A Day in Astronomy: Birth of Wernher von Braun

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Walt Disney (left) and Wernher von Braun. (NASA)

On this day in 1912, German-American aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun was born in Wyrzysk, which was part of Germany at the time and later became a Polish city. His full name was Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun.

Mr. Braun is best remembered for his part in the construction of Nazi Germany’s V-2 rockets as well as his later participation in development of the Saturn V rocket that became the workhorse of the U.S. Apollo space program.

In the above photo from 1954, you can see Walt Disney with Mr. Braun at the Guided Missile Development Operation Division at Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Mr. Braun served as a technical consultant on a few Disney space films.

New Crew Heads to the International Space Station

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Members of the Soyuz MS-25 crew – commander Oleg Novitskiy (bottom), NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson (middle), and Belarus guest cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya (top). (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Earlier today, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched into space to bring three new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS).

The passengers on today’s delayed flight are cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Marina Vasilevskaya as well as NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson. They are expected to board the ISS on Monday.

Astronaut Dyson, who plans to stay on the station for six months, will assist her fellow astronauts on the ISS with a variety of experiments, including “…[s]tudies of neurological organoids, plant growth, and shifts in body fluids,”