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  Apollo 8 original crew (AS-503) spacesuits

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Author Topic:   Apollo 8 original crew (AS-503) spacesuits
Paul78zephyr
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Posts: 692
From: Hudson, MA
Registered: Jul 2005

posted 09-05-2020 10:45 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Paul78zephyr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In this photo of the original Apollo 8 crew (c. late 1967/early 1968) with Mike Collins, what spacesuits are they wearing? There is no American flag or name tags. It doesn't quite look like an A7L.

MOL
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Posts: 113
From: Los Angeles, CA
Registered: Oct 2004

posted 09-06-2020 04:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MOL   Click Here to Email MOL     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well the reason they don't look like A7Ls is because they are not — those suits are A6Ls.

Henry Heatherbank
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Posts: 259
From: Adelaide, South Australia
Registered: Apr 2005

posted 09-07-2020 04:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Henry Heatherbank     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
In an alternative universe, would we be looking at the Apollo 13 commander in the middle there?

Headshot
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Posts: 940
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 09-07-2020 10:18 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Headshot   Click Here to Email Headshot     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I am confused. Technically, at the time the picture was taken, was not that the Apollo 9 crew? I thought that the 8 and 9 crews were switched in mid-1968.

Delta7
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Posts: 1575
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007

posted 09-07-2020 11:23 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Delta7   Click Here to Email Delta7     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Henry Heatherbank:
In an alternative universe, would we be looking at the Apollo 13 commander in the middle there?
Has Mike Collins ever said if he would've considered flying a third time if he had flown Apollo 8 instead of Apollo 11? In all likelihood he would've followed the same path as the man who replaced him on Apollo 8, Jim Lovell.

Skylon
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Posts: 289
From:
Registered: Sep 2010

posted 09-07-2020 04:19 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Skylon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think that is why AS-503 is in parenthesis in the subject line. Something that Borman's crew was pointed at flying since 1967. I am not totally clear when the decision was made to move the D Mission from a dual Saturn IB launch, to a single Saturn V and specifically if 503 would have been their ride.

As for Collins on Apollo 13, I don't recall any comments about "what-ifs" had he flown Apollo 8. I suspect backing up Apollo 11 would have seemed important enough that he would have stayed with the program at least for that, and if so, why not fly to the moon in 1970? But it's hard to read how enthusiastic Collins would have been about the prospect and it seems like too much of a "what if" for him to have contemplated.

LM-12
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Posts: 3469
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010

posted 09-07-2020 04:33 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for LM-12     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Skylon:
I am not totally clear when the decision was made...
The AS-503 Borman crew in the photo was announced in December 1966. That mission was cancelled after the fire.

The November 1967 crew announcement had the McDivitt crew on AS-504, and the Borman crew on AS-505. AS-503 was planned as an unmanned mission at the time, as I understand it.

The April 1968 crew announcement had the McDivitt crew on AS-503, and the Borman crew on AS-504.

Borman, Collins and Anders were training as the third manned Apollo crew.

All times are CT (US)

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