Things that gave you space fever waaay back.

[mode1bravo]

I'm number one on the runway with this thread so here goes...


1.Mattel's "Major Matt Mason," whom I have seen referred to on internet blogs as quote "The coolest Astronaut ever." Got that straight! Lost my Major Matt many Moons ago...Godspeed little buddy.(Which I hear Mr. Tom Hanks is making a movie out of).Back in the day when space travel still had that indefineable aura of mystery and adventure to it. Somewhat like 1930's or 40's era aviation still has today.


2.The book "We Came in Peace" from the late 60's. A quite detailed book about Apollo with many great artists' conceptual drawings in it, as well as plenty of facts. All this made much cooler by the fact it must have been published right before we actually flew it there, say 67 or 68? I've read threads here whereby people try to understand why orbiter commands our long attention spans about all things space compared to others who don't get it. Well, let me tell ya this book did that to me long before there was even a home pc!





These two things are probably the most important things to pass my way in starting my love of aviation and aerospace early on.


What about you?

 

[ky]

The launch of Discovery in 2005 after the Columbia disaster.I was in second grade and I drove everyone crazy about the shuttle program lol.Good times,good times......

 

[Keatah]

I remember reading my 2nd grade primary science book in a small coffee shop that served kick-ass corned-beef sandwiches and french fries. Kaplan's in Van Nuys, California I recall. I'd go there with gramma after school and read about how the earth revolved around the sun. And how the moon revolved around the earth. I loved the illustrations. All had nice vivid colors and enough detail to engage a 6 year old kid without being overwhelming. They were not cartoonish looking either.

Also in that same year I built a G-meter. I took my clear protractor and some string and a nut or washer and hooked it all together. Then when we'd go to Magic Mountain or Disneyland and ride the roller coasters I'd take measurements and record them in a notebook. I soon upgraded my G-meter to not only show direction of "G" but now it had a rubber band to show the strength! I used good engineering practices by keeping the original string attached for backup purposes. I didn't want to have an instrument failure at an inopportune time. The ride operator of the Revolution was amused by it all but he also told me where I would get the highest readings and what they should come out to be based on the "owner's manual". This was a time when amusement parks were proud of their attractions and they gave a speech saying you'll go X amount fast and reach X amount of Gee's here or here. And this ride was built in 19xx and stuff like that.

A short few years later I built an antenna out of a garbage can lid and listened in on satellites and the Voyager 2 spacecraft. That is a super long story for another time.

 

[Scruce]

One word; Orbiter.

 

[Eli13]

BUZZ. FRICKING. LIGHTYEAR.

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Watching the Apollo mission 40 years ago. I was just a little kid back then, but I wanted to be either 1) an astronaut, or 2) Elvis... The pictures are buried in a safe location so the wife and kid will never find them.

The Skylab launch is the only one I actually remember, I'm pretty sure the others I only remember by way of video replays.

Between NASA, Ray Bradbury and Theodore Sturgeon, I'd been bitten by the space bug.

 

[diogom]

One word; Orbiter.

:hesaid:

 

[Coolhand]

Last time i got space fever was from some Arcturian poontang... Oh wait, you meant something else...

 

[C3PO]

Do you need some "thing" to get space fever? I always had tech fever, and the most hi-tech thing I can think of is space flight.

So if I had to pick a "thing" it would be..... ehrm... Space! :lol:

One word; Orbiter.

If I had to choose one, I'd have to agree with Scruce, but I'd still have space fever if there was no Orbiter.

 

[Izack]

I had a few books on the subject as a kid. I recall reading the "Astronomy Today" section about Jupiter aloud to my kindergarten class; it's one of the few things I still remember about childhood. When I was older, I got the book Space by A. Chaikin, which had enormous colour images of Gemini, Apollo and the ISS to captivate my attention (I recommend that book, as well as his other works.) The interest died for the next however many years (the family/friends always wanted me to shut up with all the space talk and find a "real" hobby :lol until I found both Orbiter and subsequently NASA's photo archives last January. Those things have since convinced me to undertake an education in physics and astronomy.

 

[RisingFury]

I studying Physics... and there are quite a few very interesting topics in Physics, not just astronomy... so a while ago, I had kind of a crisis when trying to figure out what classes to pick. But then I looked at a few astro photos and some calculations and I thought to myself: "Oh, THAT'S why I do astrophysics!"

 

[Turbinator]

For me it was this TV show:

 

[n72.75]

Last time i got space fever was from some Arcturian poontang... Oh wait, you meant something else...

Man does that itch...

 

[Chub777]

Books...then Orbiter.

 

[GoForPDI]

I saw an Apollo documentary in '09. Then read all about Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle, Soyuz, Buran.. EVERYTHING!

I spent a long time learning the history and having fun doing it, then it took me a while to fully appreciate the Shuttle.

And now I am a very proud space fan.

 

[Notebook]

Borni in 1952, I was lucky enough to a good age to appreciate all the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo programs. It was in all the newspapers, television(when we got one!), magazines. There were always satelites being launched and probes off to various planets.
Marvellous stuff, I thought it would never end.

N.

 

[luki1997a]

For me it was: Celestia and then Orbiter. And tv shows like a Through a Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, or Stephen Hawking Universe.:thumbup:

 

[SiberianTiger]

1. Ivan Yefremov's Andromeda novel,

2. 1985's Enemy Mine Wolfgang Petersen's film

3. Planetarium in Volgograd, for it was the first shrine of I stepped into...

 

[Saturn V]

Pop waking me up at 6 in the morning to watch the coverage of Gemini 3 (anybody else remember the networks going on air to cover 2 hours of prelaunch?).

Caught the bug right then & there. Followed everything since then.

Thanks Dad.

 

[Arthur Dent]

Whe I saw the movie [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starflight_One"]Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land[/ame] (with magical Space Shuttle turnaround times and a Saturn V satellite launcher) on TV as a kid in the late 80s or early 90s. That is at least the earliest thing I remember. I have always been a bit nuts about space.