On the Moon, In Space, On the Water: More from NASA’s GRIN

Moving along in time from the first sampling from NASA’s GRIN, or Great Images at NASA, today’s post provides an entirely arbitrary sampling of 1960s and early ’70s photos, all in the public domain. The quotations describing the images are also found on that site.

The umbilical cord is what caught my attention in this June 1965 photo of the first spacewalk, taken by Gemini 4 astronaut Ed White:

For 23 minutes White floated and maneuvered himself around the Gemini spacecraft while logging 6500 miles during his orbital stroll. White was attached to the spacecraft by a 25 foot umbilical line and a 23-ft. tether line, both wrapped in gold tape to form one cord. In his right hand White carries a Hand Held Self Maneuvering Unit (HHSMU) which is used to move about the weightless environment of space. The visor of his helmet is gold plated to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun.

 Less than two years later, White was one of the three Apollo 1 crew members to be killed by a fire during a simulated launch test inside the Apollo Command Module.

 

This next shot from 1971 puzzles me. I mean, wouldn’t it have been easier just to stop and ask mission control for directions? But here we have Astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, Apollo 14 Lunar Module pilot, reading a map on the moon. How, I wonder, could he hold on to a map with those big bulky gloves, let alone unfold and refold the thing?

I don’t think I ever realized how dirty the astronauts got collecting moon dust and lunar soil, but have a look at Harrison Schmitt, a geologist and the Apollo 17 lunar module pilot, during the last trip to the moon in 1972. Would have made a great laundry detergent commercial, the little lady wife at home in her suburban Houston laundry room, shaking her head at the ground-in dirt on her husband’s work clothes.

I always liked to watch coverage of splashdowns, lots of drama — parachutes, the bobbing space capsule in the middle of the ocean, the racing into position of the aircraft carriers, the helicopters and frogmen. I never knew about the green dye, but the description of the recovery of Gemini 4 in 1965 says it was used to help spot the craft.

It’s a good thing that three parachutes were used to slow the descent of the capsules. When Apollo 15 splashed down on August 7, 1971, one of the three parachutes failed.

No one knew whether the first men on the moon might bring back some weird germs or diseases, so when Apollo 11 returned to earth in 1969, they were outfitted in haz mat suits (or Biological Isolation Garments [BIG]) and were quarantineed on their way home. While Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin, Jr. wait in the raft, Pararescueman Lt. Clancy Hatleberg, also in a BIG, secures the door of the capsule. And here they are (left to right). Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin waving at President Richard Nixon from their quarantine trailer on the deck of the USS Hornet.

 

 

Credits: All images  — NASA.

Images reference numbers:

Ed White S65-30433
Mitchell AS14-64-9089
Schmitt AS17-145-22157
green dye S65-51656
parachutes S71-41999
Apollo splashdown 108-KSC-69PC-452
Nixon S69-21365

Dr. Goddard Goes to Roswell. And “Female Computers.”

Today’s selections are the first of several batches that will give you an idea of what can be found at GRIN, or Great Images at NASA. NASA is a Federal agency, supported by Federal public monies, and thus  images captured by an employee on the job are in the public domain. The NASA Copyright Notification:

Photographs are not protected by copyright unless noted. If copyrighted, permission should be obtained from the copyright owner prior to use. If not copyrighted, photographs may be reproduced and distributed without further permission from NASA. If a recognizable person appears in a photograph, use for commercial purposes may infringe a right of privacy or publicity and permission should be obtained from the recognizable person.

A special consideration is noted as well:

NASA materials may not be used to state or imply the endorsement by NASA or by any NASA employee of a commercial product, service or activity, or used in any other manner that might mislead.

This is an easy to use site with the selections categorized in 8 categories with 93 sub-categories (a single image can appear in multiple sub-categories), and there is a search function as well.

On with the show.

If you’ve heard of Roswell, New Mexico, it’s probably as the site where back in 1947 aliens allegedly had a mishap with a flying saucer that was subsequently hushed up the Government. Were these extraterrestrials touring sites of significance in the Earthlings’ brief history of  space exploration and in particular paying their respects to Dr. Robert H. Goddard, an early rocketry pioneer?

Here he is, driving  a Model A Ford truck in the vicinity of Roswell, New Mexico, some time between 1930 and 1932.

And watching launches from the mission control shack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I could not resist including this 1952 picture simply because the caption seems so odd. The caption:

X-4 program with what Langley engineers euphemistically called “Female Computer” support personnel.

“Euphemistically”? The picture:

The title of the  photo below from March 1964 is “Female Computer.”  The description reads:

Melba Roy heads the group of NASA mathematicians, known as “computers,” who track the Echo satellites. Roy’s computations help produce the orbital element timetables by which millions can view the satellite from Earth as it passes overhead.

 And finally, a non-human, sexless computer from 1949, an “analog computing machine” used in the Engine Research Building at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory, Cleveland, Ohio.

 

NASA Reference Numbers for credits: Goddard 74-H-1210, 74-H-1245,   74-H-1223.
Computers L-74768, 64-H-2487, C1949-24357