A PREMIUM ON SPACE

Next stop—the junk pile of impractical designs.

Above: a colorized photo from 1960 of a two-piece lunar exploration suit worn by a scientist from the Republic Aviation Corporation’s Life Sciences Laboratory, based in Farmingdale, New York. The suit includes a tripod and built-in seat in case the one-sixth gravity on the moon is too exhausting. No, actually, we’re guessing it was so the occupant could be stable while performing whatever duties a moon mission might require. In this case he has a couple of cheap wrenches for hands, so he’s probably about to assemble a piece of Ikea furniture. Trivia question: Which is older, Ikea or NASA? Simply by asking, you already know the answer. Anyway, moon suit designs advanced rapidly during the 1960s until reaching the point that they could actually keep astronauts’ blood and saliva from boiling in the vacuum of space, then of course they were never used because the moon landings were faked. And these older suits? They became garbage cans outside the Life Sciences Laboratory cafeteria.

New York, Farmingdale, Republic Aviation Corporation

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

February 11

1938—BBC Airs First Sci-Fi Program

BBC Television produces the first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of Czech writer Karel Capek’s dark play R.U.R., aka, Rossum’s Universal Robots. The robots in the play are not robots in the modern sense of machines, but rather are biological entities that can be mistaken for humans. Nevertheless, R.U.R. featured the first known usage of the term “robot”.

February 10

1962—Powers Is Traded for Abel

Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers, who had been shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960 while flying a U-2 high-altitude jet, is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who had been arrested in New York City in 1957.

February 9

1960—Woodward Gets First Star on Walk of Fame

Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains more than 2,800 stars.

February 9

1971—Paige Enters Baseball Hall of Fame

Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.

February 8

1969—Allende Meteorite Falls in Mexico

The Allende Meteorite, the largest object of its type ever found, falls in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The original stone, traveling at more than ten miles per second and leaving a brilliant streak across the sky, is believed to have been approximately the size of an automobile. But by the time it hit the Earth it had broken into hundreds of fragments.