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Today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, which made the first lunar landing.
And I just learned that I won an auction of this hypergolic Apollo Command Module Rocket Engine, signed by Buzz Aldrin and Wally Schirra.
From the Bonhams space auction, still underway:
"Apollo Command Module rocket engine, made by Rocketdyne, Model SE-8, steel and ablative material, 14 inches long and 3½ inches wide at nozzle base. Fuel and oxidizer valve assemblies are at the top with the associated electrical wiring connections. An ablative nozzle is at the bottom. Internal components consist of a block of ablative material and sleeve, refractory throat insert, and a stainless steel shell. A Rocketdyne ID label reads in part: "Propulsion System Component, Part Name: Rocket Engine Assembly, Part No. 99-106003, Model No. SE 8-2, Date of Mfg. 2Q 64 (second quarter, 1964) Serial No. 4058366."
A set of 12 of these bi-propellant engines provided the Command Module with rotation control, rate damping, and attitude control after separation from the Service Module and during re-entry."
(many more details below)
HMS Apollo, a Leander-class frigate, arriving in the River Dart. The reason for the Procedure Alpha arrival and the College's boats providing ceremonial escort was that she was carrying the then-Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command (CINCNAVHOME) who was retiring back to his house in the area.
Commissioned in 1972, Apollo was the penultimate in a class of 26 ships and served her entire career with the Royal Navy as a standard 4.5-inch gun platform, unlike so many of the class which were converted in their later years to Ikara, Exocet and Exocet-Sea Wolf weapons platforms and towed-array units.
She was sold to the Pakistani Navy in 1988, where she became the Zulfiquar (F-262), serving into this millennium.
Image taken during Apollo 17 mission
Credit : NASA/ASA/JSC/Arizona State University/Thomas Thomopoulos
4.163 cc
V8 - 90°
750 PS @ 6.000 rpm
900 Nm @ 4.000 rpm
Vmax : 360 km/h
0-100 km/h : 2,9 sec
0-200 km/h : 8,8 sec
84th Geneva International Motor Show
Internationaler Auto-Salon Genf
Suisse - Schweiz - Switzerland
March 2014
Strobist Info: Dual SB-600s at 1/16 inside Westcott Apollo Orb (diffuser on), directly behind subject. Triggered via Radiopopper JRX.
Second only to Apollo 11 in fame, Apollo 13 was, when it was launched, seen as almost routine: Apollo 11 had put men on the Moon and Apollo 12 had proven it could be done twice. Few people outside of space enthusiasts and NASA were thinking much of Apollo 13 when it was launched on April 11, 1970. Onboard were the three crew: command pilot Jim Lovell (veteran of three previous spaceflights), lunar module (LM) pilot Jack Swigert, and command module (CM) pilot Fred Haise. Their destination was the Fra Mauro highlands on the Moon.
Other than a early engine shutoff on the second stage (which could have been more catastrophic than originally believed), the launch and everything required for Apollo 13 to go to the Moon went smoothly. On April 14, however, not long after a television broadcast--that was watched by no one outside NASA, as none of the networks were interested in carrying it--Mission Control requested Swigert turn on the stirring fans in the service module's oxygen tanks. What no one knew was that the insulation on the wires in Apollo 13's second SM oxygen tank were damaged: when Swigert switched on the fans, the wires shorted. This instantly ignited the oxygen tank, which exploded. While luckily the explosion was vented into space (which also snuffed the fire), it destroyed one oxygen tank and severely damaged the other. Apollo 13 was now in trouble.
No one knew what had happened; Lovell reported "Houston, we've had a problem," and at first it was thought that either the spacecraft had been hit by a meteor or it was an instrument problem. When Lovell spotted oxygen being vented to space, however, both crew and Mission Control knew that the situation was now desperate. There was no thought of landing on the Moon: now it was a fight just to survive. There had been some vague ideas about using the LM as a "lifeboat" for the crew, but it had never really been tried. Now NASA had no choice. To conserve as much power as possible, the CM was shut down and all three men moved into the LM.
Problem after problem began to crop up, each requiring something entirely new to be invented on the spot. Getting the crew back to Earth involved them moving to an new orbit and using the Moon's gravity to slingshot them home--but the LM's engine had to be used, as the SM's might've been damaged. (It was done successfully, and Apollo 13's crew set a record for the furthest human beings have ever gone from Earth--over 248,000 miles away.) Once that was done, the rising levels of carbon dioxide meant that a scrubbing system had to be devised using whatever could be found on the spacecraft. The crew's water had to be rationed, leading to Haise developing a urinary tract infection. Finally, the temperature in the minimally-operating LEM dropped to 38 degrees Fahrenheit: the crew, without any sort of cold-weather clothing, simply had to endure it.
But endure it they did, and all the innovations and improvisations by crew and Mission Control worked: Apollo 13 splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean on April 17. The near disaster spurred worldwide interest and concern for the astronauts, and for a short time, renewed interest in the Apollo program--though only four of the planned seven additional missions after Apollo 13 were flown, the others cancelled due to budget cuts. Neither Lovell, Swigert or Haise flew in space again; Swigert passed away in 1982.
Interest in Apollo 13, much like the Apollo program itself, waned after the program wound down. Lovell wrote a book in the early 1990s titled "Lost Moon", which spurred interest in a movie, "Apollo 13," which came out in 1995. This made the "successful failure" of the mission, in some ways, more well known than the success of the rest of the Apollo program.
After the mission, the only surviving part of Apollo 13--the Command Module, "Odyssey"--was disassembled and each part examined during the investigation into the accident. The capsule itself was reassembled and placed on display at the Kennedy Space Center; the interior was reassembled later and put in one of the "boilerplate" trainers and displayed at the Museum of Natural History at Louisville, Kentucky. In 1983, Odyssey was sent to the Museum of Air and Space in Paris, France, where it would remain until 1995. After the popularity of "Apollo 13" the film, Odyssey was brought home and moved to the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, where it was reunited with the interior, taken from the boilerplate. A 12-year restoration project resulted, and finally the complete Apollo 13 went on display at the Cosmosphere in 2007.
My 2020 trip was delayed and rescheduled due to coronavirus, but eventually a friend and I decided to go through the Midwest (where the museums were open). I looked into the Cosmosphere, and when I learned it had the real Apollo 13 (to say nothing of Gemini 10 and Liberty Bell 7!), my friend--who is a huge space enthusiast--was onboard for making a planned 3-day trip into a 6-day one. It was worth the extra days, mileage and sore butt to see the real thing. The restoration was beautifully done, and to be able to look inside and see where the real Lovell, Swigert and Haise sat on their mission--words cannot describe it.
* Earth, 1971
* Apollo 15
* Ektacolor print
* National Air and Space Museum, Center for Earth and Planetary Studies
* Image No. AS15-91-12342
The Apollo program changed forever on Jan. 27, 1967, when a flash fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a launch rehearsal test. The three men inside perished despite the best efforts of the ground crew. It would take more than 18 months, and extensive redesigns, before NASA sent more men into space.
At the Apollo Fountain, the Sun God Apollo, his horses and chariot rise out of the water. In Versailles, Paris; October 2008
Canon 30D
{ This theme is repeated again and again, including here in the Apollo Salon:- www.flickr.com/photos/justaslice/2962403401/in/pool-20077... }
Taken 24th December, 1968
Apollo 8 mission
Courtesy: NASA
as08-14-2384.jpg
history.nasa.gov/ap08fj/14day4_orbits456.htm
This is the first photograph taken of Earthrise taken by a human as he watched the event unfold. Interestingly, it is not the image that has become iconic over the years by virtue of the fact it is monochrome. Two colour photographs taken in a minute or so will become the images that are favourite of photo editors around the world. Note how close the Earth is to the lunar horizon. We are looking across the middle of Pasteur, a large degraded mini-basin at 224-km diameter. The lighting renders its rim invisible but the distinct crater in the central foreground is Pasteur G. A cluster of craters at the top of the frame are centred around Pasteur U.]
[We have presented this photograph in an unconventional orientation with the Moon's horizon vertical. On Earth, the convention for a sunrise or moonrise shot is to have the horizon running left to right. Bill Anders has said that this is how he see this image. They were orbiting around the Moon's equator and with north being to the top, Earth came out from behind a vertical horizon. ]
history.nasa.gov/ap08fj/14day4_orbits456.htm
The first of these two images is likely the photograph that has become an icon for environmental groups around the world. It manages to contrast the rugged, hostile, barren landscape of the Moon with the dynamic, colourful life-giving sphere of the Earth.]
[So who took the famous Earthrise photograph? Bill Anders had always been sure he had taken it, and strictly speaking he had, as it is quite clear he did take the two colour images. Yet, in his book, Countdown, Frank Borman claims that the famous colour image was taken by him.]
[There are competing theories to explain this difference which were laid out in an article and subsequent letters in The Sciences magazine on the thirtieth anniversary of the flight by Robert Zimmerman, author of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, and Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon. Both of these historians agree that Bill took the two colour images and can take credit for the famous image. But who took the first black and white image? The controversy hinges on the identity of the speaker at 075:47:30 who expresses astonishment at the sight of the rising Earth. If the transcripts are correct and it is Frank, then it seems likely that he actually took the early B+W image by grabbing the camera Bill had been using and firing off a shot while Bill jokingly admonishes him for carrying out unscheduled photography. If, on the other hand, the utterance at 075:47:30 is made by Bill then it seems likely that he had kept the camera as Frank was rotating the spacecraft, spotted the rising Earth and fired off a shot before getting Jim to help him.]
[The unfortunate fact about this controversey is that Frank and Bill have very similar voices and it can often be difficult to distinguish between them. When possible, we will make a recording of the moment available to readers so they can judge for themselves.]
[As the crew are enjoy an historic view of their home planet, the other Hasselblad in its mounting is still photographing the landscape below.
Apollo Belvedere (Roman copy of a Greek(?) original), original late 4th century B.C.E. marble, 2.3 m high (Vatican Museums, Rome)
Having left Llandudno Junction, Britannia Class 4-6-2 70015 'Apollo' heads east towards Colwyn Bay near Mochdre with an express passenger train along the North Wales coast line on 28 June 1966.
The huge, 363-foot tall Apollo 11 (Spacecraft 107/Lunar Module 5/Saturn 506) space vehicle is launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39 Kennedy Space Center (KSC), at 9:32 a.m. (EDT), July 16, 1969. Onboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft were astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., lunar module pilot. Apollo 11 is the United States first lunar landing mission. Astronaut's Armstrong and Aldrin will descend in the Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the Moon, while astronaut Collins remains with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Columbia" in lunar-orbit.