Space Forum / Shuttle / March 2004

And I'd love for the next Mexican president to be named Dick, but I'm
equally powerless.  I feel for you.

#"Greg Mossman" <mossman@qnet.com> wrote in message
#news:<40437019$0$75800$6c56adcd@news.qnet.com>...
#> The next space shuttle and all space shuttles are American.  No one will
#> listen to you, an un-American, whether you want to call it Calypso or Jesus.
#> Build your own frickin' shuttle if you want to name one.  In the meantime,
#> take this crap off our precious diving newsgroup.
#
#Hey Greg Mossman: deep seas & space exploration and knowledge are
#universal assets (for that reason you are welcomed to dive here in
#Mexico or elsewhere) my suggestion does not make me an "un-American",
#and my comment is relevant to this community since it suggets a
#tribute to a fellow diver.
#
#... and a word to those who called Cousteau as someone "greedy,
#rapacious, and dishonest": he was not. Cousteau was truly a citizen of
#the world. His work as an environmentalist is hailed by divers
#worldwide

<snicker>

and marine biologists. His legacy includes among other
#accomplishments, inventions such as the aqua-lung and the one-man
#submarine that ushered in a new era of underwater discovery. The
#Cousteau Society is dedicated to the protection of ocean life and
#still going strong with 300,000 members worldwide. He was a WW-II
#hero, and President Reagan awarded Cousteau the Medal of Freedom in
#1985. Cousteau never stopped championing the deep blue seas. I had the
#privilege of meeting and talking to him, and to this day I've witness
#how popular he remains.

But obviously, you're not a diver yourself and have never ventured into
the world highlighted by Capt. Cousteau. Tell me, as a Mexican, would
you object to having your country personified by Cortez?

Cousteau certainly did a great deal to popularize diving and exploration
of the underwater world. But the man does not live up to the myth he
created.

He did not "invent" the Aqua Lung, Emile Gagnan did and Air Liquide
(Cousteau's father-in-law was a director of the company) held the
patents. Prior to 1953, Aqua Lungs in North America were made by Gagnan
in Canada.

In 1953, Air Liquide learned that the US Navy was about to put out a bid
for a quarter million dollar’s worth of regulators (that’s about 10,000
units at twenty five bucks each!) Cousteau was sent to the US to buy out
his cousin, Rene Bussoz who was one of the US distributors for Air
Liquide's Aqua Lung, operating under the name US Divers. US Divers was
made a subsidiary of La Spirotechnique (which it still is) and Cousteau
was named its head.

As head of US Divers, the first thing Cousteau did was hire an army of
lawyers to sue everyone selling regulators. This was about the same time
that E.R. Cross and Ted Eldred were inventing the modern single hose
regulator that we use today.

The only Air Liquide patent of any merit was the location of the exhaust
valve, and even that did not hold up in his patent infringement suit
against Arnie Post. His double hose regulator quickly became obsolete.

And one man subs were around and in quite common use a long time before
Cousteau ever went diving. Which, by the way, was in the 1930's using Le
Prieur gear.

This "WW-II hero" spent the French occupation at his estate in Bandol
testing Gagnan's equipment, and when the Free French went back to battle
(in which Georges Commeinhes, who held the scuba depth record at the
time, on equipment of his own design, was getting killed at the battle
of Austerlitz), Cousteau was in England, a salesman for Air Liquide
trying to peddle the Aqua Lung to the Allies. None of whom bought it.

Cousteau championed the deep blue seas and the movements that came with
it because it benefited Cousteau, Inc.

To raise capital for his Calypso marine exploration projects, Cousteau
shamelessly promoted himself as inventor of all dive gear and discoverer
of everything underwater. He became a force behind The Skin Diver
Magazine, NAUI, and NASDS.  Cousteau promoted Cousteau and the Aqua Lung
while ignoring the contributions of others with equal ruthlessness. In
“The Silent World”, the name Gagnan appears twice, and only in passing,
and Air Liquide is not mentioned at all. Tailliez and Dumas,
co-developers of the Aqua Lung, had assumed they would be named
co-authors of that book (which was actually written by an American,
James Dugan) and both were surprized and pissed when they were left off
the title page. Gagnan disappeared completely from the regulator label
with the 1968 Golden Royal Aquamaster celebrating the 25th anniversary
of his Aqua Lung. Cousteau’s underwater filming never credited Hans
Hass, who had developed most of the equipment and techniques years
before.  And Cousteau died in the midst of a bitter legal battle with
his own son over use of the name “Cousteau”.

There is no question that the Aqua Lung and Cousteau’s films, books,
explorations, and other promotions hugely popularized and commercialized
recreational SCUBA, for which Cousteau deserves great credit along with
Sea Hunt, The Skin Diver, PADI, and dozens of others.

Just don't believe everything Cousteau told you about Cousteau.

I am relieved they didnt choose calypso. Imagine the C concers for the
astronauts familys:(

The word Constellation starts with the letter C.  What's up with that?
There are 88 constellations in the Northern hemisphere.  Oh and 22 of them
start with, you guessed it the letter "C".

"Liftoff, we have liftoff of the 66th space shuttle mission and it has
cleared the tower."

"Roll program"...

..."Norma, go at throttle-up."

Yep, Norma is one those 88 constellations.  Really.  I am being on the
"level".

My favorite shuttle ironically is the Constellation class "Microscopium."

As does Apollo 10's 'Charlie Brown'....

DK

On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 05:42:30 -0600, "Dennis \(Icarus\)"
<nojunkmail@ever.invalid> wrote:

Apollo 14 (31 Jan 71)
STS-41B (3 Feb 84)
STS-51C (24 Jan 85)
STS-51L (28 Jan 86)*
STS-42 (22 Jan 92)
STS-60 (3 Feb 94)
STS-63 (3 Feb 95)
STS-89 (22 Jan 98)
STS-98 (7 Feb 01)
STS-107 (16 Jan 03)*

*failure

Brian