We’re not sure what we love most in these vintage public service announcements: the retro filming, the awkward dialogue, the sometimes bizarre celebrity combos (Gloria Steinem and Chuck Heston?), or the valuable information about NASA’s spin-off technologies.
Created in 1980s by the U.S. Space Foundation — a space industry advocacy group — the videos serve to inform the public about how U.S. investments in space pay off here on Earth. NASA’s current budget accounts for about half a percentage of the entire national budget but, as these videos show, that money pays back in dividends. Calculations estimate that for every dollar that taxpayers put into the Apollo program, they received four to seven dollars in beneficial technology, such as advanced medical imaging and weather-forecasting satellites.
Here, we present some of these technology spin-offs, brought to you by videos that look like they’d be wedged in a commercial break between daytime soap operas and episodes of court TV. Each features a celebrity duo from opposite sides of their field that come together over their love of space technology. You can also catch some of NASA’s more recent celebrity endorsers, including June Lockhart, William Shatner, Will.i.am, and Alex Trebek, in films that are sure to become vintage fodder for future generations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rZMY9Ze3LY
Above:
Steinem and Heston
Gloria Steinem and Charles Heston sure can’t agree on much! But they both like satellites that help monitor the Earth's environment.
Sinatra and Nelson
There might not be that much overlap between Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson fans, but everyone can enjoy the medical technology derived from space exploration.
O'Neill and Buckley
Not only are Tip O’Neill and William F. Buckley giants on opposites sides of the political spectrum, they both have hilariously clashing accents. Buckley sounds like his every word is ordering caviar and champagne while O’Neill pronounces it 'Lay-za.’” And they both love the health and recycling benefits of space technology.
Madden and Yeager
Search-and-rescue satellites are both endorsed by breaker-of-the-sound-barrier Chuck Yeager and football player, coach, announcer, and videogame maker John Madden.
Goldberg and Hayes
Whoopi Goldberg and Helen Hayes are both proud that NASA’s technologies can help people with disabilities.
Ford and Carter
Former presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter deliver some stilted lines about global instant communications that brought us views of the Pope and the royal wedding in real-time.
Burnett and Selleck
Manly man Tom Selleck joins with pioneering comedienne Carol Burnett to explain how satellites save lives and help the world.
Perlman and Charles
Itzhak Perlman and Ray Charles lend a quick second of their virtuoso performances and discuss how NASA technology has helped disabled people on Earth.
Shoemaker and Abdul-Jabbar
Willie Shoemaker is a tiny jockey. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a giant basketball player. And they can both deliver hammy puns about shoes and glasses technology moved forward by NASA.
Videos: Space Foundation for NASA
