In Part 1 of Mission Control, we introduced Christopher Columbus Kraft, the man who guided the birth of ‘Mission Control’ for the United States space program. Kraft and his group invented the position that became commonly known as ‘Flight’. This call sign has been used for the director who rules over NASA’s ground control […]
AstroCal – December 2024 Although the shortest daylight of this year falls on the Winter Solstice – December 21, it will only take a few weeks before the daylight hours begin to slowly lengthen again. I won’t go into my usual complaint about ‘how nice it would be to stay on Daylight Saving Time […]
The 1995 movie adaptation of Jim Lovell’s book Lost Moon spawned a catch phrase that took on a life of its own. In Apollo 13, Tom Hanks (who portrayed Lovell) repeated the famous, “Houston, we have a problem” after the explosion on board their Moon bound spacecraft was first called in by his fellow […]
There was a time when one could not escape Bob Welch on FM radio. Hardly an hour would pass without his late 1970s hits Ebony Eyes or Sentimental Lady flowing from the speakers. Welch, who passed away in June of 2012 at the age of 66, was a much more complicated human being than […]
Dave Mason was feeling anything but ‘alright’ in December of 1968. He was summoned to ‘another band meeting of Traffic’, the band he had cofounded with Steve Winwood, Chris Wood, and Jim Capaldi. The meeting was held at the home of their manager Chris Blackwell who was also the head of their record label, […]