Today marks the beginning of a week filled with the sad anniversaries of NASA's tragedies.
At 1 pm EST on January 27th, 1967 Command Pilot, Lt. Colonel Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot, Lt. Colonel Edward White, II and Pilot Lt Commander Roger Chaffee climbed into the command module of AS-204. Perched atop a Saturn IB launch vehicle at the Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 34 the three men were testing the ability of the command module to operate properly on its internal power. The simulated countdown was suspended and resumed several times as the testing continued. At 6:30 pm the countdown was on hold at T-10 minutes. Test instruments indicated a change in a normally stable electrical circuit at 6:30:54 pm. Ten seconds later Grissom reported a fire in the cabin. All transmissions from the crew ended abruptly at 18:31:21.
Left to Right: White, Grissom, Chaffee
The wives of the Astronauts asked for the mission to be retroactively renamed as Apollo 1.
I was an almost ten year old space cadet that day. A space cadet for whom these adventures had not yet become routine. Who am I kidding here? Those of you who know me or for those who have read some of my previous posts will probably know that I’m still a space cadet and now forty two years later, those adventures have never become routine and still never cease to amaze me.
Little did the world know that this mission would become NASA’s Adventure of the decade.
Lovell, Swigert and Haise.
That Saturday afternoon, Mission Commander James Lovell Jr. Command module pilot John “Jack” Swigert and Lunar module pilot Fred Haise Jr. strapped themselves atop the ultimate E-Ticket ride on the ultimate machine; the monstrous three stage Saturn V, thirty-six stories tall and capable of muscling 262,000 pounds into orbit. Think about that number, that’s forty five Cadillac Escalades carried to an altitude of at least one hundred and sixty miles over the Earth’s surface all in about 17 minutes or so. That would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 570 mph. The Saturn Five remains the biggest, most powerful, bad-ass beast of a rocket mankind has ever developed. One testament to the Saturn program, and a little known fact about the Apollo 13 mission is that during the second stage burn the center engine shut down two minutes early, the remaining four engines were able to compensate and complete the maneuver that placed the Command, Service and Lunar modules on the way to the moon. Can you tell that I find this nothing but AWESOME? Too bad this isn’t about the Saturn program, maybe I’ll devote a future blog about it.
I hadn't intended this to become a history lesson, that's been covered.
Three days later, on April 14th, 1970 C.E. things turned sideways and we began to hold our collective breath.
From 199,990 miles closer to the Moon, Jack Swigert sends a radio transmission to Houston. That radio transmission is often misquoted and has become part of the American lexicon.
The actual radio message is; "Okay Houston, we've had a problem here."
We all know the outcome of what NASA calls a "successful failure." The Lunar module was used as a lifeboat and towed the crippled Command module to the moon for a flyby and then back home.
Lovell, Swigert, Haise and the entire team on the ground all showed "The Right Stuff" during April of 1970.
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
In 1961, then President John Kennedy set a goal for America and the American space program, NASA. Forty-two years ago today, July 20th 1969 that goal was realized when The Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility. In the fifth manned flight of the Apollo program, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin left Michael Collins on orbit in the Command module Columbia and flew the Eagle to the moon.
”We’re coming in Hot.”
Using an overloaded computer that had considerably less power than the one you are using to read this, flying too high and too fast the Eagle would overshoot the intended landing zone. Armstrong took semi control of the lunar lander and chose a better landing area than the boulder-strewn area the computer had selected.
"Houston, Tranquility base here. The Eagle has landed."
Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
I could have been outside enjoying summer vacation from school, but that nine-year-old space cadet had much better things to do at a quarter past three on a sultry Missouri afternoon. I’m guessing here, but the odds are good that 3pm on a July afternoon in the middle of Missouri was hot, steamy and sultry. Grainy black and white television images of the live coverage fascinated me.
"This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way." Buzz Aldrin, two and half hours after touchdown.
I couldn’t wait until we would see grainy black and white images from the moon itself. That would have to wait until tomorrow.
”That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
