Postcard of the Day

[fflo]

Bonus:

These images must have been from previous flights/missions, as the cards were first-day stamp cancellation bearers, to be postmarked July 16 or 20, 1969.  The second one is an astronaut doing a space walk, which is needed to inspect the lunar module by the old-fashioned visual means.  The first one was taken after blast-off and the jettisoning of the first-stage, second-stage and launch escape system, from the command module, which has separated itself from the combo Saturn 4B rocket + lunar module, and turns around to link up to the lunar module, before they say bye bye to the rocket, and it goes its merry way.  (Is this right, Peter?)

Comments

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Both of these photographs are from Apollo 9, which was a test of the Lunar Module in earth orbit. The first photo is pretty much as you descrbe, but in low earth orbit instead of on the way to the moon for this particular flight. (and, by the way, where did the word blast-off come from? It was always liftoff, but I hear the word blastoff a lot)

The second photo was a space walk, and the main point was the space walk that the photographer was doing, to make sure he could exit and re-enter the lunar module properly in space. It wasn't actually a visual inspection, but just a confirmation that stuff worked before they sent the combined spacecraft to the moon on later flights. They never did a spacewalk like this on any of the moon flights, but I think they wanted to be able to, in case the hatch between the two modules malfunctioned, so that the astronauts could use an alternative way to transfer.

By the way, the command module for Apollo 9 was displayed at the Michigan Space Center, a little museum on the Jackson Community College campus, for many years. I believe all fo the astronauts had some sort of Michigan connection. The museum closed maybe 20 years ago, and is now the student rec center.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thanks for the info.