Aug 18

Space Rocket History #370 – Apollo 17 – Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Mike Annis

Harrison Schmitt played a key role in training Apollo crews to be geologic observers when they were in lunar orbit and competent geologic field workers when they were on the lunar surface. After each of the landing missions, he participated in the examination and evaluation of the returned lunar samples and helped the crews with the scientific aspects of their mission reports.

Aug 04

Space Rocket History #369 – Apollo 17 – Mankind’s Last Giant Leap

Posted on August 4, 2021 by Mike Annis

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Apollo 17 would break several crewed spaceflight records: 1) longest moon mission duration: 12 days 13 hours 52 minutes (just a day and a third shorter than the 14 days set in 1965 by Gemini 7), 2) longest total lunar surface extravehicular activities (22 hours 4 minutes), 3) largest lunar sample return (110.52 kilograms or 243.7 pounds), – longest time in lunar orbit (6 days 4 hours), and 4) most lunar orbits (75).

Jul 21

Space Rocket History #368 – Apollo 16 – Splashdown

Posted on July 21, 2021 by Mike Annis

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On re-entry Casper hit the atmosphere at an altitude of about 400,000 feet above the earth and at a velocity of nearly 25,000 miles per hour.

Jun 23

Space Rocket History #367 – Apollo 16 – Rendezvous, Docking, Ascent Stage Dump, Ken’s EVA and Lord of the Wedding Rings

Posted on June 23, 2021 by Mike Annis

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The LM eventually crashed due to lunar gravity anomalies. Since Houston didn’t know exactly where it landed, it was not useful to calibrate seismic experiments on the surface.