Space Rocket History Archive

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Space Rocket History #134 – Apollo 1: Plugs Out – Part 2 – The Price of Progress Jun 04, 2019

Show notes

When Deke Slayton and Stu Roosa arrived at pad 34 they saw ambulances waiting in vain at the base of the launch tower. They boarded the small elevator and rode to level A-8, 218 feet up, and headed across the swing arm to the clean room…

Space Rocket History #133 – Apollo 1: Plugs Out – Part 1 – The Fire Jun 02, 2019

Show notes

The “Plugs Out” test scheduled for Jan 27, 1967 was not the first time that spacecraft 12 had been put through a simulated run with people on board…

Space Rocket History #132 – Apollo 1: Astronauts – Part 2 – Chaffee Jun 02, 2019

Show notes

“On my honor I will do my best, To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” The Boy Scout Oath.

Space Rocket History #131 – Apollo 1: Astronauts – Part 1- Grissom & White May 08, 2019

Show notes

“So the reason I took those symbols was that I think this was the most important thing I had going for me, and I felt that while I couldn’t take one for every religion in the country, I could take the three I was most familiar with.” Ed. White

Space Rocket History #130 – Apollo 1: Preparation May 08, 2019

Show notes

While flight-preparation crews were having problems, Grissom, White, and Chaffee were finding bottlenecks in training activities. The chief problem was keeping the Apollo mission simulator current with changes being made in spacecraft 012.

Space Rocket History #129 – Apollo Mission Control: An Introduction to Eugene Frances Kranz May 08, 2019

Show notes

As Procedures Officer, Kranz was put in charge of integrating Mercury Control with the Launch Control Team at Cape Canaveral, Florida, writing the “Go/NoGo” procedures that allowed missions to continue as planned or be aborted, along with serving as a sort of switchboard operator using teletype between the control center at Cape Canaveral and the agency’s fourteen tracking stations and two tracking ships located across the globe.

Space Rocket History #128 – Apollo Mission Control: Christopher Columbus Kraft – Part 2 May 08, 2019

Show notes

At the beginning of the Apollo program, Kraft retired as a flight director to concentrate on management and mission planning. In 1972, he became director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, following the path of his mentor Robert Gilruth.

Space Rocket History #127 – Apollo Mission Control: Christopher Columbus Kraft – Part 1 May 06, 2019

Show notes

Christopher Columbus Kraft Jr. was Born on February 28, 1924 in a town that no longer exist, Phoebus, Virginia. The town has now been engulfed by Hampton, Virginia. Kraft was named after his father, Christopher Columbus Kraft, who was born in New York City in 1892 near Columbus Circle at 8th ave. and 59th street.

Space Rocket History #126 – Apollo-Saturn IB: AS-201, AS-202, and AS-203 Apr 04, 2019

Show notes

Apollo Saturn 201 employed the Saturn IB launch vehicle, which was the up-rated version of the Saturn I rocket flown in ten earlier Saturn-Apollo missions. It featured an upgrade of the first stage engines to increase thrust from 1,500,000 lb-ft of thrust to 1,600,000 lb-ft. The second stage was the S-IVB. This stage used a new liquid hydrogen-burning J-2 engine which would also be used on the S-II second stage of the Saturn V lunar launch vehicle…

Space Rocket History #125 – Apollo: Astronaut Selection and Training – Part 3 Apr 04, 2019

Show notes

“Some of those guys came in figuring, “I’ll write my textbooks and my thesis and teach [university courses] and I’ll come by twice a week and be an astronaut.” Well, that didn’t work …. We were devoting our lives to this whole thing, and you couldn’t devote anything less, I don’t care what your discipline was.”

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