Showing posts with label Apollo 8. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apollo 8. Show all posts

Monday, December 24, 2012

Twas the night before Christmas and 44 years ago Apollo 8 had a message.


Larry Klaes forwarded Roger Launius's blog for today.  Let me point you in that direction as well.
- LRK -

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"Earthrise," one of the most powerful and iconic images from the Apollo program, was taken in December 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission. This view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts as they came from behind the Moon after the first lunar orbit. Used as a symbol of the planet's fragility, it juxtaposes the grey, lifeless Moon in the foreground with the blue and white Earth teeming with life hanging in the blackness of space.

Hard to believe, it was 44 years ago today that the crew of Apollo 8 made their historic broadcast from the Moon on Christmas Eve in 1968. Launched on December 21, 1968, astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders became the first human beings to venture beyond low Earth orbit and visit another world. The Apollo 8 crew rode inside the command module, with no lunar lander attached. They were the first astronauts to be launched by the Saturn V, which had flown only twice before.
As Apollo 8 traveled outward the crew focused a portable television camera on Earth and for the first time humanity saw its home from afar, a tiny, lovely, and fragile "blue marble" hanging in the blackness of space. When it arrived at the Moon on Christmas Eve and for the next twenty hours the astronauts circled the Moon, which appeared out their windows as a gray, battered wasteland.
The crew's Christmas Eve broadcast in the midst of a tumultuous 1968-the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, race riots in virtually every major city, anti-war rallies and confrontations-helped to bring together if only for a brief time the disparate thread of the nation. The crew read from the first part of the Bible-"God created the heavens and the Earth, and the Earth was without form and void"-before sending Christmas greetings to humanity.
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Some of you may be model builders and collectors space adventures past and thought of.
My thanks to Larry Klaes again for forwarding some links to items made by Pascal Hecker in the Netherlands.
Larry had gotten these links from Sven Knudson of:
http://www.ninfinger.org/
- LRK -

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Pascal Hecker from The Netherlands

No Bucks, No Buck Rogers
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phbucks.html

Gemini 8
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phgeminiagena.html

Apollo 15 at Hadley Rill
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phapollo15.html

Miles and Miles and Miles
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phalshepardgolf.html

Apollo Omega
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phomega.html

Apollo Hasselblad
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phhasselblad.html

Saturn V F-1
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phsilverf1.html

Sergei P. Korolev's Dream
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phdream.html

N-1 and LK
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phn1lk.html

FDL-5
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phfdl5.html

MOL
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phmol.html

At Work in ISS Columbus
http://www.ninfinger.org/models/html_pix/phcolumbus.html

Happy Holidaze! All I want for Christmas is about two inches of rain!
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Sven Knudson
http://www.ninfinger.org/
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Who knows, maybe new pictures and models to build sometime in the future.
- LRK -

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NASA PROGRESSING TOWARD FIRST LAUNCH OF ORION SPACECRAFT

WASHINGTON -- Recent engineering advances by NASA and its industry
partners across the country show important progress toward
Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), the next step to launching humans
to deep space. The uncrewed EFT-1 mission, launching from NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2014, will test the re-entry
performance of the agency's Orion capsule, the most advanced
spacecraft ever designed, which will carry astronauts farther into
space than ever before.

"These recent milestones are laying the foundation for our first
flight test of Orion in 2014," said Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate
administrator for exploration systems development at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "The work being done to prepare for the
flight test is really a nationwide effort and we have a dedicated
team committed to our goal of expanding the frontier of space."

A tool that will allow the titanium skeleton of the Orion heat shield
to be bolted to its carbon fiber skin is at the Denver facility of
the spacecraft's prime contractor Lockheed Martin. This will enable
workers to begin assembling the two pieces of the heat shield. Almost
3,000 bolts are needed to hold the skeleton to the skin. A special
stand was built to align the skin on the skeleton as holes for the
bolts are drilled. Work to bolt the skeleton to the skin will be
completed in January. The heat shield then will be shipped to Textron
Defense Systems near Boston where the final layer, an ablative
material very similar to that used on the Apollo spacecraft, will be
added. The completed heat shield is scheduled to be ready for
installation onto the Orion crew module at Kennedy next summer.

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NASA'S SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM CORE STAGE PASSES MAJOR MILESTONE, READY TO START CONSTRUCTION

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- The team designing America's new flagship rocket
has completed successfully a major technical review of the vehicle's
core stage. NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) will take the agency's
Orion spacecraft and other payloads beyond low-Earth orbit, providing
a new capability for human exploration.

The core stage preliminary design review (PDR) was held Thursday at
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and included
representatives from the agency and The Boeing Co. Boeing's
Exploration Launch Systems in Huntsville is the prime contractor for
the core stage and its avionics. Marshall manages the SLS Program.

"Passing a preliminary design review within 12 months of bringing
Boeing on contract shows we are on track toward meeting a 2017 launch
date," said Tony Lavoie, manager of the SLS Stages Element at
Marshall. "We can now allow those time-critical areas of design to
move forward with initial fabrication and proceed toward the final
design phase -- culminating in a critical design review in 2014 --
with confidence."

The first flight test of the SLS, which will feature a configuration
for a 70-metric ton lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion
spacecraft beyond the moon, is scheduled for 2017. As the SLS
evolves, a two-stage launch vehicle using the core stage will provide
a lift capability of 130-metric tons to enable missions beyond
low-Earth orbit and to support deep space exploration.

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2017 and I will be 80yrs. - mumble mumble -

Thanks for looking with me.
WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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Saturday, December 8, 2012

With a view from beyond the moon, an astronaut talks religion, politics and possibilities


Viktor Toth posted on Google+ and Facebook this clip.  It references a very infomative article in the Seattle Times (see below).
- LRK -
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Viktor Toth

 7:55 AM  -  
 Google Reader
  -  Public
Atheist Moon »
One of my favorite photographs ever, in fact one that I even use on my Facebook timeline page as a background image, was taken by a certain Bill Anders when he was flying almost 400,000 km from the Earth. Anders was one of the first three members of our species who flew to another celestial body (albeit without landing on its surface; that came a bit later.) Yesterday, I read a very interesting article about Anders, both his trip on board Apollo ...
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The Seattle Times -  Pacific NW Magazine
Originally published December 7, 2012 at 12:01 PM | Page modified December 7, 2012 at 7:59 PM

With a view from beyond the moon, an astronaut talks religion, politics and possibilities

When you are one of the first three of your species to leave your planet and travel to another, certain things tend to stick with you, even a half-century later. Just ask Bill Anders.
Pacific NW staff writer
THE PASSAGE of time has rounded the sharp edges of some details. But on certain nights, Maj. Gen. William A. Anders, USAF, Ret., stands outside his Orcas Island home, gazes across the ink-black night sky over San Juan Channel and feels a brilliant new moon pull his mind all the way back into its orbit.
When you are one of the first three of your species to leave your planet and travel to another, certain things tend to stick with you, even a half-century later. For Anders, the brightest highlights of his historic flight on Apollo 8, from the Earth to the moon, 44 years ago this month, are more vivid than the most recent mooring of his boat, Apogee, at Deer Harbor.
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[See 12 image clips at article site. - LRK -]
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See related Apollo 8 article.  Much information an d more links.
- LRK -

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Originally published December 7, 2012 at 6:27 PM | Page modified December 7, 2012 at 7:53 PM

See the Apollo 8 mission and learn more from the astronaut who lived it

Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders shares views on his historic trip around the moon, his famous "Earthrise" photo, NASA and the politics of space, religion and the possibility of intelligent life in outer space.
A lot of great information about Bill Anders' Apollo 8 mission, as described in the Dec. 9 Pacific NW Magazine is available, and much of it couldn't be shoehorned into a single story. But some of his thoughts from our interviews, given their candor and historical value, were too good not to repeat. So here is a collection of supplementary material, ranging from multimedia links to Anders' own thoughts.
— Ron Judd
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More on the Apollo 8 mission.
- LRK -

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Apollo 8, the first flight to take men to the vicinity of the Moon, was a bold step forward in the development of a lunar landing capability. With only minor problems, all spacecraft systems operated as intended, and all primary mission objectives were successfully accomplished. Crew performance was admirable throughout the mission. The navigation techniques developed for translunar and lunar orbital flight proved to be more than adequate to maintain required accuracies for lunar orbit insertion and trans-Earth injection. Communications and tracking at lunar distances were excellent in all modes.
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Youtube video of Apollo 8 launch.
- LRK -

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Apollo 8 Launch


Uploaded on Jul 28, 2007
Edited footage of the Apollo 8 launch, several camera views compiled. Runs from T-00:25 through T+03:25.
See the mighty Saturn V launch vehicle in action, carrying humans for the first time. Watch out for an excellent shot of the staging sequence at the 3 minute mark in the video.

For information on how to obtain high quality footage like this visit www.spacecraftfilms.com
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Here is to looking up, maybe near, maybe far, maybe even a star.
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas and a Wish for a Happy New Year

A tweet from Air and Space reminded me of the Apollo 8 Earth Rise image.
- LRK -

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airandspace - http://twitter.com/airandspace

Today in 1968: Apollo 8 astronauts, 1st humans to view Earth from lunar orbit, took famous "Earthrise" image:
http://www.nasm.si.edu/imagedetail.cfm?imageID=1931
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MSNBC has an excerpt from “Genesis” by Robert Zimmerman. Copyright ©1998 Robert Zimmerman. From the book published by Four Walls Eight Windows, New York that has an explanation of how the picture came to be taken. It is a good read and I hope you check it out.

Here I am just going to clip the prayer Frank Boman read as a Christmas wish to all.
- LRK -

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077909/
The genesis of Apollo 8’s ‘earthrise’
Decades later, ‘Genesis’ solves the mystery surrounding the image July 15, 1999 - Back in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 made the first around-the-moon flight — a Christmas mission that set the stage for the first moon landing less than a year later. In this excerpt from the book “Genesis,” Robert Zimmerman focuses on the events leading up to the “earthrise” picture, the first widely distributed picture of Earth as seen from the moon.

This excerpt begins just after the crew members of Apollo 8 — Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell — fired the Apollo spacecraft’s engines to enter lunar orbit on Dec. 24, 1968.

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The conversation soon turned serious. Borman really wanted to participate in that Christmas Day service, but didn’t have any idea what he could do. Fellow parishioner Rod Rose, an engineer at mission control, offered a solution. He would put together a short prayer that Borman could read from orbit, tape Borman’s recitation, and then play the tape back at church. For Borman, the practical test pilot, this plan was perfect. Rose cobbled together a prayer from a number of verses in the Bible, and went over it with Borman until both were happy.

Now, Borman waited until Lovell and Anders finished passing some new data to the ground. Then he began, a little self-consciously. “This is to Rod Rose and the people at St. Christopher’s, actually to people everywhere.” Borman took a breath. “Give us, o God, the vision which can see thy love in the world, in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust the goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts, and show us what each one of us can do to set forth the coming of the day of universal peace. Amen.”

“Amen,” Mike Collins echoed softly.

Now Borman sheepishly added, “I was supposed to lay-read tonight, but I couldn’t quite make it.”

“Roger,” said Collins. “I think they understand.”

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Another tweet is from Wayne Hale with his "Predictions and Wishes". Hope you read.
- LRK -

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waynehale - http://twitter.com/waynehale

Just posted a blog update for Christmas wishes:
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/waynehalesblog/posts/post_1261670536293.html
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Mike Verakmp passed a clip from NASA News Service which has a link to a nice Holiday Card
- LRK -

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Happy Holidays
Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:00:00 -0600
Wishing all the happiest of holidays, members of the Cassini-Huygens team offer their views of Saturn and its moons as gifts to the universe. Cassini-Huygens, a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, is a mission that is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA. The Cassini orbiter (pictured at the bottom of this image) and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL

link: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1551.html

==
This NASA news has been delivered on behalf of the agency by GovDelivery (800-439-1420) · NASA Headquarters · Washington, DC 20546
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I just finished reading "COSMIC FISHING - An account of writing Synergetics with Buckminster Fuller", E.J. APPLEWHITE.
Let me quote from page 156
- LRK -
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Cosmic Fishing
The information signals are forever bouncing
electromagnetically about the Universe, every so
often impinging on celestial entities and being either
tunably received or bounced off to travel elsewhere.
If we fail to catch a cosmic fish it may be a trillion
years before the opportunity comes again. It will come
. . . but it may not be in this Galaxy. Sumtotally, all
the fish will always eventually be caught and
rebroadcast, but not all at the same rebroadcasting
stations.
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In the next year will we be prepared to catch some cosmic fish?
Such as.....
- LRK -

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http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/23dec_voyager.htm?list965414
December 23, 2009: The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.

"Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system," explains lead author Merav Opher, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University. "This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all."

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And if you had the right translator. :-)
http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/2007/03/universal-translator-how-to-talk-to.html

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lrkellogg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lrkellogg
Google Wave: larry.kellogg@googlewave.com
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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