Remembering Astronaut James McDivitt (1929-2022)

Astronaut James McDivitt, born June 10, 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, passed away October 13, 2022 at age 93.  He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in September 1962 as a member of Astronaut Group 2.  His first mission in space was commander of Gemini IV.  It was the first time a rookie was in command of a NASA flight.  He traveled with Ed White, who conducted the first EVA for the U.S.

McDivitt's second flight was on Apollo 9 as commander in March 3, 1969, with David Scott and Russell Schweickart for 10 days.

He left the Astronaut Corps after Apollo 9, and was assigned backup commander of Apollo 12, and made mission commander of Apollo 15.  He retired in June 1972.

He was honored with the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Air Medal, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.  

Remembering astronaut Alan Bean (1932-2018)

Apollo and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean passed away today.  The details of his passing haven't been released yet.  Bean, born in Wheeler, Texas, went to the moon on Apollo 12 and is one of the few men to have walked on its surface in November 1969.

He returned to space aboard Skylab 3, the second manned mission to the space station in 1973. 

He retired from NASA in 1981.

Happy birthday, Alan Bean, Apollo and Skylab astronaut!

Alan Bean, born March 15, 1932 in Wheeler, Texas (that's in the panhandle just north of Shamrock), made his first trip into space aboard Apollo 12, becoming the fourth man to walk on the moon.    NASA slected him as part of Astronaut Group 3 in 1963 and was assigned backup command pilot for Gemini X.  He was assigned as backup crew for Apollo 9 when fellow astronaut Clifton Williams was killed when his T-38 jet trainer crashed.

Bean was launched on Apollo 12 in November 1969.  The spacecraft was struck by lightning 36 seconds after launch and Bean restored telemetry by executing the "Flight, try SCE to 'Aux'" task.  The lunar lander touched down in the Ocean of Storms within walking distance of the probe Surveyor 3, which had landed in April 1967.  Bean and Pete Conrad removed parts of the probe to return to Earth for testing. 

Bean was then assigned as commander of Skylab 3, with Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma.  During the mission, Bean tested a prototype of the Manned Maneuvering Unit and performed an EVA outside Skylab.

He resigned from NASA in June 1981 to devote time to his painting.

Remembering Gemini and Apollo astronaut Dick Gordon (1929-2017)

Astronaut Richard "Dick" Gordon, veteran of the Gemini and Apollo programs, passed away yesterday in California at the age of 88.  He was born October 5, 1929 in Seattle and received a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry(!) in 1951 from the University of Washington.

His first flight was aboard Gemini XI with Pete Conrad.  They docked with the Agena Target Vehicle on the first orbit, only an hour and 34 minutes after launch, the first time attempting this maneuver.  Dick performed two EVAs for a total of 2 hours and 41 minutes.

His second and final flight was aboard Apollo 12, which was struck by lightning during takeoff, but made it to the moon safely.  Gordon orbited the moon in the Lunar Orbiter while Pete Conrad and Alan Bean walked on the moon.

He was assigned backup commander for Apollo 15 and was to walk on the moon during the Apollo 18 mission but that flight was cancelled.

Happy birthday, Gemini and Apollo astronaut Dick Gordon!

Richard "Dick" Gordon, born October 5, 1929 in Seattle, Washington, is one of only 24 men who have been to the moon.  He got a degree in Chemistry from the University of Washington and then went on to become a pilot in the military.

He was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1963 and was back-up pilot for Gemini VIII.  His first space flight was as pilot of Gemini XI, with Pete Conrad.

Gordon was Command Module Pilot for Apollo 12 in November 1969, with Alan Bean and Pete Conrad.  He remained in orbit above the moon taking pictures of possible future landing sites, while his comrades were strolling around the Ocean of Storms.

He was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame March 19, 1993.

Surveyor 3, third lunar lander, launched 1967

Surveyor 3, launched April 27, 1967, was the third lander of the Surveyor program.  It landed on April 20 in Ocean Procellarum.  Actually, it bounced a couple of times before making a soft landing.  Surveyor 3 performed soil samples using a scoop, digging trenches that were photographed and transmitted to Earth.  The first lunar nightfall came on May 3 and when dawn came 14 Earth-days later, Surveyor 3 could not be reactivated.

Apollo 12 used Surveyor 3 as a target, landing within walking distance. Commander Charles Conrad Jr and Alan Bean, Lunar Module Pilot collected several components from Surveyor 3 and returned them to Earth, to study the long-term effects of exposure to the lunar environment on human-made stuff.

Apollo 12, struck by lightning, launched 1969

Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr.; Command Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon, Jr.; Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean

Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the moon, launched November 14, 1969, but was struck by lightning twice during take-off.  The crew had a narrow margin in which to launch to reach the moon, but bad weather threatened to delay take-off.

The first strike, 36 seconds after launch, triggered overload false alarms and took all three fuel cells off-line.  It also shut off much of the Command Service Module instrumentations.  The second strike, at 52 seconds knocked out the altitude indicator, but the Saturn V flew correctly.

Alan Bean remembered the Signal Conditioning Equipment (SCE) switch during training a year prior in which this problem had been simulated.  the fuel cells went back on line and telemetry was restored.  Teh mission continued and was completed successfully.

Luna 16 lands on Moon, blasts off again 1970

The Soviet spacecraft Luna 16 landed on the moon September 20, 1970, grabbed a sample of moon dirt and its upper stage blasted off just a day later.  It returned to Earth September 24 with 101g of lunar soil.

It was the first unmanned mission to return from the moon with soil samples and the third overall mission, behind Apollo 11 and Apollo 12.  Results of its analyses were similar to those of the samples returned from Apollo 12.

In other words, we coulda told them that!

Pete Conrad, 3rd person to walk on the moon, born in 1930

During the Apollo 12 mission in November 1969, Pete Conrad, born June 2, 1930, became the 3rd man to walk on the moon.  He made his first EVA shortly after the lunar module landed in the Ocean of Storms, followed by Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean.  This was Conrad's third space flight having flown on Gemini 5 and Gemini 11.  He later commanded the Skylab 2 mission.

When Pete stepped off the ladder onto the landing pad, he said:
"Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."

He was referring to his shorter stature compared to Neil Armstrong.  Pete made a $500 bet with Italian reporter Oriana Fallaci that he would say those words, proving that NASA does not write a script for the astronauts.  He never collected on his bet, though.