U.S. Space & Rocket Center

[55fairlane]

For all of you space geeks/aviation geeks (especially if your a machinist, look at the fit & finish on that turbo pump. A trip to the US space & rocket center is a must. These pictures do no justice to the rockets, but I will share....and be on the look out for the guys in white lab coats, true rocket scientist and or former astronauts.
The view of a Saturn 5 from the parking lot.
A couple views of the Saturn 5 & its engines

The same view of the same rocket from inside the building

 

[55fairlane]

Top to bottom
Lowell Zoller (Ft. Wayne native)
One of the first 7 people hired to invent the rockets, from a blank paper, contemporary to (worked with) Wernher von Braun, briefed every US president on status, Gemini rocket, Saturn rocket, skylab & space shuttle, & international space station. retired in 1995 as the director of NASA science & engineering

Carlton foster
Mechanical engineer skylab, shuttle, international space station

Luke Talley
Electrical engineering, built the guidance system for Apollo 12 thru 17 , gave mission control the final "go for launch " as he checked the ignition system from Alabama, briefed the president on the status of Apollo 13 .

 

[55fairlane]

Rocket engines!
A shot of a Gemini rocket, Emma & I with a space shuttle engine & stage 2 of a Saturn 5

 

[Cameramonkey]

CSB: We couldnt make those main engines again today if we wanted to.
They did so many tweaks to the published plans that were not updated that by the time that thing lifted off, Only notes about the changes existed.

And nobody bothered to save those notes when the project closed.

A GREAT video from Destin.

 

[indykid]

Way back in the mid 1960s my father called from work and I happened to answer. He complained that NASA just made him an environmental engineer and he had no idea what he was doing. Well he figured it out. He was on the design team that developed the life support system that the astronauts wore on the moon. He designed the device that measured the oxygen level and usage and the telemetry to allow the scientists on the Earth to monitor the lunar explorers in real time.

He brought home the prototype of the device to show me how it was supposed to work. He said we would be able to measure the O2 level in our home. When he turned it on, nothing happened. His smile turned to a frown, and away he went. Obviously he figured it out. Made for a nice story.

He also worked with Grumman on the lunar lander but never told me what he did. Guessing the life support system to Earth communication device as well.

For some reason, after the Saturn launch was confirmed, he sped away to an airport where he flew to Texas for the duration of the flight.

Those were some amazing times!

 

[Shadow01]

Luke Talley has had an amazing life. His contributions along with those of sever thousand others has created much more than a footnote in history.

 

[tcecil88]

I went there a couple times when I worked in Huntsville as a contractor. It is a neat place and I highly recommend a visit by anyone interested.

 

[Alamo]

Hoosier note:

The titanium fuel tanks for the Apollo Lunar Module and the Command Module were built at Allison in Indianapolis.

My dad was a government QA guy already in place for all the tracked vehicle transmissions, jet, turboprop, and helicopter engines that Allison built on government contract when the Apollo contract came along.

Allison would weld by hand the tanks in clean rooms and then x-ray the welds. Then there would be meetings to examine the greatly enlarged films and argue about whether microscopic flaws, like a small bubble, were significant or not.

He was pretty worried that they missed something when Apollo 13 had its emergency, but then it turned out the explosion was from the oxygen tank built by a different contractor and inspected by different gummint guys.