John Glenn:
A Memoir

Neil Armstrong

Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir

Yuri Gagarin, Photographic Print

Yuri Gagarin
b. 3-9-1934; Soviet Union
d. 3-27-1968; crash of MiG 15 training jet

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was first human in space flight, 4-12-1961, Vostok 1.

Andrian Nikolayev and Valentina Tereshkova, Giclee Print

Major Nikolayev, Valentina Tereshkova

(first instance of two simultaneous manned spacecraft, Vostok 3 & 4)

Lt. Colonel Popovich

Boris Yegorov
b. 11-26-1937; Moscow
d. 9-12-1994; heart attack

Soviet cosmonaut Boris Yegorov was the first physician in space on Voskhod I in October of 1964. Yegorov, whose parents were physicians, earned a doctorate in medicine, specializing in disorders of the sense of balance.

Alan Shepard in Mercury Capsule, Photographic Print

Alan Shepard
b. x11-18-1923; Derry, New Hampshire
d. 7-21-1998; Pebble Beach, CA (leukemia)

Alan Shepard, the second person and first American in space flight, (suborbital, 5-5-1961, Mercury 3), also flew in the Apollo 14 mission (1971) and was the fifth person to walk on the Moon.

John Glenn, Astronaut

John Glenn
b. x7-18-1921; Cambridge, OH

John Glenn was the first American in orbital flight on 2-20-1962, Mercury 6 aboard Friendship 7. In a second space flight on Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-95 in 1998, at age 77, Glenn became the oldest person in space. Between 1974 and 1999 Glenn also served as US Senator from his home state of Ohio.

Astronaut LeRoy G. Cooper Flying F-102 Jet Plane for Flight Practice, Photographic Print

LeRoy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper
b. x3-6-1927; Shawnee, OK
d. 10-4-2004; California (Parkinson's Disease)

“Gordo” Cooper was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, and flew 222 hours in space. He was the first US astronaut to sleep in space and to be seen live on TV; Cooper also asserted his belief in UFOs in Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey into the Unknown.

Virgil “Gus” Grissom
b. x4-3-1926; Mitchell, Indiana
d. 1-27-1967; Cape Kennedy, FL

Gus Grissom, a US Air Force pilot, was one of the original Mercury astronauts. He was the second American in space, the first person to fly in space twice, and died with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission.

Edward White II
b. x11-14-1930; San Antonio, TX
d. 1-27-1967; Cape Kennedy, FL

Ed White, a US Air Force pilot, was selected in the Gemini astronaut program. He was the first Americant to walk in space, on June 3, 1965. White died with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission.

Roger Chaffee
b. x2-15-1935; Grand Rapids, MI
d. 1-27-1967; Cape Kennedy, FL

US Navy Commander Roger Chaffee was an astronaut in the Apollo program. Chaffee died with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Ed White during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission.

James Lovell
b. x3-25-1928; Cleveland, OH, raised in Milwaukee, WI

James Lovell was the commander of the Apollo 13 mission (1970) that was brought back safely to Earth by the efforts of the crew Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, and mission control, after a critical equipment failure en route to the Moon.

Fred Haise
b. x11-14-1933; Biloxi, MS

Fred Haise, one of the 24 people to have flown to the Moon, was part of the Apollo 13 mission. He was also the test pilot for the Space Shuttle Enterprise that was used for approach and landing tests (never in space.)

John “Jack” Swigert
b. x8-30-1931; Denver, CO
d. 12-27-1982; Washington, DC (bone cancer)

Jack Swigert was a member of the Apollo 13 crew, replacing astronaut Ken Mattingly at the last moment. Swigert, caught in the Apollo 15 stamp incident, was eliminated from further space assignments. After leaving NASA Swigert was elected as a Representative from Colorado in 1982 but died before he could be sworn in.

Russell “Rusty” Schweickart
b. x10-25-1935; Neptune, NJ

Rusty Schweickart flew as the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 9 with Jim McDivitt and Dave Scott in 1969, testing systems for landing on the Moon. Schweickart suffered from space sickness that ultimately limited his space flight.

Schweickart, who has taught at Esalen Institute, is also cofounder of the B612 Foundation, a group that aims to defend Earth from asteroid impacts.

FYI -B-612 is the name of the astroid in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's “The Little Prince”.

Anders, Borman, Lovell, Men of the Year / TIME Magazine Cover, Jan 3, 1969

Anders, Borman, Lovell, Men of the Year / TIME Magazine Cover, Jan 3, 1969
(... celebrated as the year in which men saw at first hand their little earth entire, a remote, blue-brown sphere hovering like a migrant bird in the hostile night of space.)

Astronaut Neil Armstrong Leaving for the Moon / LIFE Cover: July 25, 1969

Astronaut Neil Armstrong Leaving for the Moon / LIFE Cover: July 25, 1969
(First Lunar landing, Apollo 11, Armstrong, Michael Collins & Buzz Aldrin; July, 1969.)

Man on the Moon Buzz Aldrin (w/ Neil Armstrong Quote) Poster

The Eagle Has Landed

“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Buzz Aldrin b. 1-20-1930, New Jersey

“That’s one small step for a man,
one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong

• moon posters

Ten Days that Shook the Nation - The Moon Landing, 1969 Wall Poster

The Moon Landing, July 20, 1969 - Ten Days that Shook the Nation -

• Ten Days that Shook the Nation series

First Man on the Moon Historic Headlines Poster

First Man on the Moon - “One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”

• more History Headlines posters

Astronauts Lovell, Haise and Swigert TIME Cover: April 27, 1970

Astronauts Lovell, Haise and Swigert /The Return - TIME Cover, April 27, 1970
(April 1970, Apollo 13)

Astronauts Scott, Irwin and Worden TIME Magazine Cover, Aug 9, 1971

Astronauts Scott, Irwin and Worden / TIME Magazine Cover, Aug 9, 1971
(Lunar Rover EVA on Moon, July 26-30, 1971, Apollo 15)

Owen Kay Garriott, Ph.D
b. x11-22-1930; Enid, OK

Scientist-Astronaut Owen Garriott spent 60 days aboard Skylab in 1973 and 10 days aboard Spacelab-1 in 1983. Garriott's son, Richard, was a space tourist in 2008, making the Garriott's the second set of father-son astronauts. The cosmonauts Aleksandr (1991) and Sergey (2008) Volkov were first.

William Anders
b. x10-17-1933; Hong Kong

William Anders travelled around the Moon in December of 1968 with the Apollo 8 mission that included Jim Lovell and Frank Borman. Apollo 8 was the first human space flight to leave Earth orbit and the crew the first humans to directly see the far side of the Moon. Anders took the famous picture entitled Earth Rise and also read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis for a Christmas Eve television broadcast.

James B. Irwin
b. x3-17-1930; Pittsburgh, PA
d. 8-8-1991; Colorado (heart attack)

James Irwin was the Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 15 (the fourth human lunar landing) and the eighth person to walk on the Moon.

• flag posters

US Astronaut Bruce Mccandless II Conducting Space Walk During Challenger IV Space Shuttle Mission, Photographic Print

Bruce McCandless II
b. x6-8-1937; Boston, MA

Bruce McCandless, selected for the NASA program in 1966, logged more than 312 hours in space. During the first of McCandless' two Space Shuttle missions (STS-41-B, 1984) he made the first untethered, free flight using the Manned Maneuvering Unit; STS-31 launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990.

Mae Jemison
b. 10-17-1956; Decatur, AL

Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space, served as a STS-47 Endeavour Mission Specialist. Jemison is also a medical doctor, and served in the Peace Corps.

• Find Where The Wind Goes: Moments From My Life

Sally Ride
b. 5-26-1951; Encino, CA

Sally Ride, a physicist and NASA astronaut, was the first American woman to enter outerspace in 1983, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger II.

• To Space and Back, Sally Ride

Ellen Ochoa
b. 5-10-1958; California

Ellen Ochoa, an electrical engineer, was an astronaut and is currently the Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center. Ochoa is the first Hispanic woman in space (Discovery in 1993) and has made four flights, logging nearly 1000 hours.

• Women in Science posters
• Hispanic Heritage posters

Frank Borman
b. 3-14-1928; Gary, Indiana

Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman, along with James Lovell and Bill Anders, were the first to fly around the Moon in December, 1968.

The three astronauts were featured as Men of the Year / TIME Magazine Cover, Jan 3, 1969.

Walter Schirra
b. x3-12-1923; Hackensack, New Jersey
d. 5-4-2007; Cape Kennedy, FL

Wally Schirra, one of the original Mecury 7 astronauts, was also part of the Gemini and Apollo programs. Schirra was the first person to go into space three times, logging 295 hours and 15 minutes.

FYI - Schirra's parents were aviation pioneers - his father was a “barnstormer”, his mother a “wing-walker” on her husband's biplane.

James A. McDivitt
b. x6-10-1929; Chicago, IL (raised Michigan)

Jim McDivitt flew in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He commanded the Gemini 4 for the first space walk.

Edgar Mitchell
b. x9-17-1930; Hereford, TX

Edgar Mitchell was the lunar modular pilot on the 1971 Apollo 14 mission and the sixth person to walk on the Moon. In 1974 Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences “to encourage and conduct research on human potentials.”

Ellison Onizuka, Great Asian Americans, Wall Poster

Ellison Onizuka
b. 6-24-1946; Kealakekua, HI
d. 1-28-1986, Challenger Space Shuttle

Poster Text: Ellison Onizuka's fascination with rocket began at a very early age. His parents recall how one New Year's Eve they felt strange vibrations and heard loud noises that seemed to be coming from beneath the floor of their home. Frightened, they ran outside to discover clouds of smoke pouring from underneath the house. After a few panic-stricken minutes, they discoverd the source of the noise and smoke, young Ellison had set off a roman candle firework in order to see how it worked! ... While working as a test pilot in California in the 1970s Ellison was chosen by NASA to be one of 220 astronauts for the space agency's new shuttle. The next year, he was chosen as one of seven people to take part in a mission aboard the shuttle “Challenger.”

Tragically, a malfunction of the shuttle's booster rocket caused an explosion that claimed the lives of the entire “Challenger” crew. At a memorial service, former astronaut Neil Armstrong said of Ellison Onizuka, “[He] had his life cut short for many reasons he could not control. Yet during his years he accomplished much more than most. Our world is a better place for his being here. He will always be remembered.”

Challenger' Explodes / TIME Cover: February 10, 1986

Challenger Crew: Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.