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Author
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Topic: When/where would you go in space history?
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ASCAN1984
Member Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 12-31-2007 04:31 PM
   
If you could time travel to anywhere within the space program's history where would you go and why? For me, due to the books I am reading at the moment (Into That Silent Sea and Light This Candle) I would go to Cocoa Beach about the time that the "The Boys" (the Mercury 7) were there. The days of the Starlight Motel and the impressions by Bill Dana as the reluctant astronaut. All this took place twenty years before I was born and it would be so cool to soak up the excitement of that era that I never got to experience. Maybe I would have been able to bump into one of our heroes and get an autograph. You never know.  Gareth |
ejectr
Member Posts: 1751
From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 12-31-2007 05:49 PM
I'm with you, Gareth. Those were the days for me. Although I was only 10 when the "Original 7" were announced, I hung on every minute of it. |
micropooz
Member Posts: 1512
From: Washington, DC, USA
Registered: Apr 2003
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posted 12-31-2007 05:52 PM
I'd like to be lounging in my lawn chair about 50 feet from the ladder on Eagle while Neil climbed down.The TV transmissions were grainy enough and our reception bad enough that night (remember that was back when almost everyone was on an antenna) that I never could tell what was going on until Neil said the famous "That's one small step..." line. Would love to see it live one more time, with detail. |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2031
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 12-31-2007 06:39 PM
Dolley Madison House, Washington, D.C., 9 April 1959, and the official introduction to the media of the seven Mercury astronauts.Colin |
Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1306
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 12-31-2007 06:39 PM
1959-1969 was a time to be alive! I'm glad I lived though it.
-Lou |
Rick Mulheirn
Member Posts: 4167
From: England
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 12-31-2007 07:14 PM
I'd be stood next to the countdown clock of the press site at Kennedy... just as Apollo 11 was lifting off marking it's place in history!Regards, Rick |
MCroft04
Member Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 12-31-2007 08:08 PM
Perhaps it's a stretch, but I think I'd like to be at the Cape on Jan 27, 1967 in the Apollo 1 spacecraft sitting beneath Gus' seat. From what I've read it's probable that I would have been able to see the flame and extinguish it before it grew. I still recall my sorrow when I heard the news that dreadful day. |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2031
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 12-31-2007 08:31 PM
Dear me, Mel: you would have changed a bit of history, however sad? If you'd nipped off that little flame then a substandard spacecraft would have staggered into orbit, and who knows what catastrophic events might have occured later on in the program because the Apollo spacecraft in that manifestation was a badly flawed beast. But in wanting to save the crewmembers, I say Bravo, dear lad, Bravo! Colin |
heng44
Member Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 01-01-2008 04:00 AM
I was fortunate enough to actually be present when history was made: I saw the launch of STS-1 and two days later I saw the landing also. And then I was there when Columbia was flown back to KSC.But as has been said above, I would have loved to more fully experience the years 1959-1972, with all the knowledge I have now... Ed |
randy
Member Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 01-01-2008 08:30 AM
I would like to be at the Surveyor spacecraft when Pete Conrad and Al Bean landed Intrepid 600 feet away, then came to Surveyor during one of their EVA's.Randy |
Moonpaws
Member Posts: 685
From: Lee's summit, MO
Registered: Jan 2005
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posted 01-01-2008 10:28 AM
10 feet within Al Shepard's golf ball when it landed, and to hear him say, "miles and miles."
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mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 01-01-2008 08:51 PM
One thing I would have liked to have witnessed was Yuri Gagarin's launch. We can re-live all of the American launches thanks to the extensive photographic coverage, but very few witnessed the first man launch into space. |
music_space
Member Posts: 1179
From: Canada
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 01-01-2008 11:34 PM
MCroft04, hasn't "Back to the Future" thought us anything? ;-)If you'd go back and prevent the fire from taking place, then a sloppy Block-II spacecraft may well fail catastrophically later on and thus jeopardize Kennedy's deadline, let alone the lunar program itself. I'd like to see the sequels to this scenario, though! -=+=- If you're interested in time-travel SF, then you might want to read this. |
music_space
Member Posts: 1179
From: Canada
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 01-01-2008 11:49 PM
Sorry Collin! I hadn't read your post before I posted my own thing about time-travel paradoxes. Your's gave me a big laught!François. |
Jay Chladek
Member Posts: 2272
From: Bellevue, NE, USA
Registered: Aug 2007
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posted 01-02-2008 04:16 AM
I just want to be there for a Saturn V launch. My choices would either be Apollo 8 since it was the first manned launch (crowds not as big as those for A11) or Apollo 17, with it being the only night time launch of a Saturn V.Thankfully I have seen something similar as being at the press site when STS-121 lifted off from Pad 39B. It was a special memory which I will cherish as it can't be repeated anymore with 39B being converted to an Ares pad. At least I was there for THAT moment in history. |
cspg
Member Posts: 6210
From: Geneva, Switzerland
Registered: May 2006
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posted 01-02-2008 09:21 AM
Any time in the future, when the mind will be finally free from the body it is trapped in.Chris. |
onesmallstep
Member Posts: 1310
From: Staten Island, New York USA
Registered: Nov 2007
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posted 01-02-2008 10:38 AM
I'd go even farther back, to March 16, 1926 and the launch of the world's first liquid-fueled rocket by Robert H. Goddard at his aunt's farm in Massachusetts. Then I would time-travel forward to July 16, 1969 and the Apollo 11 launch to marvel at how much progress was made in rocketry and spaceflight in one generation... -Al |
Moonwalker1954
Member Posts: 245
From: Montreal, Canada
Registered: Jul 2004
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posted 01-02-2008 03:53 PM
quote:
Originally posted by micropooz:
I'd like to be lounging in my lawn chair about 50 feet from the ladder on Eagle while Neil climbed down.
You would have put your lawn chair next to mine because I would have been there first to witness Eagle's landing!  Pierre-Yves |
Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1306
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 01-02-2008 04:25 PM
quote:
Originally posted by MCroft04:
From what I've read it's probable that I would have been able to see the flame and extinguish it before it grew.
I spoke to Deke about this. He was almost in the spacecraft that day. It was going to be a test, but they could not hook-up a headset for him. He looked upset as he thought about being at Gus's feet with a fire extinguisher. Another, "if only" of the space program.-Lou |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 01-02-2008 05:14 PM
I personally have doubts that a flame in the Apollo 1 capsule could have been extinguished in time. The only possible exception would have been if someone was sitting there with a fire extinguisher pointed at the source of the flame at the very moment the fire started (which is a highly improbable circumstance). Otherwise, I think one would have had very little hope in putting out a fire in a 100% oxygen environment, where flame spreads so rapidly. Deke might have seen or smelled the fire before Gus did, but unless he was immediately prepared to put the flame out, I suspect he would have become the 4th victim that day. |
ejectr
Member Posts: 1751
From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 01-02-2008 05:25 PM
quote:
Originally posted by onesmallstep:
I'd go even farther back, to March 16, 1926 and the launch of the world's first liquid-fueled rocket by Robert H. Goddard at his aunt's farm in Massachusetts.
You'd be sad to know then that Goddard's aunt's farm is now a tiny little rocket garden surrounded by a huge mall/shopping complex with miles of asphalt, traffic signals and parking lots in Auburn, MA |
Aztecdoug
Member Posts: 1405
From: Huntington Beach
Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 01-02-2008 05:26 PM
If I could time travel I would like to be the guy at Kitty Hawk in Dec of 1903 convincing Orville to shove a couple of hundred freshly postmarked envelopes into his suit pocket.  ------------------
Kind Regards Douglas Henry Enjoy yourself and have fun.... it is only a hobby!
http://home.earthlink.net/~aztecdoug/ |
MCroft04
Member Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 01-02-2008 07:37 PM
quote:
Originally posted by mjanovec:
I personally have doubts that a flame in the Apollo 1 capsule could have been extinguished in time.
I'm no expert, but my comment was partially based on Murray and Cox's book "Apollo". On page 191 it reads "Simpkinson surmised that the hot spot in the netting moved horizontally at first. Or it could have just hung there, slowly growing larger. Possibly it created an acrid smell. For about 30 seconds just before the crisis the crew wasn't saying anything but White and Grissom were moving around, doing something. One explanation is that they were trying to determine where the smell was coming from". Granted, this sounds like speculation, but just maybe.... And of course Colin is right about flying a Block 1 spacecraft haunted with problems, but being an optimist I'd like to think had the fire been detected before it spread, then NASA MAY have awakened and made appropriate changes. Again, just wishful thinking. I just wish Gus, Ed, and Roger had been around to experience the lunar landings. |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2031
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 01-02-2008 09:03 PM
quote:
Again, just wishful thinking. I just wish Gus, Ed, and Roger had been around to experience the lunar landings.
Amen to that, Mel. Amen.Colin |
robsouth
Member Posts: 769
From: West Midlands, UK
Registered: Jun 2005
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posted 01-02-2008 09:26 PM
I would have liked to have been in the mission control room on the 20th of July 1969 to follow the landing of Eagle and to be one of the guys about to turn blue! That would be the most exciting experience in space travel to date."We copy you down Eagle". |
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