#space training
Practice makes perfect. Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin go through the steps with the Lunar Lander during preparation for Apollo 11, 1969. Backup crew for the first mission to the moon were Jim Lovell, Fred Haise & William Anders. Armstrong & Aldrin spent 21 & ½ hours at Tranquility Base before joining Command Module Pilot Michael Collins who was in lunar orbit in Columbia.
Astronaut Neil Armstrong undergoes training prior to Apollo 11, 1969. Following his retirement from NASA in 1971, Mr. Armstrong went taught at the University of Cincinnati until 1979 in the Dep’t of Aerospace Engineering. During his space career, he also flew on Gemini 8 in 1966 & spent a total of 8 days & 14 hours in space during the two historic missions.
What’s for breakfast? The first American in space, Alan Shepard, joins Apollo 9 astronauts Rusty Schweickart, James McDivitt & David Scott during their training, Feb 1969. McDivitt had flown previously on Gemini 4; Scott on Gemini 8. It was Schweickart’s rookie flight. The main task of Apollo 9 was to test out & verify the Lunar Module’s abilities in space, including being able to dock with the Command Service Module. The trio spent 1,800 hours on mission specifics. Their hard work paid off as the 10-day mission successfully tested the full Apollo spacecraft.
Have camera, will travel. Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean does some work with the Hasselblad camera in preparation for the 2nd mission to land on the moon. Mr. Bean, chosen in the 3rd Group of astronauts by NASA in 1963, became the 4th person to walk on the moon during the Nov 1969 mission. He was 37 years old at the time. 4 years after A12, he flew on Skylab 3 in July 1973 on a mission which lasted 59 days. Also an accomplished painter, Bean created space-themed paintings of his adventures & of his fellow astronauts.
In the field today, on the moon tomorrow. Charlie Duke & John Young undertake geology training for Apollo 16 in Sudbury, Ontario, 07/71. The city in Northern Ontario, nicknamed ‘The Nickel City’, was chosen due to the area’s shatter cone formations. The pair landed in the Descartes Highlands upon the lunar surface in April the following year. They spent 71 hours on the moon & brought back ‘Big Mule’, for research; the largest moon rock collected during Project Apollo.
3 peas in a pod. Frank Borman sits in the commander’s seat to the left, with William Anders to the right & Michael Collins in the middle during flight simulator training for Apollo 8. Mr. Collins developed a back injury in 1968 which led to James Lovell replacing him on the 1st crewed flight to orbit the moon. All was not lost for Mike though as he was bumped back to Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin for the first human landing on the moon. Not too bad of a second assignment.
Edgar Mitchell has the @hasselblad camera in hand during zero gravity training in preparation for Apollo 14. Mitchell served as Lunar Module Pilot on the mission with Commander Alan Shepard & Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa & became the 6th human to walk on the moon. Mitchell graduated in the 5th Group of astronauts in 1966 & served as support crew for Apollo 9 & backup LMP for A10. The Apollo 14 crew was to fly the Apollo 13 mission, but additional time was needed for Shepard to train as he was recovering from Ménière’s Disease. Mitchell later served as backup LMP for Apollo 16. A space legend of the early 1970s.
