My SpaceQuest Begins: Apollo 8 July 25, 2009
Posted by Chris Griffith in Apollo.add a comment
This, along with MA-7 “Aurora 7″, started this adventure, or SpaceQuest, of trying to see all the American space capsules. I was in Chicago for a National Science Digital Library meeting and had the morning and about half the afternoon free to explore Chicago. I visited the Alder Planetarium in the morning, then headed down to Museum of Science and Industry. Unfortunately, the famous U-Boat was undergoing restoration. However, this museum does have both the Aurora 7 capsule and the Apollo 8 capsule.
The museum has complete Space Hall. I must have spent a good hour or two in here.
Having seen these two, I got to wondering “How many have I seen?” Thanks to this new invention call the “internets”, I looked up where the capsule were and figured on how many I needed to see.
Apollo 8 is a milestone capsule. It was the first manned capsule to leave Earth’s orbit. The Earth Rise photograph is one of the world’s most famous images.
MA-7 “Aurora 7″ July 25, 2009
Posted by Chris Griffith in Apollo, Mercury.add a comment
Aurora 7
This, along with Apollo 8, started this adventure of trying to see all the American space capsules. I was in Chicago for a National Science Digital Library meeting and had the morning and about half the afternoon. I visited the Alder Planetarium in the morning, then headed down to Museum of Science and Industry. Unfortunately, the famous U-Boat was undergoing restoration. However, this museum does have both the Aurora 7 capsule and the Apollo 8 capsule.
The museum has complete Space Hall. I must have spent a good hour or two in here.
Having seen these two, I got to wondering “How many have I seen?” Thanks to this new invention call the “internets”, I looked up where the capsule were and figured on how many I needed to see.
Gemini 7 July 25, 2009
Posted by Chris Griffith in Gemini.add a comment
Before returning to San Diego from my conference on teaching nuclear issues, I was able to visit the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, Virginia. My flight was scheduled for 2pm, so I knew I had to be there when the doors opened if I had any hope of trying to see most of the museum. This meant a early morning, as I had to drive up from Lexington, Virginia.
Apart from seeing the Gemini 7 capsule, this museum also housed a Concorde, a SR-71 Blackbird, the Space Shuttle Enterprise, and the B-29 Enola Gay.
Another interesting artifact is the Freedom 7 II. Alan Shepard had hoped to make another Mercury flight, but this time orbital. Unfortunately, this mission never occurred and he did not return to space until Apollo 14.
Apollo 12 July 25, 2009
Posted by Chris Griffith in Apollo.add a comment
While on the East Coast for a conference, I was able to visit some online friends in person. I drove down from DC to Norfolk to meet the “other” Ben & Shira. It just so happens that they also have a set of twins named Ben & Shira (born a few months after mine were), and I had to actually meet them and their parents.
But before that, I went to the Virginia Air & Space Center to see the Apollo 12 Command Module. The museum is quite impressive. As a bonus, the recovered Liberty Bell 7 was also on temporary exhibition, so I got a “two-fer”. Not that is really helped my efforts to see all of the capsules, since I still would have to travel to the Kansas Cosmosphere to see two others.
Gemini 12 July 25, 2009
Posted by Chris Griffith in Gemini.add a comment
After viewing Freedom 7 and some of the Naval Academy, my good friend Bob and I headed back toward Washington D.C. We stopped at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Visitor Center to view the Gemini 12 capsule.
We explored the other exhibits at the visitor center, then headed back to DC. Note: The capsule as since been moved to the Alder Planetarium in Chicago, which happens to the town that started this quest.
Gemini 12 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/Lovell/index.html
MR-3 “Freedom 7″ June 25, 2009
Posted by Chris Griffith in Mercury.add a comment
The capsule for America’s first manned mission into space sits in the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. I drove out to see it while I was spending the day visiting a good friend who had just moved to Alexandria to take a position at the U.S. Patent Office. He was one of my groomsmen, and a college roommate. Since his wife was still closing up their house in St. Louis, it was just the “boys”. Somehow I convinced him to drive out to Annapolis to see Freedom 7.
The true miracle was the fact we actually found parking in Annapolis in the summer.
