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Hidden gems from the NASA photo archive

rob#1
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SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
@rob#1
You mean Ed White wearing a pair of Speedmasters !!!
Those shuttle astronauts on STS-8 Challenger (August 1983) ) were wearing radial dial speedmaster chronographs...

Yep, I realised that! I guess he left his own ‘Ed White’ Speedy on the bedside table when he went to work that day (or week) 😵‍💫
 
SpeedyPhill
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50 years ago the Apollo 7 was eager to fly... it would become a very successful mission, opening the way to swap Apollo 8 & 9, although the crew was tainted by head colds and bad moods as a near-mutiny broke out towards the end of the mission. None of these astronauts ever flew again!
Note the Speedmaster chronographs on both white & black velcro straps in this 1968 NASA image of the Apollo 7 crew in WSS during training
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A7_1968.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
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While training for Apollo 7 was in its final stages, both backup & support crews for Apollo 8 and Apollo 9 were training as well...
Here's a rarely seen image of Alan Bean testing the space suit and comms equipment for the Apollo 9 mission... by that time NASA had swapped Apollo 8 from an Earth orbit mission to a CSM-only circumlunar mission as the LEM hardware wasn't ready yet and so they could beat the Russians for sure. The originally assigned Apollo 8 team of Commander James A. McDivitt, CMP David R. Scott and LMP Russell L. Schweickart would instead fly the Apollo 9 Earth orbital first LM test in early 1969...
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A9-Bean.jpg
 
Wryfox
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Sort of from the NASA archive.....NASA Astronaut museum in Florida. Ed Mitchell's Speedmaster from Apollo 14....and mine.
20140803_133401.jpg 20140803_133303.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
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Let's talk about the quarantine measures that were in place for the Apollo 11 to Apollo 14 missions... Upon return to Earth Moonwalkers had to stay in quarantine, first put on Biological Isolation Garments (coveralls with breathing mask) inside the capsule, next walking aboard the US Navy carrier from the helicopter directly, for a 21 days stay, into the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) which was transported by plane to Houston - Texas to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) building 37 where the crew remained in civil clothes with a group of volunteers until they were "released" after three weeks in confinement...
Here's a picture of the Apollo 11 crew posing with the volunteers in the LRL crew reception area where they had dinner etc... Michael Collins Speedmaster is clearly visible at his right wrist.
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MQF.jpg collins.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
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Exactly 50 years ago NASA was still testing prototype lightweight headsets but finally decided to use the Snoopy headset for the Apollo 7 mission in October 1968... The Apollo 8 backup crew (Armstrong, Aldrin & Haise) would become the Apollo 11 prime crew, with CMP Collins who replace Haise. By September 1968 both Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin had done a lot of geology field training (see a few posts back) and started training with the Lunar Lander hardware...
Interesting to see that Neil Armstrong was always wearing an Omega Speedmaster chronograph during these training events...
Let's examine some good colour NASA photos showing Neil Armstrong, wearing a prototype headset & a Speedy during LEM training activities...
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Armstrong_A08.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
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Straight to the Omega Speedmaster worn in the third Armstrong image taken during training as Apollo 8 backup in October 1968:
A clear tear drop end chronograph hand
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Armstrong_Omega1.jpg


Let's compare this with the fourth Armstrong image taken in August 1969 in the LRL where he was wearing the Omega Speedmaster he took aboard Apollo 11 (stayed in the "Eagle" LEM) with the velcro strap wrapped double around Armstrong's left wrist... BTW celebrating his 39th birthday
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Armstrong_Omega4.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
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A7-Omega.jpg

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On your marks... 33 days to go to celebrate 50th anniversary of the Apollo 7 mission...
 
SpeedyPhill
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Something completely different as we cross the Any Love for vintage Bulova and Accutron Astronaut on JBC topics 😁
As we know, early test pilots and NASA astronauts got a Bulova Accutron Astronaut tuning fork wrist watch
Spring 1959, NASA's Mercury 7 astronauts visited Edwards Air Force Base to take a look at the X-15 hypersonic research rocket plane. In the cockpit, test pilot Joe Walker explains stuff to 6 of the 7 Mercury astronauts as Deke Slayton was not in this picture...
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1959.jpg

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More background & photos: https://omegaforums.net/threads/accutron-astronaut-on-jbc.55779/#post-880591
 
rob#1
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Thanks @SpeedyPhill for the photos. Growing up you would only see shots from space, etc. so it’s interesting to see other photos to balance out the stories. And talking of stories I just started reading Eugene Cernan’s ‘The last man on the moon’ which so far looks to be an interesting account of becoming an astronaut and all that space travel entailed.

I dug out a few more photos from books from the 70s and 80s, I’m guessing these are all from NASA (are there any similar photos that haven’t come from NASA?).
I was interested to know what the accessory on the watch of the Skylab astronaut was - it’s fairly chunky and doesn’t look very comfortable:
D9C69717-0983-4868-8318-81D33F83B592.jpeg

I can’t make out what this watch could be:
C160BFC7-9FED-4578-9E78-2D5D321DDB47.jpeg

And more examples of wearing 2 watches:
5EEF5212-735C-4E1E-A2C8-B788FCADF832.jpeg 25EDAB26-321F-45BE-A324-F6980419E537.jpeg
 
SpeedyPhill
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@rob#1
Of course Skylab 2 Doctor/physician Joseph Kerwin wore a Speedmaster chronograph 😀
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/chronograph-kerwin-skylab-2
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The little box at the wristband has an image of Snoopy (dressed as a pilot wearing a cape) on it and was a passive radiation dosimeter used during the 28 days long SL2 mission aboard Skylab space station...
SL02_Speedy.jpg SL02_Speedy2.jpg

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The other photos showing astronauts wearing a pair of wrist watches has been a usual technique since White's EVA in June 1965.
Both White & McDivitt wore a pair of Speedmaster chronographs because on the one hand, NASA only had 4 Omega Speedmaster and wanted to fly all four and on the other hand, one chronograph was used on Houston mission time, while the second could be used to time other events.
Aboard the Space Shuttle, most astronauts were allowed to wear a personal watch, IMHO the best example was Doctor/physician Norman Thagard wearing a Speedmaster & an Accutron Astronaut exactly as Gordon Cooper aboard Mercury "Faith 7" did in May 1963...
Recent photos of astronauts aboard the ISS show them wearing an ActiWatch which monitors exposure to light, sleep etc...
Go through this complete thread as most things have been explained already 👍
 
rob#1
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SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
@rob#1
Of course Skylab 2 Doctor/physician Joseph Kerwin wore a Speedmaster chronograph 😀
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/chronograph-kerwin-skylab-2
.
The little box at the wristband has an image of Snoopy (dressed as a pilot wearing a cape) on it and was a passive radiation dosimeter used during the 28 days long SL2 mission aboard Skylab space station...
SL02_Speedy.jpg SL02_Speedy2.jpg

.
The other photos showing astronauts wearing a pair of wrist watches has been a usual technique since White's EVA in June 1965.
Both White & McDivitt wore a pair of Speedmaster chronographs because on the one hand, NASA only had 4 Omega Speedmaster and wanted to fly all four and on the other hand, one chronograph was used on Houston mission time, while the second could be used to time other events.
Aboard the Space Shuttle, most astronauts were allowed to wear a personal watch, IMHO the best example was Doctor/physician Norman Thagard wearing a Speedmaster & an Accutron Astronaut exactly as Gordon Cooper aboard Mercury "Faith 7" did in May 1963...
Recent photos of astronauts aboard the ISS show them wearing an ActiWatch which monitors exposure to light, sleep etc...
Go through this complete thread as most things have been explained already 👍
Thanks for the informative reply - I’ll admit I was a bit lazy not searching up the thread.
But it is a nice Sunday morning activity so full credit is due for your research 😀
 
hugoafonso
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Jones in LA Jones in LA
Gem #6

It looks like Mike Collins is going to be a team player wristwatch-wise. What I'd give to know which watch Aldrin was wearing in this shot -- maybe a Speedmaster? Maybe not?

Official description in image library:

Buzz Aldrin (left), Mike Collins, and Neil Armstrong review flight plans. 11 July 1969.

ap11-69-H-1094_checklist_review.jpg
Aldrin definitely wearing a Speedmaster on this photo.
 
Jones in LA
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Earlier today a Soyuz MC-10 rocket suffered its first in-flight failure, at an altitude of approximately 60km. The descent module carrying cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and astronaut Nick Hague was able to separate from what was left of the rocket and make a ballistic re-entry about 45 minutes after liftoff. The g-Force during the unusually steep descent reached about 7, as reported by the astro/cosmonauts on board (this is about the same re-entry g-Force experienced in a lunar return flight). Ovchinin and Hague were rescued not long after landing and are back with their families and colleagues in Baikonour.

Ovchinin and Hague, pre-launch
Hague_Ovchinin.jpg

Image credit: NASA


Hague, pre-launch
Hague.jpg

Image credit: NASA


Disintegrating Soyuz rocket
Booster.jpg

Image credit: NASA
Edited:
 
gdupree
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What a first flight... interested in what the investigation yields. First Soyuz failure in a decade.
 
ras47
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SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
Something completely different as we cross the Any Love for vintage Bulova and Accutron Astronaut on JBC topics 😁
As we know, early test pilots and NASA astronauts got a Bulova Accutron Astronaut tuning fork wrist watch
Spring 1959, NASA's Mercury 7 astronauts visited Edwards Air Force Base to take a look at the X-15 hypersonic research rocket plane. In the cockpit, test pilot Joe Walker explains stuff to 6 of the 7 Mercury astronauts as Deke Slayton was not in this picture...

More background & photos: https://omegaforums.net/threads/accutron-astronaut-on-jbc.55779/#post-880591

X15.jpg


😀
 
vbrad26
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gdupree gdupree
What a first flight... interested in what the investigation yields. First Soyuz failure in a decade.

Hopefully they can get it sorted ASAP.
As of right now there is a chance that the ISS will be crew-less if their investigation ends up taking a fair amount of time.
 
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