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Apollo IX
God's Speed Apollo
IX
as it leaves Jackson
for its
new home in San Diego - we wish you
a safe voyage.
The Jackson Model Rocketry Club was
founded by Scott Miller and Roger Sadowsky, Rocket Camp
Instructors at the Michigan Space and Science Center (MSSC) in
Jackson, Michigan for many years. The Center was a
department of Jackson Community College (JCC) and housed numerous
National Treasures from the early days of the space race for
almost 3 decades. On December 19, 2003, JCC closed the doors
of the museum and transferred most of the artifacts to the Airzoo
(Kalamazoo Aviation Museum) along with the name "MSSC". The
Apollo IX command module was transferred to the San Diego
Aerospace Museum where it will be welcomed with open arms.
They are planning a gala event on July 20, 2004 (the 35th
anniversary of the landing on the moon) to celebrate its arrival.
These artifacts are generously on loan to museums around the
country from the NASM (National Air & Space Museum), one of the
Smithsonian's museums. The following photographs are a
journal of the preparations on May 17th & 18th, 2004, by
Scott and Roger along with San Diego Aerospace Museum employees:
Tom Rollin, Ken Gust and John Bolthouse for a safe passage to its
new home. We wish the museum all the best as we pass the
torch of history.
click here to see photos of the closing of
the MSSC
click here for the San Diego Aerospace
Museum's official website
Apollo IX was the first space test of the third critical piece of
Apollo hardware -- the lunar module. For ten days, the astronauts
put all three Apollo vehicles through their paces in Earth orbit,
undocking and then redocking the lunar lander with the command
module, just as they would in lunar orbit.
click here for more photos of Apollo IX
click here for more information on the
mission
The crew
included Jackson's Colonel James Alton McDivitt (USAF), commander;
Colonel David Randolph Scott (USAF), command module pilot; and
Russell Louis “Rusty” Schweickart, lunar module pilot.
click here for more information on the crew
Click on a picture to open a larger image in a new window
Page 2
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