1961-SPACE-TIMELINE

•OriginalNoise.Org
the players
the bridge

“Destination Moon”
Dinah Washington
Dinah ’62 
(((  >>> )))

dave.

The Original 7
Mercury Astronauts

The Right Stuff (1983)

First to Fly
Of the Original 7 American astronauts, Alan Shepard was chosen first to fly. On the morning of May 5, 1961, he sat in his Mercury capsule, Freedom 7, atop a Redstone rocket that launched (“blasted off”) from Cape Canaveral, and took Shepard on his first ride into outer space.
Fifteen minutes later, Commander Shepard parachuted and splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean, east of the Bahama Islands. A helicopter was waiting to pick him and his Freedom 7 capsule up, and take him “home” to the USS Lake Champlain aircraft carrier. Aboard the ship, a Navy brass band played to Shepard a heros welcome. The first AMERICAN ASTRONAUT, the first to fly into outer space, and the first to look back at THE EARTH BELOW.
playlists*
ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK
(DESTINATION MOON)

“Happy Blues For John Glenn”
Lightnin’ Hopkins
1962 — Importance of the Orbit
((( >>> )))

—yT.

We choose to got to the Moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

— President John F. Kennedy

THE EXPLORATION WOULD BE TELEVISED
ENJOY THE RIDE — From the sandy (spurs) front yard in our family’s first Cocoa home, a small concrete block house, My mother, sister, and brother watched Alan Shepard fly. On his way to becoming the first American Astronaut to reach OUTER SPACE. After seeing (and hearing) the yellow flame as it left The Cape (Canaveral) and streaked into the sky, we went inside to watch and listen to WALTER CRONKITE on our rabbit ear antenna TV. Walter was in B&W, and Shepard had no camera, in his Freedom 7 (Mercury) capsule, but listening in on lauch control in Houston, Texas, and using his imagination Walter’s description of Shepard’s 15-minute flight was VIVID. Also unseen at the time was the helicopter waiting for Shepard’s re-entry, parachuting, and splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Florida, near the Bahamas. 

Shepard and his scorched Freedom 7 capsule were pulled from the sea, and taken to the USS Lake Champlain (aircraft carrier) that had been waiting in its position for days. When Shepard stepped off the helicopter, and onto the deck, a Navy brass band played to welcome him, HOME AGAIN. BACK ON EARTH.

The Great Race
USA v USSR 
America was United in its understanding that the Soviet Union (Russia) was the enemy. THE ENEMY.
JFK’s Lunar Challenge
Houston, Texas (September 12, 1962)
“We choose to go to the Moon” (speech at Rice University)

Sputnik
1957 — Responding to The Soviet Union taking the early lead in the race for space, the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) invited test pilots from around the United States to join the next generation of military aviators. Spacemen, starriders, Astronauts … Whatever they called them, they were the soldiers who imagined how it would feel to reach beyond (escape) the Earth, and someday WALK ON THE MOON.

Alan Shepard was such a man. A U.S. Navy fighter pilot on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific, and one who always looked for the next challenge.

Although Shepard’s invitation was “lost in the mail,” and he never officially received his offer to join, his name had been on NASA’s original list, and he was chosen to be one of the Original 7 American Astronauts, and the one who wound up being the first to make it into Outer Space.

 

 

—yZ.

2806 Shepard Drive
Rockledge, Florida
636-0920

1946 — Bikini Island (Atoll)
Operation Crossroads
1947 — Sound Barrier
1948 — 
1949 —
1950 — 
1951 — 
1952 — 
1953 —
1954 — 
1955 —
1956 — 
1957 — 
1958 — 

The Right Stuff
1959 — NASA / NASCAR* / MINUTE MAID
1960 — Where The Boys Are
1961 — Alan Shepard (2806)
Mercury
The Original 7 (Mercury Astronauts)
May 5, 1961 — Alan Shepard
First To Fly (Outer Space)
Feb. 20, 1962 — John Glenn
First To Orbit (A Solar System)
1962 — Dr. No, Missiles in Cuba, John Glenn
1963 — Sam Cooke “A Change Is Gonna Come,” JFK Assassinated in Dallas, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
1964 — Louis Armstrong (Hello Dolly)
The Beatles (A Hard Day’s Night)
Norman Rockwell “The Problem We All Live With“
1965 — MOTOWN (Tamla-Motown Review)
Herb Alpert (Whipped Cream & Other Delights)
1966 — “Paint It Black” (Rolling Stones)
MUSIC ’66 — Good Vibrations, Strangers In The Night, These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ Eleanor Rigby, Summer In The City, Reach Out I’ll Be There, When A Man Loves A Woman.
1967 — “Summer of Love“ (San Francisco)
MUSIC ’67 — The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Small Faces, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Jefferson Airplane, Love, The Beach Boys, Cream, the Byrds, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Monkees. DEBUTS: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Doors, Moby Grape, Procol Harum, Traffic, the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd.
1968 — The White Album (Beatles)
MUSIC ’68 — Johnny Cash  At Folsom Prison, Bee Gees, Smothers Brothers, Fillmore East, April 5 – James Brown appears on national television in an attempt to calm feelings of anger in the United States following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Apollo 8
WAR & HOPE [EARTHRISE]
Electric Ladyland 
Voodoo Child (Jimi Hendrix)
1969 — Woodstock / Vietnam / Apollo 11
MUSIC ’69 — Rolling Stones concert  Altamont, California, Hells Angels, End of the “hippie” movement, Woodstock, “Black Woodstock” Harlem Cultural Festival, The Beatles’ rooftop concert The 1967 musical Hair, originally performed off-Broadway, had generated an album and multiple chart hits in successive years, such as “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” and “Good Morning Starshine” Isle of Wight Festival Bob Dylan returns after motorcycle accident (1966)

Taste of Honey / A Hard Day’s Night
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
the Beatles
1965 — Outside Influences
((( >>> )))

 

American Woman
The Guess Who
((( Pretty as a Picture )))

 

Itsy Bitsy Tiny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
Brian Hyland (1964)
Bikini History (Vogue Magazine) Named after the island (atoll), Bikini, in the South Pacific Ocean where the United States continued its, after-WWII (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), nuclear bomb testing.
((( % )))

Bikini Collage by Bruce Helander
“Pointing to The Stars” by dave.

WARNING:
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS OBJECT TO THIS VIDEO.
WATCH IT HERE*
A video of “moving” still images documenting Spencer Tunick’s taking the “Florida” photograph in his 50-picture “Naked States” exhibit, has apparently become a violation of the “new” media standards designed to “protect” the children of pedophilia-loving Christians.

November 19, 1997 — Writer T.M. Shine and I met Spencer, Krissy, and Melissa in Orlando, followed them on State Road 50, east to Titusville, take, make, or shoot the “Florida” picture for Spencer’s “Naked States Tour” exhibit … a series of 50 nude photographs, one for each state.

Spencer Tunick met Melissa at a Phish concert in Vermont. She had missed his sunrise call for concert goers to pose (nude) in a nearby field. If she had made it, Melissa would have been one of 300 who stripped naked and laid in the grassy field behind the stage. Later though, Melissa met Spencer and his wife Krissy on the plane they were all taking to New York. Melissa was going on to Florida, but before changing planes, she told Spencer she had what she thought would be a good idea for his project. One nude for each of the fifty United States, and Melissa wanted to be “Florida.” 

 

[FROM THE TOP]

Louis Armstrong
Herb Alpert
Where The Boys Are
The Right Stuff (1983)

Original 7
MERCURY ASTRONAUTS
Scott Carpenter 
Gordon Cooper 
JOHN GLENN 
Gus Grissom 
Wally Schirra 
ALAN SHEPARD*
Deke Slayton
Of the first seven aviators who did two years of special operations-like training to be an Astronaut, Alan Shepard was the one chosen to pilot America’s first flight into space. John Glenn was assigned to be the mission’s backup pilot.
Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had already made it to space, and he not only broke free of the Earth’s atmosphere, he made a complete orbit, before landing safely in a field outside the Russian city of Engels, in the country’s Saratov region.
The Communists had taken the lead in the Space Race, and put immense public pressure for America to get in the game. 
The Launch of Freedom 7 (Alan Shepard’s Launch) was the United States’ first response to Russia taking the lead. >>>

Where The Boys Are
Rock Around The Clock
Bill Haley & His Comets 
((( Rock N Roll Takes Off )))

American Graffiti (Movie)
Ed White first to walk in space. (Gemini 4)

May 5, 1961 — It had been two weeks since the Soviets sent their first Cosmonaut into space, and American was anxious about falling behind the Communists. Alan Shepard’s launch had been delayed because of bad weather, and the United States was in need of a victory.

Happy Days (are here again)
>>> With Alan Shepard aboard, Freedom 7 lifted off from The Cape (Canaveral), and took America’s first astronaut on a most exciting 15-minute ride. One hundred and sixteen miles up and back, making Alan Shepard the first American to fly into Outer Space. Because of the placement of the small porthole windows on his capsule, Shepard was unable to see the stars, and through the filter on his telescope, the Earth appeared black & white, and he was strapped in too tight to experience any weightlessness. Regardless, Alan Shepard had just taken an exhilarating ride, and become the first American to look back at THE EARTH BELOW.
Although The Soviets had reached outer space first, and Gagarin had orbited the Earth, Shepard’s shorter, suborbital flight had a more significant, worldwide impact. Unlike with Gagarin’s mostly secret mission, Shepard’s launch, flight, and splashdown were broadcast on live television, and seen by millions, all around the World.
While the Russians publicized Gagarin’s name was publicized, many of the details of his flight were kept confidential for years, including the fact that he had he abandoned his capsule, and parachuted to Earth, rather than landing his spacecraft.
Shepard was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, by president John F. Kennedy, on the East Lawn of the White House.

HOME IS WHERE THE ROCKETS FLY (FLORIDA ROADS)

I Wanted To Be A Spaceman
Harry Nilsson — Flash Gordon took the place of The Lone Ranger, and a young boy’s attention looked to the sky.
((( ••• )))

Norman Rockwell (“The Problem We All Live With“)

Mercury
The Original 7 Astronauts
May 5, 1961 — Alan Shepard
First American In Space
Feb. 20, 1962 — John Glenn
First To Orbit the Earth

1965 — Gemini 4 (Ed White, first man to “walk” in space)
1963 — Sam Cooke “A Change Is Gonna Come,” JFK Assassinated in Dallas, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
1964 — Louis Armstrong (Hello Dolly)
The Beatles (A Hard Day’s Night)
Norman Rockwell “The Problem We All Live With“
1965 — MOTOWN (Tamla-Motown Review)
Herb Alpert (Whipped Cream & Other Delights)
1966 — “Paint It Black” (Rolling Stones)
MUSIC ’66 — Good Vibrations, Strangers In The Night, These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ Eleanor Rigby, Summer In The City, Reach Out I’ll Be There, When A Man Loves A Woman.

Hit The Road Jack
Ray Charles
1961 — PRESIDENTIAL THEME
((( ••• )))

The Astronauts (1961)

The Beatles (“A Hard Day’s Night”)

1963 — Sam Cooke “A Change Is Gonna Come,” JFK Assassinated in Dallas, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
1964 — Louis Armstrong (Hello Dolly)
The Beatles (A Hard Day’s Night)
Norman Rockwell “The Problem We All Live With“
1965 — MOTOWN (Tamla-Motown Review)
Herb Alpert (Whipped Cream & Other Delights)
1966 — “Paint It Black” (Rolling Stones)
MUSIC ’66 — Good Vibrations, Strangers In The Night, These Boots Are Made For Walkin’ Eleanor Rigby, Summer In The City, Reach Out I’ll Be There, When A Man Loves A Woman.

1967 — Summer of Love (San Francisco)
MUSIC ’67 — 
1968 — War & Hope
MUSIC ’68 — Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Voodoo Child, Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison, Bee Gees  The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
1969 — Woodstock / Vietnam / Apollo 11
MUSIC ’69 — Rolling Stones concert  Altamont, California, Hells Angels, End of the “hippie” movement, Woodstock, “Black Woodstock” Harlem Cultural Festival, The Beatles’ rooftop concert The 1967 musical Hair, originally performed off-Broadway, had generated an album and multiple chart hits in successive years, such as “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” and “Good Morning Starshine“

 

Gemini
It Takes Two to Rendezvous
Gemini 4
June 3, 1965
Ed White (Space Walk)
Gemini 8
March 6, 1966
Neil Armstrong (Death Spiral)

 

What a Wonderful World
Louis Armstrong*
1967 — Jazz Ambassador [ARMAND]
((( Trumpet & Voice )))

Life Magazine

 

When these four young Englishmen go bathing–which is what Englishmen do instead of swimming- they have to keep their hair dry or they can’t do a thing with it. Hair happens to be important in their line of work–although this particular styling soems to work some hardship on the young men in question, whose names (from left) are Paul McCartney, George Harrison, John Lennon and Ringo Starr, all of Liver. pool. Whereas most foreign visitors to the U.S. simply fold into the scenery, these mopheads attracted so much attention that they got screeched at and pelted with jelly beans. Happy to be in a Miami Beach pool they had all to themselves, they burst into something that vaguely resembled song.

Apollo
Earthrise
Apollo 8

 

In the Beginning, God Created the Heavens and the Earth.

— Genesis
Christmas Eve (1968)

“Magic Carpet Ride”
Steppenwolf
1970 — Psychedelic Soul
((( Listen )))

 

“Ball of Confusion”
The Temptations
1970 — Psychedelic Soul
((( Listen )))

 

“Cloud Nine”
The Temptations
1970 — Psychedelic Soul
((( Listen )))

 

 

“Voodoo Child”  
Jimi Hendrix
Electric Ladyland
1968 — Voodoo, Assassination, War & Hope.
((( premonition )))

“Earthrise” by Bill Anders (Apollo 8)

BALL OF CONFUSION ((video))
THE RIGHT STUFF (1983)
The Right Stuff (trailer) 1983
The Right Stuff (trailer) 2020
Tom Wolf (Author)

Well, on the night I was born, I swear the Lord turned The Moon a Fire Red.”
— Jimi Hendrix (“Voodoo Child”)

 

I Wanted To Be A Space Man
Harry Nillson

 

Fly Me To The Moon
Frank Sinatra w/Count Basie 
((( Apollo Theme )))

Cocoa TODAY

1971 —  Alan Shepard piloted Apollo 14 to the Moon, making him the only one of the Orginal 7 NASA astronauts who also went to the Moon. In addition to piloting the mission, conducting a number of scientific taks on the surface of the moon, he also hit a few 9-irons, and delivered the first newspaper to the Moon … A special edition Cocoa TODAY, Florida’s Space Age Newspaper.

Frank Sinatra included the song on his 1964 album It Might as Well Be Swing, accompanied by Count Basie. The music for this album was arranged by Quincy Jones, who had worked with Count Basie a year earlier on the album This Time by Basie, which also included a version of “Fly Me to the Moon”.

“Fly Me to the Moon“, originally titled “In Other Words“, is a song written in 1954 by Bart Howard. The first recording of the song was made in 1954 by Kaye Ballard. Frank Sinatra’s 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions to the Moon.

“Destination Moon”
Dinah Washington Dinah ’62 
((( Luna Attraction )))

 

Stairway To The Stars
Ella Fitzgerald
1959 — Hello, Love 
((( > )))

 

Assassination & Doubt
JFK (1991)
OLIVER STONE
BILL HICKS

Magic Carpet Ride
1968 — Connecticut Summer
Steppenwolf The Second
((( spaceidelic ))) 

Steppenwolf

Easy Rider
1969 — “Born to Be Wild,” the “theme” of the film Easy Rider, became an anthem, representing the end of the sixties, and sign of further bad, political times. Use of the American flag in the film (on the back of a denim jacket, and on both a motorcycle gas tank and helmet), upset those who supported Richard Nixon, and his execution of the war in Vietnam.

1971— For Ladies Only
Citing its lyrics and the inside photograph of a car, shaped like a penis, on the street alongside the Hollywood Walk of Fame, some critics called Steppenwolf’s For Ladies Only sexist. For me, at 13, watching my older cousin Maryanne open the record, I saw only the picture of the dick.

Pink Floyd “Dark Side Of The Moon” (1973)
Apollo 8 “Earthrise” (1968)
Galileo “Starry Messenger“ (1609)
Sir Isaac Newton  “Opticks” (1704)
“Cave of Altamira” (36,000 BC)
Paleolithic (Stone-Age) Man
Discovered Santillana del Mar, Spain (1868)

Jimi Hendrix
Music, Art, and The Light In The Sky
Are You Experienced, 
Axis: Bold as Love, 
Electric Ladyland,  
Band of Gypsys,
Woodstock,
Live at The Fillmore East (New Years 69/70)
Bob Dylan
The Beatles
Rolling Stones

Apollo 11
Cocoa TODAY
Florida’s Space Age Newspaper

1969 — Neil Armstrong
Vietnam
Woodstock 
Jimi Hendrix (wiki) 
ELECTRIC LADYLAND 

Fly Like An Eagle
Steve Miller
King Biscuit Flower Hour
((( on the radio )))

 

One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind”

Where The Boys Are
State Road 50:
The Road Through Florida Space & Time …

((( looking up )))

dave.

All Summer Long
Beach Boys
All Summer Long

((( surfin’ safari )))

dave.

I Get Around
1964 — Beach Boys
((( summer & surf )))

 

Sebastian Inlet — The dividing line between Brevard and Indian River Counties, and known as one of the finest surf spots, not only in Florida, but on the entire east coast of the United States.

Patrick Air Force Base, Picnic Tables, 2nd Light, Touch and Gos, Pineda Causeway shortcut, U2 takeoff, F-16s across the Turnpike, Hawk chasing Eagle, Isuzu Trooper (Red) Targeted by a pair of A-10s. After NOT seeing Pink Floyd in a torrential rain at the Tangerine Bowl. On to Gainesville.

Apollo 11 

Space Cowboy
Steve Miller
1969 — Brave New World
((( on the radio )))

vg

1970 — The Blues Get Heavy and Rock Gets Hard

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin I
Black Sabbath Black Sabbath
Deep Purple  In Rock

Miles Davis
Bitches Brew — The Birth of Fusion
1971 — What’s Going On
Marvin Gaye

 

“American Pie”
Don McLean
1971 — I Pledge Allegiance To Rockledge High School
((( > )))

 

“I Can See Clearly Now”
1972 — 
Johnny Nash
((( > )))

 

“Money” 
Pink Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon
1973 — Looking Back to Apollo 8, whose crew were the first men to see the Dark Side of the Moon, and surprisingly more dramatic, to see a bright blue planet Earth rise above the colorless surface of the Moon, a living “Light In The Black.”
((( 70s MoOd )))

 

 

Pink Floyd

Sir Isaac Newton 
“Opticks” (1704)

“One Size Fits All” There was always much more to (GUITARIST) Frank Zappa than not eating the yellow snow. Everything is “Fusion,” or “Fusion” is nothing at all.

“Kodachrome“
Paul Simon
1974 — There Goes Rhymin’ Simon
“When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school …”

((( through a nikon )))

 

“Space Station #5”
1975 — Ronnie Montrose, Edgar Winter’s guitarist, enters the “Fusion.”

 

Just Say No
1980 — “Shelter From The Nuclear Storm” (D.C.)
1982 — “Summer In The City” (NYC)

1985 — “Contact”
Carl Sagan’s Cosmic Message in A Bottle

“All Summer Long”
Beach Boys
All Summer Long

((( surfin’ safari )))

 

dave.

Frank Zappa
“One Size Fits All” There was always much more to (GUITARIST) Frank Zappa than not eating the yellow snow. Everything is “Fusion,” or “Fusion” is nothing at all.

Sebastian Inlet — The dividing line between Brevard and Indian River Counties, and known as one of the finest surf spots, not only in Florida, but on the entire east coast of the United States.

Patrick Air Force Base, Picnic Tables, 2nd Light, Touch and Gos, Pineda Causeway shortcut, U2 takeoff, F-16s across the Turnpike, Hawk chasing Eagle, Isuzu Trooper (Red) Targeted by a pair of A-10s. After NOT seeing Pink Floyd in a torrential rain at the Tangerine Bowl. On to Gainesville.

“Destination Moon” 
Dinah Washington Dinah ’62 

((( Lucky 7 )))

 

“For Earth Below”
Robin Trower
1975 — Looking Back
((( Beyond the Moon )))

Bikini Collage by Bruce Helander
“Pointing to The Stars” by dave.

WARNING:
CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS OBJECT TO THIS VIDEO.
WATCH IT HERE*
A video of “moving” still images documenting Spencer Tunick’s taking the “Florida” photograph in his 50-picture “Naked States” exhibit, has apparently become a violation of the “new” media standards designed to “protect” the children of pedophilia-loving Christians.

November 19, 1997 — Writer T.M. Shine and I met Spencer, Krissy, and Melissa in Orlando, followed them on State Road 50, east to Titusville, take, make, or shoot the “Florida” picture for Spencer’s “Naked States Tour” exhibit … a series of 50 nude photographs, one for each state.

Spencer Tunick met Melissa at a Phish concert in Vermont. She had missed his sunrise call for concert goers to pose (nude) in a nearby field. If she had made it, Melissa would have been one of 300 who stripped naked and laid in the grassy field behind the stage. Later though, Melissa met Spencer and his wife Krissy on the plane they were all taking to New York. Melissa was going on to Florida, but before changing planes, she told Spencer she had what she thought would be a good idea for his project. One nude for each of the fifty United States, and Melissa wanted to be “Florida.” 

 

CoLors …
This is a Voyage into Sound
inst. of change [ELECTRIC GUITAR]
THE [PLAYERS]
THE [INSTRUMENTS] OF NOISE.
The Original Color of Sin [BLUE]

Apollo 11
July 20, 1969 
ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN
Apollo 11 (MoonShot)
WOODSTOCK
VIETNAM

1969  — MOON SHOT
MASH (1970)
Mash (Film) Trailer
All In The Family (1971-79)
Archie & Sammy Davis Jr. ((video))
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein
American Graffiti
Live And Let Die
Wings
Franz Klammer ’76 Olympics
WKRP
Deep Purple
Vanishing Point
FM
SOUL TRAIN 1971-1979 (Vol.2)
Frederick Douglas brought into the (’70s) now.
SOUL TRAIN 1971-1979 (Vol.1)
SOUL TRAIN (1971)
Wattstax (1972)
Wattstax (1972) Trailer
Richard Pryor
Dick Gregory
Redd Foxx
Eddie Murphy
Chris Rock
Fly Girls
In Living Color (1990)
Dave Chappelle

 

“American Pie”
Don McLean
1971 — I Pledge High School Allegiance
((( — )))

 

“From The Beginning”
Emerson Lake & Palmer
1972 —
((( time travel )))

 

1973 — American Graffiti

Down To Earth (Back to Earth)
Feet On The Ground
Sunrise
Earthrise

 

“Stairway To The Stars”
Ella Fitzgerald
Hello, Love 
((( Just Say Go! )))

 

1947 — The Muroc Army Air Field in California has test pilots fly high-speed aircraft such as the rocket-powered Bell X-1, but some are killed as a result. After another pilot, Slick Goodlin, demands $150,000 (equivalent to $1,683,000 in 2018) to attempt to break the sound barrier, war hero Captain Chuck Yeager receives the chance to fly the X-1. While on a horseback ride with his wife Glennis, Yeager collides with a tree branch and breaks his ribs, which inhibits him from leaning over and locking the door to the X-1. Worried that he might not fly the mission, Yeager confides in friend and fellow pilot Jack Ridley. Ridley cuts off part of a broomstick and tells Yeager to use it as a lever to help seal the hatch to the X-1, and Yeager becomes the first person to fly at supersonic speed, defeating the “demon in the sky.”

Six years later, Muroc, now Edwards Air Force Base, still attracts the best test pilots. Yeager (now a major) and friendly rival Scott Crossfield repeatedly break the other’s speed records. They frequent the Happy Bottom Riding Club run by Pancho Barnes, who classifies the pilots at Edwards either “prime” (such as Yeager and Crossfield, those who fly the newest and best equipment), or “pudknockers,” the rookie arrivals, which included all NASA’s first recruits. 

Gordon “Gordo” Cooper, Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Donald “Deke” Slayton, United States Air Force captains, were among the rookies who hoped they had the right (NASA) stuff.

“No bucks, No Buck Rogers.”

Officials understand, that rather than keep their test program secret, it would be better for fund raising if they promoted the most exciting new program, rather than hide it.

Cooper’s wife, Trudy, and other wives are afraid of becoming widows, but cannot change their husbands’ ambitions and desire for success and fame.

1957 — The Russian satellite Sputnik alarms the United States. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and military leaders demand that NASA help America defeat the Russians in what was called the Space Race.

The search for the first Americans in space excludes Yeager because he lacks a college degree.

“Fly Me To The Moon” 
Frank Sinatra
It Might as Well Be Swing
1964 — w/ Count Basie
((( — )))

 

1959
The Original Seven
• Mercury 7 Astronauts
• John Glenn
• Alan Shepard
• Wally Schirra
• Scott Carpenter
• Gordon “Gordo” Cooper
• Virgil “Gus” Grissom
• Donald “Deke” Slayton
• Mercury
• Gemini
• Apollo

“Hit The Road Jack”
Ray Charles
1961 — JFK’s Campaign Theme

((( camelot cometh )))

Timothy Leary LSD

1960
The Original Seven
Mercury 7 Astronauts
John Glenn
Alan Shepard
Wally Schirra
Scott Carpenter
Gordon “Gordo” Cooper
Virgil “Gus” Grissom
Donald “Deke” Slayton
Mercury
Gemini
Apollo

April 12, 1961 —  Yuri Gagarin, the Russian, having been the First Man In Space, inspires a humiliated United States of America. The Original Seven couldn’t have been more motivated to get in the Race to The Moon.

May 5, 1961 — Alan Shepard
FREEDOM 7
First “American” In Space
Rocket: Redstone 3
15-minute, sub-orbital flight

February 20, 1962 — John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth (Mercury/Atlas 6). After surviving a fiery re-entry with a dangerously loose heat shield on his capsule, Glenn splashed down a celebrity, honored with a ticker-tape parade down New York City’s 5th Avenue. Glenn, his fellow astronauts, and their families became the center of pop culture attention, including a Texas-size celebration in the Sam Houston Coliseum to announce the opening of the Manned Space Center in Houston.

“Taste Of Honey / Hard Day’s Night
Herb Alpert / The Beatles
1964 —Psychedelic Is Gonna Come

((( St. Pepper’s Next )))

dave.

Weeki Wachee
GOD, GUNS, GAS, AND FRESH WATER IN FLORIDA’S JUNGLE.
Hope Springs Eternal.

 

“Living In The Past“
 Jethro Tull
1969 — Apollo 11

One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind. Meeting John F. Kennedy’s Challenge.
((( time travel )))

 

“Hit The Road Jack“
Ray Charles
#1 Billboard Chart
October 9, 1961 —
((( song )))

 

Andy Warhol
Robert Rauschenberg