RIP James Rebhorn

I post this obiturary of actor James Rebhorn, who died today, because he played the character of North American Chief Engineer during the Apollo 1 tragedy, Harrison A. Storms in Tom Hanks' mini series FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON. A quiet gentle soul, he was a specialist at playing government agents and father figures, including the secretive vice president in Independence Day. But his role as the engineer who was under scrutiny for the Apollo 1 fire was compelling to say the least, especially when he's heard the news about the fire for the first time and weeps before his fireplace.

RIP Bill Pogue, Skylab 4 Astronaut

Space.com is reporting that Skylab 4 Astronaut Bill Pogue has died.  He was 84.

Pogue was part of an 84 day mission that would be Skylab's final moment in the sun until it's fiery reentry over Australia, and was considered the longest duration manned space flight of the Apollo era.

Skylab 4 was mostly known, however, for a near mutiny on the part of Pogue and his fell crew mates Gerald Carr and Edward Gibson. In reality, it just proved to be a disagreement with Mission Control over the intense schedule that caused the crew to fall behind in their flight plan.  "We didn't find out until about halfway through [our stay] that we had been overscheduled. We were having trouble," Pogue recalled in a 2000 NASA oral history. "We were just hustling the whole day."  To make a point, the crew simply took an unscheduled day off and NASA got the message. The result was a compromised revision of the flight plan that made things much smoother.

Pogue also mentioned in his biography that he was in the mix to go to the moon on Apollo 19, but unfortunately the mission was cancelled early on. "But for the Grace of God," Pogue wrote in his autobiography, "instead, I was very fortunate to fly on the final visit to Skylab and spent 84 days in space studying the Sun, the Earth below, and ourselves."

Godspeed, Bill Pogue.  And Ad Astra.

Apollo 9 ... 45 Years Ago Today ...

Gumdrop and Spider. 45 years ago today, the crew of commander Jim McDivitt, Command Module Pilot Dave Scott, and Lunar Module pilot Rusty Schweikart tested out the lunar module in low earth orbit as a prelude to landing on the moon. 

The mission was almost scuttled as Schweikart got ill and it looked like he wouldn't be able to test out the PLSS backpack, and without that, they couldn't separate the LM and test it out on it's own.  But Schweikart better by the next morning and the test was successful.  Next up would be the dress rehearsal, as Apollo 10 would go back to the moon and come within 60 nautical miles of the landing.  That would be the job of Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins.

RIP Roger H. Battin

The Boston Globe reports that Roger H. Battin, the head of MIT’s Instrumentation Lab for design of the guidance, navigation, and control systems for the Apollo flights, died Feb. 8 in Emerson Hospital in Concord of pneumonia and complications from a fall. He was 88.

“His course in astronautical guidance was a real eye-opener to all of us in the Air Force who were undergoing an advanced program at MIT,” Aldrin, who had been one of Dr. Battin’s graduate students, said in a phone interview.

“He was a confident person who entertained questions in the most welcoming and respectful manner, sometimes with a slight smile on his face because the question usually indicated a bit of non-comprehension by the questioner,” said Aldrin, who graduated from MIT with a doctorate in 1963.


This is why we need to get all these hard working Apollo vets on tape, telling their stories, so we have them for years to come.  Won't you help?  If you know someone who worked on the Apollo Program from Mercury to ASTP, put them in touch with us!  Our email is apollotalks@gmail.com.