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That’s Mary Jo Deschanel (the mother of Zooey and Emily Deschanel) in the above clip, and that scene BETTER be in the new version!!!! And as a space history buff, I would also hope that the mini-series corrects the portrayal of Gus Grissom (played by Fred Ward in the original movie). In real life Grissom, while somewhat gruff, was actually very articulate.
First, today marks the 60th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight in Vostok 1. The entire flight lasted one orbit and about 108 minutes, but it changed history. Three weeks later (May 5, 1961), Alan Shepard would become the first American in space (sub-orbital), and just a couple of weeks following that, U.S. President John F. Kennedy would commit the nation to a lunar landing goal by the end of the decade.
Unfortunately, Gagarin (*) would not live to see the US meet that goal as he died in a plane accident in March 1968.
Twenty years – to the day – after Gagarin’s flight, the U.S. inaugurated the era of reusable space flight with the launch of the Space Shuttle Colombia. An era marked by both triumphs and tragedies; it eventually enabled the construction of the International Space Station – which in turned has enabled the beginnings of the commercialization of space.
As we say in the space flight business: we stand on the shoulders of giants. Here’s a toast to Gagarin (1934 – 1968), John Young (1930 – 2018) and Robert Crippen. And thanks,
** And yes, that is a portrait of Gagarin on the wall of the Soviet Embassy in FRWL.
https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25828/first-video-of-nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-in-flight/
Congratulations to all involved.
And in time, Shephard (1923-1998) would become the 5th human being to walk on the lunar surface when he commanded the Apollo 14 mission in January 1971.
And – as always…
Thanks
BTW: Did you know that in the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series “Thunderbirds”, each of Jeff Tracy's five sons were named after Project Mercury astronauts - Scott Carpenter, Virgil Grissom, Alan Shephard, Gordon Cooper and John Glenn. (ed. I guess making it seven sons, so that you could add Wally Schirra Wally Shira and Deke Slayton was too much 😊!)
The past few months have been an exciting (if stressful) time for Space Exploration "nerds" like myself.
In office for only a couple of months, President Kennedy’s administration was reeling from the twin blows of the “Bay of Pigs” disaster in Cuba and seeing the Soviet Union beat the United States in the race to send the first human into Space (Yuri Gagarin on April 12th). And while a lunar landing goal for the Apollo Program had been in discussion for several months, this speech marked the first time that the political honor and capital of the nation was publicly committed to it.
“First, I believe that 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.”
Wisely (IMO), President Kennedy did not attempt to downplay the costs or sacrifices that would be required over the next decade. That said, even he was surprised at the full scope of the effort required. Yet, in time, it would be one of the defining programs of the 20th century and – even today – the Apollo Program remains the largest single scientific/engineering effort ever undertaken in peace time. To say that following this program defined my childhood is an understatement!!! :-)
And – in a nice sense of timing – 5 years to the day of Kennedy’s speech, the first Saturn V (test article 500F) was rolled to the launch pad. (*)
** While another Saturn V (SA-500D) was used for structural tests, this particular Saturn V was the first used to test the procedures for stacking the vehicles, transporting them to the launch pad and fueling them at the Kennedy Space Center (several books have actually been written about this process alone). The first flight worthy Saturn V (SA-501) wouldn’t fly until November 1967 (i.e., “Apollo 4”).
Note: SA-500D is on public display at the NASA facility in Alabama.
After nearly a month manning the world’s first space station - Salyut 1 – their spacecraft landed safely, but when workers went to remove them from the capsule, they found that all three cosmonauts were dead. Although mission control had lost contact with the crew, they still hoped for a successful conclusion given that the craft had landed as planned. Of course, those hopes were dashed when the vehicle’s hatch was opened. Later analysis revealed that all three were killed within two minutes from a lack of oxygen.
There are several things that make the story even more tragic than it may appear when viewed from the perspective of 50 years. First, they were the backup crew (The primary crew was pulled several days before launch when one of them developed what appeared to a tuberculosis condition). The other, for a country still reeling from having last the moon race to the U.S. their mission – histories’ first long duration stay in space – was a great source of national pride for the Soviet people. A very personable crew, state media actually reported on the crew’s progress every day during their mission.
For a 10-year-old kid counting down the days until the Apollo 15 lunar mission, the tragedy took a while to sink in, and only later did I learn many of the details. Fortunately, relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union had improved to the point (by that time) where President Nixon made an official statement and U.S. astronaut Thomas Stafford was permitted to be pallbearer at the crew’s state funeral.
To quote Apollo 15 commander David Scott at his crew’s post flight press conference that August:
“I think many people have contributed to this pinnacle that we’ve reached, some more than others. And we know of fourteen individuals that contributed all they had.”
Although it wasn’t publicly revealed until after their mission’s conclusion, they had left a small memorial sculpture called “The Fallen Astronaut” along with a plaque on the lunar surface to honor those that had paid the ultimate price for space exploration. The names of the Soyuz 11 crew are listed on that placle, along with the crews of Apollo 1, Soyuz 1 and several astronauts and cosmonauts that had died in training accidents.
As I’ve stated in prior posts on this thread we stand on the shoulders of giants.
Being the total space “nerd” that I am, I’m currently reading “Across the Airless Wilds: the Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings” by Earl Swift. which details the history of lunar roving vehicles, from the early concepts to the actual development of those used on Apollo’s 15,16 and 17. He also goes into some depth about the people that worked against the odds to make their eventual use a reality.
How important were the rovers? While the Apollo 11 crew (Armstrong and Aldrin) covered less than 100 yards during their 2.5 hour Moonwalk, with the rovers, the crews of the final three Apollo missions were able to roam up to 7 miles from the safely of their Lunar Module – and explore terrain once thought inaccessible. Watching all of this unfold as a ten-year old space crazy kid from Queens, N.Y. was – to put it mildly – the thrill of a lifetime. And some years later, during a 1997 trip to the Kennedy Space Center, I actually got a chance to sit in a mock-up of one!
Unlike Willard Whyte's Moon Buggy, the real thing (designed and built by GM/Boeing) weighed only about 460 lbs. and had to be designed in such a way that it could be folded up to fit the roughly 125 cubic foot storage space on the side of the Lunar Module. And unlike Willard’s Buggy, it had to carry about twice its’ weight in two fully suited astronauts, cameras, communication gear and lunar sampling equipment. And while the astronauts did not have the lovely Tiffany Case waiting for them on the other side of any craters, during their many science stops, the color television camera broadcast – in real time – video of what the astronauts were doing to both mission control and viewers back on Earth.
How the engineers were able to do this is truly a remarkable story and demonstrates just how creative people can be (hint: both the rover chassis and its’ wheels were hinged, and the astronauts, upon landing, used a series of chords to unfold it via springs). Yet, despite the final form of the rover being well known during the production of DAF, director Guy Hamilton and designer Ken Adam wanted to go with something a bit more “wild.”
Back in 2008, the Science Channel ran a six-part documentary series called “The Moon Machines” which mixed archival footage and new interviews with many of the key Apollo Program engineers. The final part covered the history and development of the lunar rover.
These guys should be legends!!!
Apollo 15 commander, David Scott (center) reviewing the Rover’s storage with technicians a couple of months prior to launch.
What the rover made possible: Astronaut David Scott at the edge of Hadley Rille – a long lunar depression up to 1,200 feet deep and about 50 miles long.
Fifty years later, these missions – in many ways – represent the high point in human exploration (thus far), so I’m pleased to see many people marking the accomplishments of these often-overlooked missions.
More to come……
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/whats-left-for-the-webb-telescope-now-waggling-mirrors-turning-on-instruments/
To quote a tweet from arst-technica’s space reporter Eric Berger:
The James Webb Space Telescope is now fully deployed. This is a remarkable engineering achievement that 99 percent of the world will not appreciate. But those of us who know, know. And we are in awe.
Count me among the 1% who do appreciate it – and I’m also totally in awe. There is still a lot of work for the JWST team ahead – as it will take about five to six months to bring all of science instruments on-line and calibrate them before the public starts to see any images.
Apollo 1 (January 27, 1967). Commander Gus Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee were killed when a flash fire broke out in their block 1 Apollo Command Module during a “plugs-out” pre-flight test.
STS-51L (January 28, 1986) Astronauts Francis R. Scobee (Commander), Michael J. Smith (Pilot), Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka Judith Resnik (Mission Specialists), Gregory Jarvis (Payload Specialist) and Christa McAuliffe (Payload Specialist, teacher) are killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after launch.
Contrary to the popular perception, Challenger didn’t explode, but was ripped apart from the areo-dynamic forces induced on the vehicle. Once the O-ring seal on the right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed, it caused a structural failure of the external tank (which contained super-cold liquid Oxygen and Hydrogen). It is the release of those propellants that looked like an explosion to observers. In any case, the attached shuttle was then destroyed by the off-nominal aerodynamic forces induced on it by the external tank’s break-up.
On a personal note, I was at work at the time and - as I did for every shuttle launch – was following events on my small transistor radio. On this particular day, however, given the various launch delays I got busy and didn’t tune back in until moments after the accident. Needless to say, I clocked out of work, and went home. And even 36 years later anytime I see “11:38 AM” on my clock radio I get chills. It was a day that I’ll never forget.
STS 107 (February 1, 2003) Astronauts Rick Husband (Commander), William C. McCool (Pilot), Michael P. Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David M. Brown, Laurel Clark (Mission specialists) and Ilan Ramon (Payload specialist) are killed when the Space Shuttle Columbia breaks apart upon re-entry. The shuttle’s thermal protection system was breached by an impact with insulating foam from the external tank shortly after liftoff on January 16, 2003.
For all of these men and women, for whom paid the ultimate price in mankind’s exploration of space, we must remain on guard for hubris. We will never forget.
Remastered Image (2020)
"That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives.
The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there — on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light . . .
To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
— Carl Sagan, speech at Cornell University, October 13, 1994
Something to think about in the current times in which we live...
You can read more about the Pale Blue Dot photograph (actually part of a larger series of images of the planets of the solar system) and the Voyager program here:
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1175/10-things-you-might-not-know-about-voyagers-famous-pale-blue-dot-photo/
I also recommend the 2017 documentary “The Farthest: Voyager In Space” (if you are in the US it is available to stream - for free – at the PBS website).
BTW: Both Voyagers (1 and 2) are still operating – albeit at very reduced power levels – and we are still in contact with them as they travel in interstellar space. It is estimated, however, that they will far silent sometime within the next ten years or so.
Cool. Sadly, or actually gladly I'm not in the US. But they should send a probe like that every ten years or so. Maybe Elon Musk can be triggered to do so. after all, he already send his car to space..
I spent part of my Sunday morning going through a couple of videos of Glenn’s Friendship 7 flight – which happened 60 years ago, today (February 20th). Its’ very difficult to explain to younger people just how impactful that mission was and just how popular John Glenn was at the time. Being only a year old at the time, I had to rely on my mother’s account of watching the flight on TV 😊. Naturally, you could watch the excellent 1983 film "The Right Stuff" (see my earlier post from August 2020), or if you only have an hour to spare……..
Alas, this probably wasn't the case. From a poster on NASAWatch:
All three cosmonauts are graduates of the Moscow State Technical University and their school colors are yellow and blue.
If you want to follow the Apollo 13 events in “real time”: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/
Or if you just want a nice summary…..
Apollo 13: To The Edge and Back (1994) – This documentary certainly informed Ron Howard's 1995 film. And while I did enjoyed the film (saw it about 6-7 times!), it does leave the viewer with several mis-impressions of astronaut Jack Swigert and the role that Grumman (the main contractor) for the Lunar Module played as the crisis unfolded.
Consider this 1994 documentary and the following twitter thread a needed corrective (*).
A major thanks and shout out to twitter user Lô Storm:
* I highly recommend the 1998 HBO mini-series “From the Earth to the Moon” for a docu-drama version of the entire history of the Apollo Lunar Landing Program (1961-1972) . With more time to tell the story, Tom Hanks and Ron Howard generally corrects some of the actual errors from the 1995 movie. It is still one of the best things that I have ever watched on TV and it also paved the way for the - even more epic - "Band of Brothers" mini-series. I'll freely admit to crying at the conclusion of both.
.So as to not derail the “Birthday” thread with an unrelated posting, I’ll use this spot to provide you with a link to the 2023-2032 Planetary Decadal Survey (as a follow-up to your “age of Uranus’s rings” posting).
https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/26522/interactive/
First, the good news: The National Academy of Science has recommended that NASA initiate funding for a Uranus Orbiter and Probe (atmospheric) mission within the next ten years. In fact, it has their highest recommendation for any possible new “flagship” planetary missions (i.e., > $2.5 Billion USD).
Now the bad news: even with a launch in 2031, it won’t reach Uranus until 2044 or so. So, I wish you a long and healthy life (not that I don’t do so already ;) !).
Remember, that the Decadal Survey is a consensus document that is produced after consulting hundreds of scientists in the field of planetary exploration. Still, it only represents a list of recommendations. And while, the US Congress has traditionally, given weight to the recommendations of prior decadal surveys in setting budgetary appropriations, the future is somewhat uncertain this time. Currently, NASA has two (or three – depending on how you count it), flagship missions in development: The Mars Sample Return and the Europa Clipper mission. And while both are expected to fly in the next five years or so, they are proving to be somewhat more expensive than planned which may delay any new program starts.
The entire report is about 760 pages, but you can download it for free.
https://nap.nationalacademies.org/download/26522
“Perseverance Rover Sees Solar Eclipse on Mars: NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to shoot video of Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, eclipsing the Sun. It’s the most zoomed-in, highest-frame-rate observation of a Phobos solar eclipse ever taken from the Martian surface.
The Mastcam-Z camera recorded video of Phobos, one of the Red Planet’s two moons, to study how its orbit is changing over time.
https://mars.nasa.gov/news/9172/nasas-perseverance-rover-captures-video-of-solar-eclipse-on-mars/