Spacemens Luck

 

Where Tom Corbett, Captain Video, CMDR Corry and Other Spacemen Still Live

The state of America’s manned space travel program today is in disarray. With the US having no spaceship in it’s fleet capable of carrying personnel into space. And the only other means for American’s to get into space is via the Russian space fleet which has been temporarily (Hopefully) de-certified due to the failure of last weeks cargo flight to the ISS space station.

The reason we are in this position is because our national leadership has failed to keep their eye on the ball over the last ten or fifteen years and allowed our space program to decline to the point it is today.

What prompted me to right this article is I came across a classic failed pilot for a CBS TV series from 1959 named “Destination Space”. The movie over all is standard science fiction for day. But what I found interesting was the speech before a congressional sub-committee criticizing the congress and other leaders on their leadership in the space program. It is to my knowledge the first time that space travel was shown in a plausible political context that is relevant to this day. A leader of the congressional sub-committee suggests that space travel was not just a technological triumph and a great adventure but also costly and that financial justification is an important consideration as well.

I regret that there was only this one pilot episode and not at least one season of the show made. The film used a lot of stock footage from the earlier 1955 space travel movie “Conquest of Space”. Specifically the views of the “The Wheel” (space station) and the spaceship which is bound for the moon. In the source movie of the stock footage “Conquest of Space” A team of American astronauts leave their space station on the first mission to Mars.

Read the rest of this entry »

Space Travel Links are web resources related to classic space travel. If you would like to have your “Classic Space Travel” link added here use the Contact Link to suggest your resource. If your resource is related to “Classic Space Travel” I will add it during the next site update.

Spacemen’s Luck!
Ray Plumlee

If you haven’t heard already NASA’s mission is no longer manned space travel. With the decision to cancel the Constellation program there is no longer a plan for manned space flight for the United States.

NASA’s Project Constellation, was a plan to send human explorers back to the Moon by 2020, and then onward to Mars and other destinations in the Solar System.

Canceling NASA’s Moon-bound Constellation program is expected to cost the U.S. space agency $2.5 billion in contract termination liability and other closeout costs over the next two years. Add to that the $9 billion already spent developing the Orion crew vehicle and Ares rockets the total cost for a program that will never be completed is over $11.5 billion. All for nothing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to this new category for Classic Space Travel here at Spacemen’s Luck. Space Travel Movies of the 1950′s and 1960′s is important for those of you, like myself, who got your vision of space travel from the radio and TV of the 1950′s.

In the series “Space Travel Movies” I will have show descriptions, cast members, production credits and plot lines for movies made during the 1950′s and 1960′s. Additionally, I will be adding my own reviews for these classics. Of course I am biased toward any and all science fiction space travel movies, serials, TV shows, radio episodes and books created during those golden days of space travel.

Read the rest of this entry »

Captain Strong, Tom Corbett & Roger Manning are sent to the Venus Space Station for training while Astro is elsewhere on special assignment. Before leaving for Venus the cadets witness Captain Strong ground Space Freighter Captain James Loring for too many accidents and disobeying Space Regulations. Captain Loring plans revenge against the Venus Port Freight Company who took over his freight contracts. He and cohort Ross disable the space freighter Elizabeth Chester causing it to crash into the Venus Space Station killing all hands aboard.

Meanwhile aboard the space station Roger Manning has altered the communication system so he can call his girl friend, Hellen Ash (his Space Pet), on Earth. Captain Strong catches Roger and he is placed on report. Not long after Roger’s reprimand the sabotaged freighter Elizabeth Chester crashes into the station and Roger is initially held responsible. Roger swears to Captain Strong that he had the radar back in good working order when the collision took place. Captain Strong takes Rogers word as a cadet which leads to an investigation of the wreck which indicates onboard sabotage. Captain Loring and his pilot Ross are questioned and Ross, who years ago had attended the Space Academy (and was washed out), confesses and flees out an air lock in panic and is lost in space. Roger is cleared and placed on probation.

Read the rest of this entry »