Reach for the Star Note Contest

You never know, I made it hard for a reason. If you have some of the answers, it never hurts to try it.

I will post the answers at the conclusion of the contest.

 

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ok, thanks I'll give it a go still then, gona try n get a few more answers though

 

Well, the contest ended last night at 11:59pm PST. I would like to thank everyone who entered. I know it was very difficult and took quite a bit of time to answer the questions.

Now, for the part you have all been waiting for. The winner is.....Treashunt

So, congratulations to Treashunt for winning the contest and once again thank you to everyone who entered. I had fun putting this together and I think down the road I will have to do another contest.

 

Here are all the answers. I have also included some extra information for some of the questions (in blue) but that was not part of the answers. Just some side info.

Questions

1. Astronaut Deke Slayton was selected in America’s first class of astronauts (the “Mercury 7”) and was slated to be the fourth American to fly in space. What was the name he had chosen for his flight? For what reason was he grounded?

Delta 7
Idiopathic Atrial Fibrillation (erratic heart rate)…I accepted any answer about a problem with his heart rate.

As a side note (not part of answer); Deke Slayton was grounded for a decade and missed out flying a mission during America’s quest for the moon. He continued to work for NASA in various management positions and watched the moon landings from mission control. However, he was eventually medically cleared and made one spaceflight as the docking module pilot of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975.

2. Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet Cosmonaut and the first man to fly in space. His second space flight assignment as a backup mission commander. He franticly tried to get the prime crew grounded and be substituted into the flight. Why did he do this? What was the name of the cosmonaut he wanted to replace?

He did this because it was well known that there were serious flaws in the Soyuz spacecraft and it was likely that a fatal accident would occur if the mission was allowed to fly. Government pressures were pushing to launch the spacecraft despite the problems. Gagarin knew that if he could get the prime crew grounded and be put in their place that the mission would never be allowed to fly. He was considered a great national hero and they wouldn’t take a serious risk with his life.

Vladimir Komorav was the cosmonaut he wanted to replace

As a side note (not part of answer); Gagarin failed to get Komarov grounded and the mission flew. Komarov was killed (see question 8). Yuri Gagarin was never allowed to fly in space again because he was considered too valuable as a national hero. As an active member of the Soviet Air Force, Gagarin maintained his active flight status by completing various training exercises and flying the required hours. He was killed in a training accident when his Mig-15 trainer crashed in 1968. He died less than 1 year after Komarov was killed on Soyuz 1.

3. Name all the men who walked on the moon.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt

4. Name all of the American space shuttles. What is the current status of each?

Enterprise (Retired, Museum Display at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center)
Columbia (Destroyed)
Challenger (Destroyed)
Discovery (Active)
Atlantis (Active)
Endeavour (Active)

5. What was unique about the Soviet flight Soyuz T-15?

Only spaceflight to visit two space stations (Mir and Salyut 7).

6. The governing body of international air and space flight records is the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FIA). According to the record guidelines of the FIA, who was the first man to successfully complete a space flight?

John Glenn

Explanation: The FIA had several guidelines that were required to be met before a flight would be certified as an official spaceflight. Among these were requirements that the astronaut must launch and land in the capsule as well as reach a certain altitude. Yuri Gagarin is well known as the first man in space (on 4/12/1961), however his Vostok 1 capsule was designed with an ejection seat that the pilot used following reentry (as all Vostok capsules were). Gagarin did not land in his capsule. This fact was concealed and the mission was certified as the first spaceflight by the FIA. It wasn’t until years later that the truth was found out. The first two American spaceflights (Freedom 7 on 5/5/1961, and Liberty Bell 7 on 7/21/1961) flown by Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom respectively were both suborbital flights that didn’t reach the minimum altitude. Both astronauts did in fact land in their capsule though. The second Soviet flight (Vostok 2 on 8/6/61-8/7/61) flown by Gherman Titov also ended in an ejection as designed. It wasn’t until John Glenn’s orbital flight or Friendship 7 on 2/20/1962 did someone meet all FIA requirements for a spaceflight. Despite this, Glenn’s flight has always been considered the fifth manned spaceflight.

7. What was the name of the Apollo 9 command module? Why did the crew choose this name?

Gumdrop because it arrived from the manufacture wrapped in blue plastic

8. How many crews has the Soviet/Russian manned space program lost during a mission? How many cosmonauts were killed? What mission(s) was lost? What caused the accident(s)?

Two fatal missions
4 total cosmonauts killed
Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11
Soyuz 1: Parachutes tangled following reentry resulting in the spacecraft crashing and being destroyed on impact with the ground, Vladimir Komarov was killed (only occupant). Soyuz 11: Capsule depressurized during reentry resulting in the death of all 3 cosmonauts onboard (none were wearing spacesuits)

9. Who was originally selected to serve as the Apollo command module pilot (CMP) for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project? Why did he lose his seat? What previous mission(s) did he fly? What career did he choose after he left NASA?

John L. (Jack) Swigert
He lied about his knowledge about the Apollo 15 stamp scandal
Apollo 13 was his only previous mission
Congressman (US House of Representatives from Colorado – died before taking office)

10. Who was the original lunar module pilot on Apollo 17? Why did he lose his spot on the mission?

Joe Engle was original LMP
Following the cancellation of Apollo’s 18 and 19, there was pressure by the scientific community to put a scientist on the moon (which hadn’t yet happened). A geologist (Harrison Schmitt) had trained as the LMP on Apollo 18 which was now cancelled. It was decided to bump Schmitt up to Apollo 17 from 18.

11. Why did the first two space shuttle launches look “weird?”

The shuttle’s external tank was painted white rather than left unpainted (which is orange)

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12. What special feature was equipped on the first 4 space shuttle flights for crew safety?

Ejection Seats.

13. In March of 1965, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to walk in space. Why was he almost unable to enter the airlock following the walk? What did he do to solve this problem?

Once outside of the spacecraft, his suit expanded and became too big to fit in the airlock.
He had to open a valve and bleed some of the air in his suit into the vacuum of space to deflate it.

14. Name the 5 main objectives of the Gemini program?

1. Place 2 astronauts and equipment in orbit for long duration (up to 2 weeks) in preparation for lunar flights.
2. Rendezvous and Dock with other orbiting vehicles (and use their propulsion system).
3. Perfect methods of reentry and landing to pre-selected locations.
4. Gain additional information about weightless on crew and physiological reactions from long duration flight
5. Perform Extra Vehicular Activities (EVA’s) or “spacewalks” outside the spacecraft.

15. What “mutiny” type action did the crew of Skylab 4 take? Did any of the crew ever fly in space again?

They took an unscheduled day off and turned off their communications equipment.
None of them ever flew in space again (although, it is debated if this was directly as a result of the “mutiny” or simply a result of the lack of flights over the next several years).

16. Had it flown, what would the space shuttle mission STS-62-A been the first to do? What was the purpose of this?

First space shuttle mission to be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
This was to place the shuttle in a polar orbit for reconnaissance purposes.

As a side note (not part of answer); this mission was cancelled following the Challenger accident and there has never been a manned launch from Vandenberg AFB. However, there has been many satellites launched from there.

17. Who was originally to command the flight to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope? What was the flight’s designation? What shuttle was to be used? Why was the mission cancelled?

John Young was mission commander
STS-61-J
Space Shuttle Atlants
Cancelled along with all other missions following the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger

As a side note (not part of answer); Hubble wasn’t launched until 4 years later in 1990. It was deployed during the STS-31 space shuttle flight from the shuttle Discovery. The mission was commanded by astronaut Loren Shriver. Veteran astronaut John Young had been transferred to another post in NASA in part because of critical comments he made following the Challenger accident. He was a veteran of 6 spaceflights and he never flew in space again despite remaining on the active roster until he retired in 2004 after 42 years in the astronaut corps.

John Young’s list of accomplishments include: flying on the first manned Gemini flight (Gemini-3 in 1965), Walking on the Moon during Apollo 16 (1972), one of only 3 men to fly to the moon twice (Apollo 10 and Apollo 16), Commanded the first space shuttle mission, and more.

18. Who was the original commander of STS-46? Why did he lose his seat on the flight?

Robert L. Gibson

Lost his seat because he broke the rule about flight crews participating in high risk activities when he competed in an air race in Texas while assigned to the crew of STS-46.

As a side note (not part of answer); the punishment handed down to Gibson was grounding from flights for 1 year. However, due to various delays he ended up being assigned to command STS-47. Although he was “down for a year,” because of the mission delays he ended up flying only 2 months after STS-46 actually flew.

19. Most rocket and capsule type launch vehicles have an emergence escape rocket tower on top of the capsule. This is designed to pull the capsule away from the rocket in the event of a serious failure. How many times has this system been used? What event(s) resulted in it being needed?

Used Twice

Soyuz 18a: (4/5/1975) Launch proceeded normally until the second and third stages were to separate. The stages failed to separate properly (only 3 of the 6 holding locks released the stages) and the ignition of the third stage caused the second stage to break loose. This caused the trajectory of the rocket to be too far off and 7 seconds later the escape system activated automatically.

Soyuz T-10-1: (9/26/1983) 90 seconds before liftoff, a fuel spill beneath the rocket caused a fire. The fire burned the control cables on the ground which would have allowed mission control to activate the emergency escape system. After 20 seconds, mission control successfully activated the escape system and the capsule was pulled away from the burning launch vehicle and pad. 2 seconds later, the rocket collapsed and exploded destroying the pad.


20. What was the name of the Soviet space shuttle? How many times did it fly? How big was its crew?

Buran
Flew Once
Unmanned (no crew)

As a side note (not part of answer); Two more orbiters were planned and were due to be completed in 1990 and 1992 respectively. Both were in various stages of construction when the program was cancelled in 1993. On May 12, 2002, the hanger that housed the Buran shuttle collapsed because of poor maintenance. The collapse killed 8 workers and destroyed the shuttle.

 

thanks againg for the contest

Congrats Treashunt

 

congrats Thunt!

 

takes big bow!


Thanks CamaroDMD!

 

While I did not participate in this contest. I really enjoyed the questions and especially;all the answers. So, once again, I learned a lot here on CoinTalk, as will anyone who peruses these pages.

Bruce

 

CamaraDMD:

Notes received, thank a bunch!

And please thank the 'mystery donator' for the slabbed note!

It is my first.

Frank

P.S. You selected a topic that I have always loved to read about, in fact I lived thru most of the space program.

P.S. You should explain to Toad how to get to the post office, apparently he can't find one in his town!


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