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.

Episode 57: The Apollo 1 Investigation (The Apollo Prgram, Part II)

I'm not sure how I missed this during my research, but earlier this year Arlington National Cemetery unveiled a new memorial to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire. It is not located in Section 24 near the USS Maine Monument with the other astronaut memorials. This one is in Section 3, near the headstones of the two Apollo 1 crewmembers interred at Arlington. It was unveiled on June 2, 2022.

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom is interred at Arlington Naitonal Cemetery in Section 3, Grave 2503.

Navy Lieutnenat Commander Roger Bruce Chaffee is interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 3, Grave 2502

As per his wishes and the wishes of his family, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Edward Higgins White II is interred at the cemetery of his alma mater, the United States Military Academy at West Point, in Section 18, Row G, Grave 80. His father, himself a West Point alumnus, is also buried there.

Pad 34, where the fire took place, still stands as a memorial to the fallen crew of Apollo 1, as seen here during the 50th anniversary commemoration of the fire.

The memo that NASA official Jim Jones sent to President Lyndon B. Johnson just over an hour after the fire to inform him of the accident.

The letter LBJ sent to Roger Chaffee's parents after the accident. As a huge supporter of the space program, Johnson took the lose of the astronauts hard and wrote similar letters to the parents and wives of all three astronauts killed in the fire.

Episode 56: The Tragedy of Apollo 1 (The Apollo Program 1)

 

55 years ago, last January, the crew of Apollo 1 (left to right Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger Chaffee) strapped into their command module for what should have been a routine low-risk test. They never left the module, dying in a fire and that seems to have been as inevitable as it was unexpected. Many red flags before the tragedy were ignored which led to plenty of finger pointing after the fact. What should have been the triumphal first act for the program that was to take Americans to the moon, nearly killed the space race in the United States. But in the end, this wakeup call may have been what ultimately saved the Apollo Program and turned it into the success it was.

After the fire, which only lasted a few minutes, the interior of the Apollo 1 command module was unrecognizable, even to those who were most familiar with it.

The crew died of asphyxiation in less than a minute after their oxygen hoses were burned through and cut them off from their source of fresh air. The subsequent autopsies showed that the flight suits provided enough protection for the astronauts that their burn would have likely been survivable (and probably occurred post-mortem).

Everyone involved in the program knew there were a lot of issues with the spacecraft, though most either thought they would eventually be worked out (because everything in Project Mercury and Project Gemini had just kind of worked out in the end) or choose to ignore them. As a joke, the crew sent the above photo to Apollo spacecraft administration manager Joseph Shea - who had given the module a provisional passing grade but ordered a lot of flammable material removed from the cabin (it never was) - and inscribed it with the following: "It isn't that we don't trust you, Joe, but this time we've decided to go over your head."

Episode 55: My First Arlington National Cemetery Funeral

Thanks to an open invitation from his family and that invitation's wider distribution by U.S. Army W.T.F! Moments, I was able to attend the funeral of Korean and Vietnam war veteran, retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Gene Hill.

Over the course of two wars, LTC Hill acquired some serious chest candy, including Special Forces and Airborne qualifications, expert rifle and machine gunner, a Silver Star, a Bronze Star with Valor, two Legion of Merits, a Vietnam Service Medal with two Campaign Stars, a South Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, a Meritorious Service Medal, two Air Medals, four Army Commendation Medals, a Republic Korea War Service Medal, an Army of Occupation Medal with German Clasp and Japan Clasp, two Defense Service Medals, a Korean Service Medal with (I believe) seven Campaign Stars, a United Nations Korean Service Medal, a Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, a Department of the Army Distinguished Civilian Service Award, and a Department of the Army Civilian Service Commendation Medal. This shadow box also includes his 25^th Infantry Division combat patch, a World War II-era amphibious engineers seahorse patch that I can only assume he had a connection to (possibly in Korea) and the JFK Special Warfare Center Patch (under his Special Forces tab), an Army Staff badge, a World War I Iron Cross I can only assume is a memento from his service time in German (possibly belonging to his father-in-law), and the tassel from his Ph.D. in 1986.

LTC Hill later in life, still proudly carrying a 25th Infantry Division challenge coin in his wallet.

LTC Hill's casket with roses left by family and a military police badge left by an MP colonel.

Fort Myer Old Post Chapel.

Episode 54: Project Gemini, Part VI

The more I think about taking a spacewalk, the more the idea appeals to me, but some that appeal likely stems from the fact that astronauts have space walking down to a science. I can't imagine the early spacewalks which everyone hoped would turn out okay without having worked out all the kinks. The Gemini 9A space walk was very touch and go and in the uncertainty mission commander Tom Stafford thought up a plan that would leave no man behind but would have resulted in both his and fellow astronaut Gene Cernan's deaths. Fortunately, they were able to avoid that scenario.

Despite the exertion of his spacewalk, Cernan was able to snape some photos, including this wide angle of Tom Stafford looking out the Gemini 9A porthole back at him.

And like all good Gemini missions, there were multiple things that went wrong this 9A - above is the "angry alligator" the described to mission control. 

The Gemini 9A mission insignia is in the shape of a shield and shows the Gemini spacecraft docked to the Agena (which turned out to be wishful thinking [thanks angry alligator!]). It includes a spacewalking astronaut, with his tether forming the shape of the number 9. Although the Gemini 9 mission was changed to the newer docking craft when it became 9A, the patch was not changed.

The Gemini 10 insignia is simple in design but highly symbolic. The main feature is the large Roman number X with a Gemini and Agena orbiting around it. The two stars have a variety of meanings: the two rendezvous attempts, Castor and Pollux in the Gemini constellation, or the two crew members. This is one of the few patched without the crew's name. It is able to be displayed upside down but is correctly shown with the spacecraft to the right. It was designed by crew member John Young's then-wife Barbara.

Since Gemini XI astronauts Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon were both in the Navy, the patch was designed in the US Navy's colors of blue and gold. Stars are used to mark major milestone in the mission. The first orbit Agena rendezvous is marked by a small gold star just above the Earth, to the left. The Agena docking is marked by a large star on the left. The star at the top marks the record high apogee reached by Gemini 11 (note that the scale is greatly exaggerated. Their maximum altitude of 850 miles [1360 kilometers] is roughly the distance form St Louis to Cape Kennedy). Finally, the star on the right marks Gordon's spacewalk. The docking, record apogee, and spacewalk are also shown on the patch by the Agena, orbital apogee path, and spacewalking astronaut.

The insignia's orange and black color scheme are a link to the flight's original schedule near Halloween, before being pushed to mid-November. The Roman number XII is located at the 12 o'clock position with the Gemini spacecraft pointing to it. This represents the position of Gemini 12 as the last flight of Project Gemini. With the Apollo Program following this final Gemini flight, the ultimate objective - the moon - is symbolized by the crescent on the left.

Ranger 3 was the first of the Ranger lunar probes planned to photograph the lunar surface, close up, before crash landing to help determine if landing on the moon was possible. Rangers 3-6 all failed.

Lessons learned from the failured lead to an overhaul of the Ranger 7-9 design.

This is the first image returned from Ranger 7 in 1964. The large crater at the center is Alphonsus.

The final image from Ranger 7 was taken from an altitude of 1600 feet (about 490 meters), which revealed features as small as 15 inches (or 38 centimeters) across. The noise pattern on the right is the result of the spacecraft impacting the surface of the moon while transmitting the image. 

 

On March 24, 1965, a nationwide TV audience watched live video from Ranger 9 as it purposefully crashed into the moon within the crater Alphonsus. Ranger's six cameras sent back more than 5800 video images during the last last 18 minutes of its 3-day journey, the last of the Ranger Project. The last few images show the lunar surface in detail from a few humdred meters above.

*UPDATE* This was an exciting time for NASA, but it was not without its risks. The first astronaut to be interred at Arlington didn't die in a launch accident or in space, rather, he was killed by a bird strike when a goose hit the jet he was piloting in foggy weather. In his final act, Air Force Captain Theodore Cordy "Ted" Freeman made sure he wouldn't crash into military housing which caused him to eject too late for his parachute to deploy. He never made it to space, but died a hero nonetheless. 

Captain Freeman is interred in Section 4, Grave 3148