Monthly Archives: July 2019

“[Being an astronaut is] a very special mantle to wear. I feel very privileged.”

NPR: Seeing Apollo Through The Eyes Of Astronauts. “Fifty years ago, two astronauts became the first humans to set foot on the moon. Like many explorers, they documented their accomplishment in photographs. The images they took are some of the most enduring of the 20th century, traveling from Life magazine to MTV to Twitter.

For most of us, the photos brought back by Apollo 11 are iconic and a little difficult to comprehend. But for astronauts, they represent something more: hours of training, risks taken and the many people on the ground who worked to make the journey possible.

NPR spoke to five former NASA astronauts who flew on space missions to learn how they see these photos.”

“It’s the tiny, gumdrop-shaped vehicle sitting just below the tip” of the rocket

NPR: The Making Of Apollo’s Command Module: 2 Engineers Recall Tragedy And Triumph.

“Look at a picture of the Apollo 11 launch and you’ll probably notice the rocket’s pointed tip and the fire coming from the five giant engines in the first stage of the 36-story-tall Saturn V rocket.

What you might miss is arguably the most important part of the entire thing: the command module.

It’s the tiny, gumdrop-shaped vehicle sitting just below the tip. It holds the astronauts, their clothing, sleeping bags, food and — along with a companion service module — all of the systems needed for a round-trip journey to the moon. It’s also the only piece of the spacecraft to complete the entire trip and splash down back on Earth.
[…]
On their way back, the astronauts sent one final transmission from space.

Collins had this to say: “This operation is somewhat like the periscope of a submarine. All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others. And to all of them, I’d like to say thank you very much.””

Smile, you’re on camera!

NPR: The Camera That Went To The Moon And Changed How We See It.

“In the summer of 1962, Walter Schirra — who would soon become America’s third man to orbit the Earth — walked into a Houston photo supply shop looking for a camera he could take into space.

He came out with a Hasselblad 500C, a high-end Swedish import that had been recommended to him by photographers from Life and National Geographic.

“He was sort of an amateur photographer,” Jennifer Levasseur, a curator in charge of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum’s astronaut cameras, says of Schirra. “Somewhere along the line, the decision was made that he could select what camera was flown on his flight.””

“Geistige Brandstifter”

Deutsche Welle: Wie gefährlich ist die Identitäre Bewegung? “Der Verfassungsschutz ist zum Schluss gekommen: Die Identitäre Bewegung ist rechtsextrem. Was wollen die Aktivisten, die sich gern als modern und moderat verkaufen, wirklich?”

“Aus dem Ethnopluralismus erwächst die Forderung nach “Remigration”: Migranten und Menschen mit Migrationshintergrund sollen in ihre “Herkunftsländer” zurückgeschickt werden. Speit meint: “Hier sind sie wirklich knallhart. Sie sagen eindeutig: wer nicht deutscher Abstammung ist, hat in Deutschland nichts zu suchen.” Wer zwar einen deutschen Pass hat, aber Wurzeln in der Türkei, der muss also zurück in die Heimat der Vorfahren? “Nicht zwangsläufig”, sagt IB-Chef Fiß im Gespräch mit der DW. Wieder bemüht er sich, zu betonen, dass seine Bewegung nichts gegen Menschen mit ausländischen Wurzeln habe.

Diese Uneindeutigkeit sei eine “diskursive Taktik der IB”, sagt der Journalist Speit. “Sie wissen, was sie wann und wo sagen oder nicht sagen sollten, um moderat zu erscheinen.” Ansonsten könne man leicht erkennen, welch radikale Positionen sie in Wirklichkeit vertreten würden. “Sie halten sich zum Beispiel massiv zurück bei der Frage, wie Remigration organisiert werden soll. Sollen da wieder Züge fahren?””