Exploration at Its Greatest

Let me introduce myself.....

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My name is Rick Mulheirn. Born in England in December 1957, I was/am very much a child of the space age. At some long forgotten point during the mid sixties I was bitten by "The Space Bug"; a passion for all things related to Manned Spaceflight, inparticular the American space program. Please permit me to share with you my collection of Manned Spaceflight artifacts. I do so as a mark of my respect and admiration for all those men and women who made it possible.......

Written permission is needed from me for any individual or organisation wishing to use images or text from this site.

A trip of a lifetime.....

2009-03-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

I finally managed to fulfil an ambition of 45 years standing on May 11th, 2009 when I witnessed first hand the launch of STS-125. Here are just a few of my favourite shots taken from the trip.

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The Moonwalkers.

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Landing on the moon is recorded in many a textbook as mankinds greatest achievement to date. The men that set foot on the lunar surface perceived as the best of the best; men who had "The Right Stuff". In reality any of the astronaut corp were capable, in my opinion, of writing their names in to the history books. Here are signed iconic images of those that did.

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"Watermarks" applied courtesy of Andy Green. FBIS, FRAS.

Apollo 1 Tribute

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I stumbled across this artifact belonging to renowned UK collector David Worrow in the Fall of 2010. He had purchased it from the Atwood estate some 10 years previous. David formed the opinion, based upon the wording of the label, that J. Leland Atwood (President, CEO and Chairman of North American Aviation) considered this connector to be the ignition source for the Apollo 1 fire, January 27th, 1967.

The Apollo 204 Review Board came to the conclusion that the fire initiated in the vicinity of the Environmental Control Unit (ECU) located in the lower left side of the Command Module. Max Faget suggested it was the result of chaffing to wiring insulation in a bundle of cables adjacent to the ECU access door. This however was pure speculation. Evidence to the contrary included eyewitness statements from NAA personnel who had inspected the wiring on the morning of January 27th.

It raises the question… “What, if anything had changed?” Prior to January 27th the spacecraft had undergone 4 altitude tests at the same pure oxygen pressure level for a total of 6 hours with no problems.

The only test difference was a gas chromatograph had been removed from the vehicle on the morning of the fire; the connector powering this device had been left in place.

Post fire evaluation confirmed that movement of the connector would have been sufficient to cause an electrical arc. The connector was still powered at the time of the fire.

Gyro data suggests that Gus Grissom left his couch 35 seconds before the first report of fire. Telemetry from the chromatograph cable then shows a power surge consistent with an electrical arc. Grissom returned to his couch and seconds later came the first report of fire.

Where...... one might ask was the live chromatograph cable located? In the lower left side of the Command Module in the vicinity of the Environmental Control Unit….... close to Grissom’s feet.

Significantly, the painstaking post fire investigation discovered the chromatograph cable was not in the position in which it had been left by the NAA personnel on the morning of January 27th.

We may never know with any certainty whether or not this connector was responsible for starting the flash fire on that fateful January day. Whether or not this was part of the suspect gas chromatograh cable. “Lee” Atwood passed away in 1999 and left no details about the items in his personal collection.

But according to Larry Korb, Engineering Supervisor of Metals and Producibility for North American Aviation, and a member of the Apollo 204 Investigation Team supporting the Apollo 204 Review Board...."the type of hardware, the label and the date are all consistent with it coming from the Apollo 204 spacecraft." Furthermore this presentation is consistent with other known Apollo 1 displays produced by NAA at the time.

It was Atwood himself who confirmed that he had kept items from the Apollo fire in his office. In a paper entitled “Apollo Spacecraft Program and Additional Notes” dated August 1989 Atwood wrote “I have had some samples of the spacecraft wire in my desk since the fire”. Previously, in a paper with equally limited distribution entitled “The Apollo Fire; An Analysis by J. Leland Atwood”, published in October 1988 he came to the conclusion “The most probable source was a slightly loosened wire connection where the cycle of electrical resistance, heat and oxygen corrosion progressively increased until the wire insulation caught fire”

My research suggests this connector, recovered from the Apollo 204 spacecraft just five weeks after the blaze (the ID label on the reverse is dated March 2nd, 1967), is typical of numerous identical connectors used throughout the vehicle, one of which in the opinion of Atwood.....possibly this one.......was the most likely ignition source.

40 plus years after the fire (an episode described by Wernher von Braun as “A blind spot”), the topic remains a very sensitive subject and naturally so.

Atwood commissioned this display as a poignant reminder of a particularly troubling day for every body associated with the space program; a permanent reminder helping prevent blind spots occurring in the future.

Yet the Challenger and Columbia disasters, it could be argued are examples of subsequent blind spots; were lessons had not been learned.

There is a tendency to keep hidden reminders of the tragedy. Moves to have the spacecraft placed on display have to date proved fruitless and the vehicle remains locked away in an anonymous hanger at Langley Research Center.

It is my understanding anywhere between 50 and 100 artifacts were made using material recovered from the Apollo 204 spacecraft. Intended for senior managers and employees at NAA they are rarely seen; few admit to even owning them.

This item is shown as John Leland Atwood intended. With respect and as a lasting memorial to the crew.

John Leland Atwood photo courtesy of The Boeing Company.

Flown Apollo artifacts.

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Regarded by many as the ultimate spaceflight collectibles having flown on historic missions with brave pioneers and in so doing.. becoming part of history.

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Jim McDivitt was such a likeable chap I could not resist the opportunity to photograph him with the Apollo 9 flown tie clip on two seperate occassions.......!

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I had the pleasure of meeting Fred Haise in October 2008, whilst he was on a school speaking trip in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. A finer...more modest gentleman you could not hope to meet!

A number of the astronaut corp were famed for their practical jokes or "Gotchas". The "Beep Beep" Apollo 14 back-up crew patch being arguably the most famous. Secreted throughout both spacecraft by the score, even making it onto the modularized cart used to traverse the lunar surface, the patches would float out of every compartment, locker or check-list. The crew of Apollo 14 took the prank in good spirits.....initially. The joke eventually wore thin but then the best "Gotchas" often do!

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Dr Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Lunar Module Pilot and the 6th man to walk on the moon very kindly allowed me to visit him in his Florida home recently. Not many people get the chance to meet their heroes. I am one of the lucky few who has......

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Models.

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I guess it was inevitable, discovering an interest in spaceflight as a boy would lead me to collect spacecraft models. Here are a few of my favourites including a couple of my own efforts.....!

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This 100 pound thrust hypergolic Reaction Control System or "RCS" engine, was supplied by the Marquardt Company on Van Nuys, California in the late 1970's. Used extensively throughout the space program I was informed that this display piece was from the Apollo program were they were used as directional thrusters on the Service and Lunar Modules.

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An Apollo A6L Extravehicular Activity or EVA boot manufactured in October 1966. This design of boot may well have made it to the moon but the for the tragic Apollo 1 fire in January 1967 and the subsequent redesign of the Apollo suits.

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Complete with inner pressure glove and wrist connect, an Apollo A7L glove in private ownership is not unique. What does make this glove special however is that it was worn by Jim Irwin AFTER he had walked on the moon in July/August 1971 as Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot; it is believed he wore this glove while training as back-up to Harrison Schmitt for the Apollo 17 mission prior to his controversial removal from the post in the summer of 1972.

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The communications switch or "Cobra Head" was a hand switch used extensively throughout the Apollo program and figures in a number of iconic in-flight Apollo photographs. This particular switch dates to the late Apollo/Skylab era but I have not been able to ascertain whether it was flown in space.

The communications carrier, affectionately known as a "Snoopy Cap" is from the early 80's shuttle program. While the electronics in the headset may have changed in the intervening years the soft carrier itself is identical to its illustrious Apollo counterpart.

Identical equipment can be seen in this photograph of Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan and Command Module Pilot Ron Evans, taken while on their return from the moon in December 1972.

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The glove on the left is the Thermal Micro-meteoroid Garment (TMG) layer of the modern Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), circa 1980. With palms made from Kevlar and latex fingers tips developed for the Apollo moon suit it was designed with the maxim "stop a bullet but pick up a dime" very much in mind. The glove to the right is some 15 years later in design. Flexibility has been improved with latex covering the palms and fingers and a pull switch on the cuff that operates an elaborate finger heating arrangement to combat the severe cold experienced by astronauts while in shadow on EVA for prolonged periods.

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Gemini 4 commander James McDivitt with a commemrative Fliteline medallion carried aboard the spacecraft in his Personal Preferance Kit or PPK. During the flight Edward White became the first American to walk in space.

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I particularly like the Apollo recovery acrylics as they were made to my own design by my good friend Jerry Czubinski, using Kapton swatches with an impeccable provenance.

Gemini XI Heatshield Display.

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Lucite display pieces containing heatshield fragments from Gemini spacecraft are not uncommon but this display, made by McDonnell Douglas machinist Norm Pavy is a little bit special. It is my understanding he made only 4 such displays for each flight. One was given to each of the crew, the third gifted by McDonnell Douglas as they saw fit and the fourth retained by Norm himself.

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A piece of Skylab debris recovered from Esperance Shire, Western Australia

A cross section of Shuttle External Tank foam insulation and a sample of Apollo Command Module heatshield material from The Avco Corp.

A limted edition exact replica of the commemorative plaque left on the lunar surface by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, July 1969.

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This signed beta cloth patch, from the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission of 1975, was not flown in space but does has the distinction of coming from the personal collection of particpant cosmonaut Valery Kubasov.