posted 01-01-2012 05:33 PM            

On 7th November, 1962, NASA Administrator James Webb finally confirmed that "Lunar Orbit Rendezvous" (LOR) would be the method by which astronauts would land on the moon. The Apollo "mothership" would carry a smaller landing vehicle which would detach in lunar orbit, then fly down to land two crew members on the moon.

Ten days before Webb's formal announcement, on 28th October, 1962, British TV viewers (mainly children, but probably many fathers, too) watched the first episode of an exciting new puppet-series, "Fireball XL5". When Steve Zodiac and his crew visited an alien planet, they left the main spacecraft in orbit and two of the crew detached the nose-cone ("Fireball Junior") and used it to descend to a landing on the planet's surface.

The process which led to NASA choosing LOR was a lengthy and complex one. The idea of a smaller landing vehicle did not originate with John Houbolt, but he championed the idea, initially at no small risk to his career. When he wrote his famous letter ("somewhat as a voice in the wilderness") to Robert Seamans on 15th November, 1961, a tough struggle lay ahead. (I recommend the account in "Apollo: The Race to the Moon" by Murray and Cox).

I don't know when Gerry Anderson and his brilliant team of filmmakers first came up with the idea of a landing vehicle detaching from the mothership in orbit, but I very much doubt whether they were aware of the fierce internal debate within NASA. It would seem that Anderson and NASA were developing their respective flight plans more or less at the same time. If asked about this coincidence, I suspect that John Houbolt would simply point out that it is obviously the best way to land astronauts on a planetary surface, whether in 1969 or in 2062.

posted 01-01-2012 07:05 PM               

(Little "Thunderbirds" insider nerd thing there.)

posted 01-03-2012 07:58 AM               

Don't think FAB stood for anything, unless someone knows differently.

posted 01-03-2012 08:35 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by gliderpilotuk:
Here's some nostalgia... in colour!

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posted 01-03-2012 08:37 PM               

Supercar flew in air, space and sea and was on TV, right after school let out, everyday on the "Major Astro" show in Wichita, KS (my hometown) in the very early '60's.

Major Astro was a local actor, dressed up in a silver spacesuit who showed cartoons, space fact questions (which won me a burger or two at Mickey D's), and most specially - Supercar! He later moved from Supercar to Thunderbirds, and then some undersea thing from Gerry Anderson that totally lost my attention at about 8 years old.

Anyway, at 6 years old, Supercar REALLY captured my imagination (along with Gordo Cooper's Mercury flight), and sent me off on a future of permanent space-geekdom that still abounds today!

Since Wichita had Boeing, Beech, Cessna, and Lear plants there, almost all of the adults in the 'hood were aircraft and spacecraft workers. So at the ripe old age of 6 years old, I figured that I could get the neighborhood aircraft workers together in the evenings and build a Supercar of my own in the garage... With apologies to the superb efforts of Professor Popkiss and Dr. Beaker!

posted 01-04-2012 12:44 AM               

I have a feeling that the launch system used by XL-5 was more based on the one used by George Pal's effects crew in "When Worlds Collide" as opposed to Sanger's. Both systems used a similar track system and a sled track for the rocket. And in Anderson's case, he likely adapted it because it looked cool!