February 4, 2012:
To accompany my recent F-1 supplement, I uploaded several picture sets from the U.S. Space & Rocket Center:
- F-1 engine gas generator injector
- F-1 engine injector baffle
- 30+ additional photos of the F-1 engine, including the gas generator, gas generator ball valve, and gas generator propellant lines and the injector.
January 28, 2012:
Another scan from my recent trip to Huntsville, I uploaded what is essentially an informational comic book published by Marshall Space Flight Center called Saturn and Noise, a PR booklet regarding the noise generated by static firing Saturn I first stages in the Static Test Tower.
HomeJanuary 26, 2012:
Back from a recent trip to Huntsville, today I uploaded a gem from the Morea Collection at the archives of the University of Alabama at Huntsville: A small document called the the F-1 Rocket Engine Technical Manual Supplement (R-3896-1A). This supplement documents the formerly-classified gas generator injector, thrust chamber injector, and turbopump.
HomeJanuary 8, 2012:
By special request, I've sorted through and uploaded my remaining photos of the C-47 interior at the Air Zoo.
HomeJanuary 2, 2012 (update #2):
I added a scan of a rocket engine postcard to the Space Orientation Center portion of my Marshall Space Flight Center Rocket Garden page.
Also, I updated my Vintage U.S. Space & Rocket Center Photos page with a postcard showing a model of the Alabama Space & Rocket Center's Rocket Park from the early planning stages.
HomeJanuary 2, 2012:
I uploaded what I believe to be the very first brochure for the Alabama Space and Rocket Center (which was subsequently renamed to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center). To go along with this brochure, I also uploaded a picture set of the Titan II formerly displayed at the USSRC.
HomeJanuary 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It seems that in 2011 I spent more on research and historical documents, rather than uploading photos of artifacts in museums.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).
HomeJanuary 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.
HomeJanuary 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.
HomeJanuary 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.
HomeAugust 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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