NASA probably has one of the biggest, most impressive collections of photo images on Earth. Its archive is full of the expected – shuttle launches, space walks and celestial objects — that never fail to inspire awe. But while browsing this photographic buffet, the Wired.com photo desk uncovered some other nuggets, too, strange and often amusing images that inspire smiles, if not awe. From jet-shoes to astronaut food, we’ve chosen some of the best or you.Left: The sombrero-topped hombres picture here are the Apollo 11 astronauts being swarmed by thousands at a 1969 parade in Mexico City during the world tour that followed their trip to the moon. The tour was meant to show the United States’ willingness to share its space knowledge, and its space heroes. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins visited 27 cities in 24 countries in 45 days.
NASA has long been at the forefront of technology, even as far back as 1947, before it was NASA. Here’s how things looked at the Langley Research Center in Virginia, where women performed mathematical computations for the male staff.
This impressive looking projectile leaving its hangar at Michoud Air Force Base in New Orleans in 1977 was the first external tank for the space shuttle. If nothing else, it proved NASA need not feel ashamed in the boys’ room of the global space community. It contained two tanks, one for liquid hydrogen and the other for liquid oxygen.
This is what passed for dinner in the Skylab space station, circa 1970. Unappetizing as the food may appear, it was a major improvement over the fare served up to astronauts on previous missions, thanks to the all-in-one heating and serving tray. Gone were the days of squeezing liquefied food from plastic tubes. Each member of the Skylab crew could choose his preferred purees and prepare them just so.
Ham was the first chimpanzee launched into outer space. He was captured in Cameroon and eventually bought by the U.S. Air Force. He was the cream of the crop of 40 potential astrochimps. On his 16-minute flight in a Mercury capsule, he proved that astronauts would be able to perform tasks in space by pressing levers nearly as quickly as he could on Earth. After his flight, Ham retired and lived for 17 more years at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and then later at the North Carolina Zoo. He died in 1983 at age 26, which is relatively young. Chimps average 45 years in the wild and can live more than 50 years in captivity. Ham is shown here in a fetching space suit in 1961 at Kennedy Space Center.
The guy in this photo is using jet shoes to propel himself around in a wheeled apparatus to mimic the zero-gravity conditions of a spacewalk. A description of the contraption was presented at an engineering conference in 1966: "Called OMPRA (One-Man Propulsion Research Apparatus), the device will provide a gimbals system for rotational freedom, a quick response vertical servo for this translational freedom … and a versatile maneuvering unit." The photo was taken in 1967 at Langley Research Center in Virginia.
No, it’s not Lawrence of Arabia’s troop of bodyguards. The seven original Mercury astronauts used parachute pieces to make hats and clothes during a 1960 training exercise in the Nevada desert. The idea was to prepare the men to survive in the event of an emergency landing in the wilderness. Pictured here, from left to right, at Stead Air Force Base: Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald Slayton.
The Apollo 11 astronauts peer out from an odd-looking mobile quarantine facility aboard the USS Hornet as President Richard Nixon gives them a verbal high-five for their successful moon landing. Pictured from left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.
The Launch Control Room at Cape Canaveral teems with identically clad NASA flight controllers and engineers in this 1965 image. The object of all the concerned faces seen here was SA-8, the first NASA mission to launch at night. The Pegasus II satellite, designed to detect micrometeoroids (tiny space bits that could potentially damage spacecraft), was successfully deployed.
This transformer-esque contraption was the NASA 952 Lunar Landing Training Vehicle, seen here in front of a wind tunnel at Langley Research Center in 1969. A sister vehicle crashed at Ellington Field in Texas and this thing never went operational. The surviving vehicle is now on exhibit at Johnson Space Center in Houston. See Also: - http://archive.wired.com/science/space/multimedia/2008/10/gallery_IBEX_launch#previouspost Gallery: NASA Spacecraft Will Explore Outer Solar System - http://archive.wired.com/science/space/multimedia/2008/07/gallery_nasa_50_vehicles#previouspost Gallery: NASA’s Most Amazing Extraterrestrial Vehicles - http://archive.wired.com/science/space/multimedia/2008/07/gallery_nasa_50_mistakes#previouspost Gallery: NASA’s Most Embarrassing Goofs - http://archive.wired.com/science/space/multimedia/2008/07/gallery_nasa_50_spacesuits#previouspost Gallery: The Space Suit Makes the NASA Astronaut - http://archive.wired.com/science/space/multimedia/2008/05/gallery_jpl_goldstone#previouspost Gallery: Inside NASA’s Mars Mission
