Various Space Race Era Gag Crew Portraits, Because In A Business As Risky As Spaceflight, You Need A

Happy birthday to Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (March 9, 1934 – March 27, 1968), the first human in space, who would’ve turned 85 today!

“Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!”

“My biggest plan, my greatest dream is to do it one more time… to go to space a few more times. I want to fly there, see more, go to other planets.”

The Gemini 4 crew studies at the Morehead Planetarium at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Jim McDivitt, Ed White, and Neil Armstrong link arms & test eating in zero gravity while aboard the Vomit Comet (unspecified date)

This was supposed to be a special birthday post but then I decided against it so here’s a random gif set of Neil for your viewing pleasure ✨

Since I was out of town and couldn’t make a post on the 2nd, here’s a happy belated birthday to Charles “Pete” Conrad, Jr. (June 2, 1930 – July 8, 1999), one of my absolute favorite people in the entire world. Pete was a brilliant engineer, a naval aviator, test pilot, part of the second group of NASA astronauts, and the third human to walk on the moon.

He worked harder than most people can imagine to overcome the obstacles that stood in the way of his dreams, though you’d hardly notice because he did it all with a gap-toothed smile. I’ll never forget the sound of him laughing all the way into orbit during Apollo 12. I still miss him like hell and I wish I had had the chance to tell him in person that he’s my hero, but I take comfort in the fact that Petey had more fun in his short 69 years than most people could have in 100.

Happy birthday, Tweety. Love ya more than you know.

Professor Armstrong teaching a class at the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering, 1974

Yura for @mmnesdt7 <3

Veterans Day: New Nine Edition

Lieutenant Neil A. Armstrong, U.S. Navy (1949-1960)

Colonel Frank F. Borman II, U.S. Air Force (1950-1970)

Captain James A. Lovell, Jr., U.S. Navy (1952-1973)

Lieutenant General Thomas P. Stafford, U.S. Air Force (1952-1979)

Commander Elliot M. See, Jr., U.S. Navy Reserve (1953-1956)

Captain Charles Conrad, Jr., U.S. Navy (1953-1973)

Captain John W. Young, U.S. Navy (1952-1976)

Brigadier General James A. McDivitt, U.S. Air Force (1951-1972)

Lieutenant Colonel Edward H. White II, U.S. Air Force (1952-1967)

Astronaut Group 2 goes for a swim, 1963. From the bottom: Frank Borman, Ed White, Tom Stafford, Pete Conrad, John Young (I think).

I stand corrected regarding Young’s attire: he’s at least 93% covered only 99% of the time. What’s his deal with the nevernude business, anyway? All the other astronauts run around half-dressed like little kids at bathtime.

(Photo courtesy of Retrospaceimages)

Art by me