space history preserved

neat documents

• LC-39

• Smorgasbord of Neat Documents

• Facility Site Surveys

• LC39 Launch, Landing, LUT, MLP, Firing Room, Launch Director, Test Supervisor Tallies

• Saturn V Launch Vehicle Evaluation Reports

  National Archives review

Mercury

• Original Astronauts - There’s footage from various stops at the Cape, including the E&L Building, then the Launch Operations Center (note the sign in the video), now KSC, then LC-34, then the Mercury Control Center. Rocco Petrone is leading the tour at LC-34. There’s footage at LC-20, with the astronauts walking from the blockhouse to the pad, and back. Then it’s off to what I will call the astronauts’ swing set, which was located very close to the LC-1/2 blockhouse. It looks like the next stop is at the then Range Control Center (at the intersection of Phillips Parkway and Central Control Road), to eat a meal and watch a launch. The next footage looks to be from LC-19, under final construction. Then it’s back to the swing set. Next it’s off to Hangar S (Astronaut Crew Quarters and else in the day) and Hangar AF, then a briefing somewhere Cape Side, may be Mercury Control and also else.

• Medical Footage - Footage of Armstrong, Borman, Conrad, and Lovell.

• MA-9 Launch Scenes - There’s some particularly neat footage, starting at 11 min 20 sec, showing the base of the Atlas rocket and and rocket mount, pre and post launch. 

• Redstone Rocket - The video is on page 2 of 2. Starting at 6 min 25 sec, it looks like astronaut rescue is being demonstrated, both with and without the Access Tower. There’s footage of Alan Shepard, John Glenn and Gus Grissom at the end, but no audio. The second video below includes the same footage with Alan Shepard and John Glenn, but with sound. In this video, there’s also footage with Wally Schirra at the end!

• Early Film Clips - A collection of early Redstone and Mercury Astronaut clips.

• Shepard and Slayton - At 8 min 15 sec, there’s footage where a famous photograph of the Original Seven was taken.

• John Glenn Parade - Footage from the Hampton, Virginia parade!

• Houston Parade - July 4, 1962. Parade of astronauts and families.

Gemini

• Gemini 3 Interview - Grissom, Young and Dr. Muer. Gus and John are debriefing the mission, soon after the mission. There’s audio with country and western music interruption.

• Gemini 5 Astronauts Arrival - Ellington AFB with families!

• Gemini 5 Mission Review - Footage from the O&C Mission Briefing Room!

• Gemini 5 Launch Day Activities - Notice the corn cob pipes, and some work is going on at the base of the Titan. Helos are in the vicinity of the Cape Dispensary.

• Gemini 5 Flight Readiness - Footage from the O&C Mission Briefing Room!

• Gemini 7 Launch Vehicle Review - This footage is at the E&A building Cape Side. Astronauts are in the peanut gallery.

• Gemini 7 Pre-Launch Activities & Ingress - Some neat footage including at Press Site 2 and a Titan 1st stage is on its way to LC-19. Check out the hypergolic venting in the background. Must be 6A on its way to the pad.

• Gemini 8 Air-to-Ground Press Briefing - Conducted not long after the mission was over. Lots of questions. Part 1

• Gemini 8 Air-to-Ground Press Briefing - Part 2

• Gemini 8 VIPs Watching Launch - Footage of viewing stands at Hangar U. Footage in the area of the Cape Dispensary, with helos, including a helo Flight Crew walking by!

• Astronaut Mission Briefing for Gemini 8 - Some neat footage at the O&C building.

• Gemini 8 Agenda Pre-Launch Activities and Launch - Atlas pad footage and even some post launch pad footage!

• Gemini 8 Simultaneous Launch Demonstration - First half has some exciting neat footage!\

• Gemini 9 Crew Examining Agena 5004 - Notice the “COUNTDOWN TO ZERO DEFECTS” sign!

• Gemini 9 Hoist - Checkout the guy climbing the ladder. Looks like he’s accessing a spacecraft lift point.

• 9A Launch - Looks like a pretty good breeze from east to west, may be taking the launch blast cloud close to the blockhouse. I think the AC unit for the blockhouse was in the smaller support building, just to the west of the blockhouse.

• Gemini 10 Crews During Egress Briefing - Primary and backup crews with Jim Ragusa in view!

• Cape Construction - Some footage of potentially LC-36 under construction.

• Gemini Seat Tower Test - For one seat, the dummy stays attached to the seat and the seat is broken. I think something went wrong unless the test was planned that way. The dummy should separate from the seat before landing!

• Agena Target Vehicle Hoisting - Work done at Hangar E and Transport to LC-14.

• Gemini Spacecraft Deservicing - Footage in the KSC Industrial Area and Mercury Mission Control

• Astronaut Activity - Involving Pete Conrad, Elliott See, Thomas Stafford and Ed White with footage from 1963! For dithers, I found this:  “…Of the original Mercury Seven, only Gordon Cooper is believed to have been the lone nonsmoker…”.

Apollo

• Apollo 1 Astronaut Memorial - Footage of transporting the Apollo 1 astronauts remains from the Cape Dispensary to the Skip Strip with a large ceremony.

• Apollo Crew Announcement - You get a dose of Bob Gilruth, Gus Grissom and Ed White, a little dose of Roger Chaffee and a healthy dose of Joe Shea. I definitely learned a healthy respect for Joe from this video!

• Pre-Launch Alert - Footage from inside the blockhouse at LC-34, starting at 17 min 17 sec, with quite a cast of characters.

• Launch Tower, LOGO, VAB - Footage from multiple KSC areas. Looks like the LUTs, the MSS and the CTs are not finished. And there is some neat footage at what was then the West gate, off NASA Causeway, where the Visitors Complex first set up shop.

• MQF Arrival at the LRL Building 37 - At the 2 min mark notice the “QUARANTINE OFFICER PREVENTIVE MEDICINE DIVISION” patch on the uniform!

• Hoisting of S-II-3 Stage VAB High Bay - At about 5 min 50 sec, there is what I believe to be a man basket coming down, on the left side of the footage. And then at about 6 minutes, there is a lady in view, may be after getting out of the basket? She has a hardhat on. I’m not sure what was going on, to be using the man basket. May be hooking up the sling? A lady in a man basket in the day, in the VAB, had to be few and far between.

• Apollo 11 Final 90 Minutes of Countdown - Looks like a reluctant Wernher Von Braun.

• MSC Demonstration - One of these was aboard Gemini 9A, but was not used. Gene Cernan’s spacewalk was not going so good. It was jettisoned before reentry, and never used again, during Gemini or Apollo.

• MQF Interior - Four of these were built. The disposition of the one for Apollo 13 is unknown, according to Wikipedia. There is one at Smithsonian Washington DC, one in Alabama and there is one on an aircraft carrier. Looks like quite an effort went in to the design of these things. Airstream did not do the mods but another company did. It must not have been much fun to be be cooped up in one of these for several weeks!

• SA-6 Launch Info - Neat footage of LC-37. At about 5 min there is someone to left of center. Looks like said person is rapidly descending stairs while the vehicle is loaded or being loaded with propellant. May be a Final Inspection Team or Red Crew. At about 15 min, check out the platform being retracted. Again, it looks like the vehicle is loaded or being loaded with propellant.

• Aerials Pad 37 RF Checkout - More footage of LC-37. Check out the access tower, it has like folding wings, that swing into place, once the main tower is in place next to the vehicle. Around 18 min 45 sec there is a man who has a hard hat on but no fall protection. I would personally be more concerned about falling. Shouldn’t be too much that can harm him, from above, at that height. I presume he was following protocol in the day! Shortly after that there is a vehicle access hatch/cover being installed.

• Apollo 11 Recovery - The recovery helo, with Astronauts aboard, is brought below deck, and wheeled into position next to the MQF. The Astronauts get off and proceed immediately to said Facility. I thought the Astros were going to get off, using the plastic curtained area but that is not the case. However, toward the end of the video, the spacecraft is up against same and I presume lunar samples and such were offloaded through the plastic curtained area and into the Quarantine Facility. I guess the entire inside of the spacecraft was considered contaminated, until decontaminated. Check out the guy with the fire extinguisher, hosing down the stairs and area the Astronauts walked on. Then Secretary of State William Rogers and then US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger are in view at one point.

Shuttle

• Enterprise at Space Shuttle Complex - Aerial footage of Space Shuttle Enterprise being transported from Vandenberg Air Force Base proper, to Space Launch Complex-6 (SLC-6), in 1985.

• STS-51L Salvage Briefing - February 19th, 1986. This is a briefing moderated by Hugh Harris, with USAF Colonel Edward O’Conner and USN Captain Bart Bartholomew presenting. Following Challenger recovery operations, Colonel O’Conner suggested putting the remains of Challenger in abandoned Minuteman silos at LC-31 and LC-32 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, where they remain to this day. The remains of the Orbiter are at LC-31 and the remains of the ET and SRBs are at LC-32.

• Press Briefing - February 28th, 1986. Briefing moderated by Hugh Harris, with Tom Utsman, Bob Sieck and John Conway, one month after the Challenger accident.

• Dryden Flight Research Center Space Shuttle Mate-Demate Device - Footage about the DFRC MDD, circa 2011. The DFRC MDD was demolished in 2014 and the KSC MDD was also demolished in 2014.

• MSFC Astronaut Visit - NASA’s 1978 astronaut class, the “Thirty-Five New Guys” (TFNG), which included 6 women.

• KSC Shuttle Enterprise - Footage from 1979 of Enterprise at LC-39A. The LH2 Tail Service Mast is a prototype. There are no real T-0 umbilical connections on Enterprise. The External Tank is the Ground Vibration Test Article. The GOX Vent Arm is not installed on the Fixed Service Structure (FSS), as it will be installed later, before STS-1.  The Hammerhead Crane is installed on top of the FSS, a holdover from the Apollo Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT). The Hammerhead Crane was removed from the FSS later in the Shuttle Program. Of note, Apollo LUT #2 was converted to become the FSS at LC-39A.

• STS-27 Pre-Launch Activities - Crew Arrival, Depart O&C Building and Ingressing Transfer Van, December 2, 1988.Includes footage at the KSC Press Site, including inside one of the then KSC Press Domes. There’s also footage of a press conference that includes Bob Sieck and John Madura.

• Former Astronauts Visit to JSC - Footage in the first half of this video includes a lot of the original astronauts gathering for a famous photograph in 1978. Later in the video, the subject astronauts and their families are getting briefed about the Space Shuttle. Alan Bean is one of the briefers and Kathy Sullivan is accompanying the group.

• Space for Women - 1981 video narrated by Ricardo Montalban.

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