The folks at the Florida Space Coast pointed out that 50 years ago this Saturday, on February 6, 1971, Alan Shepard, commander of NASA’s Apollo 14 mission played golf on the moon.
The club he used was a six-iron head attached to a collapsible aluminum tool designed to scoop up lunar dust samples. Shepard snuck the club and two golf balls on board.
Shepard said it was Bob Hope who gave him the idea to try his golf-on-the-moon stunt. Hope visited NASA headquarters in Houston in 1970 to prepare for a TV special with the Apollo astronauts. The golf-loving entertainer had his ever-present golf club with him. And he used it to lean on while testing out the training device that simulated the one-sixth gravity the astronauts would encounter on the moon.
Courtesy USGA Golf Museum
The golf balls were left are on the moon. But the original “Moon Club” is on display at the USGA Golf Museum in Liberty Corner, New Jersey.
A replica of the club is in the Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum collection.
But we say it is a ‘this makes perfect sense’ amenity that is one part convenience and two parts sign of the social distance times.
Grab, the e-commerce platform for pre-ordering meals for pick-up from airport food outlets is partnering with AtYourGate, the in-airport food delivery service.
Passengers can order food through the Grab app, a special section of the PHL website, or scan Grab QR codes in the terminals. Merchants are searchable by food type and terminal. And orders can be delivered to wherever you are in the terminal.
Convenient, right?
Participating restaurants at PHL include Auntie Anne’s, Bar Symon, Bud & Marilyn’s, California Pizza Kitchen, Chickie’s & Pete’s, Dunkin’, Gachi, Geno’s Steaks, Jack Duggan’s, Jamba, Piattino Pizza, Smashburger, and Vino Volo.
More merchants will be added soon.
There is a small charge for delivery. But first-time users can use the promo code ‘RUSH’ to save 20% – up to $5 – off their first order.
Roving robots at PIT cuter than ever
In May 2020, Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) introduced its team of autonomous cleaning robots with ultraviolet (UV) light technology.
Since then, other U.S. airports have rolled out cleaning robots. But PIT was the first.
Now PIT is making the hard-working robots even more endearing by giving them eyes.
The robots also have names:
Amelia is named for Amelia Earhart, the famed pilot and female aviation trailblazer.
Orville and Wilbur are named after the Wright brothers.
And the fourth PIT robot is named Rosa. She’s named after Rosa Mae Willis Alford, the sole female mechanic to work on the planes of the famed Tuskegee Airmen.
Travel to a scary galaxy
In the spirit of the Halloween season and the scary, bizarro times, we’re printing out frameable copies of these science-inspired Galaxy of Horrors “travel” posters from NASA’s Exoplanet Travel Bureau.
The posters look like vintage horror movie advertisements, but they are really out of this world.
Gamma -Ray-Ghouls features a “dead” galaxy. Galactic Graveyard is inspired by an explosive gamma-ray burst caused by colliding stellar corpses. And the third, Dark Matter, is a voyage to the unknown via ever-elusive dark matter.
The posters are free to download and are produced by NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program Office, which is located at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Our “5 Things We Love About…” series celebrating features and amenities at airports around the country and the world continues today with 5 Things We Love About Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport (HOU).
Keep in mind that some amenities may be temporarily unavailable due to health concerns. We are confident they’ll be back.
If we missed one of your favorite things about Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport, please leave a note in the comments section below.
HOU: 5 Things We Love About Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport
1. The Art At HOU
Houston’s Airport System has one of the largest collections of public art in the state of Texas and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) gets to show off quite a bit of that art.
2. The music at HOU
HOU’s Harmony in the Air program presents live music performances in the Central Concourse Rotunda.
Concerts are scheduled Monday through Saturday and include everything from classical, jazz and pop to international music.
3. Amenities for families at HOU
HOU has a 450-square-foot space-themed play area near Gate A4 with a rocket slide, comet climbing structure, and an interactive light board.
The airport also has two nursing rooms. Each room has AC and USB power outlets, a changing table and nursing glider chairs. Locations: near Gates 4 and 46.
4. NASA exhibit at HOU
Houston is “Space City,” so travelers passing through HOU airport are treated to space-themed exhibits.
5. Souvenirs at HOU
The souvenir shopping at HOU ranges from space-themed items to more traditional Texas-wear.
Did we miss one of your favorite amenities at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport (HOU)? Add your note in the comments section below.
If you have been heeding the shelter-at-home advisories during this health crisis you may be organizing your photos and looking through scrapbooks from past trips.
Here’s something else to add your list: planning your next trip using the collections of vintage travel posters we came across while researching this fun story for AAA Washington as inspiration.
Here are some of the vintage travel poster images we enjoyed.
More than 1200 travel posters promoting global air travel are in the collection of the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport. Most are accessible online.
Tomorrow marks 50 years since humans first walked on the Moon. Everyone seems to be talking about astronauts, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar mission, where we’ve been in space and where we may go next.
Stuck at the Airport is in Houston – Space City – this week to be part of the festivities. We’re meeting with former astronauts, visting the labs that train and prepare food for astronauts and getting a first look at the restored Mission Control Center at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
If all this space talk has got you thinking about becoming an astronaut, consider taking this Astronaut Apitude quiz filled with questions based on the official NASA Astronaut Candidate requirements and real-life psychological tests. Let us know how you score.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon 49 years ago this weekend – on July 20, 1969 – so let’s take a walk back through history with some of the photos and artifacts from that event, courtesy of NASA and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air & Space Museum.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the Moon – courtesy NASA
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin with the United States flag during an Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. Courtesy NASA
President Richard M. Nixon was on hand in the central Pacific recovery area to welcome the Apollo 11 astronauts (left to right) – Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin – aboard the U.S.S. Hornet. The astronauts were confined in a Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) for 21 days after splashdown on July 24, 1969. Courtesy NASA.
Souvenirs from space: This Apollo Lunar Sample Return Container (ALSRC) was used to preserve a lunar-like vacuum around samples taken from the Moon and brought back to earth. Courtesy NASA and Smithsonian Institution National Air & Space Museum.
Interested in seeming more snaps from the Moon landing? NASA and the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum have images from the collection here.
President Richard Nixon telling jokes to astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin while they were in the Mobile Quarantine Facility on the the USS Hornet after their return from the moon.
July 20 is the 47th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing and, to mark the event, the Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) is unveiling a replica of Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit at Cincinati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) as part of the museum’s Curate My Community project.
“Today is a special day for the aviation industry,” said Candace McGraw, chief executive officer at CVG. “Neil Armstrong, like many of us, was fascinated with flight. We’re honored to partner with the Museum Center to display Neil’s spacesuit exhibit for CVG travelers and the community to continue to enjoy.”
On the evening of July 20, 1969, people gathered around their televisions to watch the grainy, black-and-white footage of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon in his puffy white spacesuit.
Expedition 35 Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy (pictured) and Tom Marshburn (out of frame) completed a spacewalk on May 11, 2013, to inspect and replace a pump controller box on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
The exhibit runs from January 8 through June 8, 2015 and includes artifacts, personal accounts and photographs, including the impressive images shared here.
The first spacewalks were taken by Aleksei Leonov (on March 18, 1965) and Edward White (June 3, 1965) in the spring of 1965 and, since then, more than 200 astronauts and cosmonauts have logged more than 1,000 hours walking and working outside spacecraft.
According to a NASA story on spacewalking, when ordered to climb back inside the Gemini spacecraft in 1965, Ed White, America’s first spacewalker said it was “the saddest moment of my life.”
White had spent more than half an hour floating freely in space.
NASA reports that some astronauts liken walking in space to being underwater. And astronaut John Herrington, veteran of three spacewalks totaling almost 20 on the STS-113 mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, pointed out that the simulated trained he received didn’t prepare him for the smell of space. Astronauts say the burnt metal smell of space lingers on spacesuits after they come inside.
The gloves were constructed of an outer shell of Chromel-R fabric with thermal insulation to provide protection while handling extremely hot or cold objects. The blue fingertips were made of silicone rubber to provide sensitivity. Credit: National Air and Space Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution
According to the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, “EVA changed the nature of human spaceflight. It made possible walking on the Moon, servicing the Hubble Space Telescope, and building the International Space Station [and] remains crucial to our ongoing presence in space.”
Souvenirs from space: This Apollo Lunar Sample Return Container (ALSRC) was used to preserve a lunar-like vacuum around samples taken from the Moon and brought back to earth. Courtesy NASA and Smithsonian Institution National Air & Space Museum.
