Great article on Vanguard 1

[Anonymous]

This is well worth the read… http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23639980

This satellite will turn 50 soon. It has been up longer than any other satellite. V1 weighs in at a whopping 1.5Kg. The article talks about Khrushchev making some derogatory comments about the “grapefruit-satellite”. As the article states, those comments backfired on him.

All in all, it is a fascinating article that is interesting both from a scientific and a historical perspective.

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

JW, that is a good article. I didn’t realizes that Grissom’s Mercury capsule ended up at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, a place Joe recommends that everyone should see. Next trip to Missouri, gotta go!

[Ken PlattnerParticipant]

The Denver Museum a few years back (~7 or 8) had Grissom’s capsule and other stuff related to his launch – including the roll of mercury dimes he snuck on board. It wasn’t too long after it was raised from the floor of the Atlantic. It was a great display. That capsule it REALLY small! I can’t imagine riding in that – even for 15 minutes or so.

Ken.

[Art HoagParticipant]

The Liberty Bell exhibit is still he coolest exhibit I have seen to this day.

Art

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

Man, what I wouldn’t give to be sealed up in it for a while with power on… I was really expecting some NCR members to come forward, saying they’d gladly seal me up in a Mercury capsule! 😉

[Tim Thomas]

8) The Cosmosphere is about 15min from Kent Burnetts house. And the last trip over there we went. A MUST see, they have the largest collection of Russian Space Goodies outside of the USSR. The Liberty Bell 7 is way cool, and there is a full size V-2 Battery and Control House (with a V-2). When you drive up you know you are there, a full size Redstone is out front, and a 71 Blackbird in the lobby! They built the building around it! We spent all day there. 8)

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

Okay, now I’m officially drooling… way back in 1996, my wife and I DROVE BY WHITE SANDS! Why didn’t I make a right turn, this time guaranteed–although to Kansas!

[Tim Thomas]

8) The thing that really got me was the quality of the Soviet workmanship. For some reason I was thinking they were not up to par. Their welding of small parts was a thing of beauty. They have a different way of seeing things, but the workmanship was right on! 8)

[Anonymous]

I think the best space museum out west is probably the one in Alamogordo, New Mexico… Their website is so bizarre in that it shows very few pix of the “rocket garden”. They have a V2, just as it fell over London.. a Nike/Ajax, Little Joe, Nike/Herc, Hawk, and much, much more. That is before you go INSIDE. It is extraorindary.

I was astounded by the sad state of disrepair of the gems at White Sands. They had one of everything – but most were so far gone, it was incredible. Other than the V2, the stuff in Alamogordo was pristine.

[Rob Piotrowski]

I agree with JW that the trip to the Space center in Alamogordo and the Missile park in White Sands were way cool. Also the Atomic Museum. I missed the tour for the Trinity site by 3 days. (Its only one time a year) Plus if you are lucky you will see some stealth fighters flying.

[Author]

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