Before the Moon Blog
Exploring the past, present, and future of space.
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Before Silicon Valley became synonymous with American innovation, there was a different kind of creative energy radiating from a quiet base in Warminster, Pennsylvania. Inside its hangars and labs, engineers, scientists, and technicians were redefining the limits of aviation, communication, and computing. One of them was Doug Crompton—a radio engineer, inventor, and ham radio enthusiast…
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When Joe D. Gamble joined NASA in 1963, the U.S. hadn’t yet reached the Moon—and the space center he was hired to work at didn’t even exist. “When I first entered NASA in 1963,” he said, “we didn’t have Johnson Space Center yet. We were working out of apartments on the Gulf Freeway in Houston.…
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When Blue Origin revealed the six person crew of its upcoming New Shepard NS 37 mission, one name immediately stood out for those of us who have been documenting the rise of commercial spaceflight: Jason Stansell. A computer scientist from West Texas, a lifelong space enthusiast, and now a private astronaut preparing to fly above…
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When Glenn Ecord joined NASA, he stepped into a program racing toward the Moon and fighting the limits of physics itself. “I came to NASA in 1966,” he said. “My first assignment was fixing pressure vessels that were failing. When one fails, it doesn’t just leak—it explodes.” Ecord spent 41 years in NASA’s Materials and…
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What If the Most Important Computer in Space History Needed Philly to Get to the Moon? When people think of Apollo, they picture Saturn V rockets, astronauts in white suits, and Houston’s legendary Mission Control. But behind every lunar landing was a computer so advanced—and so small for its time—that it practically invented modern digital…
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In June 1964, a young engineer named Gary Wayne Johnson packed his wife, their belongings, and their dreams into a VW Bug and drove to Houston. “That was about all we owned,” he laughed. “I’d just graduated from Oklahoma State. I changed my major from chemical to electrical engineering because I wanted to work in…
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In the quiet heart of Warminster, Pennsylvania, beneath the shadow of shopping centers and suburban streets, lies a history that once helped power the Space Race. Eleanor O’Rangers, President of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Cold War Historical Society, has dedicated her career to uncovering it. “Most people think of Bucks County as the birthplace of America,”…
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When John Herrington floated out of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in November 2002, he carried more than tools and tether lines. He carried a story—a legacy. As the first Native American in space, Herrington’s mission wasn’t just about walking in the void. It was about representing an entire community that had never seen itself reflected…
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Few figures in NASA’s history embody the courage, discipline, and leadership of America’s space age like Gene Kranz—the legendary Apollo Flight Director whose white vest became a symbol of cool resolve under pressure. From the Mercury missions to Apollo 13, Kranz didn’t just manage flights; he built the culture that made them possible. When I…
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Long before the roar of the Shuttle’s engines filled the Texas sky, a young boy in Mississippi was standing on a dirt road, staring up at a moving star. “It was one of the early NASA satellites,” Stokes McMillan recalled. “I watched it glide across the sky, silent and bright. From that moment on, I…