This is the section for assorted cool videos and stuff
Some folks post their cool photos, videos and drawings on FaceBook, but there is a catch. You see when you post a photo on FaceBook you give licence to everyone else on that site to use your photo any way they wish anyplace on that web site. I prefer to control my own photos. So, you are welcome to see my cool photos and stuff here... where I still own them. All photos and images here are copyright Wes Oleszewski and all right are reserved.
WHAT I WAS DOING ON THIS NIGHT, JULY 25th, 1971
THE EVE OF THE APOLLO 15 LAUNCH
"SHERIDAN PARK, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"
THE EVE OF THE APOLLO 15 LAUNCH
"SHERIDAN PARK, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!"
(From Growing up with Spaceflight- Apollo Part Two")
"Late into the evening
prior to launch-day I decided to do a flight readiness test of my recording
equipment. Suddenly- A GLITCH! My, or rather- my sister's, external microphone
had failed! This was before they started putting built-in microphones on
recorders- so I was really screwed. It was 9:45 at night- there wasn't a store
in the Saginaw Valley that was open- especially not one with a microphone.
Worse yet, I had spent my last dime on the tapes! I scrambled for a solution.
Wiggle the wires... no use. Tap on it- no good. Take it apart... now it's
REALLY busted! Sheridan Park- we have a problem!
Perhaps, I pondered, when the store opens at
9:00 in the morning, I could get there and, after negotiating some sort of a
lawns-to-be-cut-later deal with my parents, I could buy a new microphone, and
make it back home within the 26 minutes between the time the store opens and
the launch takes place... okay... that was nuts. There was no way that was
going to happen, just the negotiating the lawn-cutting part with my parents
alone was on a par with negotiating with North Vietnam. I sat there looking at
the disassembled microphone and I thought "What would Gene Kranz do?" Simple- he'd call a meeting of
his engineers and controllers and he would tell them to go out and find a
solution to the problem with what they had.
With what they had... hummm...
It was then that the
thought struck me that several months back I had accidentally stuck an earphone
into the microphone jack and it fit; in those days both had 1/8 inch jacks. And
an earphone had the same basic elements to it as the microphone that was now
laying in pieces in front of me. I knew that because I had dissected plenty of
earphones. In short order I was rooting through the family “junk drawers” and
had scrounged up an earphone that I had not yet dissected.
I tested it in the
microphone jack; IT WORKED!
Sure the sound had a lot of tin in it and some
60 Hz hum, but it recorded! Using a four inch by six inch railroad “pounding card” that Dad had brought home from work, some masking
tape and a hand full of tissues I had a microphone that the boys in the
backroom at Houston would be proud of. I added a small measuring stick to give
me the optimum distance from the TV speaker and I was "Go for the launch
of Apollo 15!"
Copyright 2014 Wes Oleszewski- all rights reserved
THE COOLEST OPENING THEME EVER (IMO)
In my opinion the coolest opening TV theme for any Apollo flight was the NBC one for Apollo 15.
So, after more than a decade of searching, I now have a copy of it. Here it is...
(In keeping with the "Internet Users Who Are Occasionally Dense Act of 2009" we now advise you to click on the video and NOT the picture of the TV set. Thank you.)
By the way... my second book on spaceflight, Growing up with Spaceflight- Apollo Part Two can how be had in both eBook and PRINT! Get your print version today... because this one has Apollo 15 in it, as well as Apollos 14, 16 and 17.
THE DAY OF THE APOLLO 11 LAUNCH
Here is a sample of my account of the Apollo 11 mission and this is how we saw it back in 1969
It was a fine summer morning in Saginaw, Michigan on the 16th day of
July, 1969 and by nine o'clock that morning, most of us kids had already been
outside playing for a while. I had no idea that the events that were up-coming
would have a profound effect on my life. Sure, I'd been told a zillion times
that history would be made that day, but in the mind of a 12- year- old, that
meant little.
There was no escaping the TV coverage of the Apollo 11 mission as all
of the networks had been on the air live since before dawn. Bergman did some of
his best space savvy droning on ABC in contrast to the outward disdain for the
space program presented by Chet Huntley and his otherwise indifferent partner
David Brinkley on NBC. Over on CBS they had pulled out all of the plugs for
this mission. Cronkite had been teamed up for the first time with astronaut
Wally Schirra in pairing that would become nearly as legendary as the flights
they would cover.
All three networks ran the
standard clips of the astronauts, eating, suiting up and walking out...
although a close look at the suit-up video would have revealed that the event
shown was actually taped during the Countdown Demonstration Test back in the
first week of June. The tell-tale clue to that is the fact that in the
"suit-up" footage, the astronaut's suits are missing the Apollo 11
mission patch.
My Mom called me to the TV less than two minutes before Apollo 11
lifted off. At the time I had watched, with a growing kid's interest, all of
the previous flights. In my mind, NASA could do anything. Now I stood by the TV
and watched as Apollo 11 counted down to zero. The images of the Saturn V
roaring to life were now, for me, as familiar as were the images of the ascent
and staging. I recall that as Apollo 11 cleared the tower, my Mom said,
"Oh God... they're taking such an awful chance."
Looking at her I said to myself "What chance?" I thought that
NASA had this all planned out so completely that every detail was covered. I
recall feeling that my Mom's concern just showed that she did not understand
how good NASA was at doing this. When the coverage showed Apollo 11 in Earth
orbit, I went back outside to play.
I went back to my room that evening and got out my model CSM and LEM
that I had built with my remedial modeling skills. I practiced some docking and
undocking and did a lunar landing on my bedroom floor. For the first time in my
12 years of life, I recall having the strong desire to find out, not just more,
but a lot more about Apollo and spaceflight in general. I wanted to do so
before the astronauts, now headed toward the moon, arrived there.
The complete account of Apollo 11, as well as Apollos 7,8,9,10,12 and 13 can be found in my book. It is available in hard copy or in e-book form at the following links:
Growing up with Spaceflight- Apollo Part One- eBook
A PART OF APOLLO/SOYUZ THAT YOU DIDN'T SEE
This video contains a segment of the Apollo/Soyuz launch day that you probably have not seen. Tom Stafford had a lot of trouble approaching the S-IVB as the sun glare off of the Pacific Ocean was so bright that it blotted out his COAS (Crew Optical Alignment Sight).
CAUTION: This clip is rated "PG" for language- Pilot guidance is advised...
Here is a short video about the fiber optics and the camera pods...
(Photos: Space World Magazine and NASA)
If you like this sort of detailed stuff, check out my book series "Growing up with Spaceflight"
Growing up with Spaceflight
"WE CAME IN PEACE"
"Don't you ever bring that book to this classroom again!"
This is a sample from Growing up with Spaceflight- Apollo Part One:
"Several weeks after the Apollo 11 splashdown, my Dad stopped into a
Gulf station for gas. He came back from paying and he handed me something- it
was a book. When I opened that book, titled "We Came In Peace," it
was as if someone had injected liquid hydrogen into the sparks of my new-found
spaceflight passion. Even looking at the publication today, it is likely one of
the finest illustrated and composed presentations of the nuts and bolts of the
effort to get to the moon and space in general that had ever been produced up
to that time. Yet, it was sold at gas stations! All of the other spaceflight
books in my school’s library were illustrated with early representations of von
Braun’s 1950s exploration plans or Project Mercury missions with looks
“forward” to Project Gemini, but this book was about Apollo and it was
up-to-date. The book was free if you “filled up,” but my Dad rarely filled the
car up with gas. Instead, along with his “dollar’s worth” of gas that he
normally bought, he probably paid the full price for the book; that price was
one dollar.
I lived in that book to the
point where my sixth grade teacher told me never to bring it to school again."
Here is the CBS opening for Apollo 15
Here is the CBS News intro for the Apollo 15 mission:
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| To get you copy delivered signed and personalized Click HERE |
My story of the Apollo 15 mission can be found here; in Growing up with Spaceflight- Apollo Part Two. The book can be found exclusively on Amazon Kindle.
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