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Old May 5th, 2018 #2
Ray Allan
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Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 15,170
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nikola Bijeliti View Post
Today I attended the launch of the Mars Insight Lander and took the following video:

Launch of Mars Insight Lander

The launch took place on the fifty-seventh anniversary of Alan Shepard's flight in Freedom 7, the first flight of an American into space.

Let's Light This Candle

Since today is also Cinco de Mayo, let us also not forget the most famous Mexican Astronaut of all, José Imenez.

The Astronaut by Jose Jimenez 1961
Sorry you couldn't see the launch through the fog very well, Nikola. Still must have been cool to watch. Mars InSight is the first planetary probe launch from VAFB. I think the Clementine lunar mission was launched from there in 1994. I wasn't sure how they could get a good Mars transfer burn launching from VAFB, being it's a high-inclination and polar orbit launch site, but obviously they worked it out.

I hope I can see humans go to Mars during my lifetime, whether it's Russians, Chinese or SpaceX. We'll see if today's ape-firmative action NASA will do it.

Here's a good video of the launch from JPL-NASA:

That scene from The Right Stuff where Al Shepard pees in his suit is funny. The miniseries From the Earth to the Moon did a good dramatization, too.

I think Bill Dana, aka Jose Jimenez, died recently.

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