Vintage Space Technology and Instruments

A collection of historical images showcasing vintage space technology, including telescopes, lunar simulators, and re-entry vehicles, all in black and white.

TWO-PRISM SPECTROGRAPH MOUNTED AT THE CASSEGRAIN FOCUS OF THE 60-INCH TELESCOPE.

Vintage Photograph. Man attaching re-entry vehicle to Discoverer II

MOUNTING DEVICE FOR NEWTONIAN SPECTROGRAPH ON 100-INCH TELESCOPE NEWTONIAN CAGE.

Engraving depicting the Crossley telescope, a 36-inch (910 mm) reflecting telescope located at Lick Observatory, California, given to the observatory in 1895 by British politician Edward Crossley. Dated 20th Century

Lunar Take Off Simulator: This simulator is used by scientists at the Langley Research Center ... to help determine human ability to control a lunar launch vehicle in vertical alignment during takeoff from the moon for rendezvous with a lunar satellite vehicle on the return trip to earth. The three-axis chair, a concept which allows the pilot to sit upright during launch, gives the navigator angular motion (pitch, role, and yaw) cues as he operates the vehicle through a sidearm control system. The sight apparatus in front of the pilot's face enables him to align the vehicle on a course toward a chosen star, which will be followed as a guidance reference during the lunar launch. The pilot's right hand controls angular motions, while his left hand manipulates the thrust lever. The simulator is designed for operation inside an artificial planetarium, where a star field will be projected against the ceiling during "flights". The tests are part of an extensive NASA program at Langley in the

100-INCH TELESCOPE NORTH FLOAT & BEARING.

TWO-PRISM SPECTROGRAPH MOUNTED AT THE CASSEGRAIN FOCUS OF THE 60-INCH TELESCOPE.

South Bend, Indiana, March 8, 1941Notre Dame University's recently completed 20 ton atom smasher that will produce 8 million volts for experimentation in particle disintegration by high speed electrons.

An engraving depicting the hydraulic jack used to adjust the mountings of the Eiffel Tower. Dated 19th century

Variable Density Tunnel

A view of a six-legged walker robot at the Naval Surface Weapons Center. Base: Silver Springs State: Maryland (MD) Country: United States Of America (USA)

Paris International Air Show 1953. Photographs of Marshall Plan Programs, Exhibits, and Personnel

View of STS Discovery

200-INCH TELESCOPE POINTING TO THE ZENITH, AS SEEN FROM THE SOUTH.

100-INCH TELESCOPE FROM THE WEST, TUBE 20 DEGREES FROM HORIZONTAL POINTING SOUTH, SHUTTER OPEN TO THE SOUTH.

Astronaut Fred Wallace Haise, Jr. at NASA Langley Lunar Research Facility, Gantry test at night. Haise was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 13 (April 11-17, 1970) and has logged 142 hours and 54 minutes in space.

Anefo photo collection. Placement of new from street vault in the Dome of the Utrecht Observatory, interior of the dome with the van Straatswijker with the obslicter Miss. June 18, 1959

S67-19582 (1961) --- View of the reconstructed Mercury-Atlas 1 (MA-1) spacecraft. The capsule exploded one minute after launch and the debris was reassembled for study.

B732132 U12E BULKHEAD HOWELL (Project Engineer) APR 18 73 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/18/1973 BULKHEADS; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; HFR; HFR (X-RAY FLUX); HFR RECOVERY; HIGH FLUENCE RECOVERY; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; PIPES; TEST SITES; TUNNELS; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; BULKHEAD historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

B732068 U12E H.F.R. POST SHOT ROBERT STINEBAUGH (Project Engineer) MAR 9 73 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 3/9/1973 EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; HFR; HFR RECOVERY; HIGH FLUENCE; HIGH FLUENCE RECOVERY; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; NUCLEAR WEAPONS; PHOTOGRAPHY, BLACK & WHITE; RECOVERY; TEST SITES; TUNNELS; UGT; UNDERGROUND TESTING; WEAPONS & ARMAMENTS; H.F.R. POST SHOT historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

Once the United States' space program had progressed from Earth's orbit into outerspace, the prospect of building and maintaining a permanent presence in space was realized. To accomplish this feat, NASA launched a temporary workstation, Skylab, to discover the effects of low gravity and weightlessness on the human body, and also to develop tools and equipment that would be needed in the future to build and maintain a more permanent space station. The structures, techniques, and work schedules had to be carefully designed to fit this unique construction site. The components had to be lightweight for transport into orbit, yet durable. The station also had to be made with removable parts for easy servicing and repairs by astronauts. All of the tools necessary for service and repairs had to be designed for easy manipulation by a suited astronaut. And construction methods had to be efficient due to limited time the astronauts could remain outside their controlled environment. In lieu of al

D723493 MISTY NORTH POST SHOT DIAGNOSTICS K. Glibert (Project Engineer) APRIL 30, 1972 EG&G/NTS PHOTO LAB Publication Date: 4/30/1972 DIAGNOSTIC; DIAGNOSTICS; EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER; EG&G; MISTY NORTH TEST; NEVADA; NEVADA TEST SITE; NTS; NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS; NUCLEAR TESTING; NUCLEAR TESTS; PIPES; TEST SITES; UGT; UNDERGROUND; UNDERGROUND TESTING; DIAGNOSTIC PIPE historical images. 1972 - 2012. Department of Energy. National Nuclear Security Administration. Photographs Related to Nuclear Weapons Testing at the Nevada Test Site.

VIEW OF OBSERVER (FRANCIS G. PEASE) AT CASSEGRAIN FOCUS OF 100-INCH TELESCOPE.

Anefo photo collection. Pieter van Vollenhoven visits national air space lab.; View model wind tunnel. 12 February 1988

Vintage photograph. Wind tunnel at University of Maryland, college park in which he winds up to 350 mph can be produced

THE 30-FOOT SPECTROGRAPH OF THE 60-FOOT TOWER TELESCOPE, SHOWING NICOL & RHOMB IN POSITION.

S66-50720 (12 Sept. 1966) --- Preparations are made in the white room atop Pad 19 to close the hatches on the Gemini-11 spacecraft just after insertion during the Gemini-11 prelaunch countdown. On the left is astronaut Charles Conrad Jr., command pilot; and on the right is Richard F. Gordon Jr., pilot.

10-INCH TELESCOPE IN DOME ON MT. WILSON.

The Apollo 11 mission, the first manned lunar mission, launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida via the Saturn V launch vehicle on July 16, 1969 and safely returned to Earth on July 24, 1969. The Saturn V vehicle was developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun. Aboard were Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, Command Module (CM) pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., Lunar Module (LM) pilot. The CM, piloted by Michael Collins remained in a parking orbit around the Moon while the LM, named Eagle’’, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, landed on the Moon. Armstrong was the first human to ever stand on the lunar surface, followed by Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin. During 2½ hours of surface exploration, the crew collected 47 pounds of lunar surface material for analysis back on Earth. The recovery operation took place in the Pacific Ocean where Navy para-rescue men recovered the capsule housing the 3-man Apollo 11 crew.

Ames 5 degrees-of-freedom motion simulator This simulator incorporated a centrifuge of 30ft radius. The simulatored cockpit, located intn a hooded cab at the end of the centrifuge arm, was driven by motors, as required by the simulation, about each of its three axes (itch, roll, and yaw). The cab was also driven through a limited range of motion along the vertical axis and of course was driven by the centrifuge arm along a curved path of fixed radius in the horizontal plane. Thus the motions that could be simulated i the cab were three angular motions, one translational motion, and a curvilinear combination of the remaining two translational motions. The curvilinear motions, and associated accelerations, were, of course, fairly representative of airplane flight. The simulator was placed in operation early in 1961. ref Adventures in Research (pg 341/341) NASA SP-4302

20-FOOT MICHELSON INTERFEROMETER BEAM ON THE HOOKER TELESCOPE TUBE, SHOWING MIRRORS 12 FEET APART.

Model Space Station

S72-31047 (March 1972) --- Astronaut Thomas K. Mattingly II (right foreground), command module pilot of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, participates in extravehicular activity (EVA) training in Building 5 at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). Mattingly is scheduled to perform EVA during the Apollo 16 journey home from the moon. Astronaut John W. Young, commander, can be seen in the left background. In the right background is astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot. They are inside the Apollo Command Module Mission Simulator. While Mattingly remains with the Apollo 16 Command and Service Modules (CSM) in lunar orbit, Young and Duke will descend in the Lunar Module (LM) to the moon's Descartes landing site.

Mechanics are dressed in fire suits because the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, a simulator to train astronauts for a moon landing, had 90% pure hydrogen peroxide thrusters.

Vintage Photograph. Man attending to H-1 liquid propellant rockets.

Skioptic image with motifs of torpedo tube with torpedo in.

Image associated collection of glass negative with motifs from AB de Laval's steam turbine.

Making Lighthouses -- A typical lighthouse optic rotating on a mercury bath by clockwork mechanism, and giving three consecutive short flashed followed by a single flash every 15 seconds. This apparatus is for the use of the aviator as well as the mariner. Approximate overall height is 12 feet. October 21, 1946. (Photo by Topical Press).

Image associated collection of glass negative with motifs from AB de Laval's steam turbine. FM 29 - V1.

Engraving depicting the interior of the Kuffner Observatory, is one of two telescope-equipped public astronomical observatories situated in Austria's capital, Vienna. Dated 19th Century

The Gadget, the first atomic bomb tested in Nevada USA, World war two. 1945

Photograph of Syncom 2 - Technicians check the mating of the Syncom communications satellite atop the third stage of the Delta launch vehicle at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Dated 20th century

View of STS Endeavor

Vintage photograph. Linear Accelerator liner (inside shot) at the radiation laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California

Anefo photo collection. Exhibition Working with atoms, in Utrecht, the small training and research reactor with control panel. February 28, 1966. Utrecht

black and white negative: KODAK T-MAX 100 Professional. SBA settings neutral SBA on, color SBA on

M52 (depicted - name).M52 (depicted - name)

The Skynet satellite is mated to a booster. Country: Unknown

This photograph shows Skylab's Particle Collection device, a scientific experiment designed to study micro-meteoroid particles in near-Earth space and determine their abundance, mass distribution, composition, and erosive effects. The Marshall Space Flight Center had program management responsibility for the development of Skylab hardware and experiments.

$Illustration depicting Norman Lockyer's solar spectrograph. Solar spectrum passes through multiple-prism spectroscope fitted to a refracting telescope. Dated 19th century$

View of STS Atlantis

View of STS Endeavor

APOLLO CONFIGURATION OF SATURN MODEL IN THE 8X6-FOOT SUPERSONIC WIND TUNNEL

Blunt Leading Edge Model in the Unitary Wind Tunnel high mach number test section.

S75-21836 (20 Feb. 1975) --- Cosmonaut Anatoliy V. Filipchenko, commander of the Soviet ASTP second (backup) crew, participates in Apollo-Soyuz Test Project joint crew training in Building 35 at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Filipchenko is in the Apollo Command Module trainer. This picture was taken from inside the Docking Module during a walk-through of the second days activities in Earth orbit.

Sketch of a General Electric GAU-8/A, showing the approximate location of the gun when installed - Not to Scale. Dated 1970

The spacecraft "Vostok" on the exhibition "People's presentations in SSSR" in Moscow.

Inspection tour of NASA installations: St. Louis, Missouri, McDonnell Aircraft, 3:27PM. President John F. Kennedy views a mock-up of the Gemini space capsule, during a tour of the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation plant in St. Louis, Missouri. Vice President of the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and General Manager of Projects Mercury and Gemini, Walter F. Burke (gesturing with hand), briefs President Kennedy; McDonnell engineer, Elbert Wiegand, sits in cockpit of the two-man spacecraft. Also pictured: White House Secret Service agents, Gerald A. Jerry Behn and Roy Kellerman. The President visited the McDonnell plant as part of a two-day inspection tour of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) field installations. Lambert-St. Louis Municipal Airport, St. Louis, Missouri.

Vehicles and Missions Studies Charts, Space Capsule

Technicians adjust the rocket motor during the attachment of the escape tower to the Mercury capsule prior to assembly with Little Joe launcher, August 20, 1959. Joseph Shortal wrote (vol. 3., p. 33): The escape tower and rocket motors were taken from the Mercury capsule production. The tower is shown being attached to the capsule.... The escape rocket was a Grand Central 1-KS-52000 motor with three canted nozzles. The tower-jettison motor was an Atlantic Research Corp. 1.4-KS-785 motor. This was the same design tested in a beach abort test...and had the offset thrust line as used in the beach abort test to insure that the capsule would get away from the booster in an emergency. The escape system weighed 1,015 pounds, including 236 pounds of ballast for stability. The Little Joe booster was assembled at Wallops on its special launcher in a vertical attitude. It is shown in the on the left with the work platform in place. The launcher was located on a special concrete slab in Laun

Air Force Javelin Rocket on Launcher (USAF JV-1) Wallops Model D4-78 L59-5144 First AFSWC Javelin sounding rocket ready for flight test, July 7, 1959. Photograph published in A New Dimension Wallops Island Flight Test Range: The First Fifteen Years by Joseph Shortal. A NASA publication. Page 704.

View of Solid Rocket Booster

The X-1B reaction control system thrusters are tested in 1958 and later proven on the X-15 as a way to control a vehicle in the absence of dynamic pressure.

Engineer and 12 foot Beacon showing NACA emblem on inflated satelloon . For related information see, Spaceflight Revolution, NASA from Sputnik to Apollo, by James R. Hansen. NASA SP-4308, 1995. p. 173.

$Silver gelatin photographs by Karl Alois Stefan Hillebrand depicting the large refractor telescope at the K.k. Observatory in Vienna, produced in 1901, showing structural and mechanical details.$

Skiopticon image from the Department of Photography at the Royal Institute of Technology. Use by Professor Helmer Bäckström as lecture material. Bäckström was Sweden's first professor in photography at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm 1948-1958.ultrarapid. High speed photography. Hammer against bulb.For more info See: Bäckström, Helmer. Photographic manual. Other revised edition. Nature and Culture. Stockholm. 1948. p. 882.

50-FOOT INTERFEROMETER MOUNT WITH CAMERAS ATTACHED AT PT. LOMA ECLIPSE SITE. VIEW FROM THE WEST-SOUTHWEST.

S75-21716 (19 Feb. 1975) --- Prime crew commanders for the joint U.S.-USSR Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) take a break from busy simulations at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) to enjoy a lighter moment. Cosmonaut Aleksey A. Leonov sticks his head through the Soyuz orbital module mock-up in the Flight Crew Training Facility (Building 35) at JSC, while his American counterpart, astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, looks on. The two men were pausing from a simulation of joint crew second-day ASTP activities.

The United States Government Air Gun for testing the velocity of baseball at Griffith Stadium circa 1938.

Aeronautics and Space Administration

Photograph of Head-Chief Inspector of Structures Walking Through a Dirigible. Original caption: Head-Chief inspector of structures.. Dirigible Disasters.

$Refracting telescope in a research center, Lick Observatory, Mt Hamilton, California, USA$

Canister open in VPF. Payload for STS-5, SBS-3, & Anik C-3, being loaded into the canister

Apollo XI Astronaut Armstrong Thermal Vacuum Training in Chamber "B", Bldg. 32. MSC, Houston, TX

Cutaway Drawing Of One Space Satellite Idea --This artist's drawing is a cutaway view of one ides for an earth satellite as advanced by a University of Maryland physicist, Prof. S.F. Singer, who conceived of an aluminum sphere about two feet in diameter, weighing 100 pounds or so, with most of the weight consisting of equipment and instruments to measure cosmic rays, solar ultraviolet and x-rays Dr. Singer now is in Copenhagen for meeting of International Aeronautical Federation. July 29, 1955. (Photo by Popular Science Magazine).

Observatory in Saltsjöbaden.

Arcas Rocket B1-110

Modified Bell X-1 model pioneered variable-sweep studies in 1947. Photograph published in Sixty Years of Aeronautical Research 1917-1977 By David A. Anderton. A NASA publication, page 52.

S69-19858 (December 1968) --- Two members of the Apollo 9 prime crew participate in simulation training in the Apollo Lunar Module Mission Simulator (LMMS) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). On the left is astronaut James A. McDivitt, commander; and on the right is astronaut Russell L. Schweickart, lunar module pilot.

Göta lion (depicted - name).Göta Lion (depicted - name)

Vintage Photograph. Astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan in Lunar Module.

CPT Walter West, an Air Force test director, right, and John Riddell, an engineer, examine a 27 percent scale model of a jet engine inlet in the 16-foot supersonic wind tunnel during tests at the Arnold Engineering and Development Center. Base: Arnold Air Force Base State: Tennessee (TN) Country: United States Of America (USA)

Gaston Tissandier (1843-1899). French aeronaut and science communicator. Albert-Charles Tissandier (1839-1906). French architect, aeronaut, publisher and archaeologist. In 1881, the Tissandier brothers made the world's first electric-powered flight at an electricity exhibition by fitting an electric motor to an airship. After their first flight experiments, they built a large-scale model which they exhibited, for which Albert drew up the plans. The airship was 28 metres long and over 9 metres in diameter at its centre. The first airship powered by an electric motor took place on 8 October 1883, at Auteuil, a suburb of Paris (France). A second successful attempt was made in Paris on 26 September 1884. Tissandier electric airship. Engraving by Bernardo Rico (1825-1894). The Spanish and American Illustration (La Ilustracion Espanola y Americana). October 15, 1884.

$The solar optical telescope, housed at NASA/JSC Building 270, is a 6' refractor type with an effective aperture of 5'. It is equipped with an hydrogen alpha filter,, a solar spectrograph, optical and TV cameras and associated equipment.$

Astronauts Joseph Kerwin (left) and William Lenoir familiarize themselves with equipment aboard the Spacelab mockup during a 1976 visit to the Marshall Space Flight Center. Kerwin and Lenoir were part of an astronaut group briefed on Spacelab subsystems and crew activities by Marshall scientists and engineers. The Marshall Space Flight Center had management responsibility for Spacelab.

These giant aluminum saucers erected near Sydney are gathering new facts from the sun for CSIRO physicists. August 07, 1952. (Photo by C. S. I. R. Radiophysics Division).

Inspection tour of NASA installations: Houston, Texas, NASA Rich Building, departure, 11:10AM. President John F. Kennedy (in background, right of lectern) tours spacecraft displays inside a hangar at the Rich Building of the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas; astronaut Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (mostly hidden, right of President Kennedy), briefs the President on a mock-up of the lunar lander, also known as the Bug. Standing with President Kennedy: Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Dr. James E. Webb; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, Dr. Robert Gilruth. Photographers and members of the press observe at right. The President visited the Center as part of a two-day inspection tour of NASA field installations.

Rocket Booster aids spaceship on its take-off from cement-walled, specially insulated launching basin. For safety, all launching personnel are under protective cover. September 19, 1953.

Shot put with shroud over payload - carried early Echo satellite (which burst before achieving orbit). This was the first attempt to launch the Echo satellite.

Modified Bell X-1 model pioneered variable-sweep studies in 1947. Photograph published in Sixty Years of Aeronautical Research 1917-1977 By David A. Anderton. A NASA publication, page 52.

Anefo photo collection. Queen when working with atoms. March 17, 1966

View of Solid Rocket Booster

A Mercury capsule is mounted inside the Altitude Wind Tunnel for a test of its escape tower rockets at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Anefo photo collection. Exhibition "US Food Agriculture" in RAI building. The spaceship of W. Schirra de Signa 7 is also exhibited. November 5, 1963. Amsterdam, Noord-Holland

of 3