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).
241 assets in this story
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June 8, 1959 - A model of the Mercury capsule undergoes floatation tests at NASA's Langley Research Center.
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A view of a laser pointing telescope before installation on the top of an NKC-135 airborne laser laboratory (ALL) aircraft. (Substandard image). Base: Kirtland Air Force Base State: New Mexico (NM) Country: United States Of America (USA)
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The compatibility of the Pratt & Whitney F100 engine to the variable geometry inlet of the F-15 Eagle is evaluated in 1972 in the 16-foot supersonic wind tunnel at Arnold Air Force Base, Tennessee, headquarters of Arnold Engineering Development Complex. Since the test section was not large enough to accommodate a full-sized nose section, a special fuselage segment designed to produce inlet airflow conditions the F-15 would encounter in flight was installed in the wind tunnel. The test hardware was cycled through a wide range of altitude and speed conditions. The Air Force recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the F-15s deployment. Models of the aircraft, engines and other F-15 components have frequently been tested by AEDC over the past 50 years.
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undefined. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.
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The Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM), designed and developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center, was one of four major components comprising the Skylab (1973-1979). The ATM housed the first manned scientific telescope in space. This photograph is of the ATM thermal systems unit undergoing testing in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). The ATM thermal systems unit was used to control the temperatures of space instrument's subsystems during a mission. The MSC was renamed the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in early 1973.
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NASA Mars Underwater Rover Phantom 2 TROV (Telepresences Controlled Remotely Operated Vehicle)
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S73-29138 (22 June 1973) --- The Skylab 2 Command Module, with astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., Joseph P. Kerwin and Paul J. Weitz still inside, is hoisted aboard the prime recovery ship, USS Ticonderoga, following successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean about 835 miles southwest of San Diego, California. The crewmen had just completed a 28-day stay with the Skylab 1 space station in Earth orbit conducting numerous medical, scientific and technological experiments. Note the inflated bags and the floatation collar on the spacecraft.
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Egyptian mummy of a cat from the Louvre's collection. Artist: Unknown
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Weather Balloon. Launch of Weather Balloon.
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Man in gyroscope
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Apollo Command Module Boilerplate Test Vehicle: It was designed to simulate external physical characteristics and weight of an Apollo Command Module. Weighing about 9000lbs, the boilerplate was used by Navy recovery personnel to train for flotation collar installation and shipboard retrieval procedures. Internal features are not representative of an actual command module.
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S85-26952 (20 Feb. 1962) --- Project Mercury astronaut John H. Glenn Jr., enters the Friendship 7 spacecraft during the last part of the countdown on Feb. 20, 1962. At 9:47 a.m. (EST), the Atlas launch vehicle lifted the spacecraft into orbit for a three-orbit mission lasting four hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds. Glenn and his spacecraft were recovered by the destroyer Noa just 21 minutes after landing in the Atlantic near Grand Turk Island, to successfully complete the nation's first manned orbital flight.
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View of astronaut candidates Daniel C. Brandenstein and Frederick H. Hauck, posed behind model of the Space shuttle orbiter.
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Project 24 - Operation Hardtack (Enewetak/Bikini/Johnnston Island Area) Test Activities. Project 1.2 balloon inflated on LCU. Photographs of Atmospheric Nuclear Testing at Pacific Island and Nevada Test Sites.
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NASA SUPPORT GROUP (QSRA PROJECT TEAM). L-R John Cochrane, Robert Price, Howard Tuner, Mike Shovlin, Dennis Riddle, Al Boissevain, Dennis Brown, Patty Beck, John Weyers, Bob McCracken, Peter Patterakis, Jack Ratcliff, Al Kass, Bob Innis, Tom Twiggs (Boeing). Note Used in publication in Flight Research at Ames; 57 Years of Development and Validation of Aeronautical Technology NASA SP-1998-3300 fig. 111
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Dr. E. Stuhlinger, Dr. W. von Braun, and Dr. J. Piccard, along with others, take a swim in the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator (NBS) at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The NBS was instrumental in providing a zero-gravity environment where astronauts could practice tasks assigned for up coming space flights.
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Mercury 9 Being Raised Atop Atlas 93D For A 4 1/2 Flight. (3 Orbits With A Chimpanzee). 11/61.
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S71-02254 (June 1971) --- An enlarged Lunar Orbiter photograph showing the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) traverse routes overlaid on the Hadley-Apennine landing site. Apollo 15 is to land at the point labeled site, and a comparison of Apollo 14 crater sizes with those of Apollo 15 is included, also. While astronauts David R. Scott, commander, and James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot, descend in the Lunar Module (LM) Falcon to explore the moon, astronaut Alfred M. Worden, command module pilot, will remain with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit.