Space

One of the many great things to do on a visit to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center is to take a close look at some of the artifacts on display. Atlantis herself, of course, is a star attraction, but there are a lot of other things that are not as flashy as an entire Space Shuttle Orbiter but are incredibly interesting in their own right: for example, one of Atlantis’s hatches.

Note that the instructions are both right-side-up and upside down. After all, in orbit, there really is no “up” or “down” and that in mind, the instructions were to be easily read in any orientation.

Other things is the “Unlocked” indicator on the handle. This is a door that’s not made to be casually opened, and the bright red indicator makes it clear that’s possible in its current configuration.

Finally, the hatch locking mechanisms are lightweight, yet incredibly strong and durable.

All in all, this is a fine piece of engineering that one might overlook if they don’t take the time to give it a good look.

Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis’s hatch.
(click the photo to enlarge in a new tab)
Photo ©2022 Charles Boyer / Creative Commons-Attribution license
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Here’s a story in the Huntsville (Alabama) Times from 1958 talking about my grandfather and my uncle and their jobs with the space program. V.L. Pinson, my grandfather, was a senior engineer and manager with the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, which was later merged into NASA in 1960.

George Pinson, my uncle, joined Boeing shortly after this article was written, and during his time there, he was an engineer, director and senior manager. When he retired, he had over 300 patents, some of which can be found here. One of the main projects he worked on was the Saturn V S-IC first stage, as well as military rocketry systems.

They were both very intelligent men, and literal rocket scientists who taught me a great deal — not the least of which was how to learn and how to go about solving problems.

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Ever wondered what the inside of NASA’s Transporter Crawler looks like?

In 2014, I was part of a NASA Social event, and as part of the “insider” tour we got to go inside and look around in the Crawler that was used for Apollo and the Space Shuttle, and is now used for Artemis.

The treads of a NASA Transporter-Crawler
A Transporter-Crawler powering a Saturn V
The huge size of the Transporter-Crawler relative to a person
Transporter-Crawler 2 has an odometer, but I could not work out the units.
A wider view of a Transporter Crawler with a person beneath it
The Transporter-Crawler has a steering wheel.
Some of the computer monitoring of the Transporter Crawler.
Part of the engine room. The diesel engines were HUGE
The driver’s seat of a Transporter-Crawler
More of the computer controls for a Transporter-Crawler
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United Launch Alliance launched the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-T advanced weather satellite for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at 4:28pm local time on an Atlas V 541 from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-41 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS).

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rises in the sky, carrying NOAA’s GOES-T weather observation satellite on March 1, 2022

Photo ©2022 Charles Boyer / Creative Commons-Attribution license
Atlas V 541 just after solid rockets were jettisoned. It was carrying NOAA’s GOES-T weather observation satellite towards orbit on March 1, 2022
You can clearly see the strap-on boosters falling away from the main rocket — this is not an uncommon sight when the lighting is right.
Photo ©2022 Charles Boyer / Creative Commons-Attribution license
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 3, 2022 from LC-39A. The Starlink 4-9 mission lofted 47 Starlink broadband satellites to orbit.

SpaceX Falcon 9 / Starlink 4-9
Liftoff, as seen from the Bennett Causeway in Cape Canaveral. Photo made with a 500mm lens and was cropped significantly.

Photo ©2022 Charles Boyer / Creative Commons-Attribution license
SpaceX Falcon 9 / Starlink 4-9
Near the end of its boost phase, Falcon 9 pitches upwards.
Photo ©2022 Charles Boyer / Creative Commons-Attribution license
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SpaceX Starlink Group 4-12 mission March 19, 2022

Storms cleared just in time for SpaceX to launch more Starlink satellites tonight from Cape Canaveral. Perfect launch but a photo fail here, I think. The launch itself was totally blown out — too bright — but I learned something and had a little fun. That’s really all that matters. FWIW, this is unfiltered straight out of the camera.

— at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40.

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In the late spring of 1982 shortly after the American shuttle had started flying missions, word reached the west that the Soviet Union had launched their own space shuttle. As was customary at the time, the Soviets gave little to no information on what the spacecraft was, and that left the western press to make their best guess.

The widely respected Aviation and Space Technology magazine released this rendering, which made its way to various periodicals.

Obviously, Buran was very different.

From the Orlando Sentinel, June 1982
An image from Baikonur of the actual Buran (Бура́н) Space Shuttle
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I drove out to Playalinda Beach on the Cape Canaveral National Seashore yesterday (it’s about 30 minutes away) and got a great look at Artemis-1 as it sat on Launch Complex 39-B awaiting Wet Dress Rehearsal on April 1-3, 2022.

Artemis 1, March 27, 2022
Artemis 1 sits on LC-39B on March 27, 2022.
Seen from Pullout #5 on the Beach Road in the Cape Canaveral National Seashore.
Photo ©2022 Charles Boyer / Creative Commons-Attribution license

Artemis will be at LC-39B until sometime the week of April 4th, when it will be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building to be prepared for its launch to the moon. When it flies, it will be the most powerful rocket ever launched — 39,000 kN (8,800,000 lb) of force — more than the venerable Saturn V.

Given a successful dress rehearsal, it should head to the moon from Kennedy Space Center in June. It will orbit Luna for five days after arrival, and then depart back for the Earth.

Artemis-1 sits on its launch pad as the daylight turns golden and heads towards the evening.
Seen from Pullout #5 on the Beach Road in the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. This photo is best appreciated at full size. Click to enlarge.
Photo ©2022 Charles Boyer / Creative Commons-Attribution license
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When an employee of NASA or one of its contractors participated in a major milestone, they were often sent a thank you letter from their manager. Here’s one my grandfather got from his boss, Dr. Kurt Debus.

In this case, my grandfather got a letter from his boss, Dr. Kurt Debus, congratulating him for his participation in helping to launch America’s first satellite, Explorer 1. The satellite was not only the first for the nation, it was also the first to carry scientific instruments designed to make measurements in the new frontier of outer space.

Explorer 1: Scientific Payload (courtesy NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

One of the measurements that the satellite made was cosmic rays — a form of high-energy radiation that constantly bombards the Earth, and originates from outside our solar system. The expected count was thirty strikes per second on the instruments aboard Explorer 1, but periodically, it would drop to near zero. Analysis of this data showed that zero counts were occurring when Explorer 1 was at an altitude of 2,000 km above Earth, but it would rise to the expected level of thirty. This in turn led to more experimentation on later satellites, and as a result, the Van Allen Belt was discovered — a geomagnetic phenomena where highly changed particles are trapped in the magnetic fields surrounding the Earth.

Explorer 1 at LAunch Complex 26-A in Cape Canaveral prior to its launch (photo: NASA)

Debus’s letter to my grandfather:

Kurt Debus letter to V. L. Pinson Sr. (from Pinson’s archives)

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