Space History

[chopper_nut]

Cheers for the heads up mate. I'll go and check those out

[chopper_nut]

A really interesting 'show and tell' on the 40th anniversary of Apollo 15. The banter between Al Worden and Dick Gordon is excellent.

[Ian Warren]

I'll have to check this video out later tonight , that would a good theme for painting , the LEM or least something along those lines.

[chopper_nut]

Check out Alan Bean's (LMP Apollo 12, Skylab 2) paintings. He has tried hard to capture the spirit of Apollo

[chopper_nut]

This really deserves its own topic but anyway. Yesterday 54 years ago was the flight of Freedom 7. Alan B Shepard lifted off in the one man Mercury spacecraft perched atop a Redstone rocket. The Redstone was reliable but lacking power and the more powerful Atlas booster still had a nasty habit of getting the Max Q and destroying itself. As a result, the first two flights of the Mercury program were 'sub orbital' ie, they didn't go into orbit. Shepard was subsequently grounded in 1964 by Menieres Disease, which causes nausea and vertigo. After surgery in 1969, he was given command of Apollo 14. These early astronauts were true aviation pioneers and should serve as an inspiration to us pilots and engineers today.

[Ian Warren]

Its a great photo off the launch , as for the Atlas the versions they when used as ICBM s.

[chopper_nut]

From the baby steps of Mercury to the sublime of Apollo 8. The full story of the famous 'Earth Rise' photograph.

[Ian Warren]

That is Brilliant ! , love the chatter , been so long since , but so much clearer .. SUPERB

[Splitpin]

Great post Nick.

[Ian Warren]

With all these Conspiracy theorist out there, one off the many things tried to be or debunked it was the marking off the print/photo but no one had proof and it was explained , the word, was pointing out the hair-cross markings was fake, I was scanning further photo's yesterday and yes they were on the lens of those specific lines on the cameras used and even with aerial shots over in the early 1970s over Devonport navy base .. there you go the cross-hair marking in the print .

[chopper_nut]

I can't remember if I have posted any of these before. Completely technical nerd fest. I think they've done all of the lunar landings in the same way.

Watch on youtube.com

[HamiltonWest]

Watch on youtube.com

[Ian Warren]

Quite striking with the commercial teco's , again a chat with Brian Duffy was already thinking this way in the early 1990's.

[chopper_nut]

RIP Ed Mitchell

In the midst of the anniversary of Apollo 14, another of the astronaut corps has departed for the big beach house in the sky. Ed Mitchell joined NASA in 1966 as part of the 5th group of astronauts and served as backup LMP for Gene Cernan on Apollo 10. He was then assigned as the LMP for Apollo 14 alongside CDR Al Shepard and CMP Stu Roosa.


Left to right: Stu Roosa, Al Shepard, Ed Mitchell

Apollo 14 launched into a low overcast on 31-1-71 and was inserted into a satisfactory parking orbit. Following TLI a few hours later, the flight ran into problems during transposition and docking when the latches on the probe wouldn't lock into the drogue on the Lunar Module. It took an hour and fourteen minutes of repeated attempts and head scratching before the latches engaged.

Upon arriving in lunar orbit, a normal undocking occurred much to everyone's relief. This was short lived however when an erroneous 'Abort' command was set in the computer by what was suspected to be a loose ball of solder behind a panel in the spacecraft. After more head scratching, the instrumentation lab at MIT, who had designed and programmed the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer), came up with a solution that involved tricking the computer into thinking it was already in the abort mode and therefor would ignore the abort switch. The fix worked and soon, the lunar module Antares commenced its PDI burn.

Another problem came up when the landing radar wouldn't lock on to the surface. The landing radar was a critical piece of equipment and according to mission rules, the landing would be aborted if a lock was not achieved by 18000ft. The work around for the abort switch had had the unintended effect of locking the radar up at infinity. A quick reset of the circuit breaker allowed the radar to lock and after a 'Go' from mission control, computer program P64 was initiated.

Antares touched the surface of the Fra Mauro highlands at 09:18:11 UTC on 5-2-71. Shepard and Mitchell conducted two EVAs lasting a total of nine hours and twenty two minutes, almost two hours longer than the previous EVAs on Apollo 12. Nearly 43kg of lunar samples were collected and the MET (Modular Equipment Transporter; a kind of cart) was used to transport experiments further than before.


Mitchell on the surface with the flag.


The most memorable moment in the flight came when, on live TV, Shepard screwed a six iron golf club head onto the lunar excavation tool handle and took a swing at a couple of golf balls that had been brought along. The bulky suit hampered his swing somewhat but on the second try he connected. "Miles and miles" he exclaimed.

After a successful liftoff, rendezvous and journey home, the command module splashed down 760nm South of PagoPago and the spacecraft and crew were picked up by the USS New Orleans.

After the flight, Shepard returned to the astronaut office for the remainder of the Apollo program and retired from the Navy and NASA in 1974. Alan Shepard died of leukemia in 1998. Stu Roosa, stayed with the program until 1976 when he entered private industry. Roosa died from complications arising from pancreatitis in late 1994. Mitchell retired from the NAVY and NASA in 1972. Afterwards he actually became active in the UFO community, expressing his beliefs that extra terrestrials have visited earth. He also remained in contact with his former colleagues, attending various gatherings and public speaking events.

Ed Mitchells passing means that Apollo 14 is the first Apollo flight to loose all three of its crew. It is a sad fact that with the passing years, fewer and fewer of these giants of aviation and engineering survive. It's important to take note and appreciate these people now for the day will come when there will be nobody alive who has walked on or even flown to the moon.


Capt Edgar Dean Mitchell (USN RET) B 17-09-30 D 04-02-16

[Splitpin]

Great post Nick ... and i really like the last line" It's important to take note and appreciate these people now for the day will come when there will be nobody alive who has walked on or even flown to the moon."

[Ian Warren]

The names off the people I grew with.

[chopper_nut]

Yep, I grew up with the early shuttle crews but I know what you mean. We're lucky to have at least met Aldrin.

[Ian Warren]

Yea indeed and a good chap wag and also an evening with Space Shuttle commander Brian Duffy.

[chopper_nut]

I didn't mention it at the time but I went to a talk by Buzz a few months ago about going to Mars.

[Ian Warren]

That would have been dang interesting, It would be still interesting if the idea off a moon station returning and its possible use, that was brought up years back and with the changing space ideas it maybe still a good spotting jump off point for the large future missions.