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If the Chinese beat the USA in this 2nd space race, will it take some luster from the Speedy?

T
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Article - Seems like China will beat the USA in what’s I think somewhat deceptively being titled the 2nd Space Race. The USA’s focus has been cost by using reusable rockets to prevent the fate of the original Apollo program from ending as a result of costs. I digress, do we think this will take some luster from the Omega Speedmaster’s original accomplishment. Imagine if the Chinese astronauts showed up in Atelier Wens
 
ErichKeane
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No? Why would it? The Speedmaster is far from the only watch in space.
 
Trev
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T TradeWinds577
Article - Seems like China will beat the USA in what’s I think somewhat deceptively being titled the 2nd Space Race. The USA’s focus has been cost by using reusable rockets to prevent the fate of the original Apollo program from ending as a result of costs. I digress, do we think this will take some luster from the Omega Speedmaster’s original accomplishment. Imagine if the Chinese astronauts showed up in Atelier Wens
The Chinese built their own space station without help, so it seems pretty clear they've already won whatever competition there was. They're getting stuff done at a very rapid pace.

Regardless of which nation is in the lead (or settles on the moon first), it won't change the Speedmaster's historical significance and status.
 
Meme-Dweller
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T TradeWinds577
Imagine if the Chinese astronauts showed up in Atelier Wens
They already have a "space watch" that their astronauts.... errrr... taikonauts have worn in space since 2003. The Chinese brand is FIYTA and it's quartz. Has the layout of a Swatch Irony. Has a sapphire crystal and no crown guards.

Capture.webp
 
dsio
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It’s probably rather inevitable, the Apollo program was one of the most command-economy things the US ever did, and it had far reaching and immensely important outcomes far beyond the moon landing itself that the nation benefits from to this day.

China having the luxury of long term planning and an actual command economy so they’re in a better position to do so today
 
Speed2Sea
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If China wins the 2nd Space Race the luster will evaporate and I will be smashing my Moon Watch with a hammer.
 
Dan S
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could create nostalgia for the days of American leadership.
 
Mister2kris
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I still find it odd that, "...NASA did lose the original, uncompressed slow-scan telemetry tapes containing the raw, highest-quality video signal transmitted from the Moon". I mean doesn't that seem odd... one of the greatest feats of mankind... lost!?! Just sayin'...
 
ErichKeane
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Mister2kris Mister2kris
I still find it odd that, "...NASA did lose the original, uncompressed slow-scan telemetry tapes containing the raw, highest-quality video signal transmitted from the Moon". I mean doesn't that seem odd... one of the greatest feats of mankind... lost!?! Just sayin'...
Honestly, doesn't surprise me in the least. The cost of tape, the difficulty of storage, and the way recordings were treated back then, I'd be shocked if ti still exists. Tape was measured in thousands of dollars a minute, so recording over it was common, and even if you didn't, it degraded absurdly quickly. Heck, even tape of the first Super Bowl only exists because some guy with his own recording equipment taped it and forgot about it (and the tape is in garbage condition on top of it!).
 
pdxleaf
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It's a little surprising to me that the Speedmaster still has clout from being the Moon watch. We boomers remember the moon landing, but it's ancient history to twenty and thirty year-olds. Few average people can name an Apollo astronaut. Space-X has supplanted NASA in the public's magination. (Although NASA logos are still seen on t-shirts and hoodies across the world.)

So the Speedmaster has already had reason to have faded into the past. Yet it endures. So my guess is that the Speedmaster's legacy will continue, if only for nostalgia for the time when the whole world was united. The Speedmaster will also be a testament to how far the Chinese have come and that they surpassed this high achievement. There's no glory in surpassing minor achievements. Getting to the moon was a great achievement, so how much greater is a permanent outpost on the moon, they will say. The Speedmaster will be a testament to their great achievement.

China will dominate space, just as they will (already do) dominate the Earth. Naysayers need only visit each country.

Long live the Speedmaster.
 
Mister2kris
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What would you say is the second best/iconic "space watch" behind the Speedy? Pogue? Bulova Lunar Pilot?
 
dsio
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Mister2kris Mister2kris
I still find it odd that, "...NASA did lose the original, uncompressed slow-scan telemetry tapes containing the raw, highest-quality video signal transmitted from the Moon". I mean doesn't that seem odd... one of the greatest feats of mankind... lost!?! Just sayin'...
Can’t speak to Apollo 11, but I’ve known Neville Eyre, the bloke shown on this page for decades: https://www.nasa.gov/history/alsj/a16/A16HSK-OnlySuper8.html

Nev was the video tech at honeysuckle creek for Apollo 12-17, and there were so many Aussie civilians involved with it on the other side of the world that it’s a bit hard to make a conspiracy that big stick.

I always find the arguments surrounding this stuff remarkably self defeating, as the exact same people who will wax lyrical about how useless, bumbling and incompetent the US government is, also believe them capable of this Da Vinci Code level masterful operations for no real reason.
 
Speed2Sea
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dsio dsio
I always find the arguments surrounding this stuff remarkably self defeating, as the exact same people who will wax lyrical about how useless, bumbling and incompetent the US government is, also believe them capable of this Da Vinci Code level masterful operations for no real reason.
The same people who believe the earth is flat.
 
Mister2kris
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dsio dsio
Can’t speak to Apollo 11, but I’ve known Neville Eyre, the bloke shown on this page for decades: https://www.nasa.gov/history/alsj/a16/A16HSK-OnlySuper8.html

Nev was the video tech at honeysuckle creek for Apollo 12-17, and there were so many Aussie civilians involved with it on the other side of the world that it’s a bit hard to make a conspiracy that big stick.

I always find the arguments surrounding this stuff remarkably self defeating, as the exact same people who will wax lyrical about how useless, bumbling and incompetent the US government is, also believe them capable of this Da Vinci Code level masterful operations for no real reason.
It's not that I don't believe we landed on the moon... I just think they asked us not to return to their planet so we "lost" a lot of things.
 
pdxleaf
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Mister2kris Mister2kris
It's not that I don't believe we landed on the moon... I just think they asked us not to return to their planet so we "lost" a lot of things.
Can't say I fully grasp your point. If you're questioning how the technology for going to the moon was abandoned, it's pretty straight- forward.

You can buy rocket engines from the Apollo program. You can buy all types of rocketry and telemetry components. The program was not so much lost as abandoned. We did it, we're done, said the politicians, no more money, move on.

Just like the tanks and hardware after any war. All of society's energy goes into building a war machine and then we're done. Leave it, burn it. Doesn't matter, it's over. What's next.
 
SpeedyPhill
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Isn't that already done by the "moonSwatch ? 🤣
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@Meme-Dweller
It looks like the watches worn by the Chinese taikonauts have an unknown movement, while commemorative pieces for the general public, like the recent Titanium-Gold FIYTA, are powered by a Swiss ETA-7750 automatic chronograph movement (28800 vph - 4 Hertz).
(photo: FIYTA)
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FIYTA-MOON.webp
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Spoiler alert: the Chinese will have a scoop as they will land a full female crew on the Moon... first woman on the lunar surface !
 
SpeedyPhill
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45 years ago... Omega decided to start a new marketing campaign about the Speedmaster chronograph with the title:
Omega Speedmaster Professional. Now in the Space Shuttle.
By November 1978, Omega had delivered a new batch of 56 Omega Speedmaster chronographs to NASA, "radial dial" Alaska Project III versions but the campaign would focus on the regular Omega Speedmaster available for the general public.
As a young lad, I was pleasantly surprised that Omega got permission to use the official logo of the upcoming space shuttle Columbia STS-1 mission as they added a Speedmaster beneath the colorful logo, which was designed by famous space art virtuoso Robert McCall in February 1979. I remember seeing those 1981 Omega Speedmaster stickers at a dealer in Brussels.
The campaign remarked that the Omega Speedmaster was the only piece of equipment used during all US manned space programmes since the dawn of the Space Age!
Anyway, some nostalgia from a GOM - Grumpy Old Man who remains curious for possible future campaigns but with today's Swatch Group marketing "strategy", these will probably be moonSwatch related 🥱
(Photo: MoonwatchUniverse)
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MWU_ShuttleSpeedmaster_.webp
 
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