Space Forum / Space History / October 2004

I'm surprised that Sven hasn't brought this to our attention yet- he
wrote a article about the recent speculation regarding the Soviet
"podsadka" earth orbital rendezvous lunar-loop mission.
You can read up on the hypothesis here:

Saw this book on the new book display at a local bookstore today.
Interleaved biographies of Dave Scott and Alexi Lenov which (going by
the blurb) brings new insight into the 'Space Race' etc etc.. Has anbody
read this? is it anything new or the same ole stories? worth my $30?

Mission Rules were developed and used for manned spaceflight programs (e.g.,
Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, ASTP).  I am aware of these "rules" being
used on different occasions that actually shortened the planned mission:
Friendship 7, John Glenn's mission limited to 3 orbits - ...

Hey kids,
Check out the picture on page 13 of this Shafer Aerospace document.
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/65850main_schafer.pdf
Looks like the only thing missing is an Eagle transport!

When Apollo CM's reentered were they heading on an Easterly or Westerly
ground track?
TIA,
Alan

With Bush, the first man will step on Mars before 2010 !
Bush will establish bases on all moons and planets in the solar
system, solving all problems on Earth!
But John Kerry, he will turn the Earth into a Medieval society again,

I vaguely recall that in the long era of the 1990s, there were a few
Atlas II launches did not carry the small sustainer engines, but
rather just the two booster engines, which fired until all propellant
was consumed. Was this just a dream, or did Lockheed build a few of

As we all know, KSC as we know it today really started as a facility to
launch missions to the Moon for the Apollo program. The VAB was designed
to accommodate the Saturn V, and pads 39A, 39B and the fabled 39C were
set up to facilitate mankind's assault on our nearest celestial ...

I've noticed that all of the Apollo splashdown locations were located
between +/- 30 degrees in latitude, which happens to correspond to the
moon's orbital inclination for the Apollo era.
Is there some aspect of orbital mechanics that limits direct reentry landing

NOX/HTPB (R45 Rubber) makes an interesting low-risk, low-cost ($0.05
per kg propellant cost) propellant combination - as used in
SpaceShipOne, a hybrid rocket.  This rocket is capable of 235 sec Isp,
which equates to an exhaust velocity of 2,300 m/sec.  Average

Has anybody seen ANY discussion of this?
JimO

Here's a question which has been bothering me for awhile.
Why did Tom Stafford command an Apollo mission before Neil Armstrong?
In Gemini, the New-Nine command order (the order in which New-Nine
astronauts commanded missions) was: McDivitt, Borman, Armstrong, Stafford,

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:45:24 -0600, "Jay Windley"
<webmaster@clavius.org> wrote:

"Alan Erskine" <alanerskine1@bigpond.com> wrote in message news:<GRncd.28975$900.26405@news-server.bigpond.net.au>...

It's good to celebrate Gordon Cooper's life achievements -- but
I suggest we resist canonization of some of his loonier pursuits,
follow the links below to examine them:
Gordon Cooper's Stories