Episode 61 - What the Soviet Have Been Up To (The Apollo Program, Part VI)

 

Just like NASA was progressing from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo, the Soviets were also moving on to their thrid generation spaceship - from Vostok, to Voshkod, to Soyuz. And just like the early Apollo program, the early Soyuz program was rife with problems. The Soyuz 1 tragedy came as the capsule was reenting Earth, when its parachutes failed and cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, the first cosmonaut to fly in space twice and a rockstar in the Soviet space program, fell to his death. Supposedly, an NSA listening station picked him up curing Soviet engineers over an open mic on the way down.

He was given a state funeral and his ashed were interred in the wall of the Kremlin in Red Square. Because the Soviet space program didn't want to another high-profile loss, the Soyuz program was compleatly reworked and the most famous of Soviet astronauts, Yuri Gagarin, who was trianing for his next space mission, was removed from the program all together and sent back to the Soviet Air Force.  He was killed about a year later when his MiG-15 crashed in bad weather.

Like Komarov a year earlier, Gagarin was given a state funeral and his ashes were interred in the wall of the Kremlin in Red Square.

Gagarin is still revered world wide for being the first person in space, particularly in former-Soviet Bloc countries. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of his space flight, Ukraine issed a commemorative stamp in 2011.

Episode 60: Introducing the Crew of Apollo 11 (The Apollo Program, Part V)

The crew of Apollo 11 (left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin) wasn't a tight-knit group like other Apollo crews and aside from Collins, the media found that getting a useable sound bite out of them was like pulling teeth. Nevertheless, the reserved Armstrong, socially awkward Aldrin, and charismatic Collins were the trio selected for the most ambitious undertaking in human history - landing on an alien celestial body and returning to tell the tale.

 

Episode 59: Major Successes Following Major Failure (The Apollo Program, Part IV)

The Apollo 7 (left to right comman module pilot Donn Eisele, commander Wally Schirra, and lunar module pilot Walt Cunningham) crew may not have had the best time in space, but they were still an intregal part of the Apollo Program even though it was the final mission for all three.

For Mercury 7 astronaut Wally Schirra it was his third spaceflight with his thrid space program - a veteran of Project Mercury, Project Gemini, and the Apollo Program. 

This navy officer decided he wanted to be buried at sea so following his death in 2007, his ashes were spread into the ocean by the chaplain of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

For Air Force officer Don Eisele, Apollo 7 would be his only trip to space.

After his untimely death to a heart attack, Colonel Eisele was interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 3, Grave 2503.

The crew of Apollo 8, (left to right Jim Lovell, Bill Anders, Frank Borman) became the first people to orbit the moon. After they entered the total comms blackout that came from being on the far side of the moon, the world held its collective breath and celebrated when they came out on the other side.

As they were the first to leave Earth's orbit, they were the first to take a picture of the plant as an entire disk (South American is visible in this image).

Orbiting the moon, they got the first first-hand look at the far side of the moon and took the best pictures of that part of the moon up to that time.

And they were first first to experience "earth rise", also the title of this picture taken by Bill Anders.

Apollo 8's reentry was captured in this photograph from an Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker flying at 40,000 feet (over 12,000 meters).

After the flight, the US Postal Service issued a stamp to commemorate Earth rise and the crew's Christmas Eve television broadcast where they read the first verses of the book of Genesis.

On January 3, 1969, Time Magazine proclaimed the crew the 1968 men of the year.

In 2018, the commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8, the Omega watch company issed an Apollo 8 themed Dark Side of the Moon Speedmaster that featured a lunar surface-inspired watch face...

And the mission date on the back, as well as Jim Lovell's iconic words just before entering total communications blakcout with mission control - "We'll see you on the other side."

The Apollo 8 mission patch's triangular shape referrs to the shape of the the Apollo command module. It shows a figure eight looping around the moon, reflecting both the mission name and the circumlunar route the crew took with the crew's names on the bottom. The initial design was sketched by Jim Lovel who sketched it out while riding in the back seat of T-38 flight from California to Houston shortly after learning of Apollo 8's re-designation as a lunar orbit mission.

Apollo 9 (left to right: commander Jim McDivitt, command module pilot David Scott, and lunar module pilot Rusty Schweickart) was an Earth orbit mission that was the first to fly with a lunar module and to the first where the command module and lunar module separated and re-docked.

Because the two modules would separate and become two distinct spaceships, call signs would be required. In the end, the crew's nicknames for the two modules in trianing were officially used - though the NASA PR team thought the names were too informal. The command module was called gumdrop for the blue protective cover the factory put on the module for its shipment from California to Florida. It was left on until just before the mission.

Becasue of the look of its landing legs, the crew called the lunar module spider.

The first Apollo era extra vehicular activities were performed during the Apollo 9 mission. Command module pilot David Scott had a stand-up EVA...

And lunar module pilot Rusty Schweickart took a more traditional space walk.

The Apollo 9 mission patch contains a Saturn V rocket, with the letters USA on it. To its right is an Apollo command module next to a lunar module, the command module's nose pointed at the "front door" of the lunar module rather than at its top docking port. The command module is trailing rocket fire in a circle. The crew's names are along the top edge of the circle, with Apollo IX at the bottom. The "D" in McDivitt's name is filled in with a red mark to indicate that this was the "D mission" in the alphabetical order of Apollo missions (i.e. the fourth mission).

The Apollo 10 mission (left to right: lunar module pilot Gene Cernan, commander Tom Stafford, command module pilot John Young) was the last dress rehersal before the moonshot and performed the same activities as Apollo 9, but this time in lunar orbit as opposed to Earth orbit. Call signs for this mission were Charlie Brown for the command module and Snoopy for the lunar module - prior to this, snoopy was already a semi-official mascot of NASA with the agency handing out silver snoopy pins (called a silver snoopy - creative name, I know) to recognize employees exceptional performance in support of space missions.

While walking to board Apollo 10, commander Tom Stafford reaches outand pats the nose of a plush Snoopy for luck.

After Snoopy separated from Carlie Brown, Cernan and Stafford to recon the proposed Apollo 11 landing site - the Sea of Tranquility - they got closer to the lunar surface (9 miles) than anyone a previously been.

After Chalrie Brown separated from Snoopy, John Young became the first person to experience the comms blckout from the far side of the moon alone, becomeing the most isolated person in human history.

The shield shaped mission patch shows a large, three-dimensional Roman numberal X sitting on the moon's surface, "to show," in Stafford's words, "that we had left our mark." The command module circles the moon as the lunar module ascent stage flies up from its low pass over the lunar surface with its engine firing. The Earth is visible in the background. On the patch, a wide light blue boarder carried the word Apollo at the top with the crew's names around the bottom. The patch is trimmed in gold.

Due to their histoic ties to NASA, it was natural for Omega and Peanuts to combine forces for a line of Speedmaster Moonwatches. The first was released in 2003 to honor Apollo 13 (though not connected to any specific anniversary of the mission). The frist Snoopy Moonwatch was unexpected and an instant hit with collectors.

It would be 12 years before the next Omega/Peanuts colaboration and the 2015 Snoopy Moonwatch was to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission (with we will talk about in a future episode)  - this one is my favorite of the trio.

The most recent Snoopy Moonwatch was released in 2020 on the 50th anniversary of Omega receiving its Silver Snoopy award from NASA for its support during the Apollo Program.

I would happily accept donations of any or all of the watches featured in this episode. Please reach out and we can coordinate delivery! :D

Episode 58: The Aftermath of Apollo 1 (The Apollo Program, Part III)

Did you know that NASA's iconic second administrator, James E. Webb was a Marine pilot and lieutenant colonel? After World War II, he held a few government positions, including Undersecretary of State before his gig leading NASA through some of its most pivital moments including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, and the aftermath of the Apollo 1 fire. He left NASA in 1968 and in 2002, NASA announced its next space telescope would be named in honor of Webb, who died in 1992.

Lieutenant Colonel James Edwin Webb is interred in Section 2, Grave 961 with a simple headstone that simply identifies him as a Marine and a public servant.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021 and since then, many of its amazing images have flooded my social media feeds.

The Carina neblua and the birth of stars

A dying star's final performance

The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle nebula

The deepest infrared image of the universe yet

Apollo 7 was the NASA's first manned space mission after the disastrous Apollo 1 fire. There was a lot riding on the mission and much to NASA's relief, it was a technical success, though there was a lot of tension between mission control in Houston and the three astronaut's in space (left to right: Don Eisele, Wally Schirra, and Walt Cunningham). The tension was such that it effectively ended the three men's careers as astronauts.

Apollo 7 was the first time American's held live television broadcasts from space - something that would become a staple of the US space program in the years to come - and despite the poor visual quality, the American and international publics loved them. In the end, Apollo 7 was a great success and showed that the many faults in the first block of Apollo capsules had been corrected after the Apollo 1 fire. Amazingly, after just 18 months, it looked like NASA was back on track to reach the moon before the end of 1969, just as President Kennedy had challenged. 

This is the best digital rendering of the Apollo 1 crew patch that I could find. The design's center depicts a command and service module flying over the southeastern United States  with Florida (the launch point) prominent. The moon is seen in the distance, symbolic of the eventual program goal. A yellow boarder carries the mission and astronauts names with another boarder set with stars and stripes, trimmed in gold. The insignia was designed by the crew with artwork done by North American Aviation employee Allen Stevens.

The insignia for the Apollo 7 flight shows a command and service module with its engine firing, the trail from that fire encircling a globe and extending past the edge of the patch symbolixing the Earth-orbital nature of the mission. The Roman numberal 7 (VII) appears in the south Pacific Ocean and the crew's names appear on a whide arc at the bottom. The atwork was also designed by Allen Stevens, now with Rockwell International.