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| 50th Anniversary of the Apollo Program; landing a man on the moon | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 26 2017, 10:30:21 PM (248 Views) | |
| The Chronicler | Jan 26 2017, 10:30:21 PM Post #1 |
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Bionicle fan of GoF
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Over the next six years, we will be observing the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Program, the series of NASA manned missions that ultimately put astronauts on the surface of the Moon. I'll be posting in this topic as we reach each major milestone and I'll briefly describe them. Tomorrow, January 27, marks the 50th anniversary of the tragic fire that claimed the lives of all three astronauts on Apollo 1: Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee. The investigation that followed led to a series of adjustments and improvements (such as redesigning the hatch, removing flammable materials, and not having the air inside be pure oxygen), but it would be 20 months before the next crewed mission would attempt to liftoff. |
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| ADFan185 | Jan 27 2017, 02:05:41 AM Post #2 |
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Ducky
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Wow I can't believe it's fifty years already. I remember hearing about this stuff growing up. Good to know that they made some safety changes about the rocket. |
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| DarkWolf91 | Jan 27 2017, 02:54:09 PM Post #3 |
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Flattooth at Heart
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I've always been hugely inspired by the Apollo Program and the moon landing. If anyone's interested in a great way to delve into this history, I recommend both watching the documentary "In the Shadow of the Moon," and reading "Failure Is Not an Option," by Gene Kranz. These give excellent accounts from the perspectives of both the astronauts involved and mission control. Such an amazing human achievement
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| LBT90321 | Jan 27 2017, 07:28:28 PM Post #4 |
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Under restriction but trying to resolve it.
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No kidding Im watching the 1998 Apollo 13 movie tonight 50 years huh? 1967-2017 I guess Thats one step for man, One giant leap for mankind Neil Armstrong 1930-2012 |
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| action9000 | Jan 27 2017, 08:49:04 PM Post #5 |
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Cera
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Time to load up some Kerbal Space Program! |
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| ADFan185 | Jan 28 2017, 09:13:05 AM Post #6 |
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Ducky
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Apollo 13 was a great movie and Tom Hanks did a great job with his character. They had to make scary life saving choices. |
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| The Chronicler | Jan 28 2017, 08:50:22 PM Post #7 |
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Bionicle fan of GoF
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Keep in mind, the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, was in December 1972, so the 50th anniversary of that won't be until almost six years from now. I pretty much intended for this topic to cover the entire series of missions in real time. As I mentioned, right now is the anniversary of Apollo 1, which had been scheduled to liftoff about a month after the day of the tragic fire. I did manage to recently find an article that explains in detail what happened on that fateful day and the impact that disaster had on the rest of the Apollo Program. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-honors-ap...e-50-years-ago/ |
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| ADFan185 | Jan 28 2017, 10:19:14 PM Post #8 |
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Ducky
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Wow that was horrible that happened to Those astronauts. And it's amazing they still did more apollo missions afterwards. |
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| The Chronicler | Nov 9 2017, 08:00:20 PM Post #9 |
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Bionicle fan of GoF
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Today, November 9, is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 4 mission. It was an unmanned mission that lasted almost nine hours and successfully tested all components of the Saturn V rocket that would later take astronauts to the Moon, ending with the command module reentering the Earth's atmosphere at the same speed as if it was returning from the Moon to test the heat shield and safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The mission was designated Apollo 4 because there had already been three unmanned flights using Apollo/Saturn components the previous year in 1966. Also significant about this mission is that it was one of two missions (the other was Apollo 6) on which a camera on the bottom of the second stage filmed that famous footage of the first stage and interstage section falling away as the rocket left Earth. The was even a camera on board the command module that took pictures of the Earth. |
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| The Chronicler | Jan 22 2018, 08:45:35 PM Post #10 |
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Bionicle fan of GoF
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Today, January 22, is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 5 mission. It was an unmanned mission to test the Lunar Module (identified for this mission only as LM-1) in low Earth orbit, such as the engines on both the descent stage and the ascent stage, most crucial among these was the so-called "fire in the hole" test where, in the event of an aborted landing, the ascent stage engine would ignite right at the exact same moment as the two stages separate. All tests done in orbit were successful, and both stages of the Lunar Module reentered Earth's atmosphere less than a month after launch (since this mission consisted of testing just the Lunar Module, which was incapable of surviving reentry, it's the only Apollo mission in which none of its components were recoverable). Its launch was originally scheduled for April 1967, but numerous delays occurred (among them was LM-5, the very same Lunar Module that would later be used for Apollo 11, failing a pressure test when one of its windows blew out before the interior was fully pressurized). To avoid further delays, by the time it was finally launched by a Saturn IB rocket (smaller than the Saturn V, because this mission didn't need to go beyond low Earth orbit), the ascent stage had it windows covered by aluminum plates and the descent stage didn't have its landing legs. |
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| The Chronicler | Apr 4 2018, 06:00:25 PM Post #11 |
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Bionicle fan of GoF
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Today, April 4, is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 6 mission. It was an unmanned mission (the last such mission of the program) that lasted about ten hours and was intended to test a "direct-return" abort where the spacecraft on a trajectory towards the Moon would turn around and return directly back to Earth, with all modules (Command-Service and Lunar) included at 80% of what their total weight would be for later missions. Like Apollo 4, this mission was launched atop a Saturn V rocket, but unlike that earlier mission, this one had a few issues during launch. Basically, some unexpected vibrations caused some of the engines to automatically shut off, preventing the spacecraft from reaching the intended trajectory for the mission, so the flight path was redirected to essentially be a repeat of Apollo 4, with successful reentry and splashdown. The cause of the launch problems were soon identified and fixed for all following missions (though it didn't completely eliminate the problem, since Apollo 13 would later have a less serious repeat of that issue during its launch). Since a launch that problematic for a manned mission would have been enough to cause an abort, this mission was later considered an invaluable shakedown of the Saturn V rocket design for the rest of the Apollo Program. |
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2:10 PM Jul 11