My NASA & Speedmaster Story

One of the events my wife and I attended back in April 2012 was visiting the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum when the Space Shuttle Orbiter "Enterprise" was being replaced by the Space Shuttle Orbiter "Discovery". It was a rare photo opportunity to have the two Space Shuttles nose-to-nose.

While we were watching "Discovery" being towed in place, there were a number of NASA employees placed within the crowd to act as quasi tour guides and people you could ask shuttle-related questions to. One of the lady NASA employees at the event spotted my Speedmaster Professional watch on my wrist and asked if it was "the Moon watch"? I said, actually mine is a pre-Moon version of the same Omega watch. It was a fun conversation about the Apollo Moon missions and how the Omega Speedmaster watches were worn by several astronauts.

Here are some pictures from that day.

You could easily spot the NASA employees in the crowd because they were wearing polo shirts that said "NASA Goddard Space Flight Center" on them.

You'll notice in the pics that Discovery is covered in space dust from actually flying in space and Enterprise was clean looking.
Enterprise did fly, but not in space.
Enterprise was the first Shuttle Orbiter built and was used to test the shuttle on the back of the special 747 to carry it.
Enterprise was released in flight from the 747 and successfully landed at Edwards Air Force Base.
It was then stored in the museum and served as an emergency back-up Orbiter if they ever needed one.

Wait! I thought space was a vacuum, and shouldn't Discovery have come out of a vacuum cleaner?



Good photos, good intro 👍

The day before the nose-to-nose event, the Orbiter Discovery was flown in to Dulles Airport (which is next to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum).

NASA did a fly-by of their 747 carrying Discovery around the Northern Virginia and Washington DC area.

I was able to get a photo of the NASA 747 carrying Discovery flying overhead.
In the photo, you can also see the much smaller NASA T-38 Jet which was the chase plane for the 747.