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TLIGuy
·My X-33 has always been one of my favorite watches and now I've been able to reach back a bit further into its history to find out a bit more about its earlier adventures in space.
The most recent photographic evidence we had showed the X-33 Speedmaster prototype made its debut in space during the STS-89 Space Shuttle Endeavour mission in January 1998, about 2 months prior to its official unveiling in Houston in late March of the same year....until now.
Here is a new image from STS-89 showing Michael Anderson wearing the X-33 prototype with its distinctive unique case and round pushers.
But, before the prototype above flew on STS-89 there was the original X-33 "Flightmaster" prototype. The earlier prototype had a different set of "winged" hands that was to aide in better visualization of the digital display.
Here is what the original X-33 Flightmaster prototype looks like.
Here are some nice new images showing the original X-33 Flightmaster prototype flying earlier on STS-79 in September 1996.
Here is Commander William Readdy during STS-79 setting his X-33 Flightmaster onboard the Shuttle Atlantis. As you can see the X-33 Flightmaster prototype is identified by the larger red minute hand as seen above.
Here is a second image of the X-33 Flightmaster on an unidentified strap.
Lastly, as a side note, for the fans of the 1977 LCD Speedmasters obtained by NASA for Shuttle Pilots, I'm 99.99999999999999999999999999% certain that not one of them ever flew regardless of what Omega says or might want us to believe. I came to this conclusion after doing an extensive dive into almost 50,000+ onboard images taken during Shuttle missions going into the late 1990's. There are many, many, many, many identifiable different watches flown but not one of them is an LCD Speedmaster. If you want to believe they were packed away and tested therefore unseen, please do, but I'm firmly in the camp that they never saw a day in space.
Lastly, lastly, after these missions the X-33 prototype watches were offered for sale to the astronauts for the bargain price of $800.
Here ends the lesson. TLIGuy signing out.
The most recent photographic evidence we had showed the X-33 Speedmaster prototype made its debut in space during the STS-89 Space Shuttle Endeavour mission in January 1998, about 2 months prior to its official unveiling in Houston in late March of the same year....until now.
Here is a new image from STS-89 showing Michael Anderson wearing the X-33 prototype with its distinctive unique case and round pushers.
But, before the prototype above flew on STS-89 there was the original X-33 "Flightmaster" prototype. The earlier prototype had a different set of "winged" hands that was to aide in better visualization of the digital display.
Here is what the original X-33 Flightmaster prototype looks like.
Here are some nice new images showing the original X-33 Flightmaster prototype flying earlier on STS-79 in September 1996.
Here is Commander William Readdy during STS-79 setting his X-33 Flightmaster onboard the Shuttle Atlantis. As you can see the X-33 Flightmaster prototype is identified by the larger red minute hand as seen above.
Here is a second image of the X-33 Flightmaster on an unidentified strap.
Lastly, as a side note, for the fans of the 1977 LCD Speedmasters obtained by NASA for Shuttle Pilots, I'm 99.99999999999999999999999999% certain that not one of them ever flew regardless of what Omega says or might want us to believe. I came to this conclusion after doing an extensive dive into almost 50,000+ onboard images taken during Shuttle missions going into the late 1990's. There are many, many, many, many identifiable different watches flown but not one of them is an LCD Speedmaster. If you want to believe they were packed away and tested therefore unseen, please do, but I'm firmly in the camp that they never saw a day in space.
Lastly, lastly, after these missions the X-33 prototype watches were offered for sale to the astronauts for the bargain price of $800.
Here ends the lesson. TLIGuy signing out.
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