Astronaut Dick Gordon has died

[DrRoy]

I am saddened by the loss of Dick Gordon, NASA astronaut on Gemini 11 and second lunar landing mission Apollo 12. DW and I met him at Spacefest VII. The Apollo program was such a huge part of my youth.

 

[Walt34]

It is sad to see these people from the early space programs passing on. Watching the progress was a big part of my life too.

 

[Chuckanut]

Wow very sad to hear that. He was one of those astronauts who went ot the moon but never landed on it. Instead he circled the moon in the Command/Service module while Alan Bean and Pete Conrad had all the fun.

Apollo 12 had a very interesting launch after the Saturn V rocket had been struck twice by lightening. (Geeze! What kept all that hydrogen and oxygen from blowing up? A tribute to the engineers who designed it.) He and his two fellow astronauts were literally seconds away from a high risk mission abort. Thankfully, a flight controller saved the day. It's an interesting story worthy of more attention.

 

[DrRoy]

Apollo 12 had a very interesting launch after the Saturn V rocket had been struck twice by lightening. (Geeze! What kept all that hydrogen and oxygen from blowing up? A tribute to the engineers who designed it.) He and his two fellow astronauts were literally seconds away from a high risk mission abort. Thankfully, a flight controller saved the day. It's an interesting story worthy of more attention.

I much appreciate that you found and posted the video with the story, Chuckanut. You might be amused by my license plate.
.

 

[6miths]

Cool license plate!

 

[MuirWannabe]

My dad was 1 of 6 (I think) aeronautical engineers graduating from UT back in 1954. Alan Bean was in his class and they were good friends at the time. My dad went on to work at and retire from NASA. I’ve heard the SCEtoAUX story many times. According to my dad, that was a design feature nobody thought necessary but Werner von Braun insisted on in the early design days of the Saturn V. Not sure, but don’t think it was ever needed again. But it sure saved the day in this one case!

 

[Red Badger]

Godspeed Dick. And thank you.