Historic Space Exploration Footage

Vintage footage depicting key moments in space exploration, showcasing astronauts, spacecraft, and testing procedures from the 1960s.

1960s - Capsules for Project Gemini undergo testing and a Saturn rocket is launched for a test flight (narrated in 1963).

Edwin Powell Hubble at 200 inch Hale telescope

Vintage Photograph. Pioneer V planetoid satellite on white background. Frame 2

Project 40-11 - Operation Buster/Jangle (Nevada Test Site) Detonation. UNCLE cloud, aerial view (1 of 2). Photographs of Atmospheric Nuclear Testing at Pacific Island and Nevada Test Sites.

S88-31384 (5 May 1961) --- Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) pilot, is pictured near his Freedom 7 capsule during a postflight inspection aboard the U.S. Navy Carrier Champlain after the recovery of his Mercury vehicle. Earlier Shepard had completed the historical 15-minute suborbital Mercury-Redstone 3 mission, marking the U.S. inaugural manned space mission. (NASA Hq. No. 61-MR3-107 or MR3-44)

Astronaut John Glenn in earth orbit. Feb. 20, 1962. He is using a photometer to view the sun during sunset. Feb. 20, 1962.

S71-43788 (2 Aug. 1971) --- Astronaut David R. Scott, Apollo 15 commander, watches a geological hammer and a feather hit the lunar surface simultaneously in a test of Galileo's law of motion concerning falling bodies, as seen in this color reproduction taken from a transmission made by the RCA color television camera mounted on the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). Scott released the hammer from his right hand and the feather from his left at the same instant. Galileo (1564-1642) was the great Italian astronomer and physicist. This experiment occurred toward the end of the third and final lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA) by astronauts Scott and James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot. While Scott and Irwin descended in the Lunar Module (LM) to explore the moon, astronaut Alfred M. Worden, command module pilot, remained in the Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit.

A wide-angle view of the control center on the nuclear-powered fleet ballistic missile submarine USS GEORGIA (SSBN-729) as seen through a fish-eye lens. Country: Unknown

Seasat, built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), was launched thirty-five years ago, on June 27, 1978. It was the first satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans using many ground-breaking technologies.

The M512 Materials Processing Facility (MPF) with the M518 Multipurpose Electric Facility (MEF) tested and demonstrated a facility approach for materials process experimentation in space. It also provided a basic apparatus and a common interface for a group of metallic and nonmetallic materials experiments. The MPF consisted of a vacuum work chamber and associated mechanical and electrical controls. The M518 Multipurpose Electric Furnace (MEF) was an electric furnace system in which solidification, crystal growth, and other experiments involving phase changes were performed.

S61-03257 (1961) --- View of Mercury spacecraft instrument control panels.

C-141 Circular Variable Filter Spectrometer & Yerkes Infrared (Group Photo)

S69-39532 (18 July 1969) --- The face of astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, is seen in this color reproduction, taken from the third television transmission, from the Apollo 11 spacecraft during its trans-lunar journey toward the moon. Aldrin is inside the Lunar Module (LM). In the background are some the LM's controls and displays. A LM window is on the right. The LM was still docked nose to nose with the Command and Service Modules (CSM). Apollo 11 was approximately 176,000 nautical miles from Earth, and traveling at a speed of about 3,200 feet per second when this photograph was taken. Also, in the LM with Aldrin was astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander. Astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained in the Command Module (CM).

V-2 rocket, before launching at the U.S. Army proving grounds, White Sands, N.M. On May 7, 1946 its Flight-control instruments were adjusted on the launch pad. On May 10 it launched and reached an altitude of 112 kilometers, the first successful flight in the U.S. (BSLOC_2015_14_121)

1960s HALE TELESCOPE IN PALOMAR OBSERVATORY NEAR SUMMIT HIGH POINT OF THE PALOMAR MOUNTAIN RANGE SAN DIEGO COUNTY CALIFORNIA USA - p6663 HAR001 HARS FACILITY IMAGING PALOMAR PRECISION TELESCOPES ART DECO BLACK AND WHITE ENGINEERING HAR001 OLD FASHIONED

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- A fish-eye view of the flight deck of STS-95 Space Shuttle Discover

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C-141 KAO Cornell University, FAR Infrared Interferometer

An instructional console containing repeater instruments of all Gemini crew stations.

The capsule ready to be installed in the nose cone of Jupiter, AM-18, for pre-flight test, May 18, 1959. The capsule carried monkeys, Baker and Able, as the payload of AM-18 mission

Project 24 - Operation Hardtack (Enewetak/Bikini/Johnnston Island Area) Test Activities. Project 2.3 coracle alongside a tug. Photographs of Atmospheric Nuclear Testing at Pacific Island and Nevada Test Sites.

Brent Miller, of the V/STOL and Noise Division at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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