Smithsonian Apollo Program Online Conference

Today, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum hosted a virtual conference about the Apollo Program. The six hour online conference covered the following topics: Session #1 – Placing Apollo in Historical Context Session; #2 – Getting to the Moon: Apollo Technology Session; #3 – Presidents, Politics, Social Climate; Session #4 – Apollo Artifacts Session; #5 – Apollo Imagery & its Place in Society Session; and #6 – Remembering Apollo. Among the presenters were friends of the Field Guide Roger Launius, Senior Curator, Michael Neufeld, Chair of Space History, and Allan Needell, Curator of Space History.

The conference seemed well attended, based on the chatter in the text box where participants were able to ask questions. Historical context of the Apollo Program was the theme, and the presentation gave great insight into the times and events. Due to a telecon conflict I was forced to miss the voice portions of sessions 4 and 5, but continued to monitor the presentation and chat.

I was already thoroughly pleased with the conference, when Allan Needell began the sixth session by showing the Field Guide home page and recommending it as a source to locate Apollo hardware. He then gave me a shout out for participating in the chat. Thanks, Allan! If any conference attendees have visited the Field Guide and found their way to this blog, welcome! Please leave a comment and let me know you are here! And thanks again to all those involved from the Air & Space Museum for a great conference!

Spacecraft of the Week #11

Gemini XII was launched with astronauts Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin on November 11 (Veterans Day) in 1966. The spacecraft in question was home to the astronauts for 4 days, during which Buzz Aldrin conducted three spacewalks. After an almost disastrous EVA on Gemini XI, Buzz helped engineer handholds and foot restraints and barely broke a sweat on his walk, indicating astronauts would be able to work outside the spacecraft landing on the moon. As the finale of the Gemini program it was a resounding success.

The spacecraft was checked out after recovery at Johnson Space Center, and transported for display at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Aukland, New Zealand. After many years it returned to the states and was then placed for display at the Goddard Space Flight Center. It was paired at the Visitor Center there nose to nose with a sit-in model. Looking out the window while sitting in the model always reminded me of the Gemini VII - Gemini VI rendezvous in space. In 2005, the Smithsonian was asked to relocate the spacecraft.

The Adler Planetarium in Chicago had undergone a major renovation and wanted a 'capstone' to highlight man's relationship with space. Chicago native Jim Lovell was instrumental in bringing his old spacecraft to his hometown. No longer enclosed in a plexiglas cocoon, the capsule was placed in climate controlled display case designed and built by the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. This new case is a prototype for future displays. Although it may somewhat restrict viewing and photography by boxing in the capsule, the importance of protecting the aging craft become paramount. Similar cases have been constructed for Gemini 3 , Gemini VI and Gemini X, Liberty Bell 7, and Apollo 13.

So to honor its history and for trailblazing a new way to preserve and display these important artificers, Gemini XII is our Spacecraft of the Week.

X-38 On the Move

The Field Guide welcomes the X-38 to its data base. The X-38 would have been the precursor for the Crew Return Vehicle, a stubby winged spacecraft that would have been parked at the International Space Station and used as an orbital lifeboat in case of an emergency. Based on the earlier X-24 lifting body created by the US Air Force (even including the bulbous cockpit canopy - it was easier to use the same wind tunnel data as the X-24), it would carry seven crew members back into the atmosphere, then deploy the largest canopy parachute ever tested to land on skids at a predetermined location.

Though cancelled in April of 2002, three test vehicles were created: two for drop tests and one for an orbital reentry test. The one pictured above, V-132, was dropped from a B-52 for several tests at Edwards Air Force Base. This past week it made its way to the Strategic Air Command Museum, Ashland, NE, for display. It is a reminder of what could have been - a safe elegant way to protect astronauts in an emergency.

Check out the the rest of the fleet on the Field Guide.

Spacecraft of the Week #10

A little over nine years ago a remarkable event took place. On a list of technological achievements it would rank among the top, perhaps superseded only by the lunar landings. On October 30, 2000, human beings went to space - and stayed there. The spacecraft that made this possible was the International Space Station, our Spacecraft of the Week.

Let me take you back to another time a little over a hundred years ago to give you perspective. Two brothers experimenting produced a series of gliders to engineer the technology to achieve flight. The would run down a sand hill and let the glider lift them up in the air, only to settle back to earth a few seconds later. Their prowess and skills led them to more advanced designs, finally incorporating an engine. Now they could launch from the level field. A first attempt was made, and an 12 second flight was the result - significant for its historicity but not much more than their unassisted glides. A second and third were made only slightly increasing duration and length of flight. But imagine how Orville felt as he watched Wilbur take of on the fourth and ultimately final flight: He's up. 12 seconds - still going. 20 seconds - he's looking smooth! 30 seconds - he's not coming down!

That just under a minute fourth flight of a controllable powered flying machine proved that we as a people could call the sky our home. Every plane eventually lands, but many individuals call the sky their place of work. Nine years ago, that mindset shifted further, beyond the atmosphere. The International Space Station allows people to go to space to work, to call home. They go up, and stay up.

Or think about his way: Second grade classrooms across the country are filled with students who have not been alive a single day that a person has not called space home. They and their younger classmates, brothers and sisters represent the true space age generation. The sky is no longer the limit. Space awaits them.

RIP Crew Module Simulator

After a day of trials by weather and an eventual scrub, the Ares I-X booster launched Wednesday morning into a hazy Florida sky. After a 2 minute, twelve second burn of its sole solid rocket booster, the vehicle performed a planned stage separation, with the booster itself parachuting down to the recovery area in the Atlantic Ocean. The Upper Stage Simulator continued its parabolic track and crashed in to the ocean, taking with it the Orion Crew Module Simulator. Even though it was only a mockup, and not even what you could call a boilerplate, it is sad that it won't wind up on display anywhere.

Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana described it as "the most beautiful thing he ever saw". I agree, but adding the thrill was less like watching humans travel to space aboard a Shuttle, and more like a large model rocket. Like a model rocket, the X-1 used a reusable booster launched with solid fuel, and deploying a recovery system. There was no recovery system for the USS and the CMS, so as planned they were expendable. So good-bye CMS! We hardly knew you! And we end with a cardinal rule of model rockets: If you don't want to lose it, don't launch it!

My apologies for the shaky cam!

Spacecraft of the Week #9

Another late entry, but this weeks' Spacecraft of the Week' celebrates the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Before Columbia was first launched in 1981, NASA conducted a series of free-flights with Enterprise, OV-101. Taking flight piggy-backed on top a specially modified 747 purchased from American Airlines, Enterprise would be released to glide back to the runway, providing a valuable cache of data needed to refine landing techniques after spaceflight. Unpowered, at least for flight, it would not glide as much as proceed through a controlled fall, much like a flying squirrel drops and swoops from one tree to another or the ground. Only when it nears the ground and raises its nose is there enough lift created by its wings to truly be flying. (And Truly was flying! Dick Truly, destined to fly the orbiter to space and become NASA Administrator was one of Enterprise's pilots!) A soon as this happens, though, drag increases and airspeed rapidly drops. The goal is to have wheels on ground before airspeed reaches stall conditions, when the vehicle really would fall. Despite the complexity, astronaut pilots have had remarkable success in bringing the spacecraft to the runway - mostly due to their training on a modified Gulfstream V. And how did NASA know how to modify the Gulfstream? With the data collected by Enterprise, of course.

In the words of Buzz Lightyear, "This isn't flying. It's falling... with style!"

Spacecraft of the Week #8

Tomorrow morning, Tuesday, October 20, shortly after midnight, an event will occur that has not happened in almost 30 years. A new launch vehicle will leave the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center and make its way to Launch Complex 39B. Atop the Ares I-X booster is our Spacecraft of the Week. The 'Crew Module Simulator' is a boilerplate of an Orion Spacecraft. Mounted on a simulated service module and topped with a Launch Abort System Simulator, the CMS is heavily instrumented to provide feedback of the forces experienced in the launch.

The Ares I-X has been the center of some controversy. Built as a test for the more powerful Ares I, this uprated Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) was never intended to launch alone. Paired up along side an external fuel tank , SRBs have helped launch Space Shuttles since 1981. With modifications and an extra segment of rocket fuel, the Ares I was intended to launch astronauts to orbit and the International Space Station. Critics fear that undampened vibrations of the burning solid fuel would prove fatal for astronauts aboard. The same fears arose after the Saturn V's first flight. Engineering provided an answer and the Saturn V became one of the most successful boosters in history. The Ares I-X will provide similar data and provide engineers with a benchmark for final development of the Ares I.

But first, the CMS and the Ares I-X need to get to the pad. Tomorrow will be an exciting day for space hardware enthusiasts, and sitting atop the object of their attention will be our Spacecraft of the Week, the Crew Module Simulator.