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does anyone remember apollo 9?

 Anyone you talk to would probably not know about the mission of Apollo 9.  It was crewed by some of the best astronauts in the program: James McDivitt, David Scott. and Rusty Schweickart,  . I am hoping that some of you are curious about these men, because they were some of the best of the Apollo program.

The mission was a complex one.  The spacecraft had to connect (link) with another space craft (the LEM, or Lunar Excursion Module) while in orbit.  Wow.  Then, the two ships (after linkage) flew together to the moon.  This was Earth orbit rendezvous.  

It was also this mission's directive to test our the LEM in space--fly it, try a fuel burn, and then connect with the command module.  They were also testing out a new type of space suit!

Honestly, with the men in this crew, you really couldn't complain--they were quiet, contained, and extremely competent.  As this mission was a complex one, this was indeed fortunate. 


Jim McDivitt

Rusty





Dave Scott


Apollo 9 had a great many working parts, first, there was a walk in space to test out the new suits, and there were new couches on the space craft to experiment with.  But, this expedition was to primarily test the LEM, and see how it functioned in the vacuum of space.  Yes, a lot of moving parts to this mission. 

I am concentrating upon this mission to illustrate how important each mission of the Apollo program worked towards the ultimate goal of the moon--something that took approximately 9 years to accomplish.  Every piece of equipment was tested in order to prevent accidents when it came time to finally go to the moon.  

I am happy to report, that all aspects of the mission went according to plan,  Without the contributions of men like the crew of Apollo 9, the knowledge and equipment that would take us to the moon would never have taken place.  

My admiration for men like these astronauts runs deep.

And, yet, what about the moving parts?  It was my pleasure to once have met a man who worked on the space crafts themselves.  He was in California, and yet he worked on a series of crafts associated with the program.  Did you know, that they often had to develop tools to work on these machines that had not been invented?  It just goes to show you, what we can do when we set our imaginations and our ingenuity to a given task--in this case, going to the moon.

More, in the next post, until then, same bat time, same bat channel...





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