New reveals about the NASA Space program watch choice

Remember these ?
45 years ago... Tempus Fugit
1981, 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 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 STS-1 mission logo.
The STS-1 logo which was designed by famous space art virtuoso Robert McCall in February 1979 and appeared as a NASA photograph in March 1979. Interesting to note Young & Crippen first wore the logo as stickers even during Columbia roll-out ceremony December 20, 1980.
The actual STS-1 mission logo cloth patches were worn in January 1981 during Emergency Escape System testing which was also the first time the crew had been on the Launch Complex LC-39 Pad with "Columbia" in place!
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!
(Photo: Moonwatchuniverse)
#moonwatchuniverse #NASA #spaceshuttle #Speedmaster

Not new, but on this date
1965, February 26... Gemini III training:
This was the very first time both USAF Major Virgil Grissom & USN Lt John Young were photographed both wearing an Omea Speedmaster 105.003-63 wrist chronograph.
These watches must have come for the triplet set sent by Omega in October 1964, a deadline NASA had set while contacting ten different watch brands to deliver wrist chronographs for testing. Only four brands answered that request, with Hamilton sending stopwatches instead of chronographs!
The Omega Speedmaster came out as the best, NASA decided to use these Speedmaster for the Gemini III crew, giving the third to Gemini III backup pilot Thomas Stafford as Gemini III command pilot Walter Schirra already owned his personal Speedmaster CK2998-4 since April 1962.
However, the first batch was only delivered on 23rd April 1965, so during Gemini III, Grissom & Young each wore a battery-powered tuning fork movement Accutron Astronaut GMT pilot watch and a manual winding Omega Speedmaster 105.003-63 wrist chronograph.
(NASA photos S65-20636 & S65-641)
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And yet there's still no complete listing of all NASA S/N Speedies delivered between April 1965 and December 1968.
Exactly 50 years since NASA gave 60 out of 97 NASA Speedies to the NASM - Washington D.C. the SWFG - Space Watches Facebook Group & Moonwatchuniverse will print the whole listing as we now know which were specifically used in NASA training while others were reserved for specific spaceflight missions.
During the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo-Skylab-ASTP era NASA only had 97 Speedies, while for the STS "Space Shuttle" program they only had 93 Speedies for almost 200 astronauts before the X-33 was introduced in 1998...
We'll bring the whole story, documented with official NASA photographs!

60 years ago... April 1966
1966, April 9 photo showing NASA astronauts Eugene "Gene" Cernan and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin during Gemini IX training. The Gemini IX mission (Thomas Stafford & Eugene Cernan) was announced on November 8, 1965 with James Lovell and Edwin Aldrin as backup crew.
Wrist-watch-wise interesting as this is thusfar the earliest dated NASA photo showing Edwin Aldrin wearing a NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster wrist chronograph. It looks like an Omega Speedmaster 105.003-64 on a stretch bracelet.
(Photo: NASA S66-29526)
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50 years ago... April 1976
NASA gifted 60 out of 97 available NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster chronographs to the NASM - National Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C. which at that time just opened its new premises at the mall... However, 2026 will also celebrate 250 years USA so this Speedmaster anniversary will go very silently.
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"meus officium efficitur"