Ye Olde Rocket Forum

Go Back   Ye Olde Rocket Forum > Work Bench > Vendors
User Name
Password
Auctions Register FAQ Members List Calendar Today's Posts Search Mark Forums Read


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #31  
Old 05-17-2019, 07:00 AM
tbzep's Avatar
tbzep tbzep is offline
Dazed and Confused
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: TN
Posts: 11,610
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Earl
Wow, special, special times with special people. That will all be 30 years ago later this year, including the Apollo 11 anniversary flight John and I did at KSC that summer of '89 at KSC. In retrospect, I was just a kid of 26 at the time. Looked like one, too! But what a special dream come true that was to fly a Centuri Saturn V from KSC, right across the street from the VAB. We did it again there at KSC for the 25th and 30th anniversaries. Days long past now. Earl

Did you have to jump through many hoops to do your commemorative launches on site?
__________________
I love sanding.
Reply With Quote
  #32  
Old 05-17-2019, 07:44 AM
Earl's Avatar
Earl Earl is offline
Apollo Nut
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 4,893
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
Did you have to jump through many hoops to do your commemorative launches on site?


A few, but it was not what I would call 'harsh'. We initially made a written proposal to KSC Public Affairs office of basically what we wanted to do. Then we went down and met with a group of their safety folks about six weeks before the event and went over in detail with them what we were going to launch, how we would do it, etc., and showed them some video of one of our test launches with the Saturn V (Centuri 1/100 scale with a five engine cluster of an Aerotech E with four Estes mini A motors) and the scale pad and tower John had built.

The recovery area there across the street from the VAB right by the countdown clock where we launched is not too very large...the Turning Basin where they barged in the large Saturn stages and later the Shuttle External Tank is right there, and 'splashdown' was a real concern (though luckily we had a 'land landing' for the actual flight).

KSC was planning a big open house event for that Sunday, July 16, 1989, along with a big event with the Apollo 11 crew in the VAB parking lot right across the street from our launch site. I think they had something like 20,000 people on site that day. We launched right after the Apollo 11 crew event, with the countdown clock running towards an 11:00 a.m. launch time. Clock was already running and counting down when we got on site at about 6:30 that morning. At 10:57, they started playing the last three minites of Jack King's launch commentary from Apollo 11, sync'd with the clock. We had a flame/smoke device (pre-approved by the KSC Safety folks) to simulate the build-up of the real Saturn F-1 engines. At zero we lit the Aerotech E, and at first motion on the pad of the Saturn, a microswitch fired the four outboard flashbulbs for the mini-A motors.

It was a lot of fun, but to say we were nervous would be an understatement. It was a great event to be a part of, and over the years doing three of these events (the other two for the 25th and 30th anniversaries were done at the Visitor's Center) allowed us to meet many of the past people involved with Apollo, including some of the astronauts like Neil and Buzz and a number of the old program managers and such who you could tell were just happy to have people 'remember' what they did all those years ago. Could have talked with some of them for days. Now most all of them are gone.

Earl
__________________
Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
NAR# 29523
TRA# 962
SAM# 73
Owner/Producer
Point 39 Productions

Rocket-Brained Since 1970

Last edited by Earl : 05-17-2019 at 08:00 PM. Reason: Spellin' fix.
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:29 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.0.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe © 1998-2024