I bought a cool NASA meatball t-shirt at Target last weekend and I was wearing it yesterday evening... gotta say it made me feel special. Seriously. And while I know there are great things done everyday by modern NASA, most of that 'special' feeling came from looking back to our stellar past. Those thoughts are magnified even more since I may be stopping by Wapakoneta Ohio and the Armstrong Air & Space Museum this Saturday while taking my roller-coaster-buddy (niece Madison) to Cedar Point on the season ending weekend.
I've never been to this little museum located in Neil Armstrong's birth town but my dad (1929-2009) had stopped by a few times and said it was definitely worth checking it out. If I do get to stop by on Saturday I'll get some pix to report back.
Today's post is about experiencing the launch of the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket, which of course Neil was the Commander of. The video above does a great job of capturing the massive power generated by the five Rocketdyne F-1 engines in the first stage... 7,648,000 pounds of thrust!
So take 4 minutes and experience what three Americans did back on July 16, 1969 sitting on top of the most powerful machine ever built by mankind... blasting off for a visit to the moon to put human footsteps there for the very first time.
We were amazing.
Video screenshot: 7,648,000 pounds of thrust on Apollo 11 launch on July 16,1969
The mysterious Apollo voyage to the bottom of the sea is really a by-product of every Apollo mission that left the Earth... the engines and booster stage returned to Earth after burning for approximately 165 seconds, reaching about 205,000 feet. Interestingly, the momentum carries the booster up to about 360,000 feet before it begins to descend. While falling, the booster stage assumes a semi stable engines-down position until impact with the ocean. The pieces and parts then make their way on down to the ocean floor.
And now, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos (who also founded the low-cost spaceflight development company Blue Origin) along with a very skilled team of deep sea searchers has located two of the Rocketdyne F1 engines used to launch an Apollo Saturn V rocket. These two engines might actually be from the Apollo 11 mission according to this page on the BezosExpeditions website. The info on that page is from nearly a year ago tho, so we may find that these engines are from a different Apollo mission. Makes no difference to me... spent F1 engines that can be recovered and restored for viewing are awesome no matter what mission they were on!
The engines were located 14,000 feet below the surface in the Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles east of Cape Canaveral, and as the video shows, they were viewed and recovered by Remotely Operated Vehicles. It's quite stunning to see these F1 engines in the cold blackness of the ocean so many years after they spent a brief amount of time in the cold darkness of the edge of space.
(click pic to enlarge) F1 rocket engine thrust chamber on ocean floor (Bezos Expeditions)
The Saturn V first stage (known as the S-1C) had five of the F1 engines mounted, one fixed engine in the center and four gimballed around it for controlling the flight path. These were, and still are, the most powerful rocket engines ever built: creating over 1,500,000 pounds of thrust on an empty weight of just 18,500 pounds. But just imagine the weight in the fuel tanks! 318,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 203,400 gallons of kerosene - wow! Each F1 engine stands 19 feet tall and has a diameter of 12.3 feet. The total liftoff thrust produced by the S-1C and its five F1 engines for the Apollo 15 mission was 7,766,000 pounds!
Jeff Bezos has said that the recovered engines remain the property of NASA but is hopeful that after the National Air & Space Museum most likely gets one of them that maybe the Museum of Flight in Seattle might get the other one. Time will tell. Plus, they may be able to locate and recover more engines as well.
I admit that I take a different view of life and our earthly 'accomplishments' than most people do. Interestingly, it appears Neil Armstrong did as well. His death this past Saturday (August 25, 2012) put the man who first walked on the moon in the biggest spotlight since he took those steps back in July 1969. But the spotlight was not Armstrong's favorite place to be. In fact, you could probably say it was just about his least favorite place to be. And given the instant (and lasting) stardom that the first moonwalk brought him, it's a pretty amazing accomplishment that he succeeded in staying out of the spotlight.
Was Neil Armstrong a weirdo or a recluse? It doesn't seem so... it appears his biggest motivating factor in laying low was that he didn't feel he deserved so much attention and stardom for what was really a group accomplishment driven by the hard work of thousands of additional people. That level of humility is extremely remarkable. Personally, I look up to Neil Armstrong far more for that than for the reality that he happened to be the right guy at the right time to be able to take those first steps on the Moon. Sure, he was a true engineer nerd/geek who also had great piloting skills and an excellent ability to solve critical flight problems as they were happening, and I respect and admire all that. But being a humble human being is the real accomplishment in my book.
I've intentionally waited a few days to say anything here about Neil because it's my estimation that he wouldn't really like all this media attention over his death. I figured I'd spend a few days contemplating the fact that he now knows what happens to a human being when we die, and honestly, nothing that happens on Earth (or the Moon) can compare to that. I've always found it very curious that we humans spend so much time and energy paying attention to when people die, but most of us act as though we care nothing for wanting to seek answers to life's biggest question: what happens when we die?
I had always understood that Neil Armstrong was a Christian. As a Christian myself (and a person who always wonders how and why things work) I've felt I was in pretty good company knowing that a large number of astronauts, engineers, and otherwise sharp-and-critical-thinkers are also fully willing to acknowledge (even with all of our scientific progress) that we really don't know much about life and the universe... and we have no trouble at all seeing the Bible as truth, now more than ever.
In my research about Neil's life, I found the following account of his thoughts when he experienced the Temple Mount site in Jerusalem:
Inside the Temple Mount, much of the original staircase and the arched, elaborately carved Herodian ceilings survive. According to archeologist Meir Ben-Dov, "On his way in and out of the Temple, Jesus must have walked here." Ben-Dov recalls that he was once asked by Neil Armstrong, the American astronaut, to show him an area in Jerusalem where Jesus might have walked. Ben-Dov took him inside the Hulda Gates in the Southern Wall and Armstrong said that he was just as thrilled to stand on this staircase as he had been when he took his first steps on the moon. (from the Southern Wall wiki)
(click pic for hi-res) NASA Super Guppy super-size cargo transport at Edwards AFB in 2000
A total of eight Guppy aircraft were built by Aero Spacelines in the 1960's to haul oversized cargo, including many large parts related to the Apollo space program. In fact, those specific parts were the inspiration for airplanes that could relatively affordably transport pieces that were huge in size but not really all that heavy. The Pregnant Guppy, the Mini Guppy, as well as the Super Guppy that's seen here at Edwards Air Force base in 2000 were a remarkable success over the years... and I believe this one, the last Super Guppy produced is still operating yet today for NASA.
This CoolPix really shows off the massive fuselage cross section of this beast. The original Super Guppy was built by lengthening and adding the massive upper area on to a Boeing C-97J Turbo Stratocruiser which was the old C-97 that had been retrofitted with large turboprop engines. That first SG still retained the fuselage floor width of the C-97 which was just under 9 feet wide. You might have already read the story I posted that tells about the near loss of the prototype SG on one of the last flights during the certification tests. If you haven't read, I suggest you go there now, it's an amazing story: 1965 Super Guppy Dive test Goes Bad (Not A Bird Strike!)
I would guess the lessons learned from that nearly catastrophic event played a big part in the changes made in the four additional Super Guppy's that were later built. They all had fuselages built from scratch, and Aero Spacelines took the opportuinity to widen the fuselage at the floor level to just over 13 feet. The view looking into this SG gives a bit of an idea of just how big that scratch-built fuselage is. It's a pretty stunning sight! It's an interesting shape too. This view with the nose swung out of the way really shows it off.
It's easy to see a picture of a 'Guppy' and just chuckle at the crazy big fatness of the airplane, but these unique aircraft have been a really important part of the aerospace industry over the last 40 years. They're definitely worthy of our respect and appreciation!
Super Guppy fuselage collapsed in a 1965 high speed dive during certification tests
The story behind what lead to the Super Guppy having such a massive collapse of the upper fuselage is pretty amazing... and while this pic was used in Caption Contest #47, and the winning caption perfectly asked the question: "What kind of bird did you say it was ?????", in reality it was the result of a high speed dive test done during the final phase of getting the airplane certified. Birds were not involved.
The following story, originally printed in the April 1971 issue of AIR FORCE Magazine, tells the incredible story from the perspective of being inside the airplane when it all happened. It's really interesting to see how close they came to bailing out of the prototype Super Guppy! To learn loads more about this exceedingly unique airplane, check out AllAboutGuppys.com.
THE DAY THE SUPER GUPPY BLEW HER TOP By Lt. Col. P.G. Smith USAF (Ret.) (illustration by Gordon Phillips)
MAYDAY! Mayday! Mayday! This is 1038 Victor, the Super Guppy, in flight test over the Mojave Desert. We have had a major structural failure of the upper nose section in a maximum dive and are preparing for bailout!" "1038 Victor, this is Los Angeles Center. May we help you?" "Stand by, Los Angeles, we have a large hole in the nose, and the aircraft is disintegrating and buffeting severely-Thirty-eight Victor will advise intentions." Only seconds before, we had been safely completing flight tests for the huge Guppy-confident that the converted Boeing Stratocruiser would regain from Russia the United States claim to the "world's largest airplane." Certification tests started with the Guppy's maiden flight on August 31, 1965.
We had completed all the tests except the most hazardous maneuvers-the high-speed dives that are required of all aircraft for airworthiness certification. This portion of the flight tests was saved for the last phase and is called VD, for Velocity Dive. But now, twenty-five days later, on September 25, in clear, blue skies over the Mojave Desert, with only the final VD remaining, disaster struck!
Similar to the video of the Apollo 11 Saturn V launch I posted a while back, this video of Space Shuttle launches goes much deeper. With views from a wide range of cameras, most in extreme slow motion and many just feet away from the fires, you are given a detailed look at what happens when millions of pounds of thrust are used to overcome gravity and lift the 4.5 million pound Space Transportation System off the ground.
The video is 45 minutes long with a simply delivered commentary that is nothing short of excellent. It's a very stirring experience to watch this, and particularly fitting given that we are very close to the end of the Shuttle Program. The clips are taken from three different Shuttle launches: STS-114 (Discovery 2006), STS-117 (Atlantis 2007), and STS-124 (Discovery 2008).
What a tremendous tribute to the men and women who have worked over the years to bring the Space Shuttle to life.
The video was created at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
Bell Aerosystems built this fascinating flying simulator for NASA to help them test control and develop pilot skills for the eventual Lunar Modules for the Apollo missions. Officially named the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, or LLRV, it first flew in 1964. It was powered by a vertically mounted, gimbaled turbofan with power settings adjusted to carry 5/6ths of the loaded vehicles weight. The contraption then had an array of hydrogen peroxide rocket thrusters to give full simulated control or the conditions expected in a lunar landing.
This video is pretty amazing for at least two reasons. First, the bizarre looking 'flying bedstead' as it was often called, is amazingly stable and controlled considering this was the mid-60's. But then that leads us to the second reason this is an amazing video... it shows the loss of control and safe ejection by Neil Armstrong! Fascinating video!
Yeah I know, we're all high-tech and stuff these days, but being all about high technology does not a great country make. I think it has a lot more to do with determination, commitment, and good old fashioned butt-busting hard work.
The Apollo Program, which began essentially in 1961, the same year I was born, was the epitome of accomplishment for the American spirit. Watch this awesome Apollo 11 launch video for a good taste of it.
The insanely massive Saturn V booster with 7.5 million pounds of thrust is the largest rocket booster made. Ever.
Without getting all whacked out from a political or social standpoint, I would at least like to suggest that we aren't what we used to be. And the farther we get away from the core elements that made us so strong, the less likely we'll ever be coming back.
But I'm not here to be all doom and gloom tho. I'm actually somewhat optimistic still. But I really think as a nation, we need to stop thinking about Paris, Lindsay and Britney... and spend a lot more time looking back at what was accomplished by people who had the courage to dream big, work hard, and to never take no for an answer.
Thursday, October 24, 2013 at 06:46AM 
Video screenshot: 7,648,000 pounds of thrust on Apollo 11 launch on July 16,1969
