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SpeedyPhill
·my five cents
2:55 that's normal, the Omega Speedmaster X-33 "Skywalker" was more specifically designed for ESA - European Space Agency astronauts ( input by French spationaute Jean-François Clervoy ).
3:47 Thomas Stafford was backup for Gemini III, so knew all about NASA testing chronographs in 1965, he flew on Gemini VI, Gemini IX, Apollo 10 and Apollo-Soyuz. Moreover, in 1970 he gifted an automatic wrist chronograph (Movado Datachron) to USMC aviator Gerald Carr in order to wear it on the Skylab space station which ended up being the 84 days SL-4 mission during which William Pogue also wore an automatic chronograph (Seiko 6139-6005). Of course, besides their NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster chronograph.
4:01 Thomas Stafford served as US Omega Board member since 1979 and later helped to initiate the stealth F-117A Night Hawk fighter aircraft and the B-2 bomber. His book "We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race" is a must read.
4:43 MET Mission Elapsed Time was in fact a rename of GET Ground Elapsed Time of the 1960s & 1970s, together with a 80 decibel loud alarm a standard for the lightweight durable X-33 Speedmaster, which in 2022 celebrated its " 25 years in spaceflight " as the bona fide tool watch for spacefarers (In August 2022 even used during a spacewalk by cosmonauts !).
7:24 Thus far NASA always issued a Speedmaster chronograph for astronaut training while specific chronographs were already reserved for the actual spaceflight mission, so the Artemis II crew might get brand new same version Omega Speedmaster X-33s.7:55 ActLumus, a new version of the NASA ActiWatch (sleep/awake, exposure to light, etc...)
8:38 Well one of the crewmembers has been Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office and we all know what he was wearing during that time... timely video as next week the PPK will be packed !A tribute to the manual-winding NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster 105.012 chronographs worn on Apollo 8 would be an amazing thing to do... after all NASM has about 60 of the 97 Gemini-Apollo era Speedies!
Fun fact: Although we are familiar with the 12 hours dial, flight surgeons believe that a 24 hours movement/dial wrist watch chronograph, displaying an unambiguous representation of a whole day at one glance, would be a very useful tool for future long-duration spaceflight missions (Mars Hohmann transfer orbit = 300 days).
A 24 hours movement/24 hours dial (display) wrist watch instantly shows if mission control, and families on Earth are on AM or PM time. In this way the wrist watch will not only be a versatile backup timing device but also an accurate direct link to the home front!
