Moon Walkers

[GoldenGreen]

With the exciting recent announcements of Buzz Aldrin and Charlie Duke for this years Autographica, I thought you guys might be interested in seeing the full list of the moon walkers from the Apollo missions, some of which have appeared at previous autographica shows :

 

As of 2005, only the following twelve people have walked on the Moon, each on one mission only. Nobody has walked on the Moon since 1972.

 

1. Neil Armstrong - Apollo 11 - July, 1969

2. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin - Apollo 11 - July, 1969

3. Charles "Pete" Conrad - Apollo 12 - November, 1969

4. Alan Bean - Apollo 12 - November, 1969

5. Alan Shepard - Apollo 14 - February, 1971

6. Edgar Mitchell - Apollo 14 - February, 1971

7. David Scott - Apollo 15 - July, 1971

8. James Irwin - Apollo 15 - July, 1971

9. John Young - Apollo 16 - April, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)

10. Charles Duke - Apollo 16 - April, 1972

11. Eugene Cernan - Apollo 17 - December, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)

12. Harrison Schmitt - Apollo 17 - December, 1972

[Photo Auror]

Golden Green,

 

Thanks for this list :). I'm old enough to have been an adult when these men walked on the moon, and recall watching the Apollo 11 landing in July 1969 with my parents and my Dad's parents in the same room, and saw the reactions of three generations.

 

As a child of the "space age" (MY Barbi doll was an astronaut! LOL!), my greatest thrill was seeing it happen... but also that it happened ahead of schedule by several years.

 

My parents, who were both born in the '20s, were shaking their heads in amazement that we were actually going into space and landing on the moon! They had grown up hearing that this was impossible, strictly fantasy stuff!

 

My grandparents on the other hand, who were born in the 1890s, were not only amazed by the moon landing, they were also amazed that they were watching it as it happened on a box in the living room!

 

It took some doing to get the reason for that reaction from them, but as it turned out, it took them a week to get their newspaper where they were living in Frontier Florida in the 1910s, so they didn't hear about the first Wright Brothers flight until they got their paper a week later! Both of my Dad's parents lived well into their 90s, and saw a LOT through their lives :).

 

I mentioned elsewhere that I live in Florida and have spent many happy hours browsing the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. They regularly change the displays at the Visitors Center so it's always interesting to go back there. One of my happiest events ever was around 1975, pushing my grandmother's wheelchair up to the Friendship 7 (John Glenn, 20 Feb, 1962) so she could touch it. The look on her face was something to see! I think the Friendship 7 is now in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, out of reach of visitors.

 

I've personally seen most of the space capsules that went up, ranging from five of the Mercury capsules (Liberty Bell 7-- Gus Grissom, 21 July, 1961-- sank, as you'll recall; it was discovered and raised from the ocean floor in 1999, but I haven't seen it) to several of the Geminis, and Apollos 9, 11, 13 and 16. I've also seen four of the space shuttles on the pad ready to launch (one of them was the Challenger but set up for an earlier flight than the fatal one), and have seen numerous launches.

 

But I have NEVER seen an astronaut!

 

Actually, the astronauts live in Houston, though, so I don't suppose I can fault the Space Center for that .

Edited May 3, 2005 by Photo Auror

[Strider]

Wow Photo Auror, what great stories, I could talk to you for hours...or rather listen

[Photo Auror]

Wow Photo Auror, what great stories, I could talk to you for hours...or rather listen 

Thanks, Strider!

 

One funny thing I forgot to mention; when I took my grandmother to see the Friendship 7, after going through her own personal "flight through space" and coming back to earth, her first remark was, "How'd he squeeze into that lil' bitty thing?" LOL! Your first impression of those capsules is that they are TINY... just barely bigger than an average washing machine!!!!

Edited May 3, 2005 by Photo Auror

[GoldenGreen]

Golden Green,

 

Thanks for this list :). I'm old enough to have been an adult when these men walked on the moon, and recall watching the Apollo 11 landing in July 1969 with my parents and my Dad's parents in the same room, and saw the reactions of three generations.

 

No problem.

 

I enjoyed reading through your space related experiences.

 

Have you been to the Kennedy Space Centre recently ? They have a session during the day called Astronaut Encounter, where an Astronaut will do a Q and A session and sign if you are lucky and have the confidence to ask . When I went , Astronaut John Fabian was signing.

 

John is a veteran of two space flights, he has logged over 316 hours in space. He served as a mission specialist on STS-7 (June 18-24, 1983) and STS-51G (June 17-24, 1985). He was scheduled to fly next in May 1986 on STS-61G. This flight was one of several deferred by NASA in the wake of the Challenger accident . He left NASA on January 1, 1986 to become Director of Space, Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations, Headquarters USAF. He is now retired.

 

He was a thouroughly great chap and I believe does a number of these sessions during the year, as do other astronauts at the Kennedy Space Centre.

 

I have to agree with you as well, actually seeing the vehicle assembly building, the shuttle lauch pads, and the various rockets, the Shuttle etc were simply outstanding and I still can't get over the size of the Saturn rockets that they used on the Apollo missions.

[Mr Wiggly]

With the exciting recent announcements of Buzz Aldrin and Charlie Duke for this years Autographica, I thought you guys might be interested in seeing the full list of the moon walkers from the Apollo missions, some of which have appeared at previous autographica shows :

 

As of 2005, only the following twelve people have walked on the Moon, each on one mission only. Nobody has walked on the Moon since 1972.

 

1. Neil Armstrong - Apollo 11 - July, 1969

2. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin - Apollo 11 - July, 1969

3. Charles "Pete" Conrad - Apollo 12 - November, 1969

4. Alan Bean - Apollo 12 - November, 1969

5. Alan Shepard - Apollo 14 - February, 1971

6. Edgar Mitchell - Apollo 14 - February, 1971

7. David Scott - Apollo 15 - July, 1971

8. James Irwin - Apollo 15 - July, 1971

9. John Young - Apollo 16 - April, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)

10. Charles Duke - Apollo 16 - April, 1972

11. Eugene Cernan - Apollo 17 - December, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)

12. Harrison Schmitt - Apollo 17 - December, 1972

Thanks for the list.

 

Anyone who would like the biographies form nasa can get them from their webiste www.spaceflight.nasa.gov and select history then the appropriate section (Mercury/Gemini/Apollo etc..)

or try google and type in bio <surname> nasa replacing <surname> with for example ALDRIN.

 

I too am looking forward to meeting both Buzz Aldrin and Charlie Duke and I also heard at C7 there may be another moonwalker and some cosmonauts.

 

I have had the honour of meeting John McBride and Jon Fabian at KSC Florida last year so I am really looking forward to Autographica especially as this is my first time.

Edited May 3, 2005 by Mr Wiggly

[Photo Auror]

I enjoyed reading through your space related experiences.

 

Have you been to the Kennedy Space Centre recently ? They have a session during the day called Astronaut Encounter, where an Astronaut will do a Q and A session and sign if you are lucky and have the confidence to ask . When I went , Astronaut John Fabian was signing.

 

I haven't been down there in ages!

 

I used to live in Orlando, you see, which was about a 30-45 minute zip East to the beach to get to the Cape, so I went over there frequently when I was there. Plus, if you knew what to look for, you could see a launch from my back yard. The fire tail from the last few Apollo launches or a shuttle launch looked like someone standing about 20 feet away with a Bic lighter, and a satellite launch had a slightly smaller tail. I got closer to the Cape for several launches, though. But my job took me to Tallahassee, in north Florida, and now it's a 6 hour drive to the Cape. So trips down there have to be more carefully planned and centered around things like the launch schedule.

 

Since they have a launch schedule on the Space Center web site, there's a near certainty that they'd have visitor events shown somewhere, so I'll look out for things like the Q and A session :). Thanks for the tip!

 

BTW, I was so focused on the Cape, I forgot to mention that I also saw the Vostok 2, which was piloted by Gherman Titov (first man to orbit), at Expo 67 in Montreal . There was a USSR soldier posted near the capsule, but visitors were allowed to touch the Vostok. I had a color Poloroid camera with me and took several shots of the Vostok, and also took one of the guard (who snapped to attention the second I pointed the camera at him! LOL!). He wandered over to take a look at the pics, and I gave him one of the Vostok shots and the one of him . A little exercise in mini-international relations .

 

I'm pretty sure the Vostok 2 is the only Russian spacecraft I've ever seen, although I've seen a lot of space displays. There was a Soyuz tha I saw displayed once, but as I recall that one was a mock-up and not one of the actual craft that were flown.

[GoldenGreen]

I enjoyed reading through your space related experiences.

 

Have you been to the Kennedy Space Centre recently ? They have a session during the day called Astronaut Encounter, where an Astronaut will do a Q and A session and sign if you are lucky and have the confidence to ask . When I went , Astronaut John Fabian was signing.

 

I haven't been down there in ages!

 

I used to live in Orlando, you see, which was about a 30-45 minute zip East to the beach to get to the Cape, so I went over there frequently when I was there. Plus, if you knew what to look for, you could see a launch from my back yard. The fire tail from the last few Apollo launches or a shuttle launch looked like someone standing about 20 feet away with a Bic lighter, and a satellite launch had a slightly smaller tail. I got closer to the Cape for several launches, though. But my job took me to Tallahassee, in north Florida, and now it's a 6 hour drive to the Cape. So trips down there have to be more carefully planned and centered around things like the launch schedule.

 

Since they have a launch schedule on the Space Center web site, there's a near certainty that they'd have visitor events shown somewhere, so I'll look out for things like the Q and A session :). Thanks for the tip!

 

BTW, I was so focused on the Cape, I forgot to mention that I also saw the Vostok 2, which was piloted by Gherman Titov (first man to orbit), at Expo 67 in Montreal . There was a USSR soldier posted near the capsule, but visitors were allowed to touch the Vostok. I had a color Poloroid camera with me and took several shots of the Vostok, and also took one of the guard (who snapped to attention the second I pointed the camera at him! LOL!). He wandered over to take a look at the pics, and I gave him one of the Vostok shots and the one of him . A little exercise in mini-international relations .

 

I'm pretty sure the Vostok 2 is the only Russian spacecraft I've ever seen, although I've seen a lot of space displays. There was a Soyuz tha I saw displayed once, but as I recall that one was a mock-up and not one of the actual craft that were flown.

On their visits over to previous Autographica's I met Cosmonauts Alexi Leonov, and Valentina Tereshkova, but I don't think I have seen any USSR or Russian rockets.

 

About 15 years ago I was at the Science Museum in Boston and there were some cosmonauts there as well that were involved in a talk, sadly it was an event I wandered in to rather than had planned to go to and I am pretty sure they had an exhibition of some Russian space related items, but can't recall what they would have been.

 

Good on you for your bit of international relations with the polaroid shots. It was interesting even in 1990 that the friends I was with were excited not so much about the space exhibition but more that they had never seen a Russian in the flesh before, so even in a little time things have changed dramatically.

[Photo Auror]

 

Good on you for your bit of international relations with the polaroid shots. It was interesting even in 1990 that the friends I was with were excited not so much about the space exhibition but more that they had never seen a Russian in the flesh before, so even in a little time things have changed dramatically.

LOL! You can imagine what it was like in 1967, then :). Expo 67, for those who don't know, was the World's Fair of 1967, held in Montreal. The visit to the USSR pavilion was one of the highlights of the trip :). We had lunch there on the second day, and that was the first time I ever had REAL shish kabob. Americans tend to make kabobs with beef, but they're much better with the original spiced lamb recipe . The Russians in the pavilion were all jolly and friendly and happy to be there representing their country, it seemed :).

 

And I "copy that" on your remark about the size of the Saturn rocket!!! That sucker is BIG!!! Even lying stretched out on the ground, I seem to recall the guide saying that the diameter of the booster was the same height as a 5 story building... and that's lying flat! Fully assembled and upright on the launch pad, it was said to be the height of a 30 story building.

 

Also, I heard a story about the VAB... the vehicle assembly building. I don't know whether or not this is true, but it was said that some congresscritters from Washington were taken on a tour shortly after the VAB consruction was completed, and were totally taken aback by the size of the building. It's supposed to be the largest single-story structure in the world.

 

Later that night, one of the congressional aides sleep-walked out of his motel room and fell into the swimming pool. Apparently with a VAB hangover, it was said that he yelled out, "Don't flush it!"