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TIL In 2018, 50 years after his Apollo 8 mission, astronaut Bill Anders ridiculed the idea of sending human missions to Mars, calling it “stupid”. His former crewmate Frank Borman shares Ander’s view, adding that putting colonies on Mars is “nonsense”

by whatilearned August 29, 2022, 10:26 pm

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TIL Apollo astronaut Harrison Schmitt suggests intensive cross-country skiing lessons for future lunar astronauts to help them explore the surface more quickly. He recommended the Taurus-Littrow valley as a potential destination for a lunar ski resort

by whatilearned August 29, 2022, 12:54 am

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TIL in 1971, after the 2nd lunar EVA of Apollo 15, Commander Dave Scott found his NASA-issued watch had broken. He switched it with a prototype watch that he had been given as a back up. The only personally owned watch used on the moon’s surface, it was auctioned in 2015 for $1.6 million.

by whatilearned August 4, 2022, 3:44 am

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TIL David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’, released in July 1969, was banned by the BBC for the duration of the Apollo 11 mission.

by whatilearned July 19, 2022, 7:16 am

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TIL that a single engineer in the control room of NASA prevented the astronauts of Apollo 12 from aborting the mission seconds after launch. “Set SCE to AUX”, said John Aaron which saved the entire mission.

by whatilearned July 13, 2022, 10:27 am

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TIL that James Webb was the NASA Administrator from 1961 to 1968. He oversaw each of the critical first crewed missions throughout the Mercury and Gemini programs until days before the launch of the first Apollo mission. He also dealt with the Apollo 1 fire.

by whatilearned July 12, 2022, 9:11 pm

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TIL that the first words on the moon of Pete Conrad, commander of Apollo 12, were “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.” to win a 500$ bet with an Italian reporter. He never received the money.

by whatilearned July 4, 2022, 1:05 pm

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TIL the boy whose exorcism was the inspiration behind The Exorcist grew up to be a NASA engineer. His work contributed to the Apollo mission in the ’60s.

by whatilearned July 4, 2022, 12:54 pm

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TIL Judith Love Cohen worked on the guidance computer for the Minuteman missile and the Abort-Guidance System in the Apollo Lunar Module – the guidance system that played an important role in the safe return of Apollo 13. She was also giving birth to Jack Black when she finished working on it.

by whatilearned June 29, 2022, 10:37 am

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TIL Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke left a family photo behind on the moon in 1972

by whatilearned June 20, 2022, 5:23 am

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TIL that the Xbox played creepy distorted audio from NASA Apollo transmissions while idling in the main menu. Microsoft’s idea behind this feature was to make the Xbox feel like out-of-this-world alien technology, but it just ended up terrifying people when it played in the middle of the night.

by whatilearned June 13, 2022, 1:57 pm

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TIL of the high % of NASA astronauts that were Boy Scouts. Of the 312 selected as astronauts, at least 207 have been active in scouting. Of the 24 to travel to the moon, 20 were scouts, including 11 of the 12 moonwalkers, and all three members of the crew of Apollo 13.

by whatilearned June 3, 2022, 12:40 pm

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