#Lunar Module 54

[thepastisalreadywritten]

One small step. 🌑

On 20 July 1969 (54 years ago), Apollo 11 crewmembers became the first human beings to set foot on the lunar surface.

Today, we’re building on the legacy of Apollo as we prepare to establish a long-term human infrastructure on the Moon with Artemis.

— NASA

[amisonist]

So considering that it’s the 54 anniversary of the moon landing I thought I’d share one of my favorite bits of trivia about the mission (along with a bit of a shitpost). So the first every liquid to be poured on the moon was actually whine as Buzz Aldrin took communion in the lunar module (the bread and whine were blessed a few days beforehand by a priest). Buzz wanted to broadcast the ceremony back to earth but decided not to at the request of Deke Slayton because of the controversy surrounding the reading of the book of genesis on Apollo 8.

Here’s where the shitposting comes in: According to Catholics (and other religions sects that believe in transubstantiation) believe that during communion the bread and whine literally becomes the body and blood of Christ. Which is why imho (despite not being religious in any way) it is perfectly accurate to say that Jesus Christ has landed on the moon

[o-the-mts]

[moonwatchuniverse]

Happy 88th birthday to Charles "Charlie" Duke During preparation for lunar EVA (moonwalk), astronauts instinctively manually winded their Omega Speedmaster chronographs, after which it would run for about 48 hours. Despite its extensive use, the Speedmaster performed flawlessly and only two incidents were reported; David Scott (Apollo 15 lunar EVA 2) and Charlie Duke (Apollo 16 lunar EVA 3 ). After the mission, both astronauts reported that the hesalite glass had popped off from the watch, after which its stopped running. No official Apollo 15 report but the anomaly about Duke's watch was summarized in the Apollo 16 mission report; At depressurization, just prior to the third lunar extravehicular activity, the Lunar Module Pilot noted that his chronograph crystal was gone. The chronograph hands and face were not hit. However, about 12 minutes later the movement stopped. Most likely, warpage caused by thermal cycling allowed the differential pressure across the acrylic crystal to pop it out of the case. The exposure to and penetration of lunar dust contamination about the Lunar Module Pilot's sleeves probably caused the failure of the chronograph movement. These chronographs are tested at the Manned Spacecraft Center when received, again before shipment to the Kennedy Space Center and again just prior to flight. The Apollo chronograph is a secondary timing device and is not critical to mission success or crew safety. There are no plans for corrective action. These NASA photo show Apollo 16 LMP Charlie Duke near the Lunar Rover with his Omega Speedmaster, NASA n° 54, clearly missing its hesalite plexiglass. (Photo: NASA)

[justactgaussian]

Happy Moon Day!

To celebrate the 55th anniversary of the moonlanding, I highly recommend checking out Apollo 11 in Real Time

From the instructions page:

This website replays the Apollo 11 mission as it happened. It consists entirely of historical material, all timed to Ground Elapsed Time--the master mission clock. Footage of Mission Control, film shot by the astronauts, and television broadcasts transmitted from space and the surface of the Moon, have been painstakingly placed to the very moments they were shot during the mission, as has every photograph taken, and every word spoken.

(There is also a transcript of everything said).

You can start at T-1M to launch or at the current date and time in 1969. If you want to skip straight to the First Step, it's at 109:24:26.

I'll put some of my favourite moments under the cut:

109:41:29 Aldrin: Okay. Now I want to back up and partially close the hatch. 109:41:47 Aldrin: Making sure not to lock it on my way out. 109:41:51 Armstrong: (Laughter) Particularly good thought.

110:13:43 Aldrin: Alright. You do have to be rather careful to keep track of where your center of mass is. Sometimes, it takes about two or three paces to make sure you've got your feet underneath you. 110:14:07 Aldrin: In about two to three or maybe four easy paces can bring you to a nearly smooth stop. ... change directions, like a football player, you just have to to ... foot out to the side and cut a little bit. 110:14:41 Aldrin: So called kangeroo hop does work, but it seems that your forward mobility is not quite as good as - it is in the conventional - more conventional one foot after another.

114:00:04 Mission Control: Roger. Just want to let you guys know that since you're an hour and a half over your timeline and we're all taking a day off tomorrow, we're going to leave you. See you later. 114:00:14 Armstrong: I don't blame you a bit.

157:53:39 Mission Control: Hello, Apollo 11. Houston. Buzz, you brought the surgeon right out of his chair. We see you exercising. Over. 157:53:50 Collins: Say again. 157:53:52 Mission Control: We see you exercising. Is that correct, Buzz? 157:53:57 Collins: Yes, I'm sorry. Buzz is. 157:53:59 Mission Control: Roger. We've got his heartbeat way up. 157:54:05 Armstrong: Right. He's sort of out of shape. 157:54:07 Mission Control: Yes. That's what we thought.

157:56:42 Collins: Say the old White Team's really got a busy one tonight, huh? 157:56:45 Mission Control: Oh, boy. We're really booming along here with all this activity. Can barely believe it. 157:56:52 Collins: What are you doing? Sitting around with your feet up on the console drinking coffee? 157:56:56 Mission Control: (Laughter) You must have your X-ray eyes up. You sure can see a long way.

173:52:48 Collins: Houston, Apollo 11. We've been doing a little Flight Planning for Apollo 12 up here. 173:52:55 Mission Control: Roger. Go ahead. 173:52:58 Collins We're trying to calculate how much spagetti and meatballs we can get onboard for Al Bean. 173:53:07 Mission Control: I'm not sure the spacecraft will take that much extra weight. Have you made any estimates? 173:53:14 Collins: It'll be close. 173:53:55 Public Affairs: That last comment came from Mike Collins referring Al Bean who is the Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 12. 173:55:54 Mission Control: 11, Houston. The medics at the next console report that the shrew is one animal which can eat six times its own body weight every 24 hours. This may be a satisfactory base line for your spaghetti calculations on Al Bean. Over.

[anumberofhobbies]

Apollo 16 lifted off at 12:54 p.m. EST April 16, 1972, from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ...

Lunar module, or LM, carrying John Young and Charles Duke touched down at Descartes about 276 meters northwest of planned point (8 degrees 59′ 29″S, 15 degrees 30′ 52″E) at about 9:24 p.m. EST April 20, about five hours, 43 minutes late. During 71 hours, two minutes surface stay, astronauts explored region on three EVAs totaling 20 hours, 14 minutes. First EVA included Lunar Roving Vehicle setup and ALSEP deployment. Heat flow experiment was lost when Young tripped on electronics cable, breaking it. Rover traverse took astronauts west to Flag Crater where they collected samples and photographed the area. Return drive was south of outbound track to Spook Crater where astronauts took first measurement with the lunar portable magnetometer, gathered samples, and took both panoramic and 500 mm telephotography. Just before returning to the lunar module, they deployed the solar wind composition experiment at the ALSEP site. EVA duration was about seven hours, 11 minutes with 2.5 miles driven in the rover. Second EVA began with drive south to Stone Mountain, where surface and core samples were collected at two stations in the area of Cinco Craters, along with a trench sample, penetrometer measurements and photography. Traverse continued west, then north with stops at five additional stations for similar work. One station was deleted from the EVA plan because of time factors. Lunar portable magnetometer, or LPM, measurements were taken near Cinco. Crew returned to lunar module and ended second EVA after seven hours, 23 minutes and 6.9 miles on the rover. Real-time flight planners deleted four stops from the third and final EVA because of time constraint in meeting ascent schedule. Astronauts drove north to North Ray Crater where “House Rock,” inside the crater rim, was sampled. Returning south, the crew stopped at “Shadow Rock” for additional sampling, photography and LPM measurement. Final stop near the LM added samples and core tubes to the collection. Last LPM readings were taken at the rover parking site along with final rock samples. Closeout, including retrieval of solar wind composition, or SWC, and film from far ultraviolet camera/spectroscope, completed EVA after five hours, 40 minutes. Rover distance was 7.1 miles. Thomas Mattingly orbited the moon with cameras and SIM bay instruments operating during the surface stay of Young and Duke. The results verified Apollo 15 data and provided information on lunar terrain not previously covered. Lunar liftoff came on time at 8:26 p.m. EST April 23, in view of the rover television camera. After normal rendezvous and docking, and transfer of crew samples and equipment, the lunar module was jettisoned. Attitude control was lost, eliminating the usual deorbit maneuver and planned impact. Because of problems noted earlier, planners elected to return the mission one day early. During transearth coast, Mattingly took an 83-minute spacewalk to retrieve film cassettes from the SIM bay. Normal entry and landing resulted in splashdown at 0 degrees 42′ 0″ S, 156 degrees 12′ 49″ W, just before 3 p.m. EST April 27. Total mission time was 265 hours, 51 minutes, five seconds. Young and Duke collected 209 pounds of samples and drove the rover 16.6 miles.

[ahuttonarts245-03]

Pan Am R&D

Pan Am was founded by Juan Trippe on March 14, 1927 and played an important role in shaping the global airline industry into what we have today. Pan Am was originally founded as a small air mail and passenger service that operated between Key West, Florida and Havana Cuba, but quickly expanded its routes to the other parts of the Caribbean and South America. In 1939 Pan Am became the first airline to routinely fly passengers across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from New York to Marseilles, France. In 1958, Pan Am was one of the first airlines to introduce jet travel with the Boeing 707, which made international travel faster and even more comfortable. This move sparked the Jet Age in commercial aviation. Pan Am would continue to be a juggernaut in worldwide travel, and would even dabble in the Space Age by partnering with NASA, playing a role in the early stages of the Apollo moon missions, including the development of the Lunar Module. In the early 1990s Pan Am experienced a mix of financial, operational, and competitive issues leading to its bankruptcy and liquidation in the early 1990s.

On October 30th, 1977 Pan Am flight 50 was a historic flight held to celebrate the airline’s 50th anniversary. This flight was the first commercial airline flight to fly over both the North and South Poles. The flight started in San Francisco, flew over the North Pole, stopped in London, flew over South Africa, flew over the South Pole, stopped in New Zealand, and then returned to San Francisco. The flight took a total of 54 hours and 7 minutes to complete. During the flight, passengers were treated to special meals, fine wines and Gucci fashion shows as they headed towards the North Pole. Unlike previous polar flights, which were primarily for the wealthy, this flight was accessible to a wider range of passengers allowing many more people to see the beauty of the poles. (Project Assumption) On March 14, 2027, Panam will return to the Airline scene with Pan Am 100 to celebrate its 100th anniversary, creating a unique flight experience with unique branding to kick off the return of Pan Am in the 21st century.

The marketing objective of Pan Am 100 is to create an exciting “kick off” event for the return of the airline, raising awareness and generating excitement for the return of the airline. Pan Am’s goal will be to return to the top international airline. Success will be measured  in the short term by the number of customers who buy tickets to fly in Pan Am 100, and going forward it will be measured by the number of countries passengers can travel to amenity quality, availability of non stop flights, and the speed of flights. Competition includes: Singapore Airlines (Singapore Airlines Official Website | Book International Flight Tickets), Qatar Airways (Book Flights with a World-class Airline | Qatar Airways), Eva Air (Homepage - EVA Air | North America (English)), and Emirates (Book a flight | Emirates United States). The target audience for the event and the airline is commercial, we want the highest number of people to ride and have it be accessible. It is very important to provide safe and convenient international travel. Pan Am 100 will generate excitement for the return of the Pan Am airline as a whole by showcasing the airline's mastery in international travel and on flight experience. We will present an experience to the customer that is something that they do not want to miss, with an excited yet refined tone.

Must haves  - Pan Am 100 event, return of the Pan Am Airline, Original Lapis Lazuli blue, Unique yet familiar rebrand.

Could have - Bookings of flights & hotels together, New color(s) such as silver, Globe Branding, Flight terminal design references.

Won’t have - Boat Planes, Space Travel / Theming

[maximumtalewonderland]

Happy Moon Day!

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy’s bold proposal.

In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination. Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were killed in the fire.

Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of workers forged ahead, and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and landing. In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three astronauts around the far side of the moon and orbited it 10 times before returning, and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. Then in May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft in 31 orbits around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission.

At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old research pilot, was the commander of the mission. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a famous message: “The Eagle has landed.”

At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar module’s ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be “that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface, took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon.

“Buzz” Aldrin joined him on the moon’s surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon–July 1969 A.D–We came in peace for all mankind.”

At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.

There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a costly and labor-intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today’s dollars). The expense was justified by Kennedy’s 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.

[jigyasap]

India touches new heights with Chandrayaan 3 success

India’s Chandrayaan 3 lunar mission, launched last month, has finally made a historic landing near the lunar’s south pole which considered to be a troubled area. ISRO chairman S. Somanath and other scientists celebrated this big victory and shared pictures from the Control Room.

The matter is of great pride for whole nation since South pole is a challenging land of moon and many earlier attempts, from all across the countries, has failed, including our Chandrayaan 2 in September 2019, Russia’s Luna-25 recently in 2023 and other missions of Japan, UAE and Israel.

The Lander Vikram made its touchdown at around 6 p.m. IST on August 23, 2023. With this, India became only the fourth country to successfully land on the surface after the former USSR (1956), the United States (1969), and China (2013). The spacecraft is supposed to be there for 14 days and conduct scientific experiments. The south pole region is significant for various scientific research projects as it is considered to be the home of ‘water ice’. This frozen water could be a source of fuel, oxygen, and water for future missions.

The Spacecraft details

The Chandrayaan 3 stands about 2 meters tall and weighs just over 1700 kg (3747.86 lb). it had launched at 2:30 PM IST on 14 July 2023 from Sathish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh). The spacecraft LVM III consists of; Lander- Vikram, Rover- Pragyan to capture data for scientific research purposes and Propulsion module- to carry the lander and rover from lunar vehicle injection to a 100-kilometer circular polar lunar orbit before it detaches from the other parts.

Significance

Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the auspices moment live from South Africa, where he is to attend the BRICS and dedicated the success to not just Indians but to all humanity.

Indians are known for their creativity and sustainability, Chandrayaan 3 is a perfect example of this because the mission completed in the total budget of 615 cr. only which makes it World’s cheapest moon mission ever performed in the history.

The Chandrayaan 3 mission’s success not only elevates Indian’s status, but it will also be a great resource of learning for such upcoming events for the reason that so many countries have planned their mission to moon in the upcoming time. This includes Japan’s- the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA’s Artemis III mission.

Masterminds behind the mission

Many people worked so hard to make this marvellous day happen, and they all deserve to be recognised and praised. Starting with the Chairman of ISRO- S. Somanath, Project Director- P Veeramuthuvel, Deputy Project Director- Kalpana K (responsible for constructing satellite), and the Head of VSSC (Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre)- S Unnikrishnan.

There are so many more great minds that came together and helped to turned this vision into reality. We cannot forget former ISRO chairman- K Shivan’s contributions and guidance given in Chandrayaan 2, and the lesson learned from the mission. It was developed and used in its best form in Chandrayaan 3.

There is a list of great scientists and engineers who were invested in this mission, of which total 54 members were female. This represents how far India has become both on land and on moon.

[spaceexp]

NASA Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Apollo 13, ‘A Successful Failure’

NASA - Apollo 13 Mission patch. April 7, 2020

Image above: S70-35614 (17 April 1970) The crewmembers of the Apollo 13 mission, step aboard the USS Iwo Jima, prime recovery ship for the mission, following splashdown and recovery operations in the South Pacific Ocean. Exiting the helicopter which made the pick-up some four miles from the Iwo Jima are (from left) astronauts Fred W. Haise Jr., lunar module pilot; James A. Lovell Jr., commander; and John L. Swigert Jr., command module pilot. The crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft splashed down at 12:07:44 p.m. (CST), April 17, 1970. Image Credit: NASA. As NASA marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission – which has become known as “a successful failure” that saw the safe return of its crew in spite of a catastrophic explosion – the agency is sharing a variety of resources, recognizing the triumph of the mission control team and the astronauts, and looking at how those lessons learned can be applied to its lunar Artemis program.

APOLLO 13

“Our goal 50 years ago was to save our valiant crew after sending them around the Moon and return them safely to Earth,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “Our goal now is to return to the Moon to stay, in a sustainable way. We are working hard to ensure that we don’t need to respond to this kind of emergency in Artemis, but to be ready to respond to any problems we don’t anticipate.” The crew of Apollo 13 consisted of Commander James (Jim) Lovell Jr., Command Module Pilot John Swigert Jr. and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise Jr. Their Saturn V rocket launched at 2:13 p.m. EST on April 11,1970, from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The command module was named Odyssey, and the lunar module was named Aquarius.

APOLLO 13 - Part 2

While en route to the Moon on April 13, an oxygen tank in the Apollo service module ruptured. The lunar landing and moonwalks, which would have been executed by Lovell and Haise, were aborted as a dedicated team of flight controllers and engineering experts in the Apollo Mission Control Center devoted their efforts to developing a plan to shelter the crew in the lunar module as a “lifeboat” and retain sufficient resources to bring the spacecraft and its crew back home safely. Splashdown occurred in the Pacific Ocean at 1:07 p.m. April 17, after a flight that lasted five days, 22 hours and 54 minutes.

Image above: A group of flight controllers gathers around the console of Glynn S. Lunney (seated, nearest camera), Shift 4 flight director, in the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) of Mission Control Center (MCC), located in Building 30 at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). Their attention is drawn to a weather map of the proposed landing site in the South Pacific Ocean. Among those looking on is Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, deputy director, MSC, standing in black suit, on right. When this photograph was taken, the Apollo 13 lunar landing mission had been canceled, and the problem-plagued Apollo 13 crew members were in trans-Earth trajectory attempting to bring their crippled spacecraft back home. Image Credit: NASA. Apollo 13 on NASA TV NASA TV is commemorating the anniversary with multiple videos and interviews, anchored by an original special program, “Apollo 13: Home Safe,” premiering at 8 p.m. EDT Friday, April 10, on NASA Television and all of the agency’s streaming and social media platforms. The 30-minute program features an interview with Lovell, a conversation with Haise and Flight Directors Gene Kranz and Glynn Lunney, and engineer Hank Rotter, in the restored Apollo mission control room mixed with archival footage from the mission. In addition, NASA TV will air replays of historic mission footage and “pop-up” mission factoids at the exact times the events happened 50 years ago. https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html Houston, We Have A Podcast Listen as Lovell and Haise remember the fateful mission from their perspective 50 years later and reflect on the highlights of their expansive careers and share wisdom gained from their famous mission on its 50th anniversary. Houston, We Have A Podcast is the official podcast of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in Houston. https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP Apollo 13 In-Flight Video Recordings These TV transmissions are film recordings of television transmissions, or kinescopes, transferred onto broadcast videotape, then converted to digital files and posted to Johnson’s Internet Archive collection. https://go.nasa.gov/2PxOS08 Apollo 13 Imagery Collections NASA makes imagery available in many formats and resolutions, and NASA’s Image and Video Library contains many items related to Apollo 13. Apollo 13 images also are available on the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, a volunteer-created site managed by NASA’s History Office. https://images.nasa.gov/ https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a13/images13.html Additional Apollo Resources Additional Apollo audio and video resources are available for download in the highest resolutions available in this publicly curated collection on the Internet Archive. Additional resources related to all the Apollo missions are available at NASA’s Apollo 50th Anniversary website. https://archive.org/search.php?query=Apollo%2011%20Resource%20Reel,%20NASA https://www.nasa.gov/specials/apollo50th/ As NASA marks the anniversary of Apollo 13, the agency is progressing with its Artemis program, which will send the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024, and establish sustainable exploration with its commercial and international partners by 2028. What we learn on during sustained operations on the Moon will prepare us for the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars. Learn more about Artemis and NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach at: https://www.nasa.gov/moontomars Related article: The Hard-won Triumph of the Apollo 13 Mission - 45 Years Later https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-hard-won-triumph-of-apollo-13.html Related links: Apollo Mission Control Center: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/apollo-mission-control-reopens-in-all-its-historic-glory Apollo 13: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo-13 Images, Text, Credits: NASA/Sean Potter/JSC/Kelly Humphries/Videos Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Videos was made using Orbiter Space Flight Simulator 2010 and many add-ons made by the Orbiter Community. Scenario inspired by 1995 movie "Apollo 13". Musics: Original Apollo 13 Movie Soundtracks (courtesy) by James Horner. Production: Orbiter.ch Aerospace Studio/Roland Berga. Best regards, Orbiter.ch Full article

[gusgrissom]

3. Apollo 9

Date: March 3-13, 1969 (10 days, 1 hour, 54 seconds)

Crew: James A. “Jim” McDivitt, David R. Scott, and Russell L. “Rusty” Schweickart

Mission Highlights: Apollo 9 was the third manned flight of the Apollo program. Previous missions had proved that nearly every aspect of a moon landing mission could be accomplished, yet the landing itself remained untried. Now it was time to test these capabilities by flying the Lunar Module (LM) for the first time, the main objective of Apollo 9. An initial February launch date was pushed back to March because the entire crew was sick, but Apollo 9 finally launched on March 3.

The first goal, after reaching Earth orbit, was to rendezvous and dock with the LM. This was a critical step for Apollo, as it was necessary to both land on the moon and come home afterwards. The mission was the first to use names for the spacecraft since Gemini 3 in 1965, with the CSM known as “Gumdrop” (see the second photo) and the LM “Spider.” Gumdrop successfully docked with Spider, and the spacecraft separated from the Saturn V’s third stage (S-IVB). It was flung towards the sun, and Apollo 9’s S-IVB is still in solar orbit as of July 2019.

The next few days included testing orbital maneuvers and burns to ensure that the CSM engines could handle both the CSM and LM. On Day 3, Jim and Rusty, both suffering from space adaption syndrome, entered the LM from the CSM, the first time astronauts had transferred between vehicles without spacewalking. The next day, due to his ongoing queasiness, Rusty’s planned two-hour spacewalk was altered to a shorter stand-up EVA.

Despite not feeling well, Rusty remembered the EVA as one of the most incredible experiences of his life. A camera malfunction gave him a few minutes of quiet solitude while standing in space: “I just let go with one hand, and just sort of swung around, looked at the Earth below and the black space above and the sun over my shoulder. And, I mean, it was this incredible, spectacular view. How did I get here? Humanity has reached this point where we're moving out from the Earth. I'm a small part of that, but that's what's going on. How does that happen in history? Who am I? Am I 'me,' or am I 'us?' It's very clear that you're there as a representative of humankind. This is humanity moving out, and you're just the representative on that frontier."

On the fifth day of the mission, Jim and Rusty reentered the LM while Dave remained in the CSM, and the two spacecraft separated. They spent several hours in separate orbits, testing the flight and ascent capabilities of the LM over 100 miles away from Dave and Gumdrop. The spacecraft then returned to a similar orbit and docked again. Spider was jettisoned, and while the descent stage’s orbit decayed in late March 1969, the ascent stage remained in orbit until 1981.

The last few days had fewer objectives than the busy first half of the mission. The crew focused on Earth photography, experimented with various cameras, and practiced their navigation. For the first time, the astronauts had been allowed to bring mixtapes that they could play on portable cassette players. Rusty’s classical music mysteriously went missing until the second to last day of the mission. On March 13, Apollo 9 returned to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean and recovered by the USS Guadalcanal.

Significance: Testing the LM was one of the largest challenges facing NASA at the start of the Apollo program, and Apollo 9 was the first of these tests. It turned out to be a tremendous success, as the LM met expectations throughout the mission. The achievements of Apollo 9, proving that the LM was capable of docking, self-sustainability, and orbital maneuvers, allowed NASA to move forward with its next major goal: a complete lunar landing mission, minus the lunar landing.

[jkottke]

A Huge Collection of Apollo 11 Press Kits

When Apollo 11 landed two men on the Moon and returned them safely to Earth, thousands of people at NASA were joined in the effort by dozens of companies that did everything from building the spacecraft to providing the cameras for the mission. Each of those companies was understandably proud of their involvement and wanted to use the mission to drum up interest in their products and services. Marketing strategist David Meerman Scott has been collecting the press kits produced by the Apollo contractors and has made them available online for free download in PDF format.

What a trove! Here are a few of my favorites. First is the kit from Fisher, who provided the pens that Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins wrote with during the voyage.

The final requirement was to see if the pen could still write after all that torture. NASA required that each pen write 1,653 feet of continuous traces, or for about 4 1/2 hours. The three pens were placed in an automatic writing machine and far out passed the qualifications. The first pen wrote for 54 hours and 50 minutes and 15,346 feet. The second finished after 18,303 feet. The third, writing on a new, highly absorbent paper, still wrote for 7,484 feet.

Fisher still sells a version of the original Apollo 11 space pen.

After the astronauts came back from the Moon, they were quarantined for 21 days to ensure that the crew had not returned with any harmful Moon germs. Stouffer's, the frozen foods company, was contracted by NASA to provide some of the astronauts' meals in quarantine.

A typical astronaut dinner will consist of short ribs of beef, potatoes au gratin and tossed green salad. Stouffer's has been selected to provide from its retail line a major portion of the entrees and side dishes for the astronauts. Ease of preparation, purity, quality and variety as well as taste and appearance were the main reasons for NASA's selection of Stouffer's foods.

Hasselblad provided the cameras for the mission.

Grumman made the Lunar Module, the capsule that carried Armstrong and Aldrin to and from the surface of the Moon.

I could keep going on these all day. What a terrific resource. Scott, along with Richard Jurek, is also the author of Marketing the Moon, a book about how NASA sold the Apollo program to the American public. (via steven heller)

[47burlm]

July 20, 1969- do you remember where you were-

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.” At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy’s bold proposal.

In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination. Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were killed in the fire.

Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead, and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and landing. In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back, and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. Then in May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission.

At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of the mission. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a famous message: “The Eagle has landed.”

At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar module’s ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be “that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface, took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon.

“Buzz” Aldrin joined him on the moon’s surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon–July 1969 A.D–We came in peace for all mankind.”

At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.

There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today’s dollars). The expense was justified by Kennedy’s 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.

[expatimes]

Fake asteroid? NASA expert IDs mystery object as old rocket

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The jig may be up for an “asteroid” that's expected to get nabbed by Earth's gravity and become a mini moon next month. Instead of a cosmic rock, the newly discovered object appears to be an old rocket from a failed moon-landing mission 54 years ago that's finally making its way back home, according to NASA's leading asteroid expert. Observations should help nail its identity.

This Aug. 13, 1965 photo provided by the San Diego Air and Space Museum shows an Atlas Centaur 7 rocket carried by a truck at Cape Canaveral, Fla. NASA's leading asteroid expert, Paul Chodas, speculates that asteroid 2020 SO, as it is formally known, is actually a Centaur upper rocket stage that propelled NASA's Surveyor 2 lander to the moon in 1966 before it was discarded. (Convair / General Dynamics Astronautics Atlas Negative Collection / San Diego Air and Space Museum via AP)

“I'm pretty jazzed about this,” Paul Chodas told The Associated Press. "It's been a hobby of mine to find one of these and draw such a link, and I've been doing it for decades now."

Chodas speculates that asteroid 2020 SO, as it is formally known, is actually the Centaur upper rocket stage that successfully propelled NASA's Surveyor 2 lander to the moon in 1966 before it was discarded. The lander ended up crashing into the moon after one of its thrusters failed to ignite on the way there. The rocket, meanwhile, swept past the moon and into orbit around the sun as intended junk, never to be seen again - until perhaps now. A telescope in Hawaii last month discovered the mystery object heading our way while doing a search intended to protect our planet from doomsday rocks. The object promptly was added to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center's tally of asteroids and comets found in our solar system, just 5,000 shy of the 1 million mark.

The object is estimated to be roughly 26 feet (8 meters) based on its brightness. That's in the ballpark of the old Centaur, which would be less than 32 feet (10 meters) long including its engine nozzle and 10 feet (3 meters) in diameter. What caught Chodas' attention is that its near-circular orbit around the sun is quite similar to Earth's - unusual for an asteroid. “Flag number one,” said Chodas, who is director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The object is also in the same plane as Earth, not tilted above or below, another red flag. Asteroids usually zip by at odd angles. Lastly, it's approaching Earth at 1,500 mph (2,400 kph), slow by asteroid standards. As the object gets closer, astronomers should be able to better chart its orbit and determine how much it's pushed around by the radiation and thermal effects of sunlight. If it's an old Centaur - essentially a light empty can - it will move differently than a heavy space rock less susceptible to outside forces. That's how astronomers normally differentiate between asteroids and space junk like abandoned rocket parts, since both appear merely as moving dots in the sky. There likely are dozens of fake asteroids out there, but their motions are too imprecise or jumbled to confirm their artificial identity, said Chodas.

Sometimes it's the other way around. A mystery object in 1991, for example, was determined by Chodas and others to be a regular asteroid rather than debris, even though its orbit around the sun resembled Earth's. Even more exciting, Chodas in 2002 found what he believes was the leftover Saturn V third stage from 1969 s Apollo 12, the second moon landing by NASA astronauts. He acknowledges the evidence was circumstantial, given the object's chaotic one-year orbit around Earth. It never was designated as an asteroid, and left Earth's orbit in 2003. The latest object's route is direct and much more stable, bolstering his theory.

“I could be wrong on this. I don't want to appear overly confident, ”Chodas said. "But it's the first time, in my view, that all the pieces fit together with an actual known launch." And he's happy to note that it's a mission that he followed in 1966, as a teenager in Canada. Asteroid hunter Carrie Nugent of Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts, said Chodas' conclusion is “a good one” based on solid evidence. She's the author of the 2017 book “Asteroid Hunters.” “Some more data would be useful so we can know for sure,” she said in an email. “Asteroid hunters from around the world will continue to watch this object to get that data. I'm excited to see how this develops! ” The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics' Jonathan McDowell noted there have been “many, many embarrassing incidents of objects in deep orbit… getting provisional asteroid designations for a few days before it was realized they were artificial.”

It's seldom clear-cut. Last year, a British amateur astronomer, Nick Howes, announced that an asteroid in solar orbit was likely the abandoned lunar module from NASA's Apollo 10, a rehearsal for the Apollo 11 moon landing. While this object is likely artificial, Chodas and others are skeptical of the connection.

Skepticism is good, Howes wrote in an email. “It hopefully will lead to more reviews when it's next in our neck of the woods in the late 2030s. Chodas' latest target of interest was passed by Earth in their respective laps around the sun in 1984 and 2002. But it was too dim to see from 5 million miles (8 million kilometers) away, he said. He predicts the object will spend about four months circling Earth once it's captured in mid-November, before shooting back out into its own orbit around the sun next March. Chodas doubts the object will slam into Earth - "at least not this time around."

The post Fake asteroid? NASA expert IDs mystery object as old rocket appeared first on ARAB TIMES - KUWAIT NEWS.

#world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=11719&feed_id=9464

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Vintage Nasa Photograph

25.4 cm x 20.1 cm, Vintage Chromogenic Print on Kodak Paper

Red Serial NASA

S72-35347 (16 April 1972) --- 

The huge, 363-feet tall Apollo 16 (Spacecraft 113/Lunar Module 11/ Saturn 511) space vehicle is launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, at 12:54:00.569 p.m. (EST), April 16, 1972, on a lunar landing mission. Aboard the Apollo 16 spacecraft were astronauts John W. Young, commander; Thomas K. Mattingly II, command module pilot; and Charles M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot. While astronauts Young and Duke descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Orion" to explore the Descartes highlands region of the moon, astronaut Mattingly remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Casper" in lunar orbit.