Apollo 12 pre-launch, Some shots from a VIP tour of KSC, August 1969 Options

[ilbasso]

This thread had me going back through some of my dad's slides from when he toured KSC in August 1969. I thought you'd enjoy these - which have never been seen publicly before!!!!!


The ascent stage of Intrepid, the Apollo 12 lunar module


The base of the first stage of the Saturn V. S-IC-7 at the top of the picture identifies this as the Apollo 12 Saturn V. Note that the fairings just above the fins have been removed. These fairings covered retro rockets that were fired when the first stage separated from the second stage.


The Apollo 12 Saturn V stack, viewed from above.

[nprev]

...OOO...AHHH...and I mean that sincerely!!!!

Thank you VERY much for sharing these, Ilbasso!!!!

[ElkGroveDan]

This thread had me going back through some of my dad's slides from when he toured KSC in August 1969. I thought you'd enjoy these - which have never been seen publicly before!!!!!

Pretty impressive for him to be able to use available light for slides in those days. As I recall the typical slide film speed was something like ASA 64. The ambient lighting must have been significant since the person walking by isn't much of a blur. Love that full stack Apollo 12 image.

[ilbasso]

A few more from the same batch:

A view of the high bay, with what appears to be a boilerplate of the CSM and LM adapter. Next to it, the large ring structure is what they use to lift the first stage of the Saturn V.


Another view of the first stage of the Saturn V:


And a view looking up the stack, although you can't see very much:

[lyford]

WOW! Thank you for posting these....

[climber]

Yesterday night I started watching the Apollo 15 complete Nasa DVD's so I get a pretty good idea of what you're showing Ilbasso, particularly the ascent stage of the LM.
Thanks SO much.

[ilbasso]

Pretty impressive for him to be able to use available light for slides in those days. As I recall the typical slide film speed was something like ASA 64. The ambient lighting must have been significant since the person walking by isn't much of a blur. Love that full stack Apollo 12 image.

I think he was shooting high speed Ektachrome in those days. He liked to have it "pushed" to ASA 400. The color has faded a lot more than his Kodachrome slides from the 1950's. I don't know what he was shooting in the 1980's and 1990's, but the reds have completely faded out of his slides from those years.

[Airbag]

The color has faded a lot more than his Kodachrome slides from the 1950's. I don't know what he was shooting in the 1980's and 1990's, but the reds have completely faded out of his slides from those years.

With a little Gimp "White Balance" magic it is amazing how much of that yellowish cast can be removed; I took the liberty to try that on the first three of your Dad's wonderful pictures; results below.

Airbag

[ilbasso]

Wow, that's great! I hadn't thought about playing with these much, other than one brief "sh*ts and giggles" pass with an unsharp mask over the LM picture.

I think I'll start another thread with the rest of the pics from his tour, for historical purposes and reminiscences for those who may have been there. If nothing else, you can get some laughs at the cars parked outside the buildings.

Doug, can you please move these over to the Apollo 12 thread? Thanks!

-Done. Tesheiner. BTW, impressive pictures!

[ilbasso]

Pictures of the tour of KSC will be coming up tomorrow when I get around to uploading them...

But in the meantime, let's take a tour of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Rocket Garden on a sunny day in August 1969.


We see a couple of Atlas boosters...


and

[ilbasso]

Now, can you identify these?

[ilbasso]

and how about these?

[nprev]

....wow!!!

Okay, another reason I gotta, just gotta, no excuses, make a pilgrimage to the Cape at least once before I die. Thanks, IB!

[mchan]

Hound Dog, V1, Snark, Rascal (sez it right there), Matador, Navaho, Firebee.

When I was there in '76, I could see it from the tour bus, but that was it.

[ilbasso]

OK, so now we hop on the tour bus for Launch Complex 39:








and then over to the Vehicle Assembly Building: