The most unusual 'anchor that has followed me home

[Joe Buch]

At 09:32 5/28/98 -0400, you wrote:

>I have a small piece of aluminum foil which went to the moon
>(and back).
>
>I was a helicopter pilot on the carrier which recovered the
>Apollo 7 astronauts.  One helo had recovered part of the
>insulation from the capsule after it had splashed down, and I
>got a bit of the aluminum foil.
>
>
>----Roy Morgan
>
Roy,

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Apollo 7 never went to the moon.  It was
the first mission to carry 3 astronauts (Schirra, Eisle, and Cunningham)
but remained in near-earth orbit.  The objective of the mission was to test
the Command Service Module.  Apollo 8 was the first mission to the vicinity
of the moon where it went into lunar orbit.

I worked at a NASA facility which provided satellite communications to the
USN recovery carriers during the Apollo era.  Our station communicated via
the NASA ATS satellites (149 MHz uplink and 137 MHz downlink).  We carried
several channels of medical voice traffic between doctors in Houston who
were monitoring astronaut vital signs via telemetry and doctors on the
ship.  Most of the traffic consisted of discussions of post-flight tests to
be conducted after landing.  I have a dud Eimac 4CX3000 ceramic tube from
the final of this 149 MHz transmitter which I have adapted as a lamp base
for my operating table.

I also have a flag carried aboard the first Shuttle mission.  The flag was
awarded to my employer as a thank you from NASA.  When the company was then
acquired by a bigger one in the early stages of the corporate cannibalism
that would eventually decimate the aerospace industry, the award with the
old company name on it was taken off the wall and was close to being
trashed when I rescued it.

                                                 _____
                                                /     \
                                               {) o o (}
                                         _____oOO_(.)_OOo______
On the keyboard of life,                |  _               _  |
always keep one finger on the escape key| |_| @ @  @  @ @ |_| |
~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'|      @ _____ @      |
Joe Buch                                |  @  @ |     |  @    |
Amateur Radio N2JB                      |       |_____|       |
joseph.buch at dol.net                     |    @  @ /-\ @   /-\ |
-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_,.-*~'^'~*-.,_|        |   |   |   ||
There are two rules for ultimate success|     @   \__/Oooo\__/|
in life. Never tell everything you know.|____oooO____(   )____|
                                              \ (     ) /
                                               \_)   (_/

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