Frank Beacham's Journal

Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr., third man to walk on the moon, was born 92 years ago today

Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr., third man to walk on the moon, was born 92 years ago today.

A U.S. Navy officer and NASA astronaut who flew the Apollo 12 mission, Conrad set an eight-day space endurance record along with his command pilot, Gordon Cooper, on the Gemini 5 mission. He also commanded the Gemini 11 mission.

After Apollo, he commanded the Skylab 2 mission (the first manned one), on which he and his crew-mates repaired significant launch damage to the Skylab space station. For this, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978.

Conrad was always the “fun” astronaut — a man with great sense of humor. He was often seen around the bars and other nightlife spots in Cocoa Beach, Florida during the space flight era.

As a pilot, Conrad was invited to take part in the selection process for the first group of astronauts for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (the "Mercury Seven").

Conrad, like his fellow candidates, underwent several days of what they considered to be invasive, demeaning and unnecessary medical and psychological testing at the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in New Mexico.

Unlike his fellow candidates, Conrad rebelled against the regimen. During a Rorschach inkblot test, he told the psychiatrist that one blot card revealed a sexual encounter complete with lurid detail. When shown a blank card, he turned it around, pushed it back and replied "It's upside down.”

Then when he was asked to deliver a stool sample to the onsite lab, he placed it in a gift box and tied a red ribbon around it. Eventually, he decided he had enough.

After dropping his full enema bag on the desk of the clinic’s commanding officer, he walked out. His initial application to NASA was denied with the notation not suitable for long-duration flight.

Thereafter, when NASA announced its search for a second group of astronauts, Mercury veteran Alan Shepard, who knew Conrad from their time as naval aviators and test pilots, approached Conrad and persuaded him to reapply. This time, the medical tests were less offensive and Conrad was selected to join NASA.

Conrad joined NASA as part of the second group of astronauts, known as the New Nine, on September 17, 1962. Regarded as one of the best pilots in the group, he was among the first of his group to be assigned a Gemini mission. As pilot of Gemini 5 he, along with his commander Gordon Cooper, set a new space endurance record of eight days.

The duration of the Gemini 5 flight was actually seven days, 22 hours and 55 minutes, surpassing the then-current Russian record of five days. Eight days was the time required for the first manned lunar landing missions. Conrad facetiously referred to the Gemini 5 capsule as a flying garbage can.

Conrad tested many spacecraft systems essential to the Apollo program. He was also one of the smallest of the astronauts in height — 5 feet, 6½ inches — so he found the confinement of the Gemini capsule less onerous than did his commander, Gordon Cooper, who had played American football.

On November 14, 1969, Apollo 12 launched with Conrad as commander, Dick Gordon as Command Module Pilot and Alan Bean as Lunar Module Pilot. The launch was the most harrowing of the Apollo program, as a series of lightning strikes just after liftoff temporarily knocked out power and guidance in the command module.

Five days later, after stepping onto the lunar surface, Conrad joked about his own small stature by remarking: “Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.”

He later revealed that he said this in order to win a bet he had made with the Italian journalist, Oriana Fallaci, for $500 to prove that NASA did not script astronaut comments.

Conrad died on July 8, 1999, less than three weeks before the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing. While motorcycling in Ojai, California, with his wife and friends, he ran off the road and crashed.

His injuries were first thought to be minor, but he died from internal bleeding about six hours later. He was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery, with many Apollo-era astronauts in attendance.

Here is the liftoff of Apollo 12, the second mission to the moon

Pete Conrad being interviewed by Frank Beacham, late 1960s

Navy Commander Alan Shepard Jr. was launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule 61 years ago today

From Cape Canaveral, Florida on this day in 1961 — 61 years ago — Navy Commander Alan Shepard Jr. was launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space.

The suborbital flight — which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere — was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

NASA was established in 1958 to keep U.S. space efforts abreast of recent Soviet achievements, such as the launching of the world's first artificial satellite — Sputnik 1 — in 1957. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the two superpowers raced to become the first country to put a man in space and return him to Earth.

On April 12, 1961, the Soviet space program won the race when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into space, put in orbit around the planet, and safely returned to Earth. One month later — on May 5, 1961 — Shepard's suborbital flight restored faith in the U.S. space program.

NASA continued to trail the Soviets closely until the late 1960s and the successes of the Apollo lunar program. In July, 1969, the Americans took a giant leap forward with Apollo 11, a three-stage spacecraft that took U.S. astronauts to the surface of the moon and returned them to Earth.

On February 5, 1971, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, became the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission.

Shepard died on July 21, 1998 at age 74.

Thanks History.com

The space shuttle Columbia was first launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on this day in 1981 — 41 years ago — becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel into space

The space shuttle Columbia was first launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on this day in 1981 — 41 years ago — becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel into space.

Piloted by astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young, the Columbia undertook a 54-hour space flight of 36 orbits before successfully touching down at California's Edwards Air Force Base on April 14.

On September 17, 1976, NASA publicly unveiled its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California. Development of the aircraft-like spacecraft cost almost $10 billion and took nearly a decade.

In 1977, the Enterprise became the first space shuttle to fly freely when it was lifted to a height of 25,000 feet by a Boeing 747 airplane and then released, gliding back to Edwards Air Force Base on its own accord. Regular flights of the space shuttle began with flight of Columbia on April 12, 1981.

Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and an external tank, only the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around Earth. When the mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to reduce speed and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like a glider. Early shuttles took satellite equipment into space and carried out various scientific experiments.

On January 28, 1986, NASA and the space shuttle program suffered a major setback when the Challenger exploded 74 seconds after takeoff and all seven people aboard were killed.

In September, 1988, space shuttle flights resumed with the successful launching of the Discovery. In subsequent years, the space shuttle carried out numerous important missions, such as the repair and maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the construction and manning of the International Space Station.

A tragedy in space again rocked the nation on February 1, 2003, when Columbia, on its 28th mission, disintegrated during re-entry of the earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts aboard were killed.

In the aftermath, the space-shuttle program was grounded until Discovery returned to space in July, 2005, amid concerns that the problems that had downed Columbia had not yet been fully solved.

In the photo below, Warren Jones and Frank Beacham at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral shooting video for NBC News as the first space shuttle was rolled out to the launch pad.

Photos by Ron Lindsey

Thanks History.com

Warren Jones and Frank Beacham

Kennedy Space Center in early 1981. John Young, the first commander of a space shuttle flight, holds a press interview in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Frank Beacham, on the left, records sound for the interview for NBC.

Young went on to become the ninth person to walk on the Moon as commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.

He had the longest career of any astronaut, becoming the first person to make six space flights, over the course of 42 years of active NASA service, and is the only person to have piloted four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command/Service Module, the Apollo Lunar Module and the Space Shuttle.

In 1965, Young flew on the first manned Gemini mission, and in 1969 was the first person to orbit the moon alone during Apollo 10. He is one of only three persons who twice journeyed to the Moon, and drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Moon's surface.

He also commanded two Space Shuttle flights, including its first launch in 1981, and served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974–1987.

Young retired from NASA in 2004. He died on January 5, 2018 at age 87.

Photo by Ron Lindsey

Frank Beacham at the Kennedy Space Center, early 1981

On April 11, 1970 — 52 years ago — Apollo 13, the third lunar landing mission, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise

Astronaut Fred Haise is about to be hoisted up in a net to a recovery Navy helicopter after the splashdown of Apollo 13 in the South Pacific. Awaiting their turn are astronauts John Swigert and James Lovell, April 17, 1970

Photo from NASA

On April 11, 1970 — 52 years ago — Apollo 13, the third lunar landing mission, was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise.

The spacecraft’s destination was the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon, where the astronauts were to explore the Imbrium Basin and conduct geological experiments.

After an oxygen tank exploded on the evening of April 13, the mission changed. The goal became to get the Apollo 13 crew home alive.

At 9:00 p.m. eastern time on April 13, Apollo 13 was just over 200,000 miles from Earth. The crew had just completed a television broadcast and was inspecting Aquarius, the Landing Module. The next day, Apollo 13 was to enter the moon’s orbit, and soon after, Lovell and Haise would become the fifth and sixth men to walk on the moon.

At 9:08 p.m., these plans were shattered when an explosion rocked the spacecraft. Oxygen tank No. 2 had blown up, disabling the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light and water. Lovell reported his iconic message to mission control: “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” and the crew scrambled to find out what had happened.

Several minutes later, Lovell looked out of the left-hand window and saw that the spacecraft was venting a gas, which turned out to be the Command Module’s oxygen. The landing mission was aborted.

As the Command Module lost pressure, its fuel cells also died, and one hour after the explosion mission control instructed the crew to move to the Lunar Module, which had sufficient oxygen. They would use it as a lifeboat. The Command Module was shut down, but would have to be brought back on-line for Earth reentry.

The Lunar Module was designed to ferry astronauts from the orbiting Command Module to the moon’s surface and back again. Its power supply was meant to support two people for 45 hours.

If the crew of Apollo 13 were to make it back to Earth alive, the Lunar Module would have to support three men for at least 90 hours and successfully navigate more than 200,000 miles of space. The crew and mission control faced a formidable task.

To complete its long journey, the Lunar Module needed energy and cooling water. Both were to be conserved at the cost of the crew, who went on one-fifth water rations and would later endure cabin temperatures that hovered a few degrees above freezing.

Removal of carbon dioxide was also a problem, because the square lithium hydroxide canisters from the Command Module were not compatible with the round openings in the Lunar Module’s environmental system. Mission control built an impromptu adapter out of materials known to be onboard, and the crew successfully copied their model.

Navigation was also a major problem. The Lunar Module lacked a sophisticated navigational system, and the astronauts and mission control had to work out manually the changes in propulsion and direction needed to take the spacecraft home.

On April 14, Apollo 13 swung around the moon. Swigert and Haise took pictures, and Lovell talked with mission control about the most difficult maneuver, a five-minute engine burn that would give the Lunar Module enough speed to return home before its energy ran out.

Two hours after rounding the far side of the moon, the crew — using the sun as an alignment point — fired the Lunar Module’s small descent engine. The procedure was a success. Apollo 13 was on its way home.

For the next three days, Lovell, Haise and Swigert huddled in the freezing lunar module. Haise developed a case of the flu. Mission control spent this time frantically trying to develop a procedure that would allow the astronauts to restart the Command Module for reentry.

On April 17, a last-minute navigational correction was made, this time using Earth as an alignment guide. Then the repressurized Command Module was successfully powered up after its long, cold sleep.

The heavily damaged service module was shed, and one hour before re-entry the Lunar Module was disengaged from the Command Module. Just before 1 p.m., the spacecraft re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.

Mission control feared that the Command Module’s heat shields were damaged in the accident, but after four minutes of radio silence Apollo 13‘s parachutes were spotted, and the astronauts splashed down safely into the Pacific Ocean.

Here is a 30 minute film on Apollo 13 — “Houston, We’ve Got a Problem”

Apollo 13 crew after the mission onboard USS Iwo Jima

On April 9, 1959 — 63 years ago today — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced America's first astronauts

On April 9, 1959 — 63 years ago today — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced America's first astronauts: Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper Jr., John H. Glenn Jr., Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Walter Schirra Jr., Alan Shepard Jr. and Donald Slayton.

The seven men, all military test pilots, were selected from a group of 32 candidates to take part in Project Mercury, America's first manned space program. NASA planned to begin manned orbital flights in 1961.

On October 4, 1957, the USSR scored the first victory of the "space race" when it successfully launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into Earth's orbit. In response, the United States consolidated its various military and civilian space efforts into NASA, which dedicated itself to beating the Soviets to manned space flight.

In January, 1959, NASA began the astronaut selection procedure, screening the records of 508 military test pilots and choosing 110 candidates. This number was arbitrarily divided into three groups, and the first two groups reported to Washington. Because of the high rate of volunteering, the third group was eliminated.

Of the 62 pilots who volunteered, six were found to have grown too tall since their last medical examination. An initial battery of written tests, interviews and medical history reviews further reduced the number of candidates to 36. After learning of the extreme physical and mental tests planned for them, four of these men dropped out.

The final 32 candidates traveled to the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they underwent exhaustive medical and psychological examinations. The men proved so healthy, however, that only one candidate was eliminated.

The remaining 31 candidates then traveled to the Wright Aeromedical Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, where they underwent the most grueling part of the selection process. For six days and three nights, the men were subjected to various tortures that tested their tolerance of physical and psychological stress.

Among other tests, the candidates were forced to spend an hour in a pressure chamber that simulated an altitude of 65,000 feet, and two hours in a chamber that was heated to 130 degrees Fahrenheit.

At the end of one week, 18 candidates remained. From among these men, the selection committee was to choose six based on interviews, but seven candidates were so strong they ended up settling on that number. After they were announced, the "Mercury Seven" became overnight celebrities.

The Mercury Project suffered some early setbacks, however, and on April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited Earth in the world's first manned space flight. Less than one month later, on May 5, astronaut Alan Shepard was successfully launched into space on a suborbital flight.

On February 20, 1962, in a major step for the U.S. space program, John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth.

NASA continued to trail the Soviets in space achievements until the late 1960s, when NASA's Apollo program put the first men on the moon and safely returned them to Earth.

In 1998, 36 years after his first space flight, John Glenn traveled into space again. Glenn, then 77 years old, was part of the Space Shuttle Discovery crew, whose nine-day research mission launched on October 29, 1998. Among the crew's investigations was a study of space flight and the aging process.

Of the original seven men, John Glenn lived the longest. He died December 8, 2016 at age 95.

Thanks History.com

On this day in 1965 — 57 years ago —the first spacewalk was carried by the Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov

Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov exiting the spacecraft Voskhod 2 in 1965

Photo from Associated Press

On this day in 1965 — 57 years ago —the first spacewalk was carried by the Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.

The walk was a major Soviet advance in the space race. The plans had been kept secret, so Soviet broadcasts of the event caught most of the world by surprise, including Lieutenant Colonel Leonov’s family.

“What is he doing?” his four-year-old daughter cried. “Please tell daddy to get back inside.”

After he retired, Leonov revealed how many times the mission had neared disaster. In the 2004 book “Two Sides of the Moon,” he detailed how high pressure in his spacesuit had nearly prevented him from re-entering the capsule.

Then a systems failure forced the two-man crew to manually guide re-entry. They landed in Siberia, without communications, and endured days of frigid temperatures, with one pistol to ward off wolves.

After they were found, the pair skied miles to a rescue helicopter.

Thanks New York Times

On this day in 1926 — 96 years ago — Robert Goddard tested the first liquid-fueled rocket from his aunt’s farm in Massachusetts

In 1920, when Robert H. Goddard outlined how a rocket might reach the moon, The New York Times wrote that he seemed “to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools” and argued, incorrectly, that thrust was not possible in a vacuum.

The Times was dead wrong and history has been kinder to Dr. Goddard since his death in 1945. Now he is viewed as a pioneer of the space age.

A crucial step in his career came on this day in 1926 — 96 years ago — when he tested the first liquid-fueled rocket from his aunt’s farm in Massachusetts.

It reached only 41 feet, but, according to NASA, the experiment was “as significant to history as that of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.”

After Apollo 11 launched in 1969, even The Times came around, noting in a correction that it was “now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere.”

Goddard proved that one should never be guided by mainstream thinking. “When old dreams die, new ones come to take their place,” Goddard said. “God pity a one-dream man.”

Thanks New York Times!

Above, Goddard posing next to the rocket that made history in 1926

Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon, was born 90 years ago today

Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon, was born 90 years ago today.

Bean was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963. He made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12, the second manned mission to land on the Moon, at the age of 37 in November, 1969.

During this mission, Bean became the fourth person to walk on the Moon. He made his second and final flight into space on the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, the second manned mission to the Skylab space station.

Bean and Pete Conrad landed in the Moon's Ocean of Storms — after a flight of 250,000 miles and a launch that included a harrowing lightning strike.

Bean was the astronaut who executed John Aaron's famous "Flight, try SCE to 'Aux'" instruction to restore telemetry after the spacecraft was struck by lightning 36 seconds after launch, thus salvaging the mission.

Bean and Conrad explored the lunar surface, deployed several lunar surface experiments and installed the first nuclear power generator station on the moon to provide the power source.

Bean had planned on using a self-timer for his Hasselblad camera in order to take a photograph of both himself and Pete Conrad while on the lunar surface near the Surveyor III spacecraft.

Bean was hoping not only to record a wonderful photo, but also to confuse the scientists back home on how the photo could have been taken.

However, neither he nor Conrad could locate the timer in the tool carrier tote bag while at the Surveyor III site and thus lost the opportunity. Bean did not locate the self-timer until the very end of the EVA when it was too late to use — at which point Bean threw it as hard as he could.

Bean’s paintings of what this photo would have looked like (titled "The Fabulous Photo We Never Took") and one of his fruitless search for the timer ("Our Little Secret") are included in his collection of Apollo paintings.

Bean's Moon suit is on display in the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History in Fort Worth, Texas.

After retiring from the United States Navy in 1975 and NASA in 1981, Bean pursued his interest in painting, depicting various space-related scenes and documenting his own experiences in space as well as that of his fellow Apollo Program astronauts.

Many of Bean’s paintings hang on the walls of space enthusiasts. He said his decision was based on the fact that, in his 18 years as an astronaut, he was fortunate enough to visit worlds and see sights no artist's eye, past or present, has ever viewed firsthand and he hoped to express these experiences through the medium of art. He pursued this dream at his home and studio in Houston.

As a painter, Bean wanted to add color to the Moon. "I had to figure out a way to add color to the Moon without ruining it," he remarked. In his paintings, the lunar landscape is not a monotonous gray, but shades of various colors. "If I were a scientist painting the Moon, I would paint it gray. I'm an artist, so I can add colors to the Moon," said Bean.

Alan Bean's paintings include Lunar Grand Prix and Rock and Roll on the Ocean of Storms. He is the only artist to use real moon dust in his paintings. When he began painting, he realized that keepsake patches from his space suit were dirty with moon dust.

He added tiny pieces of the patches to his paintings, which made them unique. He also used the hammer that pounded the flagpole into the lunar surface, and a bronzed moon boot to texture his paintings.

Bean died on May 26, 2018, in Houston, Texas, at the age of 86. His death followed the sudden onset of illness two weeks before while he was in Fort Wayne, Indiana. At the time of his death, Bean was married to his second wife, Leslie.

Bean was interred in Arlington National Cemetery on November 8, 2018 with a service which included a flyover, military band, carriage procession and gun salute.

In the above painting by Alan Bean, Apollo 16 astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke have just arrived on the rim of North Ray Crater.

Young reported, "As we climbed the rim to North Ray, it was really a steep slope going right up to the edge of the rim. Of course, the old rover didn't notice — it just went right up."

Duke continued, "The slope must be on the order of 20 degrees. You don't realize it 'til you get off and turn around."

As they looked around they could see that the rim was populated with rocks in all sizes and shapes. These rocks had been thrown up and out when a large object impacted the Moon's surface over three billion years ago. The resulting hole is North Ray Crater.

Said Bean: “I have painted John on the left selecting tools for the traverse while Charlie is removing the Hasselblad camera with the 500-millimeter telephoto lens from beneath the seat. Charlie would later report, ‘we did take the 500-mm photos of the interior of the crater. I couldn't see the bottom and I wasn't going to get close enough to see in because there was no way I could have gotten out if I had fallen in.’"

Young agreed, "now I tell you, I can't see the bottom of it, and I'm just as close to the edge as I'm going to get." He laughed, "that's the truth."

North Ray was the largest crater, 300 feet in diameter, and deepest crater, who knows how deep, directly explored in the Apollo Program.

Frank Borman, retired NASA astronaut, is 94 years old today

Frank Borman, retired NASA astronaut, is 94 years old today.

Borman was the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so.

Before flying on Apollo, he set a fourteen-day spaceflight endurance record on Gemini 7, and also served on the NASA review board which investigated the Apollo 1 fire.

In one of the most famous photographs ever taken, Bill Anders, a member Apollo 8 mission commanded by Frank Borman, took the “Earthrise” photograph

Gene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, the last moon mission, was born 88 years old today

Gene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17, the last moon mission, was born 88 years old today.

An American naval officer, fighter pilot and NASA astronaut, Cernan went into space three times. First as pilot of Gemini 9A in June, 1966; then as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May, 1969 and finally and as commander of Apollo 17 in December, 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing.

On Apollo 17, Cernan became the eleventh person to walk on the Moon and "the last man on the Moon" since he was the last to re-enter the lunar module, Challenger, after the mission's third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA).

Crewmate Harrison Schmitt was "the last man to arrive on the Moon," as Cernan left the module first.) Cernan was also a backup crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 space missions. He left the initials of his daughter, Tracy, written on a rock on the surface of the Moon.

Cernan died in a hospital in Houston on January 16, 2017, at the age of 82. He was laid to rest with full military honors at Texas State Cemetery, the first astronaut to be buried there, during a private service on January 25, 2017.