http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2002_3606554
LUNAR LEGACY APOLLO 17 1972/2002 / THREE DECADES AGO, WITH THE FLIGHT OF APOLLO 17, EARTHLINGS KICKED UP MOON DUST FOR THE LAST TIME. / The final landing
MARK CARREAU Staff
FRI 12/06/2002
Houston Chronicle
The ultimate strangers in a strange land, travel-weary astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt huddled in their tiny Apollo 17 lunar lander, ate military-issue omelets, harmonized "good morning to you" and stumbled through a silly parody of The Night Before Christmas.
The date was Dec. 14, 1972, the day America retreated from the moon.
Apollo 17, launched 30 years ago Saturday, represents the closing chapter in an awe-inspiring series of a half-dozen, 240,000-mile expeditions that unfolded over a dizzying 42 months. The Apollo program delivered a dozen American astronauts to the moon's rugged terrain for an unprecedented, firsthand look at another world.
Cernan and Schmitt had spent 75 hours on the lunar surface in a boulder-strewn, mountain valley known as Taurus-Littrow. While there, they took three grueling moon walks totaling 22 hours and covered 20 miles in a battery-powered lunar rover, collecting samples of the craters, rocks and mountain slopes.
Giddy with exhaustion, they were ready to come home.
As their final day on the moon wore on, light-hearted banter with Mission Control in Houston became serious as Cernan, the commander, and Schmitt, the pilot, turned their attention to the checklist they had to complete before the fragile spacecraft could leave for Earth.
Finally, at 4:56 p.m. CST, Cernan turned to Schmitt for a final exchange, "OK, Jack, let's get this mother outta here."
Schmitt jabbed a control panel button that sparked the spacecraft's ascent rocket in response and announced, "Ignition."
With those last words, the boxy lunar lander leaped away in a cloud of dust and gravel. Cernan, the last human to walk on the moon, and Schmitt, the only trained scientist ever to make the voyage, were headed back to Earth with 243 pounds of moon rocks.
>>>>>JOURNAL ARCHIVE: Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 14:24:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Kerry Burgess"
Subject: Re: Sleep journal 4/6/06
To: "Kerry Burgess"
Kerry Burgess wrote:
Details about my recent sleep are very fuzzy today. Can't remember for sure when I woke up. 3 am maybe. Or maybe shortly after midnight, can't really remember as I usually can. Remember dreaming something about driving my Jeep. Then I returned to it where it was parked in a parking lot after I was traveling through some passageways, hallways in a transit facility maybe. The only part I remember clearly is where a woman, I assume was my imaginary girlfriend asked me out for drinks or something. I told her we needed to keep it really casual though because all I had to wear was sweatpants. Kind of the downside to dating a homeless person I reflect now as I write this. She told me she would wear something with holes in it. I hope that was her in my dream, although the woman in the dream seemed to be someone unfamilar though. But I have noticed that happening with other people I know. They are represented, somehow, by a different person, but I think of them as someone specific. I feel like that is part of the manipulation. I have noticed something similar in real dreams, but I don't think it is the same here. I think they are disquising themselves in my dream for some reason
<<<<<
>>>>>JOURNAL ARCHIVE: Re: Sleep journal 5/4/06
After my short nap yesterday late evening, when back to sleep after midnight and slept pretty soundly until after 7. Had a dream that seemed to occur just before I woke up. I was inside some kind of missile. Seems like it was an SM2-ER on the Wainwright's launcher and it was going to send me into orbit or outer space maybe. When I woke up, I heard lyrics from that song:
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
<<<<<
From 5/12/1965 ( I am active duty U.S. Navy aviator and U.S. Astronaut ) to 12/11/1972 ( I was Apollo 17 Challenger astronaut landing on Earth's moon ) is: 2770 days
2770 = 1385 + 1385
From 7/16/1963 ( my wife ) to 5/1/1967 ( my first flight by myself as jet pilot and as active duty U.S. Naval Aviator and U.S. Astronaut ) is: 1385 days
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_17
Apollo 17
Call sign:
Command module: America
Lunar module: Challenger
Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program. It was the first night launch and the sixth and final lunar landing mission of the Apollo program.
Eugene Cernan is, to date, the last man to have walked on the Moon. Just before he returned to the Lunar Module for the last time, he said,
"As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come — but we believe not too long into the future — I'd like to just [say] what I believe history will record — that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."
His last words before liftoff were the more prosaic "Let's get this mother out of here".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29
Project Orion (nuclear propulsion)
Project Orion was the first engineering design study of a spacecraft powered by nuclear pulse propulsion
Reaction mass for Orion would have been built into the bombs or dropped between 'pulses' to provide thrust.
The smallest 4000 ton model planned for ground launch from Jackass Flats, Nevada had each blast add 30 mph (50 km/h) to the craft's velocity. A graphite based oil was to be sprayed on the pusher plate before each explosion to prevent ablation of the pusher plate. This sequence would be repeated thousands of times, like an atomic pogo stick.
Orion's potential performance was stunning, at least compared to today's chemical or even other nuclear designs. Jerry Pournelle, who is acquainted with the project and its ex-team leader Freeman Dyson, has been quoted as saying that a single mission could have provided us with a large permanent moon base.[citation needed] Alternatively an Orion could reach Pluto and return to Earth inside of a year. Single stage to Mars and back also seemed to be possible.[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_art
Nose art
Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of a military aircraft, usually located near the nose, and is a form of aircraft graffiti.
While begun for practical reasons of identifying friendly units, the practice evolved to express the individuality often constrained by the uniformity of the military, to evoke memories of home and peacetime life, and as a kind of psychological protection against the stresses of war and the probability of death.
From 11/2/1975 ( I launched from Earth by myself to intercept Comet Lucifer in the outer solar system ) to 8/9/1996 ( premiere UK film "Independence Day" ) is: 7586 days
7586 = 3793 + 3793
From 3/3/1959 ( my birth date US ) to 7/21/1969 ( I was Apollo 11 Eagle astronaut walking on Earth's moon ) is: 3793 days
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/releaseinfo
Release dates for
Independence Day (1996)
UK 9 August 1996
