By Lisa Hix and David Porter II — On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission, there will naturally be much well-earned fanfare around the first men to walk on the surface of Earth's moon, American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, who took their "giant leaps for mankind" on July 20, 1969. But when it comes to epic historic moments like that one, it takes a village, from "hidden figures" like Katherine Johnson calculating the rocket's trajectory to the NASA scientists and technicians monitoring...

War and Prosthetics: How Veterans Fought for the Perfect Artificial Limb

By Hunter Oatman-Stanford — There's something undeniably beautiful about prosthetic limbs, designed to echo the physical grace and mechanical engineering of the human body. For most people, these objects elicit some combination of squeamish discomfort and utmost respect. But far fewer of us connect those feelings to the untold generations of battle-scarred amputees whose sacrifices made prosthetics a public priority. "Patients even have doctors sign non-disclosure forms to protect potential patents." “You hate to...

Moon Landing Must-Haves: Signed Apollo 11 Postal Covers

By Matthew Haley — An autograph of the first man who walked on the Moon is a must-have for space-history collectors. But an astronomical number of forgeries of Neil Armstrong's signature fly around in the market place, so buyers are understandably nervous. The so-called "insurance" postal covers from Apollo 11 are a safe way of acquiring the crew's autographs. As Buzz Aldrin has explained, "Since we were unable to obtain adequate life insurance due to the high risk nature of being an astronaut, we signed...