Community Stories

Hidden gems from the NASA photo archive

SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,251
Likes
11,581
1972 Apollo 16... March 22
For those aficionados who keep track of wrist watches worn in space: just got an answer from BrigGen Charlie Duke;
Normally crews avoid to wear the mission logo patch before the actual mission, but the Apollo 16 astronauts already wore their mission logo patch on the space suit for the CDDT - Count-Down Demonstration Test on March 22 (Launchday was 16th April 1972). Confirmation from CharlieDuke.com , so no 2nd Speedmaster for Charlie Duke on Apollo 16 spaceflight mission!
(Photos: NASA) #MoonwatchUniverse #NASA #Speedmaster
.
1972-A16-MoonwatchUniverse.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,251
Likes
11,581
2024, March 29... ISS Expedition 70
ISS Exp 70 NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara wearing a Sokol space suit with the now well-spotted shiny large "Energia" logo chronograph over the left forearm near the white pressure control valve. These striking & large "Energia" logo dial chronographs were first spotted during the Soyuz MS-21 launch ceremony in March 2021.
The first idea to identify these tended to the "Strela" chronographs which have a similar lay-out but lack a full numerals dial.
These large "Energia" chronographs were also used during the August 17, 2022 spacewalk on the Orlan space suit of cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev. (Photo: NASA)
.
RUSSIA-Sokol-MWU.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,251
Likes
11,581
58 years ago... Gemini astronauts Eugene Cernan and Edwin Aldrin ... just received their NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster 105.003
(Photo: NASA) #MoonwatchUniverse
.
Aldrin-MoonwatchUniverse.jpg
 
hen
Posts
2,214
Likes
6,270
SpeedyPhill SpeedyPhill
NASA astronauts Edward White and Neil Armstrong say "" Hello & Goodbye ! ""
.
MWU-White.jpg
.
MWU-Armstrong-.jpg

Or " I went to the moon and back and all they care about is this god damned watch"
 
Jones in LA
Posts
5,166
Likes
46,931
This thread has grown so long that I don't have the patience to confirm whether or not this has been posted before. So I'm just going to post it.

There are some real gems in this interview, as Armstrong makes some surprisingly frank observations. And I did not know that the initial launch phase was so loud for those seated inside the command module. Spoiler alert: there may be some Speedmaster content, but not where you might expect it.


And there are some outtakes from the interview that are included here.

Edited:
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,251
Likes
11,581
55 years ago... 1969, June 25
Final lunar EVA training days for the Apollo 11 Moonwalkers with Edwin Buzz Aldrin in full spacesuit wearing a NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster chronograph on long black velcro strap on the righthand wrist.
On launch day, Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin wore his Speedmaster on the lefthand wrist (Armstrong and Collins on the righthand wrist). The Apollo 11 "Eagle" stayed 21.5 hours on the Moon and the Moonwalkers performed a 2 hours 31 minutes long lunar EVA collecting 21 kilograms of lunar rocks & samples. Amrstrong left his NASA n° 46 in the Lunar Lander as a backup time piece.
During the Apollo 11 lunar EVA, Aldrin wore the NASA n° 43 Speedmaster on the righthand wrist, afterwards not noticed by Omega marketing who added an extra watch at his lefthand wrist in the black & white drawing.
Anno 2024 only 4 of the 12 are still with us; Edwin Aldrin (A11), David Scott (A15), Charles Duke (A16) and Harrison Schmitt (A17). (Photos: NASA/Omega/MoonwatchUniverse)
.
Apollo 11 NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster chronographs:
Armstrong: n° 46 105.012-65
Aldrin: n° 43 105.012-65
Collins: n° 73 145.012-68
.
Apollo11_38517.jpg MoonwatchUniverse_13.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,251
Likes
11,581
Note the running chronograph hand at 36 minutes mark with the Speedmaster time at 11:50. #MoonwatchUniverse
 
Walrus
Posts
9,918
Likes
47,318
Oh ha ha you commented on it so u saw it didn’t notice
 
Walrus
Posts
9,918
Likes
47,318
pdxleaf pdxleaf
Wicked pissah!
Ha ha meant that to be a pm. What a talented guy though and cool Bowie supported the video being put back up even though Bowie was dealing with serious health issues at the time
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,251
Likes
11,581
55 years ago... 1969, July 16
On launch day, Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin wore his NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster NASA n° 43 on the lefthand wrist (Armstrong and Collins on the righthand wrist). Moonwalkers Armstrong & Aldrin wore Speedmaster 105.012-65 versions while Collins wore a Speedmaster 145.012-68.
The Apollo 11 "Eagle" stayed 21.5 hours on the Moon and the Moonwalkers performed a 2 hours 31 minutes long lunar EVA collecting 21 kilograms of lunar rocks & samples. Commander Neil Armstrong left his NASA n° 46 in the Lunar Lander as a backup time piece.
During the Apollo 11 lunar EVA, Aldrin wore the NASA n° 43 Speedmaster on the righthand wrist, afterwards not noticed by Omega marketing who added an extra watch at his lefthand wrist in the black & white advertising drawing.
During transfer to the NASM - National Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C., Aldrin's historic Omega Speedmaster got lost. For a moment it was rumoured it had stayed at the NASM after all and would be revealed for the 50th anniversary in July 2019. As this didn't happen, we have to assume that this famous Moonwatch has truly disappeared.
Anno 2024 only of the 12 are still with us; Edwin Aldrin (A11), David Scott (A15), Charles Duke (A16) and Harrison Schmitt (A17).
(Photos: NASA/Omega/EH Space Art/MoonwatchUniverse)
.
MoonwatchUniverse_13.jpg MoonwatchUniverseA11.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,251
Likes
11,581
50 years ago... ASTP training
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project training continued as the Russians revisited the USA in September 1974. Wrist-watch-wise an interesting period with extensive coordination training between 10 - 25 Sept at NASA-JSC Houston TX.
They even visited Thomas Stafford house for a BBQ, meet the Shoshone indians in Wyoming and had visited President Gerald Ford at the White House in Washington DC. MoonwatchUniverse published a dozen photos of that visit showing Leonov wearing his Omega flightmaster while using a Bolex Paillard film camera!
Remember since their May 1973 visit to Omega HQ in Bienne - Switzerland, cosmonauts prefered the flightmaster pilot watches, and although in July 1974 a final decision had been made that all ASTP spacefarers should wear an Omega Speedmaster, Leonov still wore his flightmaster during training.
Eventually 11 Omega Speedmaster chronographs were used during then Apollo-Soyuz spaceflight mission in July 1975. Both spacecraft were docked for 47 hours as the NASA astronauts each wore two NASA-issued 321 versions while the Soviet-Russian cosmonauts wore 861 versions (145.022 : Leonov 3 & Kubasov 2).
(Photos: NASA)
.
MoonwatchUniverse-DC.jpg MoonwatchUniverse-Wash.jpg
 
SpeedyPhill
Posts
6,251
Likes
11,581
Omega dropped " flightmaster " and it took them almost 10 years to finally create the Speedmaster chronographs NASA astronauts had requested...
 
10 More Posts...
Sign up or log in to reply...

Similar threads

SpeedyPhill

Hidden gems from the Russian Space photo archives

SpeedyPhill Open Discussion
SpeedyPhill
SpeedyPhill
Posts
229
Views
48K
Foo2rama

NASA Photo Archive is online (Finally)

Foo2rama Open Discussion
vbrad26
vbrad26
Posts
6
Views
1K
TLIGuy

How NASA and Researchers use the Speedmaster to determine event times.

TLIGuy Open Discussion
Jones in LA
Jones in LA
Posts
7
Views
3K