Edwin Buzz Aldrin's post-NASA carreer included a tour as commander of ARPS - Aeropspace Research Pilot School, a subdivision of the USAF Test Pilot School. Aldrin's well-known Bird Colonel official portrait in USAF uniform wearing the Mickey Mouse wrist watch dates from that period June 1971 - February 1972 The other photo shows Aldrin checking out an Italian Air Force Siai Marchetti SF-260M light fixed wing training aircraft and it's interesting to see how a pilot always respects the little things in his/her flying career... .
The self-imposed limit of 2500 posts draws near, so a reminder to Speedmaster Spaceflight fans that there's also a Russian photo gems topic https://omegaforums.net/threads/hidden-gems-from-the-russian-space-photo-archives.65152/ #SpeedyTuesday: Gemini V astronaut Gorden Cooper in May 1965 wearing an Omega Speedmaster on steel mesh JB Champion bracelet. .
NASA History Twitter posted this pic today, the birthday of Richard Truly, former administrator and astronaut, born in 1937. His first space mission launched exactly 44 years later in 1981, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-2). Any guesses as to the reference...?
@madjestikmoose Truly is wearing a radial dial Speedmaster. He along with Joe Engle onboard STS-2 are the first astronauts to wear the radial dial Speedmaster on a mission.
Not to clutter up the great Flightmaster thread with this non Flightmaster image so I'll place it here. Here is Richard Covey during STS-51I wearing the Seiko 6139 Chronograph.
Slide 144 of our MoonwatchUniverse lecture where we take a look at aviation & spaceflight timepieces and the marketing aspect .
This thread is pure gold!! Love seeing these pictures. I truly hope we will see a revival of explorative spaceflight.
Indeed, NASA photos can be freely used for publications, as long as it's not publicity for a certain product, then other rules apply ! . Part of this has been done, with rarely seen NASA photos, in the 3rd edition of Moonwatch Only but next year 2020 is going to be an amazing ( Rolex ) year with some never before published photos... #MoonwatchUniverse .
@madjestikmoose Not at all ! NASA content (photos, videos, audio) are generally not copyrighted and may be used for educational & informational purposes without needing explicit permissions. Just use: photo credit: NASA
Well 100 posts over our self-imposed limit, we can only conclude with an interesting December 1969 photo showing Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong wearing his Gold Apollo tribute Speedmaster chronograph #17 he and the other NASA astronauts received... December 3, 1969 the Apollo 11 crew-members & their wives made a special visit to Ottawa & Montreal in Canada .
Great photo. It also confirms (again) that people chose the Submariner Oyster rather than the GMT Oyster probably because of the more secure clasp. Have seen several GMT’s over the years with Sub Oyster bracelets matching date wise.
The Speedmaster was the "company" watch (e.g. a reliable Audi or Mercedes) and very well appreciated, while on a personal & aspirational level other watches were prefered (Corvette/Porsche/Maserati) and flown on spaceflight missions.