Astronauts flying to the moon during the Apollo program were required to learn celestial navigation, using a highly sophisticated optical sextant to measure the angles of specific stars.

A closer look

Astronauts flying to the moon during the Apollo program were required to learn celestial navigation, using a highly sophisticated optical sextant to measure the angles of specific stars. Even with millions of dollars in cutting-edge rocketry and the world's most advanced computer systems, NASA realized technology could break and forced these highly trained test pilots to navigate like seventeenth-century pirates. It is incredibly reassuring to know that the backup plan for an ultra-modern space mission was exactly the same method used by Captain Cook to find Australia. Just imagine hurtling through the terrifying void of infinite space, desperately hoping you remembered which blinking dot was Sirius so you do not accidentally miss Earth