The Northward Contrail

Christmas Eve, a little early

The calendar has pulled a trick on us this year, and Christmas Eve is on a Saturday. Therefore, my annual Christmas Eve post will come a day early. I go back to it every year, but this moment in history is more powerful than anything I could come up with myself. Merry Christmas, y'all.

Flight of the Phoenix

Today's the 43rd anniversary of the launch of Apollo 7, the first Apollo mission to carry astronauts into space.  I've long had an interest in it because its commander, Wally Schirra, was always a favorite of mine.  It was a memorable mission -- the "Wally, Walt and Donn Show," the disagreements with Mission Control, the head colds that later provided a second career for Schirra, and all the while the new and improved Apollo spacecraft proved itself ready for more daring missions soon to come.  (Any hardcore space enthusiast will understand the significance of today's post title.)

Most of the numbered Apollo missions launched on the mighty Saturn V, but Apollo 7 used the Saturn IB instead.  While it's easy to find models of the Saturn V, the Saturn I is obscure by comparison.  AMT did one as part of the "Man In Space" set in 1:200, but I cut my teeth on 1:144 launch vehicles with the Saturn V and Shuttle kits I had.  Airfix did a plastic kit in 1:144, and the last time it had been released was about 20 years back, when it seemed to be available again for about three and a half minutes.  I remember seeing one in a hobby shop about that time, and thinking to myself, "Ah, I'll get it later."  Well, "later" didn't come and for two decades the Saturn IB kit was rare as hen's teeth.  I spent a lot of time kicking myself for not buying it while I had the chance.

Cut to a few months ago, and the glorious news that Airfix was reissuing a lot of space kits.  Including, thankfully, the Saturn IB -- this time, with improvements, including parts to more accurately depict the Apollo spacecraft.  And a few weeks ago, one of them made the trip home from the hobby shop with me.  The possibilities are many for which mission to depict, but Apollo 7 is always a safe bet, especially since I have one of these to display with it.  (This is as good a time as any to put in a plug for Walt and Dot Cunningham.  They're good people.)

Oh, and thank you, Airfix.

:: Apollo 7 was also the final launch from Launch Complex 34.  Here's a look back at my 2008 visit to KSC and CCAFS, including my visit to 34.

A (de)vice for your head

So with the planning and all for next summer's big adventure, I'm trying to get everything together so when the time comes, I'll be ready.  Some of it's rational; some of it's a bit ahead of itself, but I figure it'll need to be done anyway, so why not?  It'll keep.

One thing on my mind was that this time around, I wanted to have my own headset.  In my previous training, I used the headset my instructor kept in the airplane.  It was a set of these.  They were built like a tank and as reliable as you'd ever want.  But they had miles on them, and did they ever get heavy after a while.  By the end of a lesson I wondered if my neck, or my spine, had been compressed.  Not to mention, while they were handy, I wasn't crazy about wearing the very headset that accommodated so many other heads during the day.  Especially on hot, sweaty, sticky days of the sort we have during the summer.

So that started some explorations, and I thought about various and sundry options.  My years in radio made me very familiar with this company, and I seriously toyed with getting this unit.  Other times, I thought of staying with what I knew and had worked with.  Oddly enough, I never really looked into an active noise reduction headset.  I knew it was a big thing (and a friend of mine who was headset shopping about the same time really vetted the offerings there and loves hers), but I had no real desire for an ANR headset -- and, really, I didn't have the budget.  Now, while I won't fly commercial without my set of these, when I'm at the controls the passive units work just fine for my purposes, and I want to stick with those for a while.  Down the road, should I want one, I can always get a fancier headset.  But, for now, keep it simple and affordable.

I put all this off while the aspirations were in deep-freeze.  But after last weekend, and after finding out that at least one flight school I'm considering requires you to buy your own headset and the other charges you for a rental -- and after realizing it's just a good investment, period, if you intend to have a license -- I decided it was time to go shopping again.  And, again, I went through the whole thing.  I read hundreds of reviews, conducted all kinds of searches.  And it's a little frustrating because people very much like what they like, and what works for them may not work for you.  I talked with hubby, who is knowledgeable in the ways of aircraft electronics, and he provided sound advice (no pun intended).  I sort of decided on one, kept searching eBay for one, and at least once came within a single click of buying a used headset.

But after a lot of homework, and after a lot of thinking, I decided.  I figured that any headset I'd buy needed to be sturdy, because I want it to last.  I wanted to know that customer service wouldn't be a worry.  I wanted something that got high ratings from a good cross-section of users.  I wanted something that I knew from experience would be reliable.  I wanted something that had a reputation for being reasonably comfortable.  And, most of all, I wanted something that would be a good investment -- not something to just see me through flight training, but something I could use for years and years. And I wanted to buy it new, with no "what-if" factors.  I didn't want to save $100 or $200 on a headset in an online auction only to have it be a turkey or face the slim chance it's stolen goods.  I wanted to spend the money and buy new so I could get it right the first time.  After all, it's an important investment with direct safety implications.

And, thus, a couple nights ago, I found what I wanted at the right price, and put in an order for a brand-new set of these.  The funny thing?  The first time around, it was the headset I'd pretty much decided on...and that was before I'd done this kind of extensive research.  They're not the fanciest or the most stylish, nor are they the lightest or the least expensive.  But I bought them knowing that if I did, the quality and reliability of my headset would never be an issue.  (There's also the space geek thing: If what they built was good enough for NASA, it should serve my needs just fine.)  I bought them as a careful, conscious investment in my future.

It'll be a while before I can use them; there may be a chance soon to at least try them out in their intended environment, since I'll be taking a sample lesson with each flight school to see which one will work best for me.  But at least I now have my own headset, and even up on a shelf in my closet for the next little bit, they will remind me of better times and better things that are to come, and they're a promise to myself.  And, be the Good Lord willin', they'll become a familiar part of my life sooner rather than later.

Badges

A few years ago I was looking on that big Internet auction site everybody's so wild about, and I was trying to find something.  In the course of my search, I came across these press credentials from the second Space Shuttle flight.  No one had bid on them, and the opening bid was reasonable, so I went for it, and ended up getting them for a song.  Here's some footage to go with them, if you're so inclined.

If I can ever find a set for sale, I'd love to get the same network's press badges for STS-6.  I remember watching this live, as it happened, and I still have the cassette I made of the off-air audio, so that one's a little special.

It's over

^{Photo credit: NASA TV}

Thirty years of Space Shuttle operations are now over.  It had its problems, but when it worked, it was truly magnificent, and these great machines and their crews did some incredible things over these many years. It's with a little nostalgia I bid farewell to the program I grew up with, but I know there are new adventures ahead.

Well done, Shuttle.  After all these years of admiring you from afar, I look forward to seeing you up close on exhibit, someday soon.

A couple of anniversaries

Two anniversaries to remember today.

The most famous one first: It's hard to believe it's been 42 years, but that's how long it's been since humans first landed on the Moon.  Much has been said and written about Moon Day, but for me the most compelling way to experience what the moment must have been like is to watch what it was like, as it happened.  Go here, get lost in it, let yourself live in the moment for a little bit, and maybe you'll understand why Uncle Walter was speechless. 

But there's another spaceflight anniversary that's often overlooked because it's lost in the giant shadows of Alan Shepard's pioneering flight and John Glenn's historic orbital mission.  It was 50 years ago tomorrow that Gus Grissom flew Liberty Bell 7 on America's second manned space flight.  Grissom's flight is remembered, if at all, because the spacecraft sank after landing (and a certain 1983 motion picture depicted him unflatteringly and unjustly because of what happened).  But in 1999 Liberty Bell was found in surprisingly good condition and brought up from the depths to be preserved. 

Because Grissom's flight is no less important than Shepard's or Glenn's, and since he and Liberty Bell 7 deserve to be remembered too, here's a chance for you to experience what it was like to watch on television as it happened.  Go here and work your way through the seven parts.  It's very crude coverage, but that's how it was back then...and it provides a basis for comparison with how Apollo 11 was covered.  How far both NASA and the networks came in the space of eight years.

The end of an era

I'm writing this as the countdown is on for the final Space Shuttle mission.  The weather's iffy, so it may not launch today, but it's still a good time to reflect on an era.

I was born after the final Apollo lunar mission; in fact, I was born during the Skylab program, so by the time I became aware of spaceflight, we were in the lull between Apollo-Soyuz and STS-1.  As a historian I may love reading about the time of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, but in my life all my personal memories of American spaceflight involve the Shuttle.  It goes as far back as that Sunday morning when Columbia launched for the first time (which I slept through, despite trying my best to get up early and stay awake); remembering the day STS-4 landed and President Reagan declared the Shuttle "operational"; watching the first Shuttle spacewalk live from Challenger in orbit, then seeing the brand-new orbiter land live on television the next Saturday...and then the missions just sort of happened, becoming stories buried even deeper in the paper.  Until Challenger was lost that morning in January 1986, and it all changed.  Two and a half years later the Shuttle returned to service, and all seemed right again, until another morning in 2003 and we lost the flagship, beloved old Columbia.  Then in 2005 Shuttle flew once again (and along the way, I made my own personal memory of the Shuttle program), but the end of the program was coming, and here we are.

I can't say it's with sadness I see the Shuttle program wind down.  Every time it's flown, I've had the same feeling: We got away with it one more time.  I know the expendable era had its risks, too, but there were so many things about Shuttle that were so different and that introduced different sorts of risks -- risks that bit us on ascent and on entry, along with untold bullets we dodged in just about all phases of flight.  And although I know there's been much debate over what's to come, and what shape it will be and where it will go and who will be in charge of it, and as much as I believe it's a shame that the varied proposals for replacement projects have gone nowhere the last 25 years or so, I'm nonetheless relieved that the Shuttle program is ending.  To me, it's time.

But, there's one more flight to go.  And this time, it's one more chance to salute a vehicle that, for all its faults, has served ably and nobly these last 30 years.  It's truly a wonder that humans not only built a vehicle this complicated, but that we managed to make it work pretty well -- and that we were able to fly it so often, over so many years.  The Shuttle is an engineering marvel, no doubt about it, and it will be remembered.  I'll be watching NASA TV this morning -- and hope you will, too, if you get a chance, and that you'll watch this marvel of the age do its work one last time. 

Fifty years ago

It's hard to believe, but it's true: it was 50 years ago today that Commander Shepard took his 15-minute ride into history, putting America into space and helping chart a course for the Moon.  (Which, by the way, Shepard got to visit a decade later.)

Somewhere in a secure place I have a Project Mercury postage stamp in a tiny frame, signed across the glass by Alan Shepard.  It was given to me by a former co-worker, and it's one of the things I most cherish.  Maybe just for today, of all days, I should take it out and display it....

Meanwhile, if you want to see and hear what it was like, here you go.

Whoops

If there's one thing I love more than discovering new (to me, anyway) footage, it's finding instances when things didn't go exactly right on live television.  The most famous, of course, is this refrigerator ad.  But here's another instance of another door-related malfunction on live television.  I can completely see this kind of thing happening on my watch, too....

In memoriam

It's once again time to observe a grim trio of anniversaries: Apollo 1 (1967), Challenger (1986), and Columbia (2003).  Apollo 1 was before my time, but memories of Challenger and Columbia are extremely vivid.  In a way, my life's trajectory was changed so much that morning in 1986, and I didn't know it.  It's hard to believe it's been a quarter-century, because it seems like only yesterday.

Here's NASA's official Day of Remembrance site.