Covering All Things Florida
March 11, 2025
I met George last week in front of the SS United States, that grand old dame of the seas. It had just completed its last voyage, being towed out of its longtime berth at Pier 82 on 2201 South Christopher Columbus Boulevard, in the South Philadelphia. I found George at the end of Charleston Street in Mobile, Alabama.
The Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola hosted its annual Blue Angels Homecoming Air Show on November 1 and 2, 2024, drawing an estimated 150,000 to 180,000 spectators over the two-day event. This year’s show, themed “Celebrating One Small Step,” honored the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, a milestone in both aviation and space exploration history.
On September 24, 1958, the first Polaris AX propulsion test vehicle was launched from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 25. What happened next quickly became a part of local lore, with residents referring to the event for many years later as “The Banana River Ballistic Missile.”
Some stories are almost forgotten about Apollo 11’s launch from Pad LC-39A — seemingly small stories that actually had a huge effect on the mission happening as it did. One of those stories concerns a hydrogen leak late in the countdown on the third stage of the Saturn V that was poised to launch on July 16, 1969 – if it had not been remediated, Apollo 11 would not have launched on the day that it did.
When I was a kid, Wolfie’s in Cocoa Beach was one of my Dad’s favorites to take me out to eat. It was kid-friendly, unlike a place like The Mousetrap or other infamous and legendary Cocoa Beach haunts. They’re all long gone now, as is the nature of restaurants in a resort town. One that is especially missed by many is Wolfie’s, a place that not only had a great lunch but also a side note in space history that is funny today but was not at all amusing in the mid-1960s.
Most Americans are able to recall that the United States successfully landed astronauts on the Moon during 1969 and into the early 1970s. What’s not as well known is the number of attempts by various nations to explore the Moon, whether by fly-by or actual landing…..and how many were unsuccessful.
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex held its annual Day of Remembrance ceremony yesterday, commemorating the brave astronauts who lost their lives in pursuit of space exploration and discovery. The event, a solemn tribute to their sacrifices, specifically honored the memory of those involved in the Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia tragedies, as well as other astronauts lost in training accidents before ever reaching space.
Christmas shopping can often seem like a thankless task for someone looking for that perfect gift for a friend or a loved one. If you have a space lover on your list, that can be even harder — what to buy for someone whose head is above the clouds? Fortunately, the folks at Live Auctioneers have put something up for auction that meets all those criteria: a fully restored Rocketdyne S-3D engine. If you have deep pockets, this might be just what you are looking for!
