Episode 73: Space Stations, Part I

 

The post-Apollo space missions of the 1970s revolved around space stations and the Russians decided if they couldn't be the first to the Moon, they would focus on gaining space station primacy.

The Soviet Salyut space station would built to function with Soviet Soyuz spaceships, but the first attempt to send a crew to Salyut was a failure. The crew couldn't achieve a hard dock with the station and after several attempts, the mission was aborted. The second crew had success, but disaster struck when the crew returned to Earth. The Soyuz capsule depressurized. None of the cosmonauts were wearing space suits and all three died before reentering Earth's atmosphere. These are the only three people to die above the Karmen line, the official point where outer space begins. The Soyuz capsule was redesigned to allow the crew to wear pressure suits going forward.

Several Salyut stations were launched during the 1970s. Roughly half were open scientific missions while the other half were secretive military mission, likely focused on taking surveillance photos of Western targets.

While the Soviets established space station primacy, the United States get launch its owns space station, called Skylab, made with materials left over from the Apollo program. 

There were a total of four Skylab launches. The first launch was an unmanned mission to put the station in orbit and was a near disaster. Problems with the launch left the station nearly powerless and virtually dead in space. The second mission - carrying the station's first crew - was delayed by two weeks while engineers devised a way to fix the repair the stricken station.

The patch for the first Skylab crew was designed by Kelly Freas, a well-known artist highly regarded in the science fiction community. It features Skylab above the earth with the sun in the background, eclipsed by the Earth. The upper left quadrant of the emblem reads Skylab I and the lower right quadrant lists the crewmembers.

Skylab's first crew consisted of science pilot Joe Kerwin (left), mission commander Pete Conrad, and pilot Paul Weitz. A good chunk of their 28 day mission consisted of space walks to repair Skylab, but they also found time to study the Earth and the Sun, and conduct a few medical experiments with the crew serving as the guinea pigs.

Now that astronauts were staying in space for longer stretched of time, NASA improved the food that was available to the astronauts (including magnetized heating trays to keep the food warm).

Space Showers...

...and Space Haircuts were also a thing now.

Pete Conrad, a member of NASA's second astronaut class, had a colorful personality but was also a consummate professional (his personal motto was "If you can't be good, be colorful!"). He served on two Gemini missions, commanded Apollo 12 and became the third person to walk on the moon, and commanded the first Skylab crew. After retiring from NASA he remained active in the aviation community and helped set a record for an around-the-world flight in a Learjet in 1996.

Sadly, in 1999, he died in a motorcycle crash while wearing a helmet and operating within the speed limit. Navy Captain Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 11, Grave 113-3.

The second Skylab crew consisted of scientist pilot Owen Garriott, pilot Jack Lousma, and commander Al Bean. Thanks to the hard work of the first crew, this second crew did not have to continue the repairs of the station and were able to focus completely on the science during its 60-day mission.

The mission's insignia featured Leonard da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man as its focal point, representing the mission’s medical experiments. In the background is a disk that is half sun and half Earth to represent the experiments done on the flight. The patch has a white background with the crew’s names arcing across the top and Skylab II at the six o’clock position. The patch has a red, white, and blue boarder. The wives of the crew secretly had an alternate graphic made of a “universal woman” with their first names in place of the crew’s. Stickers with this image on it were put in lockers aboard the Command Module to surprise the crew.

The final Skylab crew consisted entirely of space rookies and ran into some initial problems with balancing work. Mission commander Jerry Carr (left), science pilot Ed Gibson (center), and pilot Bill Pogue (right) felt mission control was pressing them too hard and mission control felt they were not working as hard as they should. After a few weeks of frustration they two sides talked it out, came to consensus, and in the end, got more work done than they were scheduled to during their 84-day mission... though none of the crew members were ever given another space mission.

When this final crew boarded the station, they found they had company - the previous crew had left three dummies on board wearing flight suits including the new crew's names and insignia.

This final crew's insignia The symbols in the final crew's patch refer to the three major area of investigation proposed in the mission. The three represents man's natural environment and relates directly to advancing the study of Earth resources. The hydrogen atom, as the basic building block of the universe, represents man's exploration of the physical world, the application of knowledge, and the development of technology. Since the sun is composed primarily of hydrogen, it is appropriate that the symbol refers to the study of solar physics. The human silhouette represents mankind and the human capacity to direct technology with a wisdom tempered by regard for the natural environment. It also directly relates to the medical studies done on the astronauts themselves.. The rainbow, adopted from the biblical story of the flood, symbolizes the promise that is offered mankind. It embraces the man and extends to the tree and hydrogen atom emphasizing mankind's pivotal role in the conciliation of technology with nature. 

Bill Pogue wore the first automatic chronograph watch in space and it was * gasps in horror * a Seiko and not an Omega, even though the first automatic Omega came out two years earlier. Come on man, it's not even a Grand Seiko!

Episode 72: The Apollo Program, Part XVII

 

Apollo 17 - the final mission of the Apollo Program - was made up Gene Cernan (a veteran of Gemini 9 and Apollo 10) and two space rookies, Ron Evans and Jack Schmitt (both making their only space flights)

The prominent feature of this mission’s insignia is the Greek sun god Apollo, backdropped by what is described as an American eagle. Red stripes on the eagle’s wing mirror those of the US flag. Three white stars above the red bars represent the three members of the mission’s crew. The background includes the Moon, the planet Saturn, and a galaxy or nebula. The eagle’s wing partially overlays the Moon, suggesting humanity’s established presence there. Both Apollo and the Moon are gold, representing the golden age of space flight that NASA hoped would begin with Apollo 17.

The image of Apollo on the insignia was based on the Apollo Belvedere, a sculpture from classical antiquity housed in the Vatican Museum. Apollo is looking forward into the future, towards the celestial objects in the insignia behind the moon. These objects – Saturn and the galaxy – represent humanity’s goals, and the image symbolizes human intelligence, wisdom, and ambition. 

I didn't mention this on the podcast, but Omega put out a limited edition Speedmaster based on Apollo 17's insignia for the mission's 40th anniversary...

and its 45th anniversary!

Apollo 17 was the only Apollo mission with a night launch, lifting off just after midnight on December 7, 1972.

    On the way to the moon, the crew took this picture of Earth - now known as the blue marble - which is one of the most reproduced images in history. This image is actually cropped from the original which has a lot more black space and has the planet oriented with the north pole facing down.

Of course they took an obligatory photo with Cernan by the flag, with the lunar lander Challenger and the lunar rover in the background.

Apollo 17's landing cite - the Taurus-Littrow Valley - and its surrounding area as seen from the command module America.

A still-sealed sample taken during Apollo 17 was opened for the first time in January 2022. These excited scientists has equipment that their 1970s counterparts did not and were able to gain new insights into the moon and its makeup. Their mass spectrometer was even able to capture lunar gases present in the sample. 

You will need to find someone more knowledgeable than I to break down the specifics of the finding - what I read about the findings were beyond my understanding!

The Apollo 17 crew splashed down on December 19, 1972 and were recovered by the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga, the same ship that recovered the Apollo 16 crew.

Episode 71: The Apollo Program, Part XVI

 

Before we jump into the Apollo 16 mission we are going to say good bye to two astronauts - and before we do that, here is one of those Seiger covers that caused so many problems:

And the Bulova watch that Dave Scott wore during his thirs EVA on the moon after the crystal on his Omega popped off:

He was also wearing the Bulova in this photo of him next to the US Flag - the watch's strap can be seen on the arm lifted in salute.

And now on to our two eulogies

First is Apollo 15's Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin. This is neither here nor there, but many photos of Irwin (particularly the one above) made me think of an older version of Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. After returning to the lunar lander follwoing the mission's third EVA, a doctor monitoring Irwin's heartbeat back on Earth said he was basically having a heart attack. His heart would continue to plague him throughout his post-NASA life. He survived three heart attacks back on Earth, but the fourth one proved fatal.

Air Force Colonel James Benson Irwin was buried at Arlignton National Cemetery in Section 3, Grave 2503.

In my excitment to get to Apollo 13, I completely neglected to eulogive Apollo 12 astronaut Dick Gordon. A few specifics of his post-NASA life are included in this week's episode.

Navy Captain Richard Francis Gordon, Jr. was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 18, Grave 30047.

The Apollo 16 mission insignia's red, white, and blue shield is supposed to represent the people of the United States of America for their support of the space race. The sixteen stars around the edge of the insignia represent the mission number.

Scientists hoped that Apollo 16's landing zone - the Descartes Highlands - would provide more volcanic information about the moon's early history. What it actually provided was proof that that portion of the lunar surface had little to no evidence of volcanic activity... oops!

When mission commander John Young and lunar module pilot Charlie Duke climbed Stone Mountain (at the base of which they are parked in the above photo), they were 500 feet above the lunar lander, the highest point any Apollo astronauts would be above their lander.

Sadly, this is one of the better photos of House Rock that I could find, but there isn't much in the picture to establish scale. The rock was said the be the height of a four-story building.

The above picture of John Young jumping in the moon's low gravity while saluting the flag is my favorite photo from the Apollo 16 mission. 

The above footage had been converted to 4K video from the original "Grand Prix" footage shot by Charlie Duke of John Young driving the lunar rover. It looks like he is going a lot faster than the eight miles an hour (or thirteen kilometers an hour) he was actually traveling.

On the return flight to Earth, command module pilot Ken Mattingly performed the second deep space spacewalk. 

Episode 70: The Apollo Program, Part XV

 

Apollo 15 is considered the most successful of the Apollo flights, and was the first NASA mission whose sole purpose was to advance human knowledge as opposed to validating equipment and procedures for future missions.

But before we talk about all of Apollo 15's achievements, we're going to take some time to eulogize Alan Shepard, the first American in space, who lived a full life after his time as the commander of Apollo 14. He left his philadering ways behind him, doted on his daughters, and did what he could to repaire his relationship with his wife, Louise who had heard rumrs of his unfaithfulness for years. After Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff was published in 1979, the rumors became reality and public knowledge but she chose to never question him about his dalliances nor contemplated leaving him.

Rear Admiral Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. died on July 21, 1998 at age 74. About a month later, before she could spread his ashes, Louise also passed away. Their children spread both of their parent's ashes from a Navy helicopter over Stillwater Cove in front of this Pebble Beach, California home.

Similar to the Apollo 12 mission insignia having a maritime theme since all the crew members were also naval officers, the Apollo 15 insignia had a heavy Air Force motif as each crew member was in the Air Force. The circular patch features stylized red, white, and blue bird flying over Hadley Rille – the lunar region Apollo 15 was to land in. Immediately behind the birds, a line of craters forms the Roman number 15. The Roman numbers were hidden in emphasized outlines of some craters after NASA insisted that the mission number be displayed in Arabic numerals. The artwork is circled in red, with a white band giving the mission and crew names and a blue boarder. The red, white, and blue colored birds represented each of the crew members and matched the Corvettes the astronauts drove while training in Florida.

The Apollo 15 mission landed in the northern portion of the Earth facing side of the moon near foothills and a moutain range called the Apennines, after the range in Italy.

Many scientists consider Hadley base to be not only the most beautiful Apollo landing zones, but also one of the the most geologically interesting.

Because Apollo 15 carried much heavier equipment than previous Apollo missions, the lunar lander Falcon, had a larger engine bell which threw up much more lunar dust that its predecessors and put the crew in blackout conditions before touching down on the lunar surface. The landing is believed to have been the hardest of the moon landings and caused lunar module pilot Jim Irwin to cry out "bam!' after they touched down.

Since this mission would require the crew to travel farther from the lunar lander than ever before, NASA provided the astronauts with an electric rover. By the end of this three EVAs, they had put 17 miles on the vehicle.

The rover was equipped with a camera that could be controlled by scientists back in Houston which, in a way, allowed them to indirectly participate in the EVA from afar.

The most significant lunar rock sample from Apollo 15 was later dubbed the Genesis stone. It is more than four billion years old and believed to be part of the lunar crust around the time the moon was formed.

While on the lunar surface, Dave Scott and Jim Irwin completed three work periods on the lunar surface.

NASA realized that the public loved Alan Shepard's Apollo 14 antics with the golf balls so one of the experiments planned for Apollo 15 was to validate Galileo's theory that when there is no air resistance, objects fall at the same rate due to gravity regardless of their mass.

One of the final acts of mission commander Dave Scott was to move the lunar rover away from the lunar so it could film Falcon's lift off. Before he walked back to the lander, he placed a memorial plaque honoring the 14 known American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had given their lives to advance space exploration. He also left a memorial statue that would ignight a lot of controversy (but you'll have to wait until next week for that story).

While the general public had seen many rocket launches on Earth over the years, this was the first time they were able to see an Apollo lunar module lift off from the lunar surface.

After Dave Scott and Jim Irwin returned to lunar orbit and docked Falcon with command module Enveavour, and the crew left lunar orbit on their return voyage to Earth, command module pilot Al Worden complete the first spacewalk in deep space, leaving the safety of the command module to retrieve some film cannisters located in external bays. 

Worden caught a glimpse of Irwin standing with his upper torse outside the spaceship. The moon looming in the background made Worden wish he had a camera to capture the sight. Artist Pierre Mion drew the scene for National Geographic.

Episode 69: The Apollo Program, Part XIV

It was a long time coming - ten years in fact! - but after being grounded due to an inner ear problem, Alan Shepard (center) recovered from a painful surgery and was given command of the Apollo 14 mission.

Before I talk about Apollo 14, here is the promised Apollo 13 photo I mentioned with the crew needing something more formal that ball caps and flight suits to meet with the president so they put on ascots!

After stepping on the moon, Shepard remarked that it had been a long but he had made it. He also quipped that it wasn't bad for an old man. At 47, he was the oldest of all the astronauts to walk on the moon.

It didn't work as well as NASA had hoped, but Apollo 14 went to the moon with what was basically a handcart (seen above with Shepard) to help the crew haul equipment around the lunar surface. Carrying experiments made the already taxing moonwalks even harder but the undulating surface wasn't really made for a cart. The next mission would have an all-terrain rover.

Alan Shepard and Ed Mitchell spent a lot of time during their second EVA trying to find a particular point to collect rock and soil samples from but the terrain features on the lunar surface look different from the maps they had, made from pictures taken in orbit. Above, Ed Mitchell is looking at one of those maps trying to navigate.

One of the largest moon rocks brought back by any Apollo mission was Apollo 14's Big Bertha which turned out to be ejecta from Earth and more than four billion years old, making it among the oldest known rocks in the universe.

 

The most enduring image of the Apollo 14 mission is probably when Shepard pulled out a makeshift six iron and took swings at two golf balls.

The insignia for this mission depicts the Earth, the moon, and an astronaut pin drawn with a comet tail. The pin is worn by military astronauts on their uniforms to indicate their military occupation. The design is based on a sketch made by Shepard who had been the head of the astronaut office while he was gounded and meant for the pin to symbolize that through him, the entire astronaut corps was flying ot the moon.

Before his Air Force and astronaut career, Apollo 14 command module pilot Stu Roosa was a forest service smoke jumper and firefighter. During the mission, he brought hundreds of tree seeds into space. After the mission, these seeds were germinated and distributed around the US (and to a few international sites) to see if the zero gravity and radiation of space would effect how their growth. By in large, it did not. 

By the mid-1990s, the story behing the moon trees and their locations had mostly been forgotten until a third grade teacher and her class came across a tree in Indiana with a plaque on it and wrote to NASA aking for more inforamtion . That inspired a NASA researcher to begin searching for moon trees and tracking their location. Several of them had plaques accociated with them, like the plaque above from a  Georgia moon tree and others were tracked via newpaper articles at the time of their plantings. The wonderfully 1990s website is still available today.

I just learned that I grew up near a moon tree located at Lowell Elementary School in Boise, ID.

In 2005, on the 34th anniversary of Apollo 14's splashdown, a half-moon tree (a tree produced from the seed of a moon tree) was planted at Arlington Naitonal Cemetery, not far from Stu Roosa's final resting place.

Air Force Colonel Stuart Allen Roosa passed away on December 12, 1994 from complications due to pancreatitis at the age of 61. He was bured at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 7A, Grave 73.