generational markers (was "Disney's Man In Space")

William C. Keel wrote:

I'm sure I saw the Skylab stage at least once. On the workshop's launch day,
I skipped high-school calculus class to try working out (graphically)
whether we'd have a sighting opportunity soon after launch. I was out watching,
and gave up to go back inside. About 5 minutes later my dad came in
calling for me, as Skylab, the only S-II ever to make orbit, and
a number of bits of debris (many of which I gather weren't supposed
to be there...) paraded by overhead. Once I figired out that data type
Issue in IDL, I'm finally better at predicting passes...


I got to see Skylab, the S-II stage, and the S-IVB of the first crew
launch go over one after another in the morning twilight.
I think the S-II was last.

Pat

Dale wrote:

Did Strombecker make injection molded plastic models as well


Yes they did, and wooden display models also:
http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/strombkr.html

or could the
ones in the series have actually been as cheesy as their paper model railroad
models?


The plastic ones weren't bad given the standards of the day... if you
ever see a Strombecker F-107 "Rapier" model at a flee market, buy it
immediately...it's not an accurate model of the plane in question (it's
a modified Navaho missile kit) but it is arguably the rarest plastic
model kit in existence.

Pat

Dale wrote:

It must have been a real hoot to be your across-the-street neighbors




Many things fell ot of the sky at them; most interestingly the hundred
or so marbles that were shot into their driveway via a tube and vacuum
cleaner set on reverse flow and the liquid propane-soaked flaming
snowballs that set fire to their tree one winter night.

Pat

"Mike Flugennock" wrote in message
...

So, you skipped a calculus class to do orbital mechanics calculations?

Can't say I was as diligent, but I recall skipping class to watch the
scrubbed STS-1 launch.

Walked into school several hours late. Teacher only asked one question:
"Did it launch?" They all knew where I had been and why. They weren't
going to hassle me about it.

(I also recently recalled the two times I saw my mom awake at 4:00 AM in the
morning, for two attempts (2nd successful) to get to KSC to see STS-3.)

Rick DeNatale wrote in message ...
On Wed, 26 May 2004 14:34:11 +0000, Doug wrote:


Hmmmmm... I was born in October of 1955, about two years "even" before
Sputnik. I don't recall Sputnik's launch, but I was alive then.

I *do* recall Mercury.

I was born 10 years and 1 day after the Pearl Harbor attack.

I've got a vague recollection of Sputnik, it's hard to separate real
recollection from things like the "you are there" kind of records we used
to listen to back then.

I definitely remember seeing Echo I pass overhead, as well as the Mercury
launches, and yes they wheeled the TVs into class to watch those.

I can't remember personally seeing coverage of the Mercury 7 selection
press conference, but I vividly remember discussions of the event among my
fellow scouts. And I remember participating in building a mock-up Mercury
capsule for the annual "Skills of Scouting" show at the local armory. The
mock-up was complete with an "astronaut" made of silver painted overalls
stuffed with newspaper and topped with a football helmet.

In the morning of October 5, 1957, my mother hid the newspaper so I
would pay attention to celebrating my brother's birthday!

www.zenker.se

On Thu, 27 May 2004 07:37:03 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:

The plastic ones weren't bad given the standards of the day...

....And those standards varied even then. There were times Aurora's
kits were better, then Monogram, then Revell, then AMT. Even Hawk and
Lindbergh had kits that were superior to their counterparts put out by
their competitors. It just depended on how much money those who held
the pursestrings were willing to put out to make sure the toolings
were, if not accurate, at least looked good enough to where you didn't
give a **** whether it was accurate or not.

....One story I've heard over the years is that the manager of the
tooling team for Revell was the one responsible for keeping that
grossly inaccurate Block I version of the two scales of CSM stacks
from being updated and corrected. Seems he was told by the higher ups
to take all steps possible to keep costs down, and was actually told
that inaccuracies didn't matter if the kit was selling. Since both
their 1/96 CSM was selling good since day one - obviously because
Revell kept the price cheaper than taking a ****; the highest it ever
got was something like $2 in the late 70's before they stopped
pressing the CSM/LM "Over the Rainbow" kit - and the 1/32 one with the
SLAs was still sort of selling, he reportedly turned a deaf ear when
his team noted that Monogram was putting out a kit that was far more
accurate than anything put out to that date. When Monogram's CSM stack
hit the shelves, sales on the Revell versions virtually ceased for
about two years, only to resurface when Revell mixed it in with a
Soyuz and DM kit for the ASTP special release.

if you ever see a Strombecker F-107 "Rapier" model at a flee market, buy it
immediately...it's not an accurate model of the plane in question (it's
a modified Navaho missile kit) but it is arguably the rarest plastic
model kit in existence.

....This isn't the first time I've heard this, Patrick. Care to explain
why this kit's that rare?

Trivia question: Care to guess which model was the first one OM ever
had? It's a trick one, I'll warn you...

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Thu, 27 May 2004 07:28:11 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:

William C. Keel wrote:

I'm sure I saw the Skylab stage at least once. On the workshop's launch day,
I skipped high-school calculus class to try working out (graphically)
whether we'd have a sighting opportunity soon after launch. I was out watching,
and gave up to go back inside. About 5 minutes later my dad came in
calling for me, as Skylab, the only S-II ever to make orbit, and
a number of bits of debris (many of which I gather weren't supposed
to be there...) paraded by overhead. Once I figired out that data type
Issue in IDL, I'm finally better at predicting passes...

I got to see Skylab, the S-II stage, and the S-IVB of the first crew
launch go over one after another in the morning twilight.
I think the S-II was last.

....I saw Skylab fly over during Al Bean's mission, Went directly
overhead at about 2pm, and was fairly visible. But it was nothing
compared to Salyut I, which went over about 10:30pm at about 70 deg
above the horizon, and was about 3x brighter than anything else in the
moonless night sky. It was bright, beautiful, and IIRC about a week in
the mission itself.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Thu, 27 May 2004 05:10:00 -0700, Dale wrote:

On Thu, 27 May 2004 07:57:22 -0400, "Terrell Miller"
wrote:

"Allen Thomson" wrote in message
.com...

I was born 10 years and 1 day after the Pearl Harbor attack.

I was born nine months and one week after the JFK assassination...

This could spawn another whole JFK conspiracy theory

....No, that would be CT, who was hatched during a botched back-alley
abortion behind the fence on the Grassy Knoll.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Thu, 27 May 2004 12:44:09 +0100, "Steve at fivetrees"
wrote:

"Jonathan Silverlight" wrote
in message ...

But wasn't AOK some horrible journalistic invention?

Yeah... Shorty Powers, IIRC, embellishing things a little for the press...

....I'll be honest on Powers. For the want of coherency lost by an
abrupt wakening, the NASA PAO was deprived of a presence that has been
vastly needed since. Shorty had the voice and the presence that's
needed for an "official voice of Mission Control". Some of what I've
heard in recent years sounds like they took voice training from Ben
Stein trying to do Pee Wee Herman impressions.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Thu, 27 May 2004 12:40:08 +0100, "Steve at fivetrees"
wrote:

I have the Monogram CSM on my desk in front of me. I haven't fully completed
it yet . I'm still looking for the Gemini model; I had that back in '69 or
so and would like to build it again (and perhaps not eventually destroy it
by launching it out of a 3rd floor window on a homemade parachute...).

....Those Gemini kits are out there, and they're not expensive at all.
The bad part is that after the first run they dropped all the internal
landing gear parts that were associated with the parafoil landing
method that never got implemented. I saw one on eBay, unopened, still
in shrinkwrap(*). Final bid was something like $200 or so.

Hmmm...There's an idea for Scott Lowther - a resin upgrade kit for
that puppy to add back the landing struts :-)

(*) You could tell it was original wrap, too. The box was damn near
caved in from the continual shrinking!
OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr