Women of the Apollo Program

On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 lifted off with three men and accomplished President John F. Kennedy's national goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.



400,000 men and women worked for the Apollo program but building 3 components on which lives of the astronauts and success of the Apollo missions depended were entrusted only to women.

Weaving the Memory for the computer which guided the astronauts to the moon



Sewing the Spacesuit which enabled the astronauts to walk on the moon



Sewing the Parachutes used during landing so that the astronauts safely return to earth

Celebrating 40th Anniversary of Lunar Landing

A few months ago I saw the model kit for Apollo Lunar Module in a toy store in Sindelfingen. It was being offered to mark the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 lunar landing. The model caught my attention and imagination but I didn't buy it. But my wife Nitya offered to buy the model as a gift and I just could not refuse !! Exactly 4 months ago I flew in that same module, landed on the moon and came back safely to earth. This is my certificate as a testimony of the feat :-)

I worked on assembling and painting the kit for the last few days and here is how it went -

These are the individual components of the kit -



This is the final model -



This is where it is in our study room -

Following the LCROSS Mission

I followed the live coverage of the LCROSS mission on my computer until Centaur impact on the Moon. Here is the photo of my computer minutes before the impact -

Celebrating 40th Anniversary of Lunar Landing

This was the cerificate I got for viewing a real-time recreation of the Apollo 11 mission at wechoosethemoon.org

International Space Station and Space Shuttle Pass over Gurgaon

This was a flyer I made for my friends in EDAG at Signature Towers, Gurgaon. It was for viewing the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavour trailing behind it, an extremely rare and exciting opportunity. I saw them both from my home in South City 2, Gurgaon....and it was amazing feeling.

I got the details of the sighting opportunity from the website Heavens-Above.com.

Kennedy Space Center

On the day my wife and I visited Kennedy Space Center, Space Shuttle Discovery was being transported from Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Launch Pad LC-39B in preparation of the mission STS-121. Our guide told us that we are very lucky to be able to see the Shuttle from so close. Here is my photo with the Space Shuttle on the Crawler Transporter


Here are more photos from the trip.

Iridium Satellite Flare

Using details provided by the website Heavens-Above.com I saw an Iridium satellite flare for the first time while I was in Isenbüttel, a village near Wolfsburg in Germany.

Mir Space Station Pass over Bangalore

I saw the Mir Space Station pass over Bangalore just months before it was made to re-enter earth's atmosphere and burn up. This was my first satellite sighting using details provided by the website Heavens-Above.com.