true space history

Hi there,

I thought this was supposed to be a group about space history. There
doesn't seem to be much here so I'll add a little and maybe someone
else will have a story to ad from the "good old days"

1958
We had just moved to Florida from upstate New York. My dad was fresh
out of college with a degree in phyisics a pocket protector and a
slide rule. He had obtained a job as an engineer at "The Cape". I was
all of 9 years old and the ocean fascinated me. My brother and I were
some of the first surfers along the Florida east coast.
Anyway, we lived in a brand new subdisvison. It seemed that most of
the dads that lived in the subdivision also worked at "The Cape" and
everyone that lived there was from someplace else. We quickly made
new friends and other than the mosquitoes, really enjoyed living in
the area. As a 9 year old I never really knew what dad did at "The
Cape" other than it had something to do with missles. Everything was
pretty secretive abnd he never talked about his work.
One evening he took the family down to the Indian River. It was just
after dark. Dad told us to look over towards some searchlights in the
distance and we saw our first missle launch. Dad told us later that it
was a Vanguard. It went up what, in the distance seemed to be all of
a few inches but was, in reality, probably a few hundred feet...and
came right back down and exploded..welcome to space flight.
11 years later, I stood at the same spot and watched the Saturn blast
off for the moon. A few months later I was in Vietnam. Now we are
involved in another stupid war and people are talking about going back
to the moon again....go figure! Back in 1969 I thought we would be at
Mars or beyond by now.
Just a little history. Anyone else?

Dad told us later that it
was a Vanguard. It went up what, in the distance seemed to be all of
a few inches but was, in reality, probably a few hundred feet...and
came right back down and exploded. BRBR


That's interesting. None of the three Vanguard failures would have looked like
that. The closest was TV-4, which on 6 December 1957 rose inches from the pad
before exploding. The next one went off course and was blown by the Range
Safety Officer. Of course, it's easy for human brains to mix memories of
similar events a little. Mine certainly does.

Anyway, the recollection is very interesting nonetheless. I was moved to Vero
Beach in 1966 (Dad worked for Piper Aircraft) and watched most of the Apollo
shots from the beach or a Piper (thanks, Dad), and one smaller bird from what I
recall as a spot directly across the river a couple miles from the pad (that
would have been around August '66).

The two that stand out were Apollo 17, stunning even from a beach miles down
the coast, and a suborbital launch around 1969 (for a historian, I'm not very
good at remembering to look things up) which carried a barium cloud
experiment. Seen from Vero, the rocket arced up one clear night until it
vanished in a surprisingly bright silver flash that left a glowing green cloud.
We kids were all VERY impressed.


I never have seen a book collecting recollections of "space age kids" from that
area. It would be fun to do.








Matt Bille
)
OPINIONS IN ALL POSTS ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR

On 17 Nov 2004 14:06:42 -0800, (Capri) wrote:

thought this was supposed to be a group about space history. There
doesn't seem to be much here so I'll add a little and maybe someone
else will have a story to ad from the "good old days"

....Which means you're a) new, b) a short-time lurker, or c) some
smartass troll looking to stir up ****.

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

OM wrote:

...Which means you're a) new, b) a short-time lurker, or c) some
smartass troll looking to stir up ****.


Yeah, I'll bet Capri doesn't know jack **** about how to evacuate from a
Sperry Ball Turret.
The key is of course to make sure that you never get your pant's zipper
entangled in the .50 caliber ammunition feed belts.
Many novice ball turret gunners did, only to be jumped by a
Focke-Wulf....and ended up with a Purple Heart-On...
You can never be _too_ careful when it comes to evacuating and its
relationship to balls; that's my motto! :-)

Pat

"Capri" wrote in message
om...
Hi there,

I thought this was supposed to be a group about space history. There
doesn't seem to be much here

You need to read past posts.

1958
He had obtained a job as an engineer at "The Cape".

"The Cape" didn't happen until the late 90s.

As a 9 year old I never really knew what dad did at "The
Cape"

Not many other people watched it, either.