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Author
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Topic: Apollo command module pilot seat position
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Ryan Walters
Member Posts: 78
From: Hattiesburg, MS, USA
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted 06-24-2008 10:28 PM
   
Forgive me if I am in error but I always thought the CMP on launch was positioned in the middle seat. But after seeing some of the original footage the other night on Discovery (which is also on Spacecraft Film's Apollo 11), I was struck when the NASA spokesman stated that Buzz Aldrin was seated in the middle seat. Why? I thought Collins would have been seated there. Am I in error? |
Delta7
Member Posts: 1527
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 06-24-2008 10:45 PM
I think it had something to do with the fact that Aldrin trained as CMP on the Apollo 8 backup crew, and they decided to keep him in that position for the Apollo 11 launch. I think Aldrin mentions that in his book "Return To Earth" (or maybe it was Mike Collins in "Carrying The Fire"). |
skyhigh
New Member Posts:
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Registered:
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posted 06-24-2008 10:53 PM
Yes, Collins mentions this somewhere in Carrying the Fire, not sure of the exact page. While we're on the subject, I remember seeing training pictures of skylab pilots sitting in the right seat as opposed to the middle seat. Is this true? If so what is the rationale behind this? btw I've been lurking around this board for about a year and I figured it was about time I started chiming in  |
Ryan Walters
Member Posts: 78
From: Hattiesburg, MS, USA
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted 06-24-2008 11:05 PM
Maybe I'm too combative but that would have angered me if I had been Mike Collins. Either I'm flying this baby in my seat or I'm walking on the Moon!! |
ejectr
Member Posts: 1758
From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 06-25-2008 06:12 AM
With Mike Collin's personality and the way he views things, I don't think it would have mattered to him if he sat in the lower equipment bay. |
thump
Member Posts: 575
From: washington dc usa
Registered: May 2004
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posted 06-25-2008 01:50 PM
So was it Neil in the lefthand seat, Buzz in the center, and Mike in the right for launch? |
capoetc
Member Posts: 2178
From: McKinney TX (USA)
Registered: Aug 2005
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posted 06-25-2008 02:27 PM
quote:
Originally posted by thump:
So was it Neil in the lefthand seat, Buzz in the center, and Mike in the right for launch?
That is correct. In Carrying the Fire, p. 359-360 of the original 1974 edition, Collins says that normally he as the CMP would ride in the center couch, but Buzz had already been trained to ride the center before he joined the crew, so it made little sense for him to learn another position. Thus, he was in the right. Neil had the only abort handle anyway -- the center and right seat crew members had mostly monitoring duties during launch and the ride to orbit. ------------------
John Capobianco
Camden DE |
ehartwell
New Member Posts: 8
From: Waterloo, ON, Canada
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 06-26-2008 11:21 AM
And, of course, the CMP controlled rendezvous and docking from the left-hand seat. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 06-27-2008 02:27 PM
The thing is though that the CMP doesn't fly the command module at launch anyway. He is there in a support capacity to the CDR who is sitting in the left seat and that seat has the primary flight controls.Granted the center seat does have a backup set of hand controls (I'll have to check if the abort handle is only on the left seat), but it was highly unlikely that a failure would require a CMP to take over as the CDR was acting as backup for the Saturn V anyway (Apollo 11 was the first Saturn V shot where the CDR could fly it from the hand controls in the Command Module). For the docking manuevers with the LM after S-IVB jettison, the CMP takes over that station to do his job. But the CMP doesn't become the full time occupant of the left seat until the LM does its flight down to the moon. When the LM returns, the CMP remains in the left seat for the rest of the trip as he flies TEI and the reentry. The bit about the altered seat positions in Skylab is interesting. I do know that the power systems on Skylab were a little different then on a Lunar Apollo CSM as two of the fuel cells were replaced with large storage batteries and smaller tanks of cryo for the remaining fuel cell as the cell would be inoperable when the time came to undock and come home anyway (as the cell can't be reactivated once turned off). As such, if the seat positions were altered, this could be one possible reason for it. |
Colin Anderton
Member Posts: 154
From: Great Britain
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted 06-28-2008 04:19 AM
At a press conference on July 5 1969, Mike Collins spoke about how he was referred to as the centre-seat man, but added "In fact I don't ride in the centre seat; I ride in the right-hand seat for launch, and the left-hand seat for the burns, entry, and other major flight-plan events."Colin.
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Richard Glueck
Member Posts: 15
From: Winterport, Maine, USA
Registered: Sep 2007
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posted 06-28-2008 10:34 AM
With all the egos for which astronauts are famed, you have to hand it to Mike Collins. Here's a guy who got one of the two most important seats on the mission, shares little of the limelight, yet carries no grief or bitterness about rarely being mentioned when people talk of the Apollo 11 flight. It would appear that as an outstanding author, museum manager, and quiet retiree, we are talking about a truly outstanding individual from the period. IIRC, Slayton was ready to give him his own command, yet Collins turned it down, with the first landing mission being enough for him. Quite a guy. I'd love to meet him. |
SRB
Member Posts: 258
From:
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 06-29-2008 04:02 PM
Collins should also be given credit for donating many important flown Apollo 11 flight manuals and personal items to the Smithsonian NASM. Buzz sold his for profit (which is his choice and is great for space collectors) and Neil put his in his own museum (which is also great but few people will ever see them compared with the those in the NASM.) This gift to the Nation is another reason we should thank and honor Mike Collins. |
Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1332
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 07-01-2008 03:37 PM
Richard-Don't forget Mike Collins is currently on the Board of Directors of 'The National Geographic Society'. - Lou |
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