50 years ago... Apollo 11 safe return of crew & Moonbound Speedmaster

After the historic Apollo 11 mission, the three astronauts were recovered by US Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet and taken into the MQF - Mobile Quarantaine Facility, a 10 meter long converted trailer. This shiny MQF, carrying the plaque " Hornet + 3 " was transported via C-141 cargo aircraft from Pearl Harbor - Hawaii to to Ellington AFB in Texas, to be further transported to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston... The astronauts were released from quarantaine on August 10, 1969 ...
See photos: https://moonwatchuniverse.tumblr.com/archive
👎
Photos taken between July 24 and July 30, 1969 show the astronauts still wearing their Speedmaster chronographs on the long black velcro straps. However, in the LRL, soon afterwards both Collins and Aldrin are wearing a Speedmaster on steel bracelet...
Would be interesting to learn how & why the velcro straps were swapped, did Collins & Aldrin still wear their Apollo 11 mission watches? Armstrong was still wearing his Speedmaster on long velcro strap on exiting LRL on August 10, 1969...
.

She’s an interesting ship to visit even now!

Great photos !
I believe that's the Apollo 14 MQF... ( logo at right of the door )

Is there a story anywhere about what these guys did in quarantine all that time?

Try this:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-armstrong-celebrates-birthday-in-quarantine

In the Apollo days, several astronauts got two NASA-issued Speedmaster chronographs and these watches stayed with them for a long time...
I have no idea if Aldrin immediately turned in his Moonbound Speedmaster and August 1969 onwards used a second Speedmaster on a steel bracelet
In the early Space Shuttle era, we know that the Speedmaster was sewn-in a pocket of the TMG-layer of the ILC right hand glove of the US spacesuit. Nowadays, crewmembers get an X-33 and actiwatch for personal use and the mechanical Speedmasters stay with the Sokol suit (Launch & Re-entry in Soyuz ferry) and also remain attached to the Orlan spacesuit (EVA spacewalks)...

I wonder what their criteria was to pass quarantine? They didn’t know what to quarantine for. It was ‘just in case’. But if they didn’t know, what would they measure to determine the astronauts were safe?

Metal fatigue on the Valiant. It missed the photo shoot..