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SkyMan says: Fifty years ago today Apollo 11; 7/15/69
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<p>[QUOTE="Skyman, post: 3609088, member: 28299"]Here we go, July 16. On this day 50 years ago in 1969, Apollo 11 launched to the Moon.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was estimated that over 1,000,000 people came to view the launch of the spacecraft. It is unknown how many watched on TV, but certainly many millions more.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the very tip of the spear, the top of the rocket, were 3 astronauts; Commander (CDR) Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Buzz Aldrin. While yesterday I wrote about the hundreds of thousands who supported the mission with their mental and physical labor, today I'm going to write a little about the astronauts.</p><p><br /></p><p>To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "Never was so much, owed by so many, to so few". America had committed to going to the Moon in 1961 after consistently getting it's ass kicked by the Soviet Union in space since 1957. President Kennedy publicly made this commitment soon after the successful sub-orbital flight of Alan Shepard, the first US astronaut in space.</p><p><br /></p><p>Alan Shepard was part of the first group of astronauts, a group of 7 astronauts picked in 1959 to fly the Mercury spacecraft and called the Mercury 7. In 1962 NASA selected the next group of astronauts, 9 of them, called the New Nine, or sometimes called the Gemini astronauts. Many times this has been called the most impressive group of astronauts that was ever selected. Armstrong was in this group. In 1963 NASA selected 14 more astronauts, called The Fourteen, or sometimes the Apollo astronauts. Aldrin and Collins came from this group. This was the first group that you didn't have to be a test pilot, although you had to have many hours of high performance jet flight.</p><p><br /></p><p>The next group, 6 people chosen in 1965, was based on scientific background, and the scientists did not need to even know how to fly (although they were all taught to fly jet planes when they joined NASA, some of them graduating at the top of their Air Force flight classes). They were called The Scientists. Of these, one was forced to resign very soon after being selected, as his wife filed divorce proceedings, and NASA did not want any messy divorce scandals sullying it's public relations facade. Another resigned in August 1969 when it became obvious to him that the scientists were being consistently put on the back burner for flight assignments, and that he would never fly.</p><p><br /></p><p>In 1966 NASA selected another group of 19 pilots and test pilots. They were called, rather tongue in cheek, The New Nineteen. One of this group resigned in 1968 for medical purposes.</p><p><br /></p><p>There you have it, for one of the great endeavors in human history, if you count out those that resigned, there were 53 astronauts. Realistically speaking, only astronauts from the first 3 groups had flown by the time of Apollo 11. The astronauts from groups 4 and 5 were in support roles, until Apollo 13.</p><p><br /></p><p>Of those 53 astronauts, 8 had died in plane accidents or the Apollo 1 fire, before Apollo 11 launched. That's a slightly greater than 15% chance of death. Seven of those deaths occurred in the first 3 groups (which totaled 30 astronauts), so almost a 25% chance of death in those groups.</p><p><br /></p><p>It's surprising when you count up how many astronauts actually flew by the time of Apollo 11. From Alan Shepard's flight through Apollo 11 only 23 astronauts flew. Think about that, going from literally no space flight experience at all, to successfully landing men on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth, took a grand total of 23 astronauts. That is not many people at all. (Even by the end of Apollo 17, the last flight to the Moon, only a grand total of 34 astronauts had flown). Then think about that number of 23 astronauts and compare it to the 8 killed by that time. Not the greatest odds, eh?</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are some pieces from my collection that have signatures from those 23 astronauts (well 22 signatures, I'm saving Armstrong for later). The first one (<i>ex</i>: Deke Slayton) is a political cartoon done probably in late 1960 or early 1961 that showed all the problems that the Mercury program was having. Each of the Mercury 7 astronauts signed an astronaut depiction.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]966394[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>In the above cartoon, one of the signers, Gus Grissom, was killed during the Apollo 1 fire. Another astronaut who was killed in the fire was Ed White II. He had been the first American to walk in space on Gemini 4.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]966396[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Gemini was an EXTREMELY important program to the eventual Moon landing. During the program America learned how to perform rendezvous in space, how to do spacewalks, and how to live in space for up to 2 weeks. Here's a picture taken from Gemini 10 looking out at an Agena spacecraft they had just rendezvoused with. This is a new piece to my collection.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]966397[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>There were 29 astronauts in total that flew on Apollo missions. Of these 15 had flown by Apollo 11. Here's a piece of my collection that I haven't shown before. I was able to win it at auction when it already had 18 signatures on it. At the time of purchase there were 6 astronauts alive who had flown on Apollo who had not signed the poster. One of them essentially doesn't do any signing, and the majority of the others were all in their late 80's, if not their 90's. I figured I would be lucky to get maybe 3 signatures added on, but the good Lord was kind to me, and I got all 5 signatures. So, this piece now has 23 of the 29 Apollo astronauts. I have been lucky enough to meet 15 of them in person, and call one of them my friend. In all my years of collecting space memorabilia, I've only seen two pieces that have more Apollo era signatures on them, one with 24, and one with 26. This is a rare piece.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]966398[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>As mentioned above, training for and flying spacecraft was a risky business. Not surprisingly the astronauts were unable to get life insurance (except for standard military life insurance for the servicemen). Before a flight the crew would get together and sign a bunch of postal covers that were date stamped on the date of their launch. If the crew were lost during the flight their wives could dribble out the sale of the covers to make ends meet. As such, they got the nickname of life insurance covers. I've got one (<i>ex</i>: Aldrin). You'll note this one is actually dated July 20, 1969. Given that the launch was successful, the person who was holding onto the covers held them until they could be date stamped July 20, 1969, the date of the Moon landing. I bought this the first auction I ever bought any space memorabilia at, and as such, being a Newbie, didn't understand some of the market. It had 5 signatures on it, hence I thought it would be worth more than one with 3 signatures on it. However, since Armstrong is on the back, it is not worth as much as a cover with just three signatures on the front. It's still valuable, just not as much with one with 3 signatures on the front.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]966399[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]966400[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I have a neat Apollo 11 launch hardware piece, but it was also used during Apollo 12, and since that is my favorite Apollo mission (Dick Gordon was my friend), I'll save that for the Apollo 12 50th anniversary thread in November. Since today is the 50th anniversary of the launch, let's close today's post with a picture of the launch, signed by 4 of the Mission Control Directors. I'll be writing about Mission Control on July 20. The actual picture is a composite created from 2 pictures, one of the flag, and one of the Saturn V. You'll see about midway on the rocket a cloud. The cloud was caused by moisture condensation when the rocket went supersonic.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]966401[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Skyman, post: 3609088, member: 28299"]Here we go, July 16. On this day 50 years ago in 1969, Apollo 11 launched to the Moon. It was estimated that over 1,000,000 people came to view the launch of the spacecraft. It is unknown how many watched on TV, but certainly many millions more. At the very tip of the spear, the top of the rocket, were 3 astronauts; Commander (CDR) Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Buzz Aldrin. While yesterday I wrote about the hundreds of thousands who supported the mission with their mental and physical labor, today I'm going to write a little about the astronauts. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, "Never was so much, owed by so many, to so few". America had committed to going to the Moon in 1961 after consistently getting it's ass kicked by the Soviet Union in space since 1957. President Kennedy publicly made this commitment soon after the successful sub-orbital flight of Alan Shepard, the first US astronaut in space. Alan Shepard was part of the first group of astronauts, a group of 7 astronauts picked in 1959 to fly the Mercury spacecraft and called the Mercury 7. In 1962 NASA selected the next group of astronauts, 9 of them, called the New Nine, or sometimes called the Gemini astronauts. Many times this has been called the most impressive group of astronauts that was ever selected. Armstrong was in this group. In 1963 NASA selected 14 more astronauts, called The Fourteen, or sometimes the Apollo astronauts. Aldrin and Collins came from this group. This was the first group that you didn't have to be a test pilot, although you had to have many hours of high performance jet flight. The next group, 6 people chosen in 1965, was based on scientific background, and the scientists did not need to even know how to fly (although they were all taught to fly jet planes when they joined NASA, some of them graduating at the top of their Air Force flight classes). They were called The Scientists. Of these, one was forced to resign very soon after being selected, as his wife filed divorce proceedings, and NASA did not want any messy divorce scandals sullying it's public relations facade. Another resigned in August 1969 when it became obvious to him that the scientists were being consistently put on the back burner for flight assignments, and that he would never fly. In 1966 NASA selected another group of 19 pilots and test pilots. They were called, rather tongue in cheek, The New Nineteen. One of this group resigned in 1968 for medical purposes. There you have it, for one of the great endeavors in human history, if you count out those that resigned, there were 53 astronauts. Realistically speaking, only astronauts from the first 3 groups had flown by the time of Apollo 11. The astronauts from groups 4 and 5 were in support roles, until Apollo 13. Of those 53 astronauts, 8 had died in plane accidents or the Apollo 1 fire, before Apollo 11 launched. That's a slightly greater than 15% chance of death. Seven of those deaths occurred in the first 3 groups (which totaled 30 astronauts), so almost a 25% chance of death in those groups. It's surprising when you count up how many astronauts actually flew by the time of Apollo 11. From Alan Shepard's flight through Apollo 11 only 23 astronauts flew. Think about that, going from literally no space flight experience at all, to successfully landing men on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth, took a grand total of 23 astronauts. That is not many people at all. (Even by the end of Apollo 17, the last flight to the Moon, only a grand total of 34 astronauts had flown). Then think about that number of 23 astronauts and compare it to the 8 killed by that time. Not the greatest odds, eh? Here are some pieces from my collection that have signatures from those 23 astronauts (well 22 signatures, I'm saving Armstrong for later). The first one ([I]ex[/I]: Deke Slayton) is a political cartoon done probably in late 1960 or early 1961 that showed all the problems that the Mercury program was having. Each of the Mercury 7 astronauts signed an astronaut depiction. [ATTACH=full]966394[/ATTACH] In the above cartoon, one of the signers, Gus Grissom, was killed during the Apollo 1 fire. Another astronaut who was killed in the fire was Ed White II. He had been the first American to walk in space on Gemini 4. [ATTACH=full]966396[/ATTACH] Gemini was an EXTREMELY important program to the eventual Moon landing. During the program America learned how to perform rendezvous in space, how to do spacewalks, and how to live in space for up to 2 weeks. Here's a picture taken from Gemini 10 looking out at an Agena spacecraft they had just rendezvoused with. This is a new piece to my collection. [ATTACH=full]966397[/ATTACH] There were 29 astronauts in total that flew on Apollo missions. Of these 15 had flown by Apollo 11. Here's a piece of my collection that I haven't shown before. I was able to win it at auction when it already had 18 signatures on it. At the time of purchase there were 6 astronauts alive who had flown on Apollo who had not signed the poster. One of them essentially doesn't do any signing, and the majority of the others were all in their late 80's, if not their 90's. I figured I would be lucky to get maybe 3 signatures added on, but the good Lord was kind to me, and I got all 5 signatures. So, this piece now has 23 of the 29 Apollo astronauts. I have been lucky enough to meet 15 of them in person, and call one of them my friend. In all my years of collecting space memorabilia, I've only seen two pieces that have more Apollo era signatures on them, one with 24, and one with 26. This is a rare piece. [ATTACH=full]966398[/ATTACH] As mentioned above, training for and flying spacecraft was a risky business. Not surprisingly the astronauts were unable to get life insurance (except for standard military life insurance for the servicemen). Before a flight the crew would get together and sign a bunch of postal covers that were date stamped on the date of their launch. If the crew were lost during the flight their wives could dribble out the sale of the covers to make ends meet. As such, they got the nickname of life insurance covers. I've got one ([I]ex[/I]: Aldrin). You'll note this one is actually dated July 20, 1969. Given that the launch was successful, the person who was holding onto the covers held them until they could be date stamped July 20, 1969, the date of the Moon landing. I bought this the first auction I ever bought any space memorabilia at, and as such, being a Newbie, didn't understand some of the market. It had 5 signatures on it, hence I thought it would be worth more than one with 3 signatures on it. However, since Armstrong is on the back, it is not worth as much as a cover with just three signatures on the front. It's still valuable, just not as much with one with 3 signatures on the front. [ATTACH=full]966399[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]966400[/ATTACH] I have a neat Apollo 11 launch hardware piece, but it was also used during Apollo 12, and since that is my favorite Apollo mission (Dick Gordon was my friend), I'll save that for the Apollo 12 50th anniversary thread in November. Since today is the 50th anniversary of the launch, let's close today's post with a picture of the launch, signed by 4 of the Mission Control Directors. I'll be writing about Mission Control on July 20. The actual picture is a composite created from 2 pictures, one of the flag, and one of the Saturn V. You'll see about midway on the rocket a cloud. The cloud was caused by moisture condensation when the rocket went supersonic. [ATTACH=full]966401[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]
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SkyMan says: Fifty years ago today Apollo 11; 7/15/69
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