DSKY-DSKY Him Sad: Official ILB Thread For The Heroic Age of Manned Spaceflight

We are live here at the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) on the USS Hornet as President Nixon stands outside the window and jokes with the three astronauts.

imagine getting back from the moon and the first thing you have to do after splashdown is make small-talk with nixon

20 people in the quarantine with them when they got back to the facility. neil had his birthday in there

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4s73HuWD5UTT5XXPxKLpGC-650-80.jpg

That picture is great.

Adam West and Neil Armstrong, separated at birth.

Ha, exactly

Stand by for ullage.

It looks to me, looking out of the hatch, that we are venting something out into space.

https://i.gifer.com/ObML.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5VRo5MBUXY

https://arstechnica.com/science/2012/10/apollo-flight-controller-101-every-console-explained/

Are you a Pod or a MOCR?

This story of the too-close Service Module during reentry is, um, sobering. The new book it comes from is pretty well done, from what I have read so far.
https://amp.businessinsider.com/classified-apollo-11-anomaly-threatened-to-crash-first-moon-astronauts-2019-6

The author conducted new interviews with a few dozen engineers as well as taking a deep dive into the archives. She does a great job of telling new stories from the engineering/ systems perspective as well as more familiar stories, such as the one about Neil Armstrong going back to the office after he bailed out of the LLTV.

/streetteam

https://i1.wp.com/theapollo11.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/apollo-star-list.jpg

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/books/2019/07/15/apollo-11-50-year-anniversary/

https://wehackthemoon.com/people/ramon-alonso-computer-science

Tindallgrams to thread!

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-Tindallgrams.html

(complete with 1969 paper bikini adverts)

RIP Al Worden

I posted this on the obituary thread but it's worth reposting here. I love this story from Al's book

I extended the mass spectrometer on a large boom, trying to sniff out any hint of lunar atmosphere or escaping volcanic gas. Scientists particularly thought that areas of lunar sunrises and sunsets might concentrate stray gases. They would be extremely tenuous, and that is where we ran into trouble. The spectrometer mostly picked up particles that we brought from Earth. We'd strayed clouds of urine along our flight path all the way to the moon, and these urine dumps continued in lunar orbit. My frozen pee is probably sprinkled all over the moon. Add rocket engine exhaust, and it is no wonder our mass spectrometer had trouble finding anything else.

Thanks.

I remember reading a more academic discussion of the Apollo Missions that was somewhat dismissive of the “nose cone histories” aka the astronaut memoirs. I know Carrying the Fire is supposed to be the best but Al’s book was really good in lots of ways.

Folks who have this thread bookmarked should check out RetroSpace HD on YouTube. Lots of vintage footage up there that I haven't seen at all such as this, the Apollo 9 LEM docking sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke8R4zc18Kk

Not a book & i think it’s been mentioned itt already but if you get a chance I really recommend “For All Mankind”, Ron Moore’s series on Apple+

So much nerdy NASA/Apollo detail
INCLUDING: (spoiler) a fkn Sea Dragon launch in the final episode 😃

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Dragon_(rocket)

Michael Collins' Carrying The Fire is on sale in the various e-stores for $2.99 right now. Well worth reading,

I highly recommend this book, which I have owned in multiple formats, even though I haven’t properly read it yet/pvmic

https://youtu.be/LWLadJFI8Pk

Ah fuck, anyway, that's a deepfaked short film of Apollo XI failure with Nixon giving Saffire's dead astronauts speech.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/science/nasa-space-launch-system.html

Just watched In Event of Moon Disaster, thanks. So Michael Collins was able to crew the return trip all by his lonesome?

And RIP Michael Collins. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/science/michael-collins-third-man-of-the-moon-landing-dies-at-90.html. Hope things are going swimmingly on the FarOther Side.

well, shit

;_;

Time for an unofficial Carrying the Fire book club?

Too soon maybe

Found this interesting link through an ex-ILB0r whose significant other has the same name as the author: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/dear-columbia-apollo-11-astronaut-michael-collins

Well damnit if I haven't been completely sucked in by FOR ALL MANKIND. Despite the odd moment of cheesiness, it's just a lovely bit of reconstruction/extrapolation.

yeah it’s pretty great - i love the characters!

Having the dude from Patriot isn't hurting

I'm sure I have said this before, but anyone who is in this thread and hasn't read Jed Mercurio's ASCENT is really doing themselves a massive disservice.

I didn’t even know what that was, had to MC Serch it.

it's awesome.

I guess it’s streaming somewhere

Apple TV? Do people have that?

sorry I mean the book Ascent! haven't see the other thing

Yeah, thought that book was great too, the Kennedy one not so much.

the Michael Collins book is 99p in the Amazon daily deal in the UK today

The Moon: MISSION CONTROL: FIDO, GUIDO AND RETRO
Time Magazine interview with Chris Craft and company from August 1, 1969.

Maybe not really an interview.

oooh thx