@Looneytoons
March 16, 1966... Gemini VIII command-pilot Neil Armstrong decided to wear a wristwatch which belonged to his childhood hero aviator James "Jimmie" Mattern (1905-1988). It's a Longines-Wittnauer Weems, a wonderful vintage watch!

 

In the back, astronaut Alan B Shepard wore a Bulova Accutron Astronaut tuning fork wrist watch... a daily wearer for many astronauts!

 

Astronaut John Young wearing an Omega Speedmaster on each wrist during mission simulation for the March 1965 Gemini III mission...
Important days for the flight-qualified chronograph...

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September 1962, test pilot Neil Armstrong left the X-15 hypersonic research program as he was selected for NASA's group 2 astronauts...
This portrait shows him wearing an Omega Speedmaster chronograph... later official NASA portraits show him with another watch or without any wrist watch at all...

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A few years back, I went to an estate sale that had a number of interesting artifacts. They had belonged to a man who worked in industry, and was called to NASA during the Mercury program, remaining an administrator there until the early Shuttle flights.

He was tasked with oversight of the ASTP, and traveled to Russia once during the planning for the mission. However, I didn't know this until reading his interviews here:

https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/participants_full.htm
(I figure that's the tie-in to the theme of this thread)

Since reading that, I have wondered if these coins, which I found there and largely disregarded until recently, might have been from that trip.

 

@DesignerV The current Russian Ruble (RUR), divided into 100 kopecks, dates from 1992 but Your coins are Soviet-Ruble (1917-1992) and some are from 1961... the year of the first human spaceflight Vostok 1 by Yuri Gagarin

 

I honor of The Masters kicking off tomorrow this one might be appropriate.

Moon golfer and Speedmaster wearer Alan Shepard.



Credit - Universe Today

 

35 years ago... April 7, 1983
American astronauts/mission-specialists Story Musgrave and Donald Peterson conducted an EVA - spacewalk during the STS-6 mission aboard space shuttle Challenger. It lasted 4 hours and it had been 3350 days since the Skylab 4 spacewalk. This photo shows that mission specialist Story Musgrave clearly wore an Omega Speedmaster chronograph in the multi-layer sewn-in pocket of his right ILC spacesuit glove.
More info:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/who...ster-on-a-us-eva-after-february-3-1974.66020/
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48 years ago... April 11, 1970 the Apollo 13 mission was on its way!
Suit-up of Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise in his A7L spacesuit...
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46 years ago... Apollo 16 was underway to the Descartes highlands...
Before their third lunar walk, Lunar Module Pilot Charlie Duke noted that the hesalite crystal of his Omega Speedmaster was gone...
This anomaly about Duke's watch was summarized in the Apollo 16 mission report;
At depressurization, just prior to the third lunar extravehicular activity, the Lunar Module Pilot noted that his chronograph crystal was gone. The chronograph hands and face were not hit. However, about 12 minutes later the movement stopped. Most likely, warpage caused by thermal cycling allowed the differential pressure across the acrylic crystal to pop it out of the case. The exposure to and penetration of lunar dust contamination about the Lunar Module Pilot's sleeves probably caused the failure of the chronograph movement.
These chronographs are certified to a maximum temperature of 160° F. Testing has demonstrated that in the range of 190° F, the crystal is weakened to the point where internal pressure can push the crystal off. For the chronograph to reach a temperature of 190° F, direct continuous exposure to incident solar radiation normal to its surface is required for approximately 12 minutes.
These chronographs are tested at the Manned Spacecraft Center when received, again before shipment to the Kennedy Space Center and again just prior to flight. The Apollo chronograph is a secondary timing device and is not critical to mission success or crew safety. There are no plans for corrective action.

 

55 years ago, Komfit Forstner , the firm making the well-known steel mesh bracelets, was taken over by Jacoby Bender Champion , which continued to make the lightweight steel mesh bracelets under the name JB Champion ... which became the favorite bracelet of NASA astronauts, worn since the 1960s Gemini era to the Space Shuttle era of the 1980s...
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Gemini XI astronaut Richard Gordon wearing an Omega Speedmaster on a JB Champion steel mesh bracelet in September 1966
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I was actually watching the movie "Apollo 13" the other day with my wife (she had never seen it!), and I noticed that, Fred Haise (obviously portrayed by Bill Paxton) wore a Speedy on both wrists for a majority of the film.
Was there any real significance of that as it pertained to the actual mission?
Or was it just something that they did in the movie?

 

@vbrad26
In the Apollo 13 movie I immediately noticed that actor Tom Hanks wore the Omega Speedmaster on the wrong wrist as Commander James Lovell always wore his watches at the right hand wrist...
There're a few photos of the Apollo 13 crew, taken during training showing LMP Fred Haise wearing a pair of Omega Speedmaster chronographs...
It's hard to see in the few onboard photos taken if Haise wore two Speedmaster chronographs:
Check: https://www.flickr.com/photos/projectapolloarchive/sets/72157659010458930
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Recovery and post-recovery photos at the deck of USS Iwo Jima clearly show that CMP Jack Swigert wore 2 wrist watches, a Rolex GMT on left wrist and an Omega Speedmaster on the right wrist... Haise wore an Omega Speedmaster at his left wrist...

 

Great info!
Thanks!

 

Doesn't always have to be Omega... Here's the SEIKO A829-6020 alarm chronograph with Black & Red bezel version worn by some of the STS 51-A crew members among whom Anna Fisher in the foreground (NASA: November 1984)
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Slides 134 onwards in our lecture powerpoint-presentation... and Paul Scully-Power wearing the Seiko A829-6020 in his 1984 NASA portrait
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I came across this photo of Jim Lovell today during EVA training for Apollo 13 at the Kapoho, Hawaii training site in Dec '69. He appears to be wearing a 60's Zodiac Seawolf, with a black dial. I find this interesting because it is the first I have heard of Lovell wearing a Zodiac during this period.

 

May 2014... European (German) astronaut Alexander Gerst became the first spacefarer to test the X-33 Skywalker version as redeveloped by French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy earlier that year. He filed an international patent for the new functions of the alarm wrist watch ‘Speedmaster Skywalker X-33’ produced by Omega SA but tested and qualified by the European Space Agency ESA...
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...and will do so again when he launches in early June for his second stint on the ISS.

 

NASA astronaut Alan Bean's official Skylab portrait made in 1972... wearing his gold Apollo tribute Speedmaster... RIP Captain Bean
Semper Fortis !
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