Honorary Gem #1

I wish I had seen this image earlier. It would have been posted as Gem #1

"We owe a lot to Gus, and Rog and Ed. They made it possible for the rest of us to do the almost impossible." -- John Young

 

Gem #25

Apollo 14 Commander Alan Shepard. The only one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts to walk on the moon.

Official description in image library:

Alan Shepard during Apollo 14 suit-up. 31 January 1971.

 

Speaking of Alan Shepard...I often wonder if he was actually as nutty as he was portrayed in the motion picture "The Right Stuff".

I hope so!

 

For another version of Alan Shepard, check out the mini-series "From the Earth to the Moon", HBO, late '90s. They portrayed him as a bit more crusty...fought to get his second chance and walk on the moon. Gutsy, no matter what anyone says!

 

I never thought of Shepard as nutty. More like the toughest and smartest guy in the astronaut corps. And he knew it. He was chosen for the first Mercury flight because he was considered the most intelligent of the original Mercury Seven astronauts and also the most calm in unexpected circumstances. Most people don't appreciate what Shepard's sub-orbital flight entailed. Astronauts who flew the Space Shuttle were never subjected to more than about 3.5gs of force. During the boost phase of Shepard's flight he got up to about 6Gs, and during atmospheric re-entry he got up to 11.6Gs. When you listen to Shepard's audio channel during re-entry he's calling out the g-forces "8....9...." then all he could do was croak a strained "OK...OK...OK" when he approaches 11Gs. Definitely the guy with the most of the Right Stuff.

 

Lots of Apollo-Soyuz Speedmaster fans here so how about some Apollo- Soyuz Speedmasters.



Stafford double-wristing Speemasters.



Alexey Leonov trading in the Flightmaster for the Speedmaster.

 

Awesome thread. My wife saw me browsing this thread, and she said oh wow, not looking at watches.

 

Fabulous photos from Apollo-Soyuz! Thanks for sharing them here


Speaking of double-wristing of Speedmasters, I was watching documentary footage of the Gemini 3 mission the other day (Grissom & Young). The first thing that caught my attention was when Grissom was being strapped into the Gemini capsule: he had a Speedmaster on a mesh bracelet worn on the outside of his flight suit. I was surprised that the bracelet could be used that way, although it was also apparent that the flight suits worn by Gemini astronauts were much slimmer in profile than Apollo-era flight suits for example. Later, in film footage of Grissom being hoisted onto the recovery helicopter at the end of the mission, he was wearing two Speedmasters on mesh bracelets. One on each wrist! Thus I'm led to believe that during the mission he had one Speedmaster for wrist wear and another for outside the flight suit wear, and both remained on mesh bracelets throughout the mission.

 

In the footage of Grissom being hoisted up to the helicopter he is wearing a Speedmaster on each wrist on the JB Champion mesh bracelet. Gemini 3 was the first flight with the newly approved Speedmaster. I do not believe the Velcro strap comes onto the scene until Gemini 4. Owning the JB bracelet myself it would be easy for the long version to fit over the wrist portion of the glove.

You can see it here fully expanded on his left wrist on launch day. Where the second one at this point wouldn't say for sure.



Here is a well know photo of Young winding his Speedmaster on an unidentified bracelet.

 

A great day for me Speedmaster sleuthing. I stumbled across this Apollo 17 image that I have never seen before. This image is from the re-digitized image collection from Arizona State.

This appears to be Ron Evans wearing a 145.022/861 Speedmaster on an original flat link Omega Bracelet.



I believe you can see the short plots, possibly the squared end of the chronograph hand, and if you squint really really hard the dot next to 90 bezel.

 

Here's kind of a random find, but interesting nevertheless.

I first found this image in a Flickr photostream established by "Dan Beaumont Space Museum". From what I can gather, Dan Beaumont is an amateur space archivist and enthusiast from Montreal, Canada.

I have exerted my better-than-average Internet sleuthing skills in an effort to locate this image independently from Beaumont's Flickr posting, but so far without success. The caption on Beaumont's Flickr posting reads as follows:

Alan B. Shepard and Louise, "First US Astronaut in space" 1959, Ralph Morse LIFE Magazine photographer (1959)

I'm not sure what the date "1959" refers to, as it's highly unlikely the photo was taken in 1959. I know this just based on my limited knowledge of NASA's history with the Omega Speedmaster, and the history of the Speedmaster itself. If I had to guess, I'd say this photo was taken sometime during the Gemini series of flights, maybe before Shepard was diagnosed with Meniere's disease and was still a crewmember candidate for a late Gemini flight.

What the photo suggests to me is that Shepard must have liked the watch enough to want to wear it even when not on the job.

 

Gem #26

An image from Apollo 15 pre-flight preparations.

Official description in image library:

Dave Scott describes the BSLSS bag, which is mounted behind Jim's seat.

 

Gem #29

Official description in image library:

Apollo 15 Mission Commander David R. Scott, foreground, and James B. Irwin walk across an access arm on the mobile launcher en route to their spacecraft atop the Saturn V launch vehicle at Launch Pad 39A. The two astronauts, along with Astronaut Alfred M. Worden, were at the pad participating in the "dry" portion of the Countdown Demonstration Test, a dress rehearsal for the fifth manned mission to the Moon." 14 July 1971.

 

Gem #30

Official description in image library:

Al Worden waits while technicians conduct final suit pressure checks prior to the crew's departure for the pad for launch. Photo filed 26 July 1971.

 

@Jones in LA

If you really want to see some images you have not seen before pick up a copy of Spaceshots and Snapshots the Mercury and Gemini missions which was just released. The book publishes new images about 95% of which have never been seen by the public. Almost every page has a Speedmaster on it beginning with Mercury-Atlas 8. The Apollo edition comes out in September. It should be interesting to see what turns up in that one.

 

Sex Panther

 

Is it only omega they worn on the space missions?

 

Really?

Graduated 3rd in his class from West Point and holds a PhD from MIT, shot down two MIG-15's over Korea, completed the first successful EVA on Gemini 12, and tops it all off being the second man to walk on the Moon.
Don't you think Buzz deserves just a tad bit more respect than this?

 

@saturn1981...I was wondering about that as well.

 

For Mercury - Apollo 17 I believe a number of watches flew.

Omega Speedmaster 321/861 - Mercury (Schirra 1st Omega) - Apollo 17 (Evans 861)
Breitling Cosmonaute - Scott Carpenter - Mercury-Atlas 7
Bulova Accutron Astronaut - Mercury and Gemini
Rolex 1675 GMT
Bulova Chronograph - Dave Scott EVA-3 after the crystal on his Speedmaster went missing.

Here is a great shot, and much loved image in the Rolex world, of Ed Mitchell winding/setting his two Rolex GMT's.



Scott's Bulova chronograph.