2/15/97
Hi Jim - Thank you for spending time to talk with me during my recent visit to Florida. The info which I found was most helpful for my project. I am looking forward to my next visit.
I may have an unlisted capsule. The Detroit Science Center has an Apollo capsule on display. I remembered seeing it as I was at the computer yesterday, viewing your website. Excellent job! I will check right away as to exactly what it is. I'll mail again as soon as I have precise info.
Raye Klopfenstein
3/3/97
Howdy Jim,
Nice site! I'll definitely add a link to it. I just got back from vacation, so I'm trying to dig out from all the stuff that piled up, so it may take a day or so before I can get to it.
You're more than welcome to use my images: all I require is a credit. Of course, I can only give permission for the photos that I myself have shot, so if there are other photos from other photographers that you want to use, you'd have to ask them... I've got more photos of mine that I haven't had time to scan and post yet, so I'll be adding more stuff as the weeks roll on.
see ya later,
Sven Knudson
3/21/97
Jim - I once read that a scrapped LM was rebuilt by Grumman and sold to a Japanese museum. I believe it was in a book about the LMs. There was even a picture of it in the book, I believe. Ever heard about that?
By the way, I'm a pal of Sven Knudson and I just put up my own space page on the net at:
http://www.interaxs.net/pub/spacey
Check 'er out!
Karl D. Dodenhoff
4/2/97
Mr. Gerard:
During spring break I made a trip to Texas and stopped at Johnson Space Center, and along the way also at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. (I'm in college for aerospace engineering in FL so I love this stuff.)
I noticed in your Apollo Spacecraft Field Guide page that you have an unknown location for Apollo 4. I believe that this command module was the one I saw at Stennis Space Center. Your list doesn't include any at Stennis, so I'm positive one of your "unknowns" has to be this one. It wasn't a "fake" command module either. (Unfortunately, it was even blocked off with plexiglas like the other originals I've seen.) If it wasn't Apollo 4, then it was one close to it that was also used for testing, as it had an instrument package rigged up inside.
I hope this clears it up a little. (...and hopefully is correct)
Sincerely, Steve Belanger
4/11/97
Hi Jim,
I've seen your page and I liked it! I'll put a link to yours on mine when I update it.
Karl and I exchange info on Apollo stuff, mainly the EMU.
So you work at the education center, eh?
Are the legends true of original Apollo documents being stored there, for anyone to copy?
John Duncan
4/11/97
An early 'boilerplate' Apollo capsule is on display outside the Eugene Cernan Planetarium at Triton College, River Grove Illinois. Haven't been by there in ages to look at the plaque, but when it first arrived in '79, while I was a student there, the story was that it had been used in atmospheric tests. Our impression definitely was that it had flown though how high or far... ?? Triton I'm sure can give you the full poop. Ask them why they painted the thing. It was gloriously and beautifully beat up when I first saw it. It certainly LOOKED like it'd been through re-entry. --
Daniel Kurtz
4/14/97
Jim:
I recently was forwarded an email you sent to our curator concerning web pages and links. Per your request I did look at your field guide and I liked what you were doing. I will also link to your site the next opportunity I have to update.
Also, if you could link directly to our site at www.cosmo.org I would appreciate it. I hit the link to the Cosmosphere and it registered as a missing address/file not found. Thanks for your help. Also, when I hit the SpaceWorks link it went to a blank screen with just the name SpaceWorks. What are your plans for that area?
We will be shortly adding a SpaceWorks home page and a few other pages. Keep checking us out.
We have named our full-scale space shuttle Endeavour. We used the exact tile and thermal blanket pattern as used on the actual craft.
As far as other updates go to your page, we currently are not displaying MA-1. We hope to have that back in front of people within the next year. We also have on display in our museum Mercury spacecraft #10 (unflown obviously). I'm not sure on the exact background but I will check on it.
If you are looking for other craft, I might be able to help you. Just let me know if there is a mystery you can't solve :)
Jeff Ollenburger -- Marketing Coordinator -- Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center
4/19/97
A great page, Jim! Thanks for the link back to my Gemini Contest page.
I'll dig out my copy of Chariots for Apollo by Charles Pellegrino and see if I can give you some more lunar module locations.
Anybody who knows an obscure fact like McDivitt and White wanting to name Gemini 4 "American Eagle" is aces in my book. I've heard that Cooper and Conrad, when NASA turned down "Conestoga," jokingly tried "Lady Bird, ", hoping the President would go for it. No such luck.
Write ya later.
Scott P. Cook
4/20/97
Jim,
Thanks for the e-mail regarding my Apollo 6 page. Your Apollo listing makes reference to a boilerplate CM located in Lincoln, Nebraska. I know for a fact that this is correctly (as you suspect) the 009 CM now located at the Lincoln Airport. The 009 CM was formerly on the U of N campus, but efforts were made to have it rescued and fully restored and now that that has been completed, it is being stored at the Lincoln Airport until an aviation museum is completed in central Nebraska where it will finally be displayed. If you want more specific info, contact me. I can get more leads so you can find out the details first hand.
Also, I enjoyed, bookmarked, and will continue to check your page from time to time. Look for mine to change somewhat this summer. Thanks for providing a link to my page. You obviously found me through Ross Finlayson's page. I have not yet placed my URL in any search engines. And thanks for the kind words and enouragement! Keep up the fine work. And remember, don't let anyone know your enjoying all this. Just kidding!
Regards,
Daniel Wright
4/29/97
I have discovered your page..... Found it outstanding!!!! Our family has been lucky enough to see a 2 shuttle launches! Also saw the Smithsonian traveling exhibit. I have been into the space program since I was a small child..... Any way....at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle there is a Gemini model/mockup/I am not sure what it's origin is, I would be glad to make a call or write them some e-mail, if that will help. It is full size and I have been sitting in it and flipping switches for some 20+ years now. Also of some interest at the Museum of flight in Seattle there is also a recovered Russian Space probe.....that I guess would be a whole other can of worms. BE GOOD!!!
Adam
5/2/97
What a marvelous idea for a site! Your site is terrific. Those of us who grew up in the golden age of space, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, and were fascinated with that time still have fond memories of that time. I've spent the last couple of years hunting down all those model kits that I built at one time. I've also tracked down a copy of "We Seven", a book I must have read a hundred times as a kid.
One of my biggest thrills a few years ago was to visit Goddard Space Center and be able to actually get inside a Gemini capsule; I still get excited by that time and those vehicles.
I never tire of looking at those artifacts and recapturing the excitement and thrill of that era of exploration.
5/5/97 14:28
Jim-
Yes, we have a mock-up of the Gemini capsule here at Pacific Science Center. It is on permanent display in one of our exhibit halls. Visitors can climb into the seats, look out the small windows, and play with many of the switches (some of which connect to lights in the console).
We would love to also have you link your pages to ours:
http://www.pacsci.org
Good luck with this project!
-Kevin Lane-Cummings Planetarium Supervisor Pacific Science Center
5/11/97
Jim:
Glad to hear from you. I recall meeting you in November 1994 during one of my many trips to the Cape.
I enjoyed browsing your Field Guide to American Spacecraft. I never knew that such a site existed and it will come in handy as a reference. You have done a nice job however, it needs updating in a few spots. A partial lisiting of news items that might be of use is shown below:
LM 13 is currently in Orlando at Universal Studios, Florida being used in the filming of the forthcoming HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon."
After the Smithsonian tour is complete, Apollo 14 will be permanently housed at the Astronaut Hall of Fame at KSC.
BP-K, an Apollo CM boiler plate that had been on site at JSC for many years. It was restored in 1994 and put as part of a museum display at the Houston Astrodome. I have a photo of the display boilerplate from a news article that appeared in Vol. 34 No. 40 October 6, 1995 edition of SPACE NEWS ROUNDUP. You might be able to download an Adobe PDF version of this article from the JSC Homepage. I know they have been posting their newspaper but I am not sure their back issues include this issue.
Cheers!
Glen E. Swanson Editor/Publisher, QUEST: THE MAGAZINE OF SPACEFLIGHT
5/12/97
Dear James, I just stopped by your web site at the suggestion of my good friend Glen Swanson, of Quest Magazine fame. (Like you, he and I have been traveling around the country and the world to see space hardware.) Anyway, the reason I am writing is to see if I can help you update your page a bit. I see that you do not have any photos of the spacecraft from the Michigan Space and Science Center. This, I can easily remedy, as I am the Director of the facility. I will be happy to provide you with pictures of the Apollo 9 as it is now, the fabed-up Mercury-Redstone out front of the place and the Gemini test vehicle, El Kabong, as it is in storage. Actually, the NASM has recalled the El Kabong, and it may only be with us for another month or so, but still the photo will give you a good look at its condition which is bad. (It came to us in bad condition many years before I took over and had suffered from many years of outside display.) Also, just for the heck of it I can send you a picture of the Apollo 10 hatch. Why we have it, I'll never know, but it is here on display at the Michigan Space & Science Center. Which, by the way, is the official name of the institution... it was changed from Michigan Space Center about 2 years ago.
Since I do not have the capability to scan and electronically send you the images, I'll have to do so by snail-mail. If you could let me know your address, I'll get a set right out to you.
Anyway, I hope this is some help to you. Let me know if there is anything else you need from us to make your site more complete.
Best wishes,
Stewart Bailey, Executive Director, Michigan Space & Science Center
5/14/97
Check out <sat-city.com/> for a pssible addition. I find it very useful in my work as well as a site for general info on space. Thanks to you for a great site!
Mike Bartol
5/14/97
While your web pages are quite nice, you may want to either consider changing the title to Field Guide to American Manned Spacecraft or consider including information about unmanned spacecraft.
Lyle Huber
5/18/97
Dear Jim, Started going through the lists on your page. I remember seeing a full size mockup of a Gemini Spacecraft on display at NcDonnel Douglas HQ in St. Louis. Is this spacecraft included in your list somewhere else?
Bruce Sebring
5/20/97
I enjoyed your Internet pages on the current location of space hardware.
Here are a few locations to add to your list (or to follow-up on to get the specifics):
(1) All of the Skylab backup is not at the National Air and Space Museum. Only the Orbital Workshop (and maybe the Instrument Unit) is located there. The Multiple Docking Adapter and the attached Air Lock Module (about 34 feet in height together) are lying on their side in a hanger at the Paul Garber Facility in Maryland. I have a picture of this which I will be glad to share with you.
(2) There are also two Apollo 11 Command Modules at the Garber Facility. Both have a white covering (similar to that removed with the escape rocket although the white material may be more in the nature of "factory" wrapping) except that the "tunnel" is exposed and none of the parachute recovery hardware was noticeable. Both CMs, as I recall, had a "tunnel" structure although I do not know if they are Block II as I suspose Block I modules could have a "false" tunnel.
One of the CMs sits outdoors not far from the entrance building. The other is stored behind various airplanes in the same hanger where the Big Joe Mercury boiler plate capsule you noted was at the Garber Facility is located. I have a picture of the indoor CM although, for effect, I took the picture to show that the CM was placed behind other aerospace artifacts.
I suggest a call to the Garber Facility could lead to an identification of the two Apollo CMs.
(3) As of 10 years ago, there was an S-IVB Instrument Unit at the Florence Air and Space Museum adjacent to the airport in Florence, South Carolina. Their number is 803/665-5118.
Hope this helps. Good hunting!
Dave Edwards
5/24/97
Hi,
I have enjoyed your website:
Aaltonen, Alekski Airship Cozy's Gallery of Art Quilts Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense Eurodicauton Field Guide to American Spacecraft Hockey, Science of I can't believe they said that.. Italian Gift Imports L'essentiel du Fromage Logos Dictionary, The My Friend Moe Periodic Table-updated, The U.S. Presidents UCLA Special Collections Library
and am linking it to mine
Regards,
Joyce London
6/2/07
Great work pulling all this together!!
Thanks again for taking the time to compile this list. It is amazing to me how quickly we can lose track of our heritage, even something as recent and expensive as spacecraft. You're doing your part to keep that from happening.
John Charles NASA JSC
