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2014 Archived News

News from 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008

December 25, 2014:

The wife is pulling a shift today, leaving time to work on the Website before heading off to the in-laws after work.

A couple P-51-related photo sets:

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December 24, 2014 (Update #4):

A Curtiss C-46D Commando at the Museum of Aviation.

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December 24, 2014 (Update #3):

A standard diving dress, the old-fashioned diving suit, at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

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December 24, 2014 (Update #2):

I updated and added a several dozen new photos of the cut-away Mark 23 torpedo afterbody at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

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December 24, 2014:

I updated and added a several new photos of the submarine periscope at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

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December 23, 2014:

I updated and added a several new photos of the Exide submarine battery cell at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

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December 22, 2014:

I updated and added a few new photos of the Mark 27 Mod 4 torpedo at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

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December 19, 2014:

A page about F-1 rocket engine LOX flowmeter, part of the S-IC stage pressurization system, including a number of photos taken of flowmeters in private collections.

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December 18, 2014:

A page about F-1 rocket engine MD changes, how configuration changes in an engine were identified.

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December 12, 2014:

Added some photos of an SR-71 J58 engine starter drive pad to my AG-330 start cart page.

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December 9, 2014:

I updated and added a few new photos of the heat exchanger and lines on F-1 rocket engine F-5036 at Marshall Space Flight Center.

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December 7, 2014:

By special request, I've uploaded nearly four dozen new photos of F-1 rocket engine F-6045 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. The update is ostensibly about the LOX flowmeter, but it includes new photos of the gas generator, turbine, heat exchanger, and heat exchanger lines, and the turbine exhaust manifold.

I visit this F-1 engine more often and have more photos of it than any other F-1 rocket engine. When I need to show an F-1 engine component, this is my go-to engine, so I've prepared and uploaded the photos in this set in fits and starts, without any overall, unifying purpose or vision. Therefore, I reviewed all of the photos I'd previously uploaded, rearranging some of them and revising the descriptions of most of them, adding links to other photos or resources which didn't exist at the time I originally uploaded them or adding links to photos or resources which didn't seem important at the time.

So, even if you're a regular reader who always checks out the new updates, I invite you to go back and look at this entire photo set.

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November 30, 2014 (Update #2):

I uploaded a large picture set of the F-1 rocket engine at the Kansas Cosmosphere.

This update marks a major site milestone: I now have more than 10,000 photos (10,124 photos, to be exact) of space artifacts which I took available on the site. This is exclusive of the scans, diagrams, and photos on my "info" pages (called "supplemental images" on my main index page).

I've always said that I had tens of thousands of pictures I've taken over the years. Six and a half years later, I've finally uploaded my first ten thousand pictures, so the remaining photos should keep me busy for at least another 13 or 20 years!

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November 30, 2014:

Upgraded the graphic on my F-1 rocket engine tube markings page. The old graphic was from a poor-quality PDF, while the new one is one that I scanned from an original document; it's also about 50% larger. Additionally, I removed the extraneous markings from the diagram, so it's much cleaner.

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November 29, 2014:

Here's the reason I never get anything done around here: I have too much material.

So I'm working on an update and I want to refer to an existing info page that I have. I notice that that page is still using a graphic that I extracted from a PDF, even though I've since scanned the diagram and thus have a higher-quality, higher-resolution version of it. The diagram also has some information which isn't pertinent to my page, so I decided clean that up and reconstruct the areas affected by the removed material.

I like to keep a vintage feel to my diagrams, even those I adapt for other purposes, so I wanted to take some text from a related manual which I scanned and add it to this graphic I'm adapting, which means that I needed to do clean up job on the text on those related pages, as well.

It seemed silly to go through the effort to clean up most of those scans without posting them, so I did just that:

Now that I'm done being two levels separated from my main project, I'm off to go back to the original distraction from my main project.

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November 22, 2014:

Having completed uploading this round of Washington D.C.-related photo sets earlier this week, I've gone back and finished uploading the last of the Blackbird family-related planned for the foreseeable future:

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November 16, 2014:

Although my son's back from his Washington D.C. marching band trip, I've still got a number of D.C.-related picture sets which I plan on uploading.

Many of the recent photo sets have been of artifacts in the National Air & Space Museum's Milestones of Flight gallery. Today I uploaded my remaining photos of artifacts in Milestones of Flight for which I have no other photo set (i.e., I only took one or two photos of various artifacts, so I collected them all into a single photo set, rather than having separate photo sets).

Some of these artifacts include

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November 14, 2014:

Additional D.C.-related picture sets:

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November 13, 2014:

By sheer coincidence, my next planned D.C.-related picture set was going to be the Stardust sample return capsule in the Milestones of Flight Gallery at the National Air & Space Museum. Of course, yesterday the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe sent its Philae lander to the surface of a comet, making a comet-related picture set all the more timely.

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November 12, 2014:

Additional D.C.-related picture sets:

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November 11, 2014:

Continuing with the Washington D.C. theme, I uploaded my photos of the SpaceShipOne in the Milestones of Flight Gallery at the National Air & Space Museum.

To go with that, I also uploaded my photos of the EAA's SpaceShipOne replica.

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November 9, 2014:

Continuing with the Washington D.C. theme, I uploaded my photos of the Spirit of St. Louis in the Milestones of Flight Gallery at the National Air & Space Museum.

To go with that, I also uploaded my photos of the EAA's Spirit of St. Louis replica.

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November 8, 2014:

My son is on a trip to Washington D.C. with his high school marching band and will be visiting the National Air & Space Museum, so I sorted through my photos of the museum's U-2.

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November 1, 2014:

Just about finishing up with my Blackbird-related picture sets, I have photos of the SR-71 interior at the Air Force Museum and an SR-71 (Type GNS1030) Pressure Suit at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

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October 25, 2014 (update #2):

I added another cut-away diagram to my H-1 rocket engine fuel additive blender unit page.

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October 25, 2014:

During my September 2014 visit to Marshall Space Flight Center, I found that the H-1 turbopump and bobtail thrust chamber removed from the Cold Calibration Test Stand prior to the latter's demolition had been dismantled and moved indoors.

Among the items saved when the turbopump were dismantled was the fuel additive blender unit and the FABU's heater assembly, so I uploaded a number of photos of the FABU on the H-1 engine at Neil Armstrong Air & Space; this FABU is clad in its near-pristine heater assembly.

I also made a number of minor changes to my Rocketdyne Mark 3 turbopump and H-1 rocket engine fuel additive blender unit pages.

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October 19, 2014:

Added a diagram of the turbine exhaust hood to my H-1 rocket engine heat exchanger page.

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October 12, 2014:

Upon visiting Marshall Space Flight Center last month, I found that the F-1 turbopump formerly installed in the Cold Calibration Test Stand had been moved. Now laying on its side, it allows inspection of the LOX inlet and LOX impeller, the second-stage turbine wheel, and the "injector" (which is mostly just a large-diameter pipe). About two dozen new photos.

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October 4, 2014:

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the Internet (it just seems that way).

In mid-August, I began preparing for a trip to Huntsville and Mitchell, IN. With going through all of my photos of MSFC, the USSRC, and Grissom Memorial to plan out the photos I hope to take, not to mention planning the scans I'd hoped to take at UAH and the USSRC archives, this is a non-trivial task.

Then five days before I planned on leaving, I came down the the worst head cold I'd had in recent memory, so I pretty much gave up on the trip for September. But, the cold moved on as quickly as it came on, so the trip was once again on, but I was 2 days behind on packing.

Then I was on the road for 9 days, and the unpacking, and the getting back to people to whom I'd made promises and those who helped make the trip success, and then there was all the stuff that piled up at home while I was gone.

And now my wife has planned a vacation, far from any rockets or warplanes.

It's amazing I get anything done around here!

However, I was finally able to sort through the photos of the thrust chamber throat security closure shaft among the equipment in Marshall Space Flight Center's F-1 Engine Disassembly.

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August 17, 2014:

Building on my last update, additional Apollo docking system-related photo sets:

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August 12, 2014:

By special request, the rest of my photos of the Apollo docking probe and drogue system at Stafford Air & Space.

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August 10, 2014:

I've been pretty busy in my real life over the last month, taking care of my 14-year-old dog in her final days and then getting a successor puppy (puppies are hard work!).

Continuing the SR-71/A-12 theme from the last meaningful update, I thought I would add to that in smaller updates, but that didn't work out too well (site motto: "There's no such thing as a small update"). So, today I uploaded 164 photos:

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July 30, 2014:

I've been notified by my service provider that they'll be doing some work in their data center between 5:00 pm EDT July 31 and 5:00 am EDT August 1. While they don't anticipate any problems, you never know when Murphey will butt in, so if there are connectivity problems during this time, they won't be entirely unexpected.

Home

July 14, 2014:

While researching my recent Echo launch adapter page, I ran across a photo of the backup Echo 2 launch adapter. Having secured permission from the photographer, I've updated my Echo satellite launch adapter page with that photo.

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July 13, 2014:

On my trip to Michigan and Ohio back in May, I took some photos of several SR-71-related artifacts, and so today I uploaded some of those, along with photos of other, similar artifacts:

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July 7, 2014:

I found a color photo of the ASTP crew in front of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mockup in the VAB on eBay, so I added it to my ASTP at the National Air & Space Museum page.

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July 6, 2014:

I've updated my info page on the Launch Complexes 39A, 39B, 39C, and 39D, adding four new diagrams.

It turns out that, once you're looking for them, diagrams of Pad D at Launch Complex 39 really aren't all that rare.

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June 28, 2014:

I put together an info page on the Echo satellite launch adapter, exploring some inconsistencies with the sign accompanying the Echo adapter at the Cradle of Aviation.

Home

June 22, 2014:

After my trip through Michigan and Ohio and my photo sets for the D-Day anniversary, I'm back to updating all of those dead nasaimages.org links, so no large picture sets in the impending future.

However, just to keep things interesting, I did upload a few photos of the Sopwith Camel at the Air Zoo.

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June 16, 2014:

I've prepared a page with U.S. Space & Rocket Center Rocket Park aerial photos, annotating a photo with the locations of various artifacts previously displayed outdoors.

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June 15, 2014:

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center press release regarding the completion of the Saturn V move into the Davidson Center ("It's all there!"). This press release was formerly hosted by the USSRC's Webserver, but as it is no longer there, I put a copy on my Website.

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June 14, 2014 (update #4):

The bridges over Pont de Normandie.

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June 14, 2014 (update #3):

Our visit to Dunkirk, France, including the British Dunkirk Memorial and Cemetery.

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June 14, 2014 (update #2):

The Omaha Beach Memorial Museum (Musee Memorial D'Omaha Beach) in Normandy, France.

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June 14, 2014:

P-38 Lightning at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

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June 10, 2014:

Additional photos from my 2002 trip to Normandy, France: The D-Day Wrecks Museum.

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June 7, 2014:

I uploaded additional photos from my 2002 trip to Normandy, France, this set from Omaha Beach, with its various memorials and Atlantic Wall bunkers.

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June 6, 2014:

My wife and I visited France and Belgium in 2002 and spent a day in Normandy, France. To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, I've uploaded several photo sets from this trip:

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May 28, 2014:

I recently returned from a trip through Michigan and Ohio, spending two days at the Air Zoo and a day each at Neil Armstrong Air & Space, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, and at the Champaign Aviation Museum (which I had not previously visited).

From that trip, I've uploaded and updated two photo sets from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force:

Home

May 10, 2014:

I continue replace nasaimages.org links with links to currently-live versions of those photo links. As I replace the links in each museum's set of pages, I'm also verifying and updating other links, too. It's slow and tedious.

I've found a couple of links which are no longer active, but for which I've saved off the linked files, so I've begun hosting them on heroicrelics:

Home

May 6, 2014:

As a follow-up to yesterday's update, in the same folder as yesterday's Project Mercury Redstone flight plan diagram I found a Project Mercury Jupiter flight plan diagram, also issued by the Space Task Group in June 1959.

The Mercury-Jupiter program is a relatively obscure aspect of the program, so I did a little digging in some Project Mercury references to add a small write-up to the diagram.

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May 5, 2014:

Today is the anniversary of the United States' first manned spaceflight, the flight of Alan Shepard in Freedom 7. I visited Freedom 7 when it was located in the US Naval Academy's Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center.

To mark today's anniversary, I've posted a Project Mercury Redstone flight plan diagram, issued by the Space Task Group in June 1959, noting major phases of the Mercury-Redstone flight profile.

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April 26, 2014:

I've mostly been busy with boring, site-maintenance stuff. The biggest thing is that nasaimages.org went off the Internet over a year ago, and I had 116 links to photos on it. I've been busy trying to find those photos on other sites and then update the pages which reference them. Pretty tedious stuff.

I noticed that Google Maps recently updated their overhead imagery of Marshall Space Flight Center, showing the post-demolition condition of the F-1 Engine Test Stand at Marshall Space Flight Center, so I took a break from the tedium of replacing links and both updated my original F-1 Engine Test Stand photo set and posted a set of post-demolition photos of the remains.

I also split out the photos I took in July 2012 of the F-1 Engine Test Stand in the midst of its demolition. Shortly after that visit, the demolition crew removed the F-1 Engine Test Stand LOX tank; I received some photos and a video of this operation, and so put up a page.

Yes, I've branched out into video, and there's now a heroicrelics YouTube channel (with one whole video currently in it!). I personally shoot very little video (close to none at all), but I do have a number of videos I've received, and will likely upload several of them at some point in the future.

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April 14, 2014:

Now that I'm settled in on my new server, I can return my attention to actually posting aerospace photos!

Today I uploaded a bunch of photos of the F-1 rocket engines installed on the Saturn V S-IC stage at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Two of these engines are especially interesting, as they are sufficiently old to have the twin-elbow LOX dome inlets, and I was able to get photos of these vintage inlets.

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April 11, 2014 (Update #2):

The site is all installed on the new server, and several different ISPs are now showing the new IP address, although incoming email seems to be spotty. As of 3:00 pm CDT, it's only been a couple of hours, so I guess that isn't too unexpected.

heroicrelics will remain on the old server for at least a couple of days yet, so that it should be accessible if your DNS is a bit on the slow side (I understand that it may take up to 48 hours for things to propagate overseas).

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April 11, 2014:

Moving the site to a new server; there may be connection problems while the DNS servers propagate the new IP address.

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April 5, 2014:

After spending a week and a half cleaning up my Website, I was looking for a small update, just to get some new material up on the site (site motto: "There's no such thing as a small update"); while I thought I had found such an update, I was woefully mistaken.

I started off writing a page about the history of the ASTP display at the National Air & Space Museum, including its appearance at the 1973 Paris Air Show and the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. Before I was done with that, I had uploaded the following photo sets:

The update not yet being large enough, I also created the following resource pages:

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March 23, 2014:

I'll likely be moving heroicrelics to a new web hosting company in a couple of months, so I've written a couple of cross-reference programs and spent the last week and a half cleaning up my Website: tidying up some of my resource pages (mostly administrative type changes, but I did fix some bad HTML markup and touch up a number of graphics files), finding pages and images not referenced by other pages, museums not referenced on my "museums" page, and resources not listed on my "resources" page.

I frequently make repeat visits a number of museums and facilities (and there are some, like the USSRC and MSFC, that I visit over and over), often replacing photos I've posted with better versions of the photos. It seems that I haven't been especially careful about removing the old web pages and images. It seems that I still had 53 old (replaced) photos on the site, so I deleted them. I also decremented my image counter accordingly.

On the other hand, it seems that when I've made new resources pages I haven't always updated the supplemental images counter or listed the new page on my "resources" page. So, I incremented the supplemental images counter by five and added the following to my "resources" page:

None of these pages are new; it's just that they never appeared on my "resources" page. And, I didn't want you to think that I've been slacking off for the last week and a half.

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March 13, 2014:

I was able to scrounge up a higher-resolution scan of the artist conception of the Flying Lunar Excursion Experimental Platform (FLEEP), including an alternate caption on the back of the photo. I also found a second artist conception drawing, this one of an actual astronaut piloting it over the lunar surface.

Additionally, the curator of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center forwarded two photos of an early, crude scale model of the FLEEP.

I also included a very meager amount of information from the Flying Lunar Excursion Experimental Platform Operation and Maintenance Manual, which I scanned from microfiche.

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March 1, 2014:

It started so simple: I added a new map, detailing NASA Launch Operations Center space utilization at AMR (circa June 1962) to my Cape Canaveral Air Force Station maps page. From there, the update spiralled out of control, not unlike some of the rocket launches from the time.

Since I now had two maps referring to several launch complexes, I uploaded the following photos sets, from the "Then and Now" tour I took through Kennedy Space Center:

While sorting through those photos, I found some additional photos of the LC-26 gantry, so I added them to the existing set.

The commemorative sign at Launch Complex 19 lists the manned Gemini missions, and I discovered that I had not yet uploaded any photos of Gemini 7 at the Udvar-Hazy Center, so I uploaded a few of those.

LC-14 has a Project Mercury monument; the Mercury portion of the Space Walk of Fame has a similar monument, so I was going to add a link there. The SWOF was one of the very first picture sets I uploaded when I started this site, and I found that the descriptions weren't quite up to my current standards, so I wound up re-doing them (including transcribing all of the signs and markers).

Based on the content of the text on the signs and markers, I uploaded the following photo sets:

Gemini 7 at the UHC is displayed with two Gemini heatshields (one unflown and another that "may" have flown on Gemini 2), so I uploaded those photos. The Kansas Cosmosphere also has an unflown Gemini heatshield, so I uploaded that for completeness' sake.

Finally, Gemini 7 at the UHC is displayed next to the Gemini Test Two Vehicle #1 (TTV-1), so I uploaded a few photos of that as well.

Unlike that out-of-control rocket from the early 60s, no one and no equipment was harmed in the making of this update, and hopefully the debris which landed will be of interest.

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February 22, 2014:

By special request, additional photos of the Atlas vernier start tank (or whatever it may actually be) at the Kansas Cosmosphere.

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February 19, 2014:

Today I uploaded a sizeable H-1 rocket engine-related update:

Additionally, I've prepared a page regarding the H-1 rocket engine fuel additive blender unit.

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February 17, 2014:

I added a scan of the presentation letter which accompanied the LM-1/Apollo 5 certificate of participation.

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February 6, 2014:

Several new photos of the Saturn V displayed in front of the VAB on my page of vintage photos of the Kennedy Space Center.

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January 22, 2014:

Several new photos of the Saturn I Static Test Stage (SA-T) at Marshall Space Flight Center.

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January 11, 2014:

Today an update regarding the Surveyor series of lunar probes, to join the photos I already had of a Surveyor test article at the National Air & Space Museum:

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January 4, 2014:

An update primarily featuring the rocket engines of the Kansas Cosmosphere:

Plus a number of additional photo sets which are vaguely related:

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January 1, 2014:

Since it's now the year 2014, I've archived 2013's news.

2013, of course, was full of museum and archive visits. I visited two new venues in 2013: I started out in January at the home of Mark Wells (of Rocket Relics fame). He was gracious enough to let me rummage through his collection and set up a bunch of lighting and camera equipment in his office. Later in the year, I visited the Great Lakes Science Center, which inherited a number of the artifacts formerly displayed at the Glenn Research Center Visitor Center when the latter closed in 2009.

One of my other favorite visits included a visit to Marshall Space Flight Center, arranged by an engineer who contacted me through he site. He not only got me a badge which gave me unescorted access to the MSFC grounds, but he also escorted me through the East and West Test Areas and got me inside of all of the buildings of which I'd hoped to photograph the exterior, as well as a couple others of which I was previously unaware (e.g., I didn't know that the S-IC Test Stand had an observation bunker). Over lunch, an engineer whose office was down the hall from his asked him why he'd been over at the remains of the Cold Calibration Test Stand. When he said that he was escorting a photographer, his office mate inquired as to whether it was "that heroicrelics guy"!

I received similar red-carpet treatment when I visited the Kansas Cosmosphere at the end of the year. I visited to see the F-1 engines recovered from the ocean floor (sorry, there are restrictions on photography), expecting to spend an hour or two, but wound up spending the better part of the day with the engine parts. (When I first arrived at SpaceWorks everyone perked up when I was introduced as "Mike from heroicrelics"!) The Cosmosphere staff did everything they could to make my visit successful and productive.

2013 also had a couple of site milestones: August of 2013 marked the site's fifth anniversary, and the final update of 2013 marked the site's 10,000th web page (as defined by the Google Webmaster Tools service).

I ended 2013 with 8,688 images (an increase of 1,420) and 799 supplemental images/PDFs (an increase of 207).

Home

January 1, 2013:

With the start of a new year, I archived 2012's news.

In 2012, heroicrelics was in the media a bit. Ars Technica ran an article about a behind the scenes tour of Mission Control, including a copy of my Apollo 13 Command Module control panel diagram near the bottom of page 4. When Freedom 7 was moved from the Armel-Leftwich Visitor Center at the U.S. Naval Academy, space.com ran an article which included my Freedom 7 spacecraft/earth composite photo. And I supplied a number of diagrams to the Haynes Lunar Rover Manual: 1971-1972 (Apollo 15-17; LRV1-3 & 1G Trainer).

The highlight of my year came in July, when I visited Marshall Space Flight Center to photograph an F-1 engine which had been disassembled. Coincidentally, at the time I was just about finishing up an in-depth series of pages on the F-1 injector, injector baffles, and thrust chamber, as well as a page of F-1 cut-aways. Although it was not pre-planned, I also received a tour which included the East and West Test areas, including the top of the Dynamic Test Stand, the Cold Calibration Test Stands, the Static Test Tower, the top of the S-IC Test Stand, and the F-1 Test Stand (which, sadly, was demolished in 2012). I also had some time by myself to photograph the engines in front of Building 4200 and Building 4205, as well as spending some quality time in the Rocket Garden.

In addition to my visits to the "normal" document archives, I also visited the home of aerospace consultant Dave Christensen, scanning a number of V-2 and Jupiter-related diagrams, as well as some interesting reports, including some related to H-1 and Jupiter engine development, as well as the original MSFC memo regarding Esther Goddard's patent infringement claims.

I ended 2012 with 7,368 photos (an increase of 1313, which seems oddly coincidental, going into 2013) and 679 supplemental images/PDFs (an increase of 177).

Shortly before the end of the year, I realized that I had not updated the program I use to count supplemental images when I started posting medium-sized versions of photos (it was already properly filtering out small-sized versions of photos). The program was also not filtering out the small- and medium-sized PDFs. So, I updated that program today, and reset the supplemental images counter to 592 (I didn't change the program and counter earlier, so that I could more easily track year-to-year changes).

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January 1, 2012:

With the start of a new year, I archived 2011's news.

It seems that in 2011 I spent more on research and historical documents, rather than uploading photos of artifacts in museums. This isn't any sort of strategic shift, but rather what held my interest long enough to bring a project to completion.

I visited the archives of the University of Alabama at Huntsville several times, taking my laptop and scanner. Many of the items I put online in 2011 came from the archives at UAH.

Some of the original documents I scanned at UAH were already available on the Internet, but of a much lower quality (e.g., the Saturn V Apollo Flight Configuration Saturn V poster -- including the elusive "Sheet 2", a huge Apollo Command Module Main Display -- where all the labels on all of the buttons and switches are clearly readable, and the similarly large Lunar Module Controls and Displays). I also painstakingly restored the famous "Operation Paperclip" photo of the von Braun Rocket Team at Ft. Bliss and made an interactive identification version of this photo.

Something I'd not seen elsewhere on the Internet is my 55-inch-wide Assembly Layout S-IC Stage, Saturn V, an impressive engineering drawing of the Saturn V first stage.

One of my larger research projects included my F-1 Major Configuration Change Points. This started off as a transcript of a memo I found at UAH. I annotated this memo and added many photos illustrating these changes. While several of the photos were ones I'd taken and were already on the site, many of the photos are much rarer, being ones I scanned at the UAH archives or obtained from a Rocketdyne retiree.

I've already got the first road trip of 2012 planned; it includes a stop at the UAH archives, the USSRC, Grissom Memorial, and a stop off at somewhere I've not previously visited, one of the few German-produced V-1s in the U.S.

So, I ended 2011 with 6,055 pictures of relics (an increase of only 470) and 502 supplemental images online (an increase of 247, nearly doubling this number).

Home

January 1, 2011:

With the start of a new year, I archived 2010's news.

2010 saw a number of technical improvements to the site.

Around the beginning of the year, I finished rewriting the software I use to maintain the site. Over the years, I've made several visits to many museums, and I've upgraded my camera between some of those visits. Prior to this rewrite, it wasn't possible to combine the batches of pictures I've taken with different cameras in a single page, because the software only supported a single camera resolution on a given museum page. This forced me to maintain two different data files for each of these museums, and was quite a bother to deal with. But, now I've got all the pictures from each museum residing in a single data file, allowing me to mix-and-match pictures from each trip.

In October, I moved away from "plain-text" info pages. I rolled out a theme loosely-based on the Apollo command and lunar module control panels, making these pages as attractive to look at as they are informative. I hope to modify my software again so I can use this theme on all remaining pages, but that'll be a fair chunk of work.

Another goal in 2010 was to upload at least one picture set from each museum or other venue I've visited. Creating the initial upload for a museum involves a fair amount of overhead, and there'd been times when I wanted to upload a picture set in response to a news event or some forum post, but I couldn't quickly do so because that picture set was part of a museum I'd not yet uploaded. I didn't quite meet that goal – I still have five museums to go – but I'm in a much better position and I hope to get those remaining museums online in the coming weeks.

In the "bragging" portion of this news item, in August I was asked to prepare a version of my S-II stage insulation page for inclusion in NASA's Apollo Flight Journal; it's available via the Journal's home page or at http://history.nasa.gov/afj/s-ii/s-ii-insulation.html.

Finally, in the "vital statistics" portion of this news item, 2010 ended with 5,585 pictures of relics and 255 supplemental images online, an increase of 2,118 and 110, respectively.

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January 1, 2010:

With the start of a new year, I archived 2009's news.

The Website continued to grow in 2009. In May I moved away from a "plain text" main page, adding the Mission Control console theme, and splitting the main page into multiple sub-pages.

2009 ended with 3,467 pictures of relics and 145 supplemental pictures online, an increase of 1,779 and 126, respectively. 1,007 of the new relics pictures were added during the nine-day Apollo 11 anniversary.

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January 1, 2009:

With the start of a new year, I archived 2008's news.

2008 was quite a year for me, as I'd been talking about starting a Website for several years. I realized that I was never going to be "ready", so I finally just went and did it. 2008 ended with 1688 pictures of relics and 19 supplemental pictures online.

Certainly the highlight of the year came December 22, when collectSPACE ran a feature article (the basis of which was written by Alan Lawrie) about an Apollo 8 F-1 engine I photographed while touring MSFC, and then a day later when a "teaser" version of that same article hit the front page of space.com.

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August 15, 2008:

Site goes live. "Live" might be too strong of a word for it, as there's nothing here other than a "welcome" page, but at least I do have a presence on the web!

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