Posts: 3208 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 04-28-2011 10:27 AM
What was the most impressive lunar surface feature that you observed during your time in lunar orbit? Was it a specific crater or mountain range? What an amazing sight that must have been. I miss the excitement of the Apollo flights.
posted 04-28-2011 10:46 AM
Following the Apollo 12 mission, your crewmates Pete Conrad and Alan Bean moved over to Apollo Applications and as a result they flew again on Skylab.
Looking back with hindsight, do you have any regrets that you stayed with the lunar program in hopes of landing on the moon with (the cancelled) Apollo 18? Or was the chance to land on the moon more important that it was worth the risk of giving up the chance to fly again?
Hart Sastrowardoyo Member
Posts: 3445 From: Toms River, NJ Registered: Aug 2000
posted 04-28-2011 11:19 AM
As the expected commander of the Apollo 18 flight, have you been to the Cradle of Aviation Museum and seen LM-13? Any thoughts as to the CSM and LM call signs?
cosmos-walter Member
Posts: 691 From: Salzburg, Austria Registered: Jun 2003
posted 04-28-2011 04:52 PM
Was Apollo 18 cancelled rather due to high cosmic radiation which occurred due to solar flares between Apollo 16 and 17 than due to saving of funds?
canyon42 Member
Posts: 238 From: Ohio Registered: Mar 2006
posted 04-28-2011 06:24 PM
The Apollo 18 (and 19) missions were canceled in 1970, well before Apollo 16 flew in 1972.
Delta7 Member
Posts: 1505 From: Bluffton IN USA Registered: Oct 2007
posted 04-28-2011 09:28 PM
What is your most vivid memory of your spacewalk on Gemini XI?
Rob Joyner Member
Posts: 1308 From: GA, USA Registered: Jan 2004
posted 04-30-2011 01:46 PM
Aviation has been a very important part of your life. Do you have any desire to fly aboard one of the future sub-orbital commercial flights?
jasonelam Member
Posts: 691 From: Monticello, KY USA Registered: Mar 2007
posted 04-30-2011 10:57 PM
What is your favorite memory from either Gemini 11 or Apollo 12?
Rick Mulheirn Member
Posts: 4167 From: England Registered: Feb 2001
posted 05-01-2011 03:59 AM
Has the nagging of everybody in Pontefract, as well as your own children, persuaded you to change your mind about writing your autobiography; I am quite sure Al Worden's forthcomming book will tell it like it is so why not you?
Regards, Rick (Not your son)
PS. Did you get an upgrade for your flight home from Pontefract?
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3208 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 05-01-2011 06:23 PM
Could moonwalkers Conrad and Bean have seen the Command Module "Yankee Clipper" fly overhead from the lunar surface ... and did they?
posted 05-02-2011 06:33 PM
Mr. Gordon, what would you like to see done in future American space efforts, and where do you think NASA's priorities should lie?
Fezman92 Member
Posts: 1031 From: New Jersey, USA Registered: Mar 2010
posted 05-02-2011 06:38 PM
What do you think is needed to get America's attention back into space so that we have the enthusiasm that we did during Mercury-Apollo era? Thanks!
David
Tom Member
Posts: 1597 From: New York Registered: Nov 2000
posted 05-02-2011 09:21 PM
Following your launch aboard Apollo 12, did you or your crewmates ever feel that the events during ascent may have changed your lunar mission to an abbreviated earth orbiting flight?
Nigel Mc Member
Posts: 182 From: Sheffield, UK Registered: Jan 2011
posted 05-03-2011 04:14 AM
What is your favourite book or film?
golddog Member
Posts: 210 From: australia Registered: Feb 2008
posted 05-03-2011 04:30 AM
What's your favorite aircraft? Was it the F4?
Paul23 Member
Posts: 836 From: South East, UK Registered: Apr 2008
posted 05-03-2011 04:47 AM
Was there a single moment where you felt like you were 'home from the moon'?
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42988 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 05-03-2011 12:10 PM
Given your almost-command of the real Apollo 18, what's your opinion of Hollywood and other entertainers' using the mission in their projects? For example:
the band "They Might Be Giants" released a 1992 album called "Apollo 18";
in his 1982 novel "SPACE," author James Michener sent Apollo 18 to the far side of the Moon; and
this August, director Timur Bekmambetov re-imagines the mission as having actually launched and made it to the moon — albeit in secret — in The Weinstein Company film "Apollo 18" (former flight director Gerry Griffin was technical advisor).
Does it surprise you that as great a real adventure was Apollo that it has given way to fiction?
nasamad Member
Posts: 2121 From: Essex, UK Registered: Jul 2001
posted 05-03-2011 02:12 PM
When you awoke after your catnap during EVA aboard Gemini XI, what were your feelings waking up to a view of earth from orbit?
Adam Bootle from Essex, UK
Jurg Bolli Member
Posts: 977 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Nov 2000
posted 05-03-2011 02:52 PM
Do you ever dream of space?
moorouge Member
Posts: 2454 From: U.K. Registered: Jul 2009
posted 05-03-2011 03:04 PM
You once said that alone in lunar orbit was a welcome respite from having to share the CM with characters such as Pete Conrad and Al Bean. Given that you wouldn't wanted to have swopped them as crew-mates, who would you have liked to have flown with?
Kite Member
Posts: 831 From: Northampton UK Registered: Nov 2009
posted 05-03-2011 03:22 PM
A question I never got around to asking in Featherstone was did you go into the lunar module before it departed to the moon or as command module pilot was this just not done. Do you know if other CM pilots ever did this on the outward journey? I ask this just out of interest.
dog320 Member
Posts: 49 From: West Sussex, United Kingdom Registered: Jul 2010
posted 05-03-2011 03:28 PM
As you headed out from Earth on Apollo 12, did you reach a point where the lag in radio communications (due to the finite speed of light) became noticeable or a nuisance?
Rick Mulheirn Member
Posts: 4167 From: England Registered: Feb 2001
posted 05-03-2011 04:36 PM
Documentaries I have seen from Apollo 12 suggest that Al Bean is the only crewman who knew the "SCE to AUX" procedure following the lightening strike. Is that correct or did you know it also?
Rick Mulheirn Member
Posts: 4167 From: England Registered: Feb 2001
posted 05-03-2011 04:41 PM
The Apollo 1 fire investigation concluded, (based on little definitive evidence) that chaffed wiring was the likely ignition source on that fateful January day.
North American Aviation had evidence to support one likely scenario but it involved Gus Grissom accidentally knocking cables creating an electrical arc.
Any findings that may have implicated the crew, however involunatarily were not to even considered by the Review Board.
Naturally you would wish to protect the standing of your deceased friendes and colleagues. But as a test pilot were you comforatble with the rather vague findings of the review board?
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3208 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 05-03-2011 08:32 PM
The Apollo 12 Command Module is on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center. When was the last time you saw it?
What a flood of memories that must have generated!
stsmithva Member
Posts: 1933 From: Fairfax, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2007
posted 05-03-2011 11:09 PM
You attended the Navy's Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland, and served as a flight test pilot there. Was this as harrowing as portrayed in the first chapter or two of "The Right Stuff"? What was the surrounding area like? (I went to college a few miles away, where Alan Bean first started taking art classes.)
What was something you had been worried about before either of your NASA missions that in fact went much smoother than you'd feared?
What was a useful bit of advice that the crew of Apollo 11 told you after their mission that hadn't come up during training - someone had to experience a mission like yours to learn about it?
The crew of Apollo 12 seems to have been the closest of the Apollo crews. Do you remember the circumstances of when you first met Pete Conrad and Alan Bean? Can you tell us a story or two about the three of you, either while on the clock or after hours, that even space program enthusiasts probably don't know about?
perineau Member
Posts: 218 From: FRANCE Registered: Jul 2007
posted 05-04-2011 11:37 AM
Why (or how) did you choose to become a command module pilot instead of a lunar module pilot?
ASF1984 Member
Posts: 167 From: Titusville, Florida USA Registered: Sep 2009
posted 05-20-2011 09:34 AM
Thanks to everyone who submitted questions for Gordon to answer! Here are his replies to as many questions as we could fit in:
Stay tuned for information on our next Astro Chat!
Jurg Bolli Member
Posts: 977 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Nov 2000
posted 05-20-2011 11:12 AM
Great program, thanks to all involved.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3208 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 05-20-2011 01:12 PM
Thank you ASF and many thanks to astronaut Richard Gordon for answering my questions. It just doesn't get any better than that.
Rick Mulheirn Member
Posts: 4167 From: England Registered: Feb 2001
posted 05-20-2011 02:33 PM
Good to see Dick looking so well. Thanks ASF for putting these on.
Fezman92 Member
Posts: 1031 From: New Jersey, USA Registered: Mar 2010
posted 05-20-2011 02:38 PM
Would love to see if they could to a Q&A with Armstrong...
MCroft04 Member
Posts: 1634 From: Smithfield, Me, USA Registered: Mar 2005
posted 05-20-2011 04:12 PM
quote:Originally posted by LM-12: Could moonwalkers Conrad and Bean have seen the Command Module "Yankee Clipper" fly overhead from the lunar surface ... and did they?
David Harland cites in Apollo 12 On the Ocean of Storms several times when Pete and/or Al observed Yankee Clipper passing overhead. I'm almost through this book and if you don't have a copy, you gotta get one. Great book!
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3208 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 05-20-2011 05:56 PM
The Command Module orbit was only about 60 miles above the lunar surface, so a CM flyover must have been quite a sight to see for the moonwalking astronauts.
posted 05-21-2011 09:25 AM
Another great job by the folks at the ASF. Astro Chat is a great way to ask those questions we have all wanted to ask and never had the chance. Great idea.
posted 04-28-2011 08:33 AM
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