Apollo 11 Mission Successful Conclusion Due to Alert Weatherman July 21, 2010

Armstrong and Aldrin ascend from the moon to rendevous with Columbia with location of splashdown in doubt

Liftoff from Moon (LM 17)

On This Date in History:  Yesterday was the 41st anniversary of the 5th NASA mission of the Apollo program designated as Apollo 11 landing on the moon.  It stands as one of the monumental achievements of the 20th century and perhaps the greatest endeavor of human history.  It was quite a trick, because, even though it worked out on paper, it had never been done before.   Any engineer will tell you that something working on paper is not the same as actually accomplishing a project.  So, they made it to the moon but, like the landing, no one had ever taken off from the moon either; the challenge of safely returning the men from the moon remained.  At 1:54pm EDT on this date in 1969, The Lunar Module Eagle successfully lifted off from the moon.  Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. ”Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. left behind a plaque,  prominently signed by President Nixon,  that read “we came in peace for all mankind.”  They had spent 21 hours and 37 minutes on the lunar surface and as they prepared for their voyage home, one of their backpacks broke the switch that controlled their module’s ascent from the lunar surface. Oops. Yankee ingenuity came into play and the astronauts showed a zero-gravity pen into the broken switch. Obviously, the make-shift repair worked because they were able to flip the switch and return safely. Had it not been for their making use of what they had, they would have been marooned. Previously, when they landed on the Sea of Tranquility, the Eagle had but a few precious seconds of fuel remaining, perhaps as little as one second. Had Armstrong not set down when he did,  Astronaut Michael Collins, the commander of the Command Module Columbia in orbit around the moon, may have come home alone.

Plaque Left on Moon

 Armstrong and Aldrin not only placed the plaque on the moon, but they also left behind a piece of the Wright Flyer flown at Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers, a disc with messages from 73 VIP’s on earth and the mission patch from Apollo I honoring astronauts Gus Grissom,  Roger Chaffee and Ed White who had died when a fire swept through their Apollo I capsule just a couple of years before.  As a nod toward detente, the memorial also recognized the deaths of two Soviet cosmonauts. When the astronauts of Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific on July 24, 1969 more questions remained. Initially, there was an issue with the capsule inverted in the ocean.  I remember that because no one was able to communicate with them until they got the Columbia in an upright position.  For a few minutes, it was a little dicey.  After that there was a larger issue.   Since no one had ever been to the moon, there was concern that they may have picked up some bugs…which is odd since it is unlikely that anything could live in space. While no pathogens were ever discovered, all precautions were taken and Armstrong, Aldrin and  Collins were whisked away from the deck of the USS Hornet wearing special protective masks. They were taken to a silver camper on one of the decks below in which they were to reside for a 21 day quarantine period. There were no handshakes and no hugs. A man followed behind them with a can of bug spray as they walked from the helicopter to the special quarantine location.

Bad Weather Could Have Foiled Splashdown

All of this may not have come to pass though and there may have been another disaster. See, there was bad weather of which many people were not aware…or weren’t supposed to know about it. The Americans had a special Cold-War era spy program called Corona which was part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.  Part of the DMSP operation involved the placement of satellites in geosycnrous orbit around the world in what was said to be a weather reconnasaince mission. In reality, it was a spying program that was not declassified until 1995.  When the program was declassified, it was revealed that Capt. Hank Brandi had received a medal of commodation for saving the Apollo 11 astronauts. He had seen the data from the spy satellites and noted that powerful thunderstorms would be in the landing area.   Remember, the first hurricane tracked by satellite was Hurricane Camille in August 1969, so the assets we take for granted today simply were not on place when the Apollo 11 astronauts took flight; fortunately though, there was Corona.  Had Columbia splashed down in the throes of such a thunderstorm complex,  the parachutes from the capsule would get ripped to shreds and the astronauts would plunge into the ocean to their deaths. Brandi risked his career and the integrity of the Corona program by sharing the information with other officials who eventually altered the landing zone, which was not an easy thing to do, and the mission was saved.

Weather Bottom Line:  I had mentioned a few days ago that a frontal boundary would be stuck in our area as it washed out. That has been the focus for disturbances wandering thorugh the flow along the boundary; Hence, we’ve had periodic bouts with storms.  So far, the models have not been great at picking up the disturbances or, when they do, properly track the forecast progress.  That’s not too unusual.  You really have to just look at  the radar and see what is going on in most cases.  I didn’t see too much out west on Wednesday morning.  Doesn’t mean that something can’t bubble up but it does mean that there weren’t any major features.  I think we’ll have one more day of this with the ridge over  the Southeast expanding northward for Friday and Saturday, elevating temperatures and decreasing rain chances.  By Saturday night and Sunday, the ridge breaks down a bit as another front approaches which should increase the probability.  After that, if the front does indeed come through early next week, then we should see a reduction in the heat and humidity for a little while.

The Explosion That Brought Failure, Success and Fame April 13, 2010

The Result of the Explosion that Forced The World to Remember Apollo 13

President Kennedy Challenges Nation Before Congress May 25, 1961

On This Date in History:  The manned space program at NASA currently has an uncertain future as the Space Shuttle program winds down.  In sharp contrast, in the 1960′s the United States made manned space missions a national goal.  Just a few weeks after Alan B. Shepard, Jr.  became the first American in space, President Kennedy on May 25, 1961 set the bar high by saying that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.   When I was a kid, I couldn’t get enough of the space program.  I sometimes wish that I had followed through on my boyhood dream of being an astronaut when I grew up.  In my college years, I won many a bar bet on any trivia question relating to space exploration.  When Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. (Buzz)  Aldrin, Jr.  set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969 the Guinness Book of World Records says that about a third of the global population watched in television.  That was Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 followed and by the time Apollo 13 lifted off on April 11, 1970 the American people, along with the rest of the world, seemed to give a collective yawn.

Picture Perfect Liftoff April 11, 1970

No one really noticed when the time of the launch on that day took place at 13:13 NASA time, or 1:13 pm CST.  More critically, no one at NASA had any concern over oxygen tank #2 in the service module.  According to NASA, “The No. 2 oxygen tank, serial number 10024X-TA0009 had been previously installed in the service module of Apollo 10, but was removed for modification (and was damaged in the process of removal). The tank was fixed, tested at the factory, installed in the Apollo 13 service module. and tested again during the Countdown Demonstration Test (CDT) at the Kennedy Space Center.beginning March 16, 1970. The tanks normally are emptied to about half full, and No. 1 behaved all right. But No. 2 dropped to only 92 percent of capacity. Gaseous oxygen at 80 psi was applied through the vent line to expel the liquid oxygen, but to no avail. An interim discrepancy report was written, and on March 27, two weeks before launch, detanking operations were resumed. No. 1 again emptied normally, but No. 2 did not. After a conference with contractor and NASA personnel, the test director decided to “boil off” the remaining oxygen in No. 2 by using the electrical heater within the tank. The technique worked, but it took eight hours of 65-volt DC power from the ground-support equipment to dissipate the oxygen. Due to an oversight in replacing an underrated component during a design modification, this turned out to severely damage the internal heating elements of the tank.”

"Houston, We've Had a Problem"

For years the main television networks in America had cut into regular programming to show broadcasts from space.  But, less than a year after Armstrong and Aldrin had put their footprints on the moon, network executives had determined that the public would rather watch their favorite tv show than watch the astronauts.  So, when the Apollo 13 crew broadcast live a few minutes short of 55 hours into their mission, no one saw the 49 minute broadcast from space which concluded with flight crew leader James A. Lovell, Jr say goodnight.  Within 15 minutes the networks scrambled to break into the programming as suddenly they thought the public would be interested. On this date in 1970,  nine minutes after Lovell bid farewell, that oxygen tank number 2 blew up and that caused oxygen tank number 1 to fail.  The goodship and crew was in peril as they were some 200,000 miles from earth.  Lovell called home, giving the infamous understatement of the century, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”  

 Jerry Woodfill makes the case of Divine intervention regarding the timing of the explosion.   He was mission Warning System Engineer and suggests that the time of the explosion was about the only time it could have happened and still gave the opportunity to spare the crew.  Now that is an interesting take on the incident that deserves some consideration.  Perhaps worthy of less examination are what might be regarded as those interesting coincidences of history.  Over time people have made numerous assocations of the third Apollo mission to put men on the moon with the number 13, though some are a stretch.   It departed on April 11, 1970 at 1:13 pm Houston time.   Never mind they launched on east coast time.   Anyway, 1:13 pm is 13:13 in 24 hour clock time. April 11, 1970 can also be written as 4/11/70. Four plus One plus One plus Seven plus Zero equals 13.   Or you can say 4+11+70 = 85 and 8+5 =13. Their last television broadcast was on April 13. They entered the moon’s gravitational field on April 13 and were scheduled to land on the moon on April 13. The failure of the number 2 oxygen tank occurred on Apirl 13th at 3:08:53.555 UTC which in the eastern time zone would be 9:08:53:555. 9+8+53+555=625 and 6+2+5 =13.   If the explosion that caused the damage had occured on earth, it was supposedly estimated to cost $13 million to repair the damage.  Seems like someone had a lot of time on their hands to have discovered all of this.

Splashdown Was Welcome Sight to the World and Mrs. Staple

If you saw the Apollo 13 movie, then you know that the crew made it home safely.  Back in those days, it was unusual  to have a TV set in the classroom but they wheeled one in to ours.  I remember Mrs. Staple being all emotional when we saw the Command Module floating to the sea under the 3 large parachutes.  Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise was assigned to be the Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 18 but it was cancelled along with two other missions, leaving Apollo 17 as the last manned moon mission.  Command Module pilot  (John) Jack Swigert went on to be elected to Congress but died of cancer before he could take his seat.  Jim Lovell became one of America’s most experienced astronauts having logged over 715 hours in space during the Gemini and Apollo programs.  Lovell said in a 2009 published article that funding the space program would be a great part of the stimulus:  ”One part of the stimulus could be the space program,” he said.  “First of all it’s a creative program, it creates taxes individual and corporate taxes, all the money is spent here on Earth, not one cent up there in space.  It brings technology that spills over to the private sector.  That’s what happened all through Gemini and Apollo and the private sector now is affected by computer technology and electronic components that were speeded up by our being in space, and that could continue.”

Haise, Swigert and Lovell After Returning from Successful Failure made them more famous than if it ran smoothly

Now, Lovell is certainly qualified and worthwhile to get his opinion on all things space related.  But, the flight experience of John Young eclipses even that of Lovell.   And, of all the moon missions, aside from Apollo 11, no one remembers anything about Apollo 12-17 except 13.  Why? Because it was the successful failure.  It was dramatic.  It’s as if the 5 missions that put 10 additional men on the moon did not matter to the public.  Maybe the TV executives were right; the public had lost interest.  And with the cutbacks at NASA today, it would seem that the government is losing interest as well; that is a mistake.

Weather Bottom Line:  High pressure will drift to the east and temperatures will begin to warm slowly.  Friday evening a little front will come through that will bring a chance of rain or maybe some t’storms but nothing too earth shattering.  That will leave us with a great Thunder Over Louisville weekend though temperatures will be a bit cooler with highs in the mid to upper 60′s, which is closer to where they are supposed to be this time of year anyway.

40 Yrs after Apollo 11; Invest 97L, Teens sails solo around the world; Aussie Girl set to do better July 20, 2009

 

Collins, Forgotten Hero?

On This Date In History:

On this date in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. landed on the moon. Michael Collins was left behind in the command module (Columbia) orbiting the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin had landed in the Lunar Module (LEM) called the “Eagle” with but 1 second of fuel remaining. It was nearly a catastrophe. “Houston” was the first word ever spoken from the moon…a point of pride for Texans. The first seven words were, “Houston, Tranquility Base, the Eagle has Landed.” They had landed in the “sea of tranquility” on the moon, a name given to a region that appeared to have few craters or boulders. I’ll spare you more details and let you look it all up yourself, though here is one site with an interesting angle.

Tough to Pull off in 1969

But consider this….the earth spins at 1100 mph. The moon is 243,000 miles from the earth and rotates around the rotating earth in 28 day cycles. Space is 3 degrees Kelvin, or 3 degrees above absolute zero which is when all molecular activity stops. There is no atmosphere. It is the most inhospitable place for any human. There were no micro computers and not even calculators. In order to pull it off, calculations had to be extremely precise. The burning of the engines had to be down to the millisecond. All angles had to be exact as well as speed and acceleration. Any slight mishap would spell disaster. Engineers relied on slide rules and theory. Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin as well as all astronauts, even today, are extremely brave frontiersman. It is absolutely unimaginable what happened on this date in 1969. By all rights, it shouldn’t have happened. It is one of the few times that “Yankee Ingenuity” truly lived up to its billing. If you know physics, you know how remarkable this was…if you don’t…take my word for it, it was unbelievable.  Perhaps more unbelievable is that at the time, I was running around trying to spend the night at David Cruce’s house while everyone was watching on tv.  My parents just said, “yes”.  I bet when I wasn’t home the next morning that they had to think about where I was.

Perhaps more unbelievable, my daughter was born on this date on the 25 year anniversary of America’s greatest triumph.

Zac-No Trouble Getting a Date

Around the World:  Parents today want to keep an extra eye on their kids.  I’ve never seen so many parents at kids football practices, particularly mothers making sure that the coaches aren’t mean to the kids.  That’s especially true around here since the death of a high school player last year.  But, parents in California allowed their 16 year old son miss school…for a year.  Zac Sunderland was allowed to sail solo around the world.  Here was the NPR story of his bon voyage.  Last week, the now 17 year old Sunderland returned safely in his sailboat to California as the youngest person ever to sail around the world.  Quite a feat and quite an addition to the young man’s resume.  I’m sure he’s got some stories to tell…some I’m sure he won’t tell his mother about. 

Jessica: Better than the boys?

But, it apparently was not an “unassisted” voyage.  Unassited apparently means that one cannot get any help, take on any supplies or materials and all repairs must be made without any outside help or material.  So, this Aussie 16 year old girl is going to try to sail solo around the globe unassisted and one-up Zac..a case of anything you can do, I can do better.

Invest 97L July 19 2009

Invest 97L Spaghetti Model 7.19.09

Invest 97L Spaghetti Intensity Graph 7.19.09

Weather Bottom Line:  First off, we finally have something to talk about in the tropics but it’s not much.  Invest 97L is, on the one hand, is looking a bit more organized but still appears as but a swirl of clouds and should run into some unfavorable upper level winds over the next day or so. But that’s near term and, on the other hand, some models are kinda agressive and the general flow pattern should take it on a northwesterly track up toward the Yucatan Channel, which is the opening to the Gulf.  The GFS hasn’t really picked up on it much but the NAM wants to put it south of Florida, sorta over Cuba as a low in 84 hours.  You can see that there are but a few of the 18Z hurricane models that have picked up a track and I suspect that, if this guy doesn’t go away, the other models will begin picking up on it.  Nothing to get too worked up over but it is something to look at because of the 7 models providing an intensity outlook, 5 make it a tropical storm, one only makes it a depression and one is off the reservation, calling for a Category 2 hurricane. 

I Told You So!

Locally, I told you it would be cool.  Record low high temperatures for both Saturday and Sunday with afternoon highs in mid/late July of 69 and 72 respectively.  Showers Sunday afternoon were pretty few and far between. I thought it would be too dry for much.  We begin moderating and move to the upper 70′s and low 80′s as we move through the first few days of the week.  Nice stretch.

Remember Apollo 11? Iceland Won’t Forget Bertha, Media Won’t Forget Cristobal, Texas Shouldn’t Forget Dolly. July 20, 2008

It still looks to be hot for the next couple of days, though rain chances will increase. There will probably be a few storms roaming about in the heat of the day today and more numerous tomorrow in the afternoon and more pointedly in the evening and overnight when a front eases through. The front will take the temperatures down a peg or two and also will flip flop around the region for much of the week, bringing us rain chances for several days. Here are the thumbnails for the Sunday and Monday SPC outlook. The northern fringe is in the slight risk for today with the entire area included from Monday morning through Tuesday morning.

On This Date In History: On this date in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin landed on the moon. Michael Collins was left behind in the command module (Columbia) orbiting the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin had landed in the Lunar Module (LEM) called the “Eagle” with but 1 second of fuel remaining. It was nearly a catastrophe. “Houston” was the first word ever spoken from the moon…a point of pride for Texans. The first seven words were, “Houston, Tranquility Base, the Eagle has Landed.” They had landed in the “sea of tranquility” on the moon, a name given to a region that appeared to have few craters or boulders. I’ll spare you more details and let you look it all up yourself.

But consider this….the earth spins at 1100 mph. The moon is 243,000 miles from the earth and rotates around the rotating earth in 28 day cycles. Space is 3 degrees Kelvin, or 3 degrees above absolute zero which is when all molecular activity stops. There is no atmosphere. It is the most inhospitable place for any human. There were no micro computers and not even calculators. In order to pull it off, calculations had to be extremely precise. The burning of the engines had to be down to the millisecond. All angles had to be exact as well as speed and acceleration. Any slight mishap would spell disaster. Engineers relied on slide rules and theory. Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin as well as all astronauts, even today, are extremely brave frontiersman. It is absolutely unimaginable what happened on this date in 1969. By all rights, it shouldn’t have happened. It is one of the few times that “Yankee Ingenuity” truly lived up to its billing. If you know physics, you know how remarkable this was…if you don’t…take my word for it, it was unbelievable.

Perhaps more unbelievable, my daughter was born on this date on the 25 year anniversary of America’s greatest triumph.

Is Dolly Developing? Maybe. Same story as previous. Here’s the latest on the guy in the Caribbean.

THE STRONG TROPICAL WAVE OVER THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA CONTINUES TO PRODUCE NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WITH WINDS TO GALE FORCE IN SQUALLS. ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BECOME INCREASINGLY FAVORABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT…AND THIS SYSTEM APPEARS LIKELY TO BECOME A TROPICAL DEPRESSION OR A TROPICAL STORM WITHIN THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS AS IT MOVES WEST-NORTHWESTWARD AT 15 TO 20 MPH TOWARD THE SOUTHERN GULF OF MEXICO. AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THIS SYSTEM LATER TODAY. REGARDLESS OF DEVELOPMENT… LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS WILL AFFECT PORTIONS OF WESTERN CUBA AND THE CAYMAN ISLANDS TODAY…AND THE YUCATAN PENINSULA TONIGHT AND MONDAY. INTERESTS IN THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE YUCATAN PENINSULA SHOULD CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM. UPDATE:  Yes…we now have Dolly.  Dolly Discussion.

Bertha Looks to Bisect Iceland: Bertha is losing some steam and some tropical characteristics but not all that quickly. That is probably the most remarkable thing about this storm is that it is over water that is but 65 degrees and yet, still is somewhat tropical in nature. It is not overly remarkable that its going to Iceland. Storms often end up in mainland Europe but there’s a big fat high there that is preventing it from turning east so, Iceland it is! Here’s the discussion.

Cristobal To Bring Big Surf to Big Tony: Look for Cristobal to get some big headlines and a place in the national news. Not for it’s ferocity but for the fact that it will be along the east coast. It’s good to scare people in the media these days. Don’t be surprised to hear “what if this was a major storm” stories. Well, it’s not…probably won’t make hurricane. It will kick up the seas from Maryland to Maine and that’s about it. Maybe they’ll be surfing on the Jersey Shore with Pauly Walnuts and Tony Soprano hanging ten.  Here’s the discussion on Cristobal.