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Apollo 11 crew interview
An interview with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin takes viewers in a retrospective through the Apollo 11 mission. (30min 39sec file)
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Mission animation
1960's animation provides this overview of the Saturn 5 rocket and the Apollo 11 mission from launch through return to Earth. Narration is provided. (2min 43sec file)
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The rocket view
Film footage from onboard the Saturn 5 rocket captures with stunning beauty the separation of the first stage and a short adapter ring with the blue Earth as backdrop. (1min 36sec file)
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Launch of Apollo 11
On this 35th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 mission, re-live the thrilling launch as the astronauts depart Earth for their lunar voyage. (9min 01sec file)
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Crew's launch preps
The three astronauts don their spacesuits and head for the launch pad in the final hours before liftoff of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. (3min 53sec file)
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Thrust to the Moon
This NASA film from July 1965 entitled "Thrust to the Moon" looks at the work to develop the Saturn 5 launcher and the Apollo spacecraft. (4min 30sec file)
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Apollo Saturn
A detailed look at development of the Saturn 5 rocket is captured in this NASA film from October 1967 entitled "The Next Giant Leap: Apollo Saturn." (13min 53sec file)
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Aura lifts off
The Boeing Delta 2 rocket launches NASA's Aura atmospheric research satellite July 15 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. This movie following the flight from liftoff through ignition of the second stage and jettison of the payload fairing with ground cameras and infrared trackers. (5min 12sec file)
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Autonomous rendezvous craft goes to Vandenberg
NASA NEWS RELEASE
Posted: July 18, 2004

The Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) flight demonstrator, a spacecraft developed to prove technologies to locate and maneuver near an orbiting satellite, has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in preparation for a fall 2004 launch.


An artist's concept of DART satellite rendezvous mission. Credit: Orbital Sciences
 
Future applications of technologies developed by the DART project will benefit the nation in future space-vehicle systems development requiring in-space assembly, services or other autonomous rendezvous operations.

Designed and developed for NASA by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va., the DART spacecraft will be launched on a Pegasus launch vehicle.

At about 40,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, the Pegasus will be released from Orbital's Stargazer L-1011 aircraft, fire its rocket motors and boost DART into a polar orbit approximately 472 miles by 479 miles.

Once in orbit, DART will rendezvous with a target satellite, the Multiple Paths, Beyond-Line-of-Site Communications (MUBLCOM) satellite, also built by Orbital Sciences. DART will then perform several close proximity operations, such as moving toward and away from the satellite using navigation data provided by onboard sensors.

Launched in May 1999, the MUBLCOM satellite was used by the Department of Defense as an experimental communications satellite. The entire 24-hour mission will be accomplished without human intervention and is unscripted. The DART flight computer will determine its own path to accomplish its mission objectives.

"Successful completion of all major system tests gives us the confidence the DART spacecraft will complete its mission objectives and is ready to move to the field site to begin integration with the launch vehicle," said Jim Snoddy, DART project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. "This milestone moves us one step closer to demonstrating the key technologies that will enable future space transportations systems," he added.

The DART spacecraft will be mated to the Pegasus launch vehicle over the next several months at Vandenberg. Flight simulations and final reviews are scheduled to ensure launch readiness in the fall.

The DART spacecraft is nearly six feet long, with a diameter of three feet, and weighs about 800 pounds.

The DART project is funded by NASA's Office of Exploration Systems and managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center. Government oversight of launch vehicle preparations, spacecraft integration and countdown management on launch day is the responsibility of the NASA Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.