4 October 1957. Just another day in school…

Then it happened. The teacher announced the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik, the first man made satellite to orbit the Earth. While the news was devastating, it did spark in this young boy an interest in space.

I followed developments closely. It took nearly 4 months for the United States to finally get in the game with Explorer 1. Another blow in April 1961 when Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth. Alan Shepard got into space less than a month later, but his flight was only sub-orbital. John Glenn finally made 3 orbits in February 1962, but by that time another Soviet, Gherman Titov, had already spent a day in space.

I followed each step, each program – Vostok, Mercury, Voskhod, Gemini, Soyuz, Apollo. YES! Apollo! The first signs of emerging American dominance in space!

Neil Armstrong first set foot on the Moon a little before 9 PM (UTC-6) on 20 July 1969. I know. I was watching from a bar stool at Al’s Bar in Bellevue, Nebraska. It is one of the moments in life that is etched into my memory. It is as vivid as 22 November 1963 or 11 September 2001 (although much more pleasant).

I continued watching developments until July 1975 when ASTP (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project). While the Soviets continued on with frequent flights to their Salyut space stations, The United States stalled. It was nearly 6 years before the shuttle finally flew in April 1981. I made note of the first shuttle flights, but life and work kept be busy until 28 January 1986 – 51-L – Challenger. That got my attention again. But another 2 and a half years of quiet caused work and life to again take control.

Somewhere around 1996, I started thing about spaceflight again, at least American spaceflight. So I build a spreadsheet of flights and crew members. AT&T introduced Worldnet in 1996, and my 1997 I built my first personal page. America in Space was born. Over the next couple of years, another personal page was born, Russia in Space, and eventually a China in Space (what there was of it in the late 90’s).

In 2001, The personal web pages were merged and moved to an actual server with a new domain name – worldspaceflight.com!

WayBackMachine supposedly has a screenshot from June of 2001, but I doubt the accuracy because it shows data from 2003! But still interesting to see something from over 20 years ago.

Obviously, I try to keep thing current, so the interest is still there. But there is a coming event which may just add fuel to my interest. That being Artemis II! Stay tuned!