this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

There was a sextant on the early orbital and the lunar missions.

Buzz aldrin wrote a paper on navigating in space using a sextant and paper. If I remember right, the analog tools were brought along in case the computers failed, as the return capsules needed a specific reentry angle and velocity, or they’d either burn up in the atmosphere or bounce off into space.