Coming to terms with the fact that I cannot, sensibly afford to buy any of the Apollo era Speedmasters... which is fine... I'm more of a Shuttle kinda guy anyway.

So being born in 1981, 4 days before STS-1 was launched, I started wondering which model of Speedmaster John Young and Robert Crippen wore.

The Speedmaster was recertified in '72 and '78 so I was thinking... a 1970s 145.022 of one flavour or another.

The only picture I can find from STS-1 of Young, or Crippen wearing a Speedmaster, is this one... which looks to have an applied logo... do you think this was just John Young's Speedmaster from earlier missions?



Anyone have any insight into what Crippen wore?

 

@TLIGuy or @SpeedyPhill would be good to ask.

 

Sensibility and watch collecting, novel concept.

 

I have a spreadsheet... there is a budget... there is cash in, and cash out... so far, it's all been pretty sensible

 

I watched that mission launch live. Well I watched it from T +5s because my primary school teacher cocked up and switched the telly on late.

God Speed Columbia.

 

I believe the watch you see is possibly a watch worn earlier by Young during his Apollo days. That said, the curator of the NASM does not have a record of Young's watch being loaned back to him for STS-1 and watch in the image is also missing a pusher cap which I find odd if it was a watch checked and issued by NASA for the flight.

Crippen, oddly enough, does not wear a watch on STS-1.

EDIT -

Young's watch also has a flat end chronograph hand. @SpeedyPhill has a nice picture of the watch from another angle that shows the watch better.

Crippen is observed wearing an unidentified watch during the launch day breakfast and the walk over to the suit up room. While suiting up Crippen is no longer wearing a watch on either his wrist or suit.

 

Indeed these are both great and the latter one even better for getting a good sense of Young's sense of humor.

I think this clip captures it best....

 

There was I thinking STS-1 was the new name for the "Simon Freese era " at Swiss Time and that STS-2 was the "Leona Coe " era.

I digress.

I love thes moon stories.

 

That heretic!!!!!

 

Not a shuttle but I spent seven minutes this evening watching the ISS passing over south east Queensland. I did wave but I don't think they noticed.

 

Ahh... an interesting digression for me @Spacefruit.
Can I ask? Is Leona Coe the person who has taken over from Simon Freese? I only ask because I'm curious to know who, at STS, is responsible for making sure my old Speedmaster (which I presume is still in bits) is put back together nicely.
Sorry Chris... back to Space Transportation System-1
Space shuttle and it's associated watches are a great choice... I reckon there's a time4apint podcast episode waiting to be developed there.

 

I'm only doing this because I want to be the first person to post a picture of a corned beef sandwich in a watch forum.



The corned beef sandwich, embedded in acrylic, is on display at the Grissom Memorial Museum in Mitchell, Indiana.

 

John Young was awesome.

 

Nope - Simon was the workshop manager, Leona is front desk/front of house.

You'll likely speak to her on the phone, she's lovely, she is not responsible for running the workshop.

They have a highly skilled team of watchmakers over there who will be working on, and then running QA - I'm sure Leona wouldn't mind me saying that she's not one them!

 

When STS send you an estimate for work, it is likely it will come from Leona.

 

Ahhh Thankyou Chris. Actually now you've clarified that I'm pretty sure I've spoken to her but not been aware of her name. I think, with regard to technicians and my Omega watch, Tony mentioned a chap by the name of Lee. Not met him yet but I'm sure he's a 1st class watchmaker.

Back to this thread: A 1981 birth year Speedmaster with a connection to the Space Transportation System is a great idea and maybe you could further explore this with a podcast celebrating post-moon, 861 movement watches and their use by NASA. ???(Just thinking aloud)

Anyway, I was born, with the 2915-1 Speedmaster, in 1957 so the chances of me ever even clapping eyes on a birth year speedy are a lot slimmer than yours!

 

It occurs to me that the shuttle program launched a mere 20 years after NASA first put a man in space. Thirty five years after that and NASA can't even put a man in space.