA, NA, NA NASA Johnson STYLE!

EYYYYYY science daily!

NA, NA, NA, NA, NASA STYLE!

EYYYYYY it's amazing!

NA, NA, NA, NA ey ey ey ey ey ey!!

Orion or SLS, MPCV 

We cannot feel the floor, cause the lack gravity

The destinations are an asteroid, mars, or moon 

We are blasting off start the countdown soon

[Sound clip: launch countdown]

EYYYYYY science daily!

NA, NA, NA, NA, NASA STYLE!

EYYYYYY it's amazing!

NA, NA, NA, NA ey ey ey ey ey ey!!

NASA Johnson Style

Remembering the Lost Astronauts

High Flight by John Gillepie Magee, Jr.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

and danced the skies on laughter silvered wings,

sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun split clouds - and done a hundred things

you have not dreamed of

wheeled and soared and swung

high in the sunlit silence hov'ring there.

I've chased the shouting wind along and flung

my eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious, burning blue

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

where never lark or even eagle flew

and while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

the high untrespassed sanctity of space

put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

T-38 Training Jet Crash - October 31, 1964

Freeman was on landing approach to Ellington AFB near Houston, TX. He ultimately died due to a goose smashing the left side of the cockpit canopy of his T-38 jet trainer. Flying shards of Plexiglas entered the engine intake and caused both engines to flame out.

• Theodore Freeman (United States Air Force)

          

T-38 Training Jet Crash - February 28, 1966

The original Gemini 9A crew were killed while attempting to land their T-38 at Lambert Field in St. Louis, Missouriin bad weather. Elliot See misjudged his approach and crashed into the McDonnell Aircraft factory adjacent to the airport, where the two astronauts had been headed for simulator training.

• Elliot See (NAVY)
• Charles Bassett (United States Air Force)

         

Apollo 1 Pad Fire - January 27, 1967

A fire in the cabin claimed the lives of all three Apollo 1 crew members as they rehearsed the launch sequence for their planned February 21 launch.

• Gus Grissom (United States Air Force)
• Edward White, II (United States Air Force)
• Roger Chaffee (NAVY)

         

T-38 Training Jet Crash - October 5, 1967

A mechanical failure caused the aileron controls to jam on his T-38 while traveling from Cape Kennedy to Houston.

• Clifton Williams (NAVY, Marine Corps)

           

F-104 Training Jet Crash -  December 8, 1967

While practicing a series of high speed, quick descent landing profiles, the aircraft hit the runway hard and the landing gear collapsed. The aircraft belly caught  fire and the canopy shattered.

• Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. (United States Air Force)

       

Space Shuttle Challenger - January 28, 1986
Broke up 73 seconds after lift-off due to a faulty O-ring.

• Greg Jarvis (United States Air Force)
• Christa McAuliffe
• Ronald McNair
• Ellison Onizuka (United States Air Force)
• Judith Resnik
• Michael J. Smith (NAVY)
• Dick Scobee (United States Air Force)

          

Space Shuttle Columbia - February 1, 2003
Damage to the shuttle's thermal protection system (TPS) led to structural failure of the shuttle's left wing and the spacecraft ultimately broke apart while returning from their two week mission. 

• Rick D. Husband (United States Air Force)
• William McCool (NAVY)
• Michael P. Anderson (United States Air Force)
• David M. Brown (NAVY)
• Kalpana Chawla
• Laurel B. Clark  (NAVY)
• Ilan Ramon (Israeli Air Force) 

        

Find out more about the crews, missions and accidents on Wikipedia.

Apollo 11's Customs Form From the Moon

Thought being an Apollo astronaut was all about exotic travels, ticker tape parades and dinners at the White House? Not even the crew from Apollo 11, the first men on the moon, could skip over the red tape of bureaucracy.  This customs form, signed by Armstrong, Aldrin & Collins upon their return to Earth, is definitely cooler than any customs form you've filled out. 

Flight Routing: Cape Kennedy -->  MOON --> Honolulu, Hawaii

Cargo Declaration: Moon rock & moon dust samples

[Side note: It was in fact all done in good humor, probably during their 21 days of required quarantine after the mission.] 

Credit: NASA

The "Pad Führer" Mocks Gemini 10 Crew

Guenter Wendt, original pad leader, or "pad führer" as the astronauts jokingly nicknamed him due to his strong German accent & unyielding rules, oversaw spacecrafts on the launch pads and all who had access to ensure safety for all those involved. 

To ease tension in the white room, he was well-known for giving gag gifts to the crew before they strapped in for liftoff.

Gemini 10: Weeks before liftoff Astronauts Mike Collins and John Young had broken off bits & pieces of the spacecraft. Young had then put in a request for a pair of pliers to aid in the manipulation of some switches aboard the capsule but it was denied. Wendt, of course, had their backs and made sure they indeed did get a pair of pliers... made of Styrofoam... and a little over-sized. [Referenced in Carrying the Fire and Two Sides of the Moon]

Wendt & Young
Credit: NASA

The crew often reciprocated his humor though! From the book, First Man: 

On July 16, 1969, Armstrong received a crescent moon carved out of Styrofoam from the pad leader, Guenter Wendt, who described it as a key to the Moon. In return, Armstrong gave Wendt a ticket for a "space taxi" "good between two planets"

Wendt helps Glenn into a Mercury capsule -- Proof that he always had their backs
Credit: NASA

Apollo 1 Prank Became NASA Policy

From TechRepublic:

Every Apollo astronaut knew the code phrases Navi, Dnoces, and Regor, which refer to the stars Gamma Cassiopeiae, Iota Ursa Majoris, and Gamma Velorum, respectively. This trio of stars was (and likely is) used for visual reference during spaceflight, and was a core component of Apollo mission training for inertial navigation procedures.

These interesting code names, however, originated from a practical joke started by the Apollo 1 crew:

Navi is Gus Grissom’s middle name, Ivan, spelled backwards. Dnoces is the word second spelled backwards, in reference to astronaut White’s full name, Edward H. White II. Regor is Roger Chaffee’s first name spelled backwards.

White, Grissom, Chaffee  -- Natural Pranksters
Credit: NASA

What started out as a small prank turned into NASA policy as a tribute to the three brave men who sacrificed their lives for NASA, for the United States and for human space exploration on January 27, 1967.