Frank Beacham's Journal

The space shuttle Columbia was first launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on this day in 1981 — 40 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 — 40 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 above photo, 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.

Photo by Ron Lindsey

Thanks History.com

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.

Frank Beacham at the Kennedy Space Center in early 1981 just before the first Space Shuttle launch, 40 years ago today

All photos by Ron Lindsey

On April 11, 1970 — 51 years ago — Apollo 13 was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise. The mission didn't end so well

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 — 51 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

The Apollo 13 command capsule

On April 9, 1959 — 62 years ago today — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced America's first astronauts

On April 9, 1959 — 62 years ago today — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced America's first astronauts to the press: 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 — 56 years ago —the first spacewalk was carried by the Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov

On this day in 1965 — 56 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

In the photo, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov exiting the spacecraft Voskhod 2 in 1965

Photo from Associated Press

A crucial step in Robert Goddard's career came on this day in 1926 — 95 years ago — when he 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 — 95 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 is Goddard posing next to the rocket that made history in 1926

Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon, was born 89 years ago today

Alan Bean, the fourth person to walk on the moon, was born 89 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 painting above 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 93 years old today

Frank Borman, retired NASA astronaut, is 93 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

On this day in 1963 — 58 years ago — country music singers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins were killed in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee

On this day in 1963 — 58 years ago — country music singers Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins were killed in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee.

They were returning to Nashville after appearing at a benefit concert for the widow of Kansas City disc jockey, “Cactus” Jack Call, who had died in a car crash.

Part of the early 1960s Nashville sound, Cline successfully crossed over to pop music and was one of the most influential, successful and acclaimed vocalists of the 20th century. She died at the age of 30 in a multiple-fatality crash in the private plane, a Piper PA-24 Comanche, of her manager, Randy Hughes.

Hughes was the pilot, but was not trained in instrument flying. On a stop to refuel, the Dyersburg, Tennessee, airfield manager suggested that they stay the night because of high winds and inclement weather, offering them free rooms and meals. But Hughes responded, "I've already come this far. We'll be there before you know it.”

The plane took off at 6:07 p.m. The plane crashed in heavy weather. Cline’s recovered wristwatch had stopped at 6:20 p.m. Two days later, on March 7, country singer Jack Anglin was killed in a car crash on his way to Cline's funeral.

Shown above are Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas

John Glenn was successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut 59 years ago today

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Glenn was successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut 59 years ago today.

Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become America's first astronauts.

A decorated pilot, he flew nearly 150 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first nonstop supersonic flight across the United States, flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes.

Glenn was preceded in space by two Americans, Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and two Soviets, Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov.

In April 1961, Gagarin was the first man in space, and his spacecraft Vostok 1 made a full orbit before returning to Earth. Less than one month later, Shepard was launched into space aboard Freedom 7 on a suborbital flight. In July, Grissom made another brief suborbital flight aboard Liberty Bell 7.

In August, with the Americans still having failed to make an orbital flight, the Russians sprinted further ahead in the space race when Titov spent more than 25 hours in space aboard Vostok 2, making 17 orbits.

As a technological power, the United States was looking very much second-rate compared with its Cold War adversary. If the Americans wanted to dispel this notion, they needed a multi-orbital flight before another Soviet space advance arrived.

It was with this responsibility in mind that John Glenn lifted off from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral at 9:47 a.m. on February 20, 1962. Some 100,000 spectators watched on the ground nearby and millions more saw it on television.

After separating from its launching rocket, the bell-shaped Friendship 7 capsule entered into an orbit around Earth at a speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. Smoothing into orbit, Glenn radioed back, "Capsule is turning around. Oh, that view is tremendous."

During Friendship 7's first orbit, Glenn noticed what he described as small, glowing fireflies drifting by the capsule's tiny window. It was some time later that NASA mission control determined that the sparks were crystallized water vapor released by the capsule's air-conditioning system.

Before the end of the first orbit, a more serious problem occurred when Friendship 7's automatic control system began to malfunction, sending the capsule into erratic movements. At the end of the orbit, Glenn switched to manual control and regained command of the craft.

Toward the end of Glenn's third and last orbit, mission control received a mechanical signal from the spacecraft indicating that the heat shield on the base of the capsule was possibly loose. Traveling at its immense speed, the capsule would be incinerated if the shield failed to absorb and dissipate the extremely high reentry temperatures.

It was decided that the craft's retrorockets, usually jettisoned before reentry, would be left on in order to better secure the heat shield. Less than a minute later, Friendship 7 slammed into Earth's atmosphere.

During Glenn's fiery descent back to Earth, the straps holding the retrorockets gave way and flapped violently by his window as a shroud of ions caused by excessive friction enveloped the spacecraft, causing Glenn to lose radio contact with mission control.

As mission control anxiously waited for the resumption of radio transmissions that would indicate Glenn's survival, he watched flaming chunks of retrorocket fly by his window.

After four minutes of radio silence, Glenn's voice crackled through loudspeakers at mission control, and Friendship 7 splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.

He was picked up by the USS destroyer Noa, and his first words upon stepping out of the capsule and onto the deck of the Noa were, "It was hot in there." He had spent nearly five hours in space.

Glenn was hailed as a national hero, and on February 23 President John F. Kennedy visited him at Cape Canaveral. He later addressed Congress and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City. Out of a reluctance to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, NASA essentially grounded the "Clean Marine" in the years after his historic flight.

Frustrated with this uncharacteristic lack of activity, Glenn turned to politics and in 1964 announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio and formally left NASA. Later that year, however, he withdrew his Senate bid after seriously injuring his inner ear in a fall.

In 1970, following a stint as a Royal Crown Cola executive, he ran for the Senate again, but lost the Democratic nomination to Howard Metzenbaum. Four years later, he defeated Metzenbaum, won the general election, and went on to win reelection three times. In 1984, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president.

In early 1998, NASA announced it had approved Glenn to serve as a payload specialist on the space shuttle, Discovery. On October 29, 1998, nearly four decades after his famous orbital flight, the 77-year-old Glenn became the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging.

In 1999, he retired from his U.S. Senate seat after four consecutive terms in office, a record for the state of Ohio.

Glenn was in good health for most of his life. He retained a private pilot's license well into his 80s, eventually quitting flying when he and his wife found it too difficult to get into the cockpit due to knee problems.

Glenn died on December 8, 2016, at the OSU Wexner Medical Center. He lived to be 95. No cause of death was disclosed.

He was interred at Arlington National Cemetery after lying in state at the Ohio Statehouse and a memorial service at Mershon Auditorium at Ohio State University.

Thanks History.com

After the flight

Chuck Yeager was born 98 years ago today

Chuck Yeager was born 98 years ago today.

A retired brigadier general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot, in 1947 Yeager became the first pilot to (officially) travel faster than sound. After World War II, he became a test pilot of many types of aircraft including experimental rocket-powered aircraft.

As the first human to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, he flew the experimental Bell X-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet.

Although Scott Crossfield was the first to fly faster than Mach 2 in 1953, Yeager shortly thereafter set a new record of Mach 2.44.

Yeager's flying career spanned more than 60 years and took him to every corner of the globe, including the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. His popularity soared in the 1980s, when he was prominently featured in Tom Wolfe's book, The Right Stuff, and in its 1983 movie adaptation, in which he was portrayed by Sam Shepard.

Yeager named his plane after his wife, Glennis, as a good-luck charm. "You're my good-luck charm, hon. Any airplane I name after you always brings me home," he said.

Yeager and Glennis moved to Grass Valley, California, after his retirement from the Air Force in 1975. The couple prospered because of Yeager's best-selling autobiography, speaking engagements and commercial ventures. Glennis Yeager died of ovarian cancer in 1990. They had four children (Susan, Don, Mickey and Sharon).

In 2000, Yeager met actress, Victoria Scott D'Angelo, on a hiking trail in Nevada County. The pair started dating shortly thereafter, and married in August 2003.

Subsequent to the commencement of their relationship, a bitter dispute arose between Yeager, his children and D'Angelo.

The children contended that D'Angelo, 41 years Yeager's junior, had married him for his fortune. Yeager and D'Angelo both denied the charge.

Litigation ensued, in which his children accused D'Angelo of "undue influence" on Yeager, and Yeager accused his children of diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from his pension fund.

In August 2008, the California Court of Appeal ruled for Yeager, finding that his daughter Susan had breached her duty as trustee.

Yeager and Victoria reside in Penn Valley, California, the location of the General Chuck Yeager Foundation, which supports programs that "teach the ideals by which General Yeager has lived."