@@andrasbiro3007 not walk home, but maybe walk a bit, with Vostok? Since with Vostok they had to eject from their capsule during the reentry process and land by parachute ...
Amy, when I heard that Wally is going up with Jeff Bezos I immediately thought of you. Please make a video with your thoughts on the flight and Wally's incredible history, with a touch of the Mercury 13 that you've researched so well. Thanks!
7:41 To put these numbers into another perspective, that's about the same size as US Navy Task Force 17 during the Battle of the Coral Sea in WWII. Swap out some of the destroyers for armored cruisers and you'd have nearly the same composition.
My uncle was an Engineering Officer on the USS Hornet during the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12. He knew I was very interested in the space program and shared his experience. Thank you for your content.
Lately I’ve been reliving my childhood binging on late 50’s & early 60’s TV shows, particularly Perry Mason. Amy’s videos give me the same sense of nostalgia, plus she dresses appropriate to the era. Cheers, Amy!
Enjoying this one as I drive through the night and I pulled over to drop you this note I’ve been meaning to send: Hello Amy love your work. I like both the space and mid-century history channels and I frequently listen to them as I’m doing long haul truck driving here in conus. I’ve started reading this book and it’s revealed several things to me that I naively didn’t presume as a starry eyed Southern California boy in the seventies, chiefly how closely intertwined and interdependent the manned space program and the icbm programs were! Even though I’m a Cold War kid I had never put the two together. Lots more content in here and it’s a free pdf download from good old nasa, keeper of the stars (satellites) overhead. Have you read this book? I know you seem to be moving towards the mid century history which I love, but if you ever consider to do a documentary book on the interdependence of the icbm and race to space programs I’d buy two copies! Watch out for those kittens with the microphones in their ears! You are appreciated. 42…
Part of what I did while serving in the Marine Corps was rescue downed Naval and Marine Aviators. We operated out of a CH53E Sea Stallion or the SE-3 Sea King helicopters. It’s dangerous for the pilots to be in the ocean because of everything from hypothermia to drowning. Most worked out well with no problems but occasionally something would complicate the process. We thankfully never lost anyone. At least I felt a lot of responsibility for getting them back onboard or land safely and back to normal operations. I knew some of the other crews weren’t as fortunate to be able to say that. It weighed heavily on them too. As a kid watching the Apollo program from age 4 to the early 70’s I can say it was part of the inspiration for my joining the Marine Corps and going into the Air Wing and fire/rescue field. I went into the Philadelphia Fire Department upon my discharge and after a couple years switched to the Police Department spending the next 36 years doing that. I’m so glad that I found this channel. You are able to hold my attention and keep everything interesting. I leave knowing that definitely learned something new. I appreciate the time and effort that you put into these videos 😊
So in the early 2000's I was on a US Navy cruiser tasked with recovery of space shuttle astronauts in case of emergency bail out. The launch kept getting scrubbed. So we kept going back and forth from from home port to the middle of the Atlantic. ~300 Sailors
Thanks for another great video. I especially enjoyed the Mercury capsule video where I could see the unadorned pressure vessel. I'd love more content/videos detailing early capsule construction. Also anything on John Aaron. Thanks again for the great videos.
The US Navy did the tasks, but many admirals eventually grew tired of doing it while dealing with numerous other Cold War issues and missions. The Soviet land recovery strategies and tactics seemed more in line with what real space flight should be.
Remember the earliest missions the safest spot to be was the target area, as guidance was less than perfect. Later on guidance got to the point that the spot chosen would be the spot the capsule landed.
Amy, extremely well done treatment of an aspect of early manned Spaceflight!! I appreciate your energy and depth of knowledge of that era of Spaceflight when I became a space nerd deluxe! Also, a genuine, ID carrying NASA Junior Astronaut in 1960! I’m 68, and blessed to have lived thru all programs, and worked for two major subcontractors during the ISS and Shuttle program development. As of this morning, I am now a member of a community who are now interplanetary citizens. What. A. Ride!!!!
Great video I am a volunteer at the USS Hornet museum primary recovery ship for Apollo 11 and 12. We have a capsule that was a ground impact test unit and we have the MQF for Apollo 14
There is a very good reason "we" pulled it off. NASA had the only unlimited federal budget program in U.S History with the Apollo program outside of the Manhattan Project. Their budget was literally unlimited until '69 so cost was not a variable, nor was the target date, as it was fixed, the only variable was the resources required ( a retired Ph.D. Aerospace/Computer Engineer who worked for a large American defense contractor's Missile Systems company).
Sure the B29 didn't have an unlimited budget also? It was the only thing in WW2 that had a higher pricetag than the Manhattan Project, it was the single most expensive project of the war.
Most of those 6,000+ ships you said the Navy had after World War II were not warships but auxiliaries and small craft and other noncombatant vessels. Out of all those, the Navy only had about 1,000 actual warships. Nice video, you always do a great job.👍
@@RCAvhstape I remember that, my dad worked at the shipyard where the four battleships were brought out of mothballs at during that 600 ship buildup and he made a lot of overtime in the process.
Always entertaining. I look forward to your videos. I often go back and rewatch your older videos. Keep it up. I'm Canadian and got your coles notes reference right away. Maybe you could do a video of the engineers that came to NASA after the cancelation of the Avro Arrow
I feel like the reused srb stacks are one of the less-covered aspects of sts, at least on RUclips. Takes comments like these to remind me it was a thing
I like how Apollo 13 had that sudden jump in available ships. It shows just how serious that incident was, that they didn’t know where it could come down.
I super enjoy your content... It is so in line with my human space-time fascination! I have been personally following that for decades. It is good to see some posts of yours pop up on my notices recently... I have missed your skilled professional pressentation of researched knowledge... & wow - love the pin-up núance
What has SpaceX done to make splashdowns and recoveries more efficient? Better navigation/guidance/electronics for the returning capsules? Better sensors, recovery ships, or techniques from surface operations, making it possible to forgo the need for a fleet?
@Bobb Grimley I realize that. I did actually watch the video, and am aware of the focus of this channel. But was curious since the other poster mentioned the recovery ships for SpaceX there. Just thought to ask in the case there was any information to be had on efficiencies today, in light of the resources laid out by Amy in her video. Frankly think such a comparison is a valid topic here, and not just some effort to promote one space launch company.
@Bobb Grimley Because they are doing splashdowns again. Maybe think of it this way, comparison of splashdowns today, vs what was done 60 to 46 years ago. Not sure why you are bothered by that. Its a legitimate question on a comparison, that makes space history relevant. Raising the topical in a historical discussion, that is relevant, is not exactly an over the top act.
@@michaeldunne338 the difference between SpaceX and the old Nasa missions is that now we completely understand what's happening. You can simulate a lot. And AFAIK the Dragon capsule is actively steering its way down, so that your landing position is extremely precise. Also SpaceX is using these boats not only for crew capsules but also for cargo capsules and fairing recovery. So they can use these ships for many different purposes. But also I guess that the Navy had been using that much ships because they had them. For the Navy it hadn't been additional costs if they had been on some dumb exercise or if they had been part in a spaceflight mission. So I guess that for Nasa it had been really easy just demanding several ships. And the Navy surely was happy to help out and practise some recovery stuff. It will be interesting to see what Nasa will use for the Artemis missions.
@Bobb Grimley Maybe because you didn't watch the entire video? Near the end Amy says in future tense: "With the return of splash downs we're going to see a return to water based support for space flight, so we'll have to wait and see if get the wild Mercury levels or the lower late Apollo numbers of ships on hand" .. I assume that she was referring to Orion here, but as a couple of Crew Dragon splash downs have already happened, which Amy should have mentioned for completeness, I think Joel's comment was very relevant and on topic here.
The 6000 ship figure seems wrong. I remember post WW2 slip strength being between 600-700 ships. The Reagan admin's 600 ship Navy was in fact supposed to be a return to this strength which is why older vessels such as the Iowas were reactivated.
All things considered, I'm actually astonished by the lower numbers of ships used for later missions. Assuming that all those ships are used to cover a wider area (I guess, I might research this actually), that implies that NASA's precision was just absurdly good towards the end. Zipping around in orbit, or even coming back from the Moon, and managing to hit such a tiny target on landing, relatively speaking...wow. Heck, Apollo 13's return was improvised with a half-dead spacecraft and they still only needed one more ship than Apollo 11, and three less then Apollo 8. ...Oh heck, now I'm very curious about how the recovery crews went about recovering the astronauts. How did they account for weather? Did they ever change landing area as a result? What contingencies did the US Navy and Soviet recovery crews plan and train for? How did they have such confidence in the navigation? Hm.
Fun Fact: During Scott Carpenter's (one and only) Mercury spaceflight, he expended too much fuel for his Reaction Control System, resulting in a wonky reentry, where Aurora 7 ended up splashing down hundreds of miles downrange from the target. When the recovery crew finally reached him, they found him relaxing on his life raft, munching on a chocolate bar and enjoying the view. He stated " I didn't know where I was, and Mission Control didn't either." Needless to say, NASA higher ups were not amused with the incident and Carpenters nonchalant *attitude* (get it lol) and had him blacklisted from all future spaceflight.
Coles is a book store in Canada - they sold the Coles Notes summary of novels. Heck, I thought Coles had gone under years ago...which tells you the last time I was in a bookstore.
Crazy! I looked up the details, this was with Vostok-1 on April 12, 1961: Gagarin later recalled, "When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don't be afraid, I am a Soviet citizen like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!" He landed at 51.270682°N, 45.99727°E - at least it's not in the middle of a lake like Soyuz 23.
@@desmond-hawkins Surely the farmers could just have looked at the giant statue and monument that is at that spot and verified that Gagarin was an official space dude?
@@rlaxton666 How impressive is it that he *nailed* the landing so hard that he touched down exactly at this spot? All in a capsule without an engine running or control surfaces to direct it, it had to be done purely on timing from orbit. A testament of the superiority of Communist Russia, no doubt.
The Navy had to be out there any way so the made it a training time while whating for splash down. Then SAR got to spring in to action and do what thay train for( saving life on the high sea). So good time for all.
It's 15. From a NASA-focused "Fandom" wiki: "The Gemini 9A mission was supported by 11,301 personnel, 92 aircraft and 15 ships from the U.S. Department of Defense."
You've been missed! Maybe you're off to write another great book? Also, perhaps, a suggestion to also explore 'inner space' in the future? Lotos of underwater deep blue thigs afoot these days. But on the whole I've enjoyed very much your vintage space videos and book!!! Thanks so much! Great job!
The sound is still distorted on your channel. It is a pre upload fault (ie source record or post/edit) - Otherwise love the content; fascinating as always
Good video, I always assumed a lot of people were involved but this is a bit beyond what I expected. I suspect the crew didn't get to just chill around though, the navy probably made some kind of training exercise out of it until they had to be on standby for recovering astronauts. Two small remarks about things I noticed that in no way really detract from the video, but they did stand out to me: 7:55 the "anti-sub destroyer", I'm not an expert at navy stuff either but I'd interpret that as a surface vessel like a destroyer with specialised equipment against submarines, since it's only one ship the number of crew involved will still be a decent ballpark estimate. 9:47 text on screen lists "Gemini 9: 5 ships" while you read out 15 ships, given the trend I suspect the number you read out was correct.
Hey Amy make your next book cover the X15 program please! I like the way you research every aspect of the development of a rocket and its background and development and the stories about the people that made it all happen. I believe it would be a great book. I know it has been done before, but I know you would find the often missed details that complete the story.
My father in law was on a recovery ship that did recover one of the capsules. I wish I could remember which one it was, I'll have to ask next time I speak to him.
I just watched seasons 1 and 2 of "For All Mankind" and can't wait for season 3. What do you think about that series? I like it a lot. Nice vid btw 😉👍🏻
Nice video, and great topic. I recall that one benefit cited for a space plane was that it wouldn't require an extensive recovery operation, and hence would yield savings on that front (along with savings from some form of reusability). Wonder what the economics of the X-37B look like given that line of thinking? Or, to echo your point how things are turning out for SpaceX with Falcon 9 launches, manned or unmanned? Have you considered a follow up video in the future, for comparing current manned splashdowns with those of the past on cost and resources? Or compare the US approach with the Soviet's/Russian's (and/or Starliner?)? Otherwise, good job on laying out the thinking on reentry, splashdown and recovery. One thing though, I thought Harvey Allen (or Harry Allen) was the one who discovered blunt body theory?
G'day, Two cliches for you to ponder, olde Bean... Firstly, assuming that you do have a Learning Curve...; "Young Women..., Are A Young Man's Game...!" And, then, for the old Codgers with flat Learning Curves...; "There's No Fool..., Like an Old Fool...!" (witness Rupert Murdoch...!). It's considered polite to keep one's sad old counterfactual fantasies to oneself. The young women who do shimmy-up to time-expired Old Men..., are either targeting his Bank Account & Assets - with a view to draining & inheriting them...; or they have "a thing" for old men, apparently because they started out with someone old enough to be their father, or grandfather..., & they have yet to recieve sufficient Therapy to get over it. The "Too Young For You !" Cutoff, is of course a movable Barrier...; to wit, Half Your Age Plus Seven Years.... That works for a 14 year-old looking for their first encounter ; and for you, at 70, then anybody under 42 will be, Socially Unacceptable -and you'll be considered a "Cradle-Snatcher" if you go there until your Bank Balance disappears.... Hence the Cliches. Such is life. Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao ! Just(ifiably sayin'.
Just an added observation…. Maybe…. These estimates might be somewhat low because…… these are all military vessel during the hottest part of both the Cold War and the vietnam war. Just because they were on a mission for nasa doesn’t mean they are not potential military tartlet, particularly the carriers and destroyers, which means that the navy is gonna have a lot of vessel close enough to provide combat mutual support EVEN if they are not officially part of the Capsule recovery mission which means THIER regular mission assignments have to be covered by other naval vessels. But we had a lot of surplus WW2 Naval Vessel. That’s something we don’t have anymore, especially with the carriers. Right now the navy has exactly zero reserve carriers in mothballs and two gator carriers in reserve one of those (Tarawa) slated to become a museum ship and the other (Peleliu) in reserve but under consideration for reactivation to pick up the slack for the fire destroyed B Richards and the delay in certification for the Ford class carriers. This is why the return of the American manned (excuse me crewed) Space program is gonna have to require civilian vessels for oceanic retrieval , something that is fortunately easier given advances in civilian nautical and naval aviation technology since the 60s
It is almost a more difficult problem, but you could make like a Concorde sort of thing that could fly along and then turn into a Harrier and rope it in and fly back more slowly. Hey maybe the shuttle didn't suck so bad it always turned up in one place and could fix Hubbles.
I wonder if back in the days office types at the Pentagon would croak looking at the costs but those on the ships were more than happy to participate in the recovery work. And probably gave Navy opportunity to brag about ocean operations unlike most of their missions had to be hush-hush per OPSEC.
Great video, especially re the initial design of re entry vehicles. They just worked out so much back in the fifties. Astonishing to see that after wasting four decades and billions of dollars on the shuttle, the US or Space X / Boeing have both reverted to the capsule for their respective space transport systems!
The changes in design for the shuttle were so many that the initial idea of a safe, plane-like craft was lost. Recall that the failures of the shuttles were due to one of two factors: failure of solid rocket booster or the orbiter being hit by debris from the external tank insulation that was above the orbiter. Initial designs had the orbiter stacked above the lifting vehicle and the lifting vehicle did not use solid rocket boosters. The changes were due entirely to budget concerns. The Space X and Boeing designs are to save money and, frankly, to have everyone feel better about the safety issue. Note that Virgin uses the spaceplane design, admittedly for a suborbital flight, while Musk’s Starship uses an interesting ‘in between’ design of a heat shield, ‘bellyflop’, and powered landing. Personally, I think that the spaceplane and Starship designs will win out in the long run due to the fact that water landings, while cheap, do have recovery issues and do not allow for the best landing security. I noticed that Space X landings had quite a few pleasure craft surrounding the landing area as the splashdown area was kept close to shore to reduce the complexity of the recovery ships (read ‘cost’, again) and to avoid the dangers of the open ocean. However, there may never be a time we will see a ‘standard’ re-entry vehicle design.
For SpaceX that's just a temporary solution, Starship will land next to the launch pad and won't require much support. And the Space Shuttle wasn't a complete failure either. It was far more capable than a capsule and it's problems were mostly due to the implementation, not the idea.
@@Gerard1971 It will, simply because it's going to be vastly cheaper. And not long after that it will be used to build a new space station. It would be stupid not to.
Capsules vs Aircraft. Capsules= 'Spam in a can' if you listened to Yeager et al but one look at a Mercury capsule in the Air and Space Museum made me think ol' Chuck was right.
According to his autobiography Deke Slayton recognized early on the high cost of splashdowns and the amount of personnel involved in ocean recoveries, he was in favor of a proposed para glider wing which would have allowed Gemini capsules to glide down to a runway landing, the concept was tested but rejected by the higher ups in favor of the ocean splashdowns.
One of the main reasons the US could devote so many carriers is they built an astronomical number during WWII. 24 Essex class along with 3 Midway carriers were completed during or eight after the war. Along with 4 Forrestals and the Enterprise before the space race got going. The US literally had more carriers than they know what to do with. So just stringing a few along catching astronauts didn’t impact their readiness for war in any way.
Not all the splashdowns went perfectly. In 1961, in the Liberty Bell 7, Grissom's hatch prematurely blew off, letting seawater in. He quickly swam out to avoid drowning and was rescued. That capsule was on the bottom of the ocean until 1999 when it was recovered. Gus was not as lucky in the Apollo 1 capsule, where he died in the a fire.
I'm sure you noticed a billionaire strap himself and team to a modern version of the X-15 and blast into space, but did you notice the little bit about the passengers signing in as 001, 002, 003, 004? Interesting. Of course naming the Mothership WhiteKnight2 is also interesting. After all the billionaire once named the 1st Virgin America Jetliner "Jefferson Airplane". I gather he is a Starship fan. Oh wait the other billionaire named his rocket 'Starship"....
I never realized so many vessels were out and about during a recovery of a space module. That is a lot of man power and vessels. That is interesting how that changed as Apollo went along.
Still have to love the Soviet method of land in the woods with equipment to fight off bears.
Thank you for the reminder 🤣
At least the cosmonauts weren't expected to just walk home.
@@andrasbiro3007 not walk home, but maybe walk a bit, with Vostok? Since with Vostok they had to eject from their capsule during the reentry process and land by parachute ...
"To fight off bears" we all know it was in case of space madness
That’d be some AWESOME memorabilia to possess; a Soviet Cosmonaut™️ bear fighting kit.
Amy, when I heard that Wally is going up with Jeff Bezos I immediately thought of you. Please make a video with your thoughts on the flight and Wally's incredible history, with a touch of the Mercury 13 that you've researched so well. Thanks!
Ooooh I love this idea!! Since Wally/Mercury 13 is involved, it technically is still Vintage enough for her channel!
I thought the same thing!
I second this motion.
@@JamesAustin ,
I third the motion!
Another vote for this!
7:41 To put these numbers into another perspective, that's about the same size as US Navy Task Force 17 during the Battle of the Coral Sea in WWII. Swap out some of the destroyers for armored cruisers and you'd have nearly the same composition.
My uncle was an Engineering Officer on the USS Hornet during the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12. He knew I was very interested in the space program and shared his experience. Thank you for your content.
It's the little back ground stories that complete the picture...... keep up the Great work Amy....
Lately I’ve been reliving my childhood binging on late 50’s & early 60’s TV shows, particularly Perry Mason. Amy’s videos give me the same sense of nostalgia, plus she dresses appropriate to the era. Cheers, Amy!
You're on the web and the web is on you.
Yes , amazing. 🕸️
Welcome to my parlour said the spider to the fly…
If only I was a spider...
You still managed to make that creepy.
@@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368 bro what are these comments? Like why are people so creepy
Enjoying this one as I drive through the night and I pulled over to drop you this note I’ve been meaning to send:
Hello Amy love your work. I like both the space and mid-century history channels and I frequently listen to them as I’m doing long haul truck driving here in conus. I’ve started reading this book and it’s revealed several things to me that I naively didn’t presume as a starry eyed Southern California boy in the seventies, chiefly how closely intertwined and interdependent the manned space program and the icbm programs were! Even though I’m a Cold War kid I had never put the two together. Lots more content in here and it’s a free pdf download from good old nasa, keeper of the stars (satellites) overhead. Have you read this book? I know you seem to be moving towards the mid century history which I love, but if you ever consider to do a documentary book on the interdependence of the icbm and race to space programs I’d buy two copies! Watch out for those kittens with the microphones in their ears! You are appreciated. 42…
This is the first time that I have seen one of your presentations..... Brilliant! Thank you for sharing......
Part of what I did while serving in the Marine Corps was rescue downed Naval and Marine Aviators. We operated out of a CH53E Sea Stallion or the SE-3 Sea King helicopters. It’s dangerous for the pilots to be in the ocean because of everything from hypothermia to drowning. Most worked out well with no problems but occasionally something would complicate the process. We thankfully never lost anyone. At least I felt a lot of responsibility for getting them back onboard or land safely and back to normal operations. I knew some of the other crews weren’t as fortunate to be able to say that. It weighed heavily on them too. As a kid watching the Apollo program from age 4 to the early 70’s I can say it was part of the inspiration for my joining the Marine Corps and going into the Air Wing and fire/rescue field. I went into the Philadelphia Fire Department upon my discharge and after a couple years switched to the Police Department spending the next 36 years doing that.
I’m so glad that I found this channel. You are able to hold my attention and keep everything interesting. I leave knowing that definitely learned something new. I appreciate the time and effort that you put into these videos 😊
So in the early 2000's I was on a US Navy cruiser tasked with recovery of space shuttle astronauts in case of emergency bail out. The launch kept getting scrubbed. So we kept going back and forth from from home port to the middle of the Atlantic. ~300 Sailors
Hello Amy, I watch for education but also for your unique amazing style. Nobody does it like you. :-)
Great presentation. I was alive during Mercury, Gemini and Apollo to see these splashdowns, although not always in real time.
Very interesting again. Thanks Amy!
Thank you very much Amy :) hope you and family are well!
Thanks for another great video. I especially enjoyed the Mercury capsule video where I could see the unadorned pressure vessel. I'd love more content/videos detailing early capsule construction. Also anything on John Aaron. Thanks again for the great videos.
As a retired US Navy officer, I'll say "our pleasure!"
And Thank You For Your Service!
God Bless the US NAVY ⚓️🇺🇸 my favorite branch.
The US Navy did the tasks, but many admirals eventually grew tired of doing it while dealing with numerous other Cold War issues and missions. The Soviet land recovery strategies and tactics seemed more in line with what real space flight should be.
I always look forward to these videos.
Remember the earliest missions the safest spot to be was the target area, as guidance was less than perfect. Later on guidance got to the point that the spot chosen would be the spot the capsule landed.
I remember seeing a documentary finding and lifting Liberty Bell out of the ocean...
Amy, extremely well done treatment of an aspect of early manned Spaceflight!! I appreciate your energy and depth of knowledge of that era of Spaceflight when I became a space nerd deluxe! Also, a genuine, ID carrying NASA Junior Astronaut in 1960! I’m 68, and blessed to have lived thru all programs, and worked for two major subcontractors during the ISS and Shuttle program development.
As of this morning, I am now a member of a community who are now interplanetary citizens. What. A. Ride!!!!
Coles Notes. :) I completely forgot you were Canadian. I knew some of this before, but a nice piece on what the recoveries needed to get the job done.
These are things most of us never really considered in-depth-all the facets of why and how the ocean was the choice-thank you!
Spacex uses 1 ship plus smaller support boats.
They also have coast guard support to keep other boats away from the area
Great video I am a volunteer at the USS Hornet museum primary recovery ship for Apollo 11 and 12. We have a capsule that was a ground impact test unit and we have the MQF for Apollo 14
There is a very good reason "we" pulled it off. NASA had the only unlimited federal budget program in U.S History with the Apollo program outside of the Manhattan Project. Their budget was literally unlimited until '69 so cost was not a variable, nor was the target date, as it was fixed, the only variable was the resources required ( a retired Ph.D. Aerospace/Computer Engineer who worked for a large American defense contractor's Missile Systems company).
Sure the B29 didn't have an unlimited budget also?
It was the only thing in WW2 that had a higher pricetag than the Manhattan Project, it was the single most expensive project of the war.
Most of those 6,000+ ships you said the Navy had after World War II were not warships but auxiliaries and small craft and other noncombatant vessels. Out of all those, the Navy only had about 1,000 actual warships.
Nice video, you always do a great job.👍
1000 is pretty high by today's standards, too. In the 80s there was the famous build-up to the "600 ship Navy", and it's not close to that now.
@@RCAvhstape I remember that, my dad worked at the shipyard where the four battleships were brought out of mothballs at during that 600 ship buildup and he made a lot of overtime in the process.
@@JohnFourtyTwo The Iowa class are great ships.
@@RCAvhstape Yes they are.👍
"only"
Always entertaining. I look forward to your videos. I often go back and rewatch your older videos. Keep it up. I'm Canadian and got your coles notes reference right away. Maybe you could do a video of the engineers that came to NASA after the cancelation of the Avro Arrow
STS still had ships to recover the SRBs, and the Falcon 9 usually has ships to recover landed boosters.
Good point.
I feel like the reused srb stacks are one of the less-covered aspects of sts, at least on RUclips. Takes comments like these to remind me it was a thing
Cute outfit! Your videos are extremely well produced. Thank you 😊
I like how Apollo 13 had that sudden jump in available ships. It shows just how serious that incident was, that they didn’t know where it could come down.
I super enjoy your content... It is so in line with my human space-time fascination! I have been personally following that for decades. It is good to see some posts of yours pop up on my notices recently... I have missed your skilled professional pressentation of researched knowledge...
& wow - love the pin-up núance
Excellent work! Thanks for your deep dives. Keep up the good work, Amy!
Thanks Amy another great video, missing Pete , I hope he’s doing ok.
Spacex has GO Searcher and GO Navigator. For their recoveries. But on different sides of Florida.
What has SpaceX done to make splashdowns and recoveries more efficient? Better navigation/guidance/electronics for the returning capsules? Better sensors, recovery ships, or techniques from surface operations, making it possible to forgo the need for a fleet?
@Bobb Grimley I realize that. I did actually watch the video, and am aware of the focus of this channel. But was curious since the other poster mentioned the recovery ships for SpaceX there. Just thought to ask in the case there was any information to be had on efficiencies today, in light of the resources laid out by Amy in her video. Frankly think such a comparison is a valid topic here, and not just some effort to promote one space launch company.
@Bobb Grimley Because they are doing splashdowns again. Maybe think of it this way, comparison of splashdowns today, vs what was done 60 to 46 years ago. Not sure why you are bothered by that. Its a legitimate question on a comparison, that makes space history relevant. Raising the topical in a historical discussion, that is relevant, is not exactly an over the top act.
@@michaeldunne338 the difference between SpaceX and the old Nasa missions is that now we completely understand what's happening. You can simulate a lot. And AFAIK the Dragon capsule is actively steering its way down, so that your landing position is extremely precise. Also SpaceX is using these boats not only for crew capsules but also for cargo capsules and fairing recovery. So they can use these ships for many different purposes.
But also I guess that the Navy had been using that much ships because they had them. For the Navy it hadn't been additional costs if they had been on some dumb exercise or if they had been part in a spaceflight mission. So I guess that for Nasa it had been really easy just demanding several ships. And the Navy surely was happy to help out and practise some recovery stuff.
It will be interesting to see what Nasa will use for the Artemis missions.
@Bobb Grimley Maybe because you didn't watch the entire video? Near the end Amy says in future tense: "With the return of splash downs we're going to see a return to water based support for space flight, so we'll have to wait and see if get the wild Mercury levels or the lower late Apollo numbers of ships on hand" .. I assume that she was referring to Orion here, but as a couple of Crew Dragon splash downs have already happened, which Amy should have mentioned for completeness, I think Joel's comment was very relevant and on topic here.
Your videos are always so great. Thank you for the great amount of research and detail into each.
Heck, they kept the Navy in practice for sea search and rescues. By the way Amy, your rockin' that dress beautifully today😎👍
She presented a informative answer to the complexity of space travel. Very Well done and Thank You.
quite the tangled web you weave sometimes Amy - ty for the new vid - 🛸👽
The 6000 ship figure seems wrong. I remember post WW2 slip strength being between 600-700 ships. The Reagan admin's 600 ship Navy was in fact supposed to be a return to this strength which is why older vessels such as the Iowas were reactivated.
The bulk wasn't warships.
In another post someone explained that and listed the different types of non warships involved and how many of each.
Gotta love this lady's sense of style 👌
Keep up the good work Amy
An Amy video day is always a good day!
Amy, wow! that DRESS‼️
Wow Amy! That was really interesting! I never thought of this component of spaceflight! Thanks for the effort!
All things considered, I'm actually astonished by the lower numbers of ships used for later missions. Assuming that all those ships are used to cover a wider area (I guess, I might research this actually), that implies that NASA's precision was just absurdly good towards the end. Zipping around in orbit, or even coming back from the Moon, and managing to hit such a tiny target on landing, relatively speaking...wow. Heck, Apollo 13's return was improvised with a half-dead spacecraft and they still only needed one more ship than Apollo 11, and three less then Apollo 8.
...Oh heck, now I'm very curious about how the recovery crews went about recovering the astronauts. How did they account for weather? Did they ever change landing area as a result? What contingencies did the US Navy and Soviet recovery crews plan and train for? How did they have such confidence in the navigation? Hm.
Thanks Amy.
Fun Fact: During Scott Carpenter's (one and only) Mercury spaceflight, he expended too much fuel for his Reaction Control System, resulting in a wonky reentry, where Aurora 7 ended up splashing down hundreds of miles downrange from the target. When the recovery crew finally reached him, they found him relaxing on his life raft, munching on a chocolate bar and enjoying the view. He stated " I didn't know where I was, and Mission Control didn't either." Needless to say, NASA higher ups were not amused with the incident and Carpenters nonchalant *attitude* (get it lol) and had him blacklisted from all future spaceflight.
Scott Carpenter: Cool under pressure. Humming Ricky Nelson tunes. Waiting for the USN.
NASA: "You're fired."
First time I head of Coles Notes was on Stargate SG-1 or Atlantis when Rodney made the comparison but I thought he said Cold Nose.😁
Coles is a book store in Canada - they sold the Coles Notes summary of novels.
Heck, I thought Coles had gone under years ago...which tells you the last time I was in a bookstore.
One of my college calculus instructors was a PJ who trained for NASA recovery missions.
More awesome content, as always! Thank you Amy!
We need more Amy in our lives!!! 😁
Yuri Gagarin had to call someone after he landed to get recovered
Please insert 6 Rubles for the next three minutes.
and he had to talk fast to prevent a rural farmer from shooting him as alien invader or western spy ;)
Crazy! I looked up the details, this was with Vostok-1 on April 12, 1961: Gagarin later recalled, "When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don't be afraid, I am a Soviet citizen like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!"
He landed at 51.270682°N, 45.99727°E - at least it's not in the middle of a lake like Soyuz 23.
@@desmond-hawkins Surely the farmers could just have looked at the giant statue and monument that is at that spot and verified that Gagarin was an official space dude?
@@rlaxton666 How impressive is it that he *nailed* the landing so hard that he touched down exactly at this spot? All in a capsule without an engine running or control surfaces to direct it, it had to be done purely on timing from orbit. A testament of the superiority of Communist Russia, no doubt.
The Navy had to be out there any way so the made it a training time while whating for splash down. Then SAR got to spring in to action and do what thay train for( saving life on the high sea). So good time for all.
Great job!
FYI: At time index 9:48 You said 15 ships for Gemini 9 but slide said 5/
FWIW: I noticed that as well.
Came for this
It's 15. From a NASA-focused "Fandom" wiki: "The Gemini 9A mission was supported by 11,301 personnel, 92 aircraft and 15 ships from the U.S. Department of Defense."
yep, who cares.
Thr Oiler is not really a recovery ship but again another level of support, keeping the carriers and destroyers fueled up.
You've been missed! Maybe you're off to write another great book? Also, perhaps, a suggestion to also explore 'inner space' in the future? Lotos of underwater deep blue thigs afoot these days. But on the whole I've enjoyed very much your vintage space videos and book!!! Thanks so much! Great job!
Love all your videos Amy, keep it up!
The sound is still distorted on your channel. It is a pre upload fault (ie source record or post/edit) - Otherwise love the content; fascinating as always
"Some kind of parasail or maneuverable parachute".... wink😉
Yeah. I was waiting to see if she would show the tattoo at that moment. She’s gotten almost, but not quite, too classy.
I really enjoyed this, thank you so much......cheers from central Florida, Paul
Absolutely fascinating as always. Great video and keep em coming! :-)
Good video, I always assumed a lot of people were involved but this is a bit beyond what I expected. I suspect the crew didn't get to just chill around though, the navy probably made some kind of training exercise out of it until they had to be on standby for recovering astronauts.
Two small remarks about things I noticed that in no way really detract from the video, but they did stand out to me:
7:55 the "anti-sub destroyer", I'm not an expert at navy stuff either but I'd interpret that as a surface vessel like a destroyer with specialised equipment against submarines, since it's only one ship the number of crew involved will still be a decent ballpark estimate.
9:47 text on screen lists "Gemini 9: 5 ships" while you read out 15 ships, given the trend I suspect the number you read out was correct.
Loved the video! It’s not Spotnik or Spatnik, it’s Sputnik. They put a beeping sphere into Space.
Hey Amy make your next book cover the X15 program please! I like the way you research every aspect of the development of a rocket and its background and development and the stories about the people that made it all happen. I believe it would be a great book. I know it has been done before, but I know you would find the often missed details that complete the story.
Great Video. Thanks for sharing!
Good to see all this back again.
Love the dress Amy.😎💜 Great episode!
I'm still waiting for "NASA needs men to recover its thousands of astronauts".
That's the dream. We're decades away from that sort of scale at best, but that's the dream.
Thank you for your videos. It is great to learn so much.
Great historical content and detailed research in this video to contrast the Branson and Bezos achievements coming soon. And what a great dress!
My father in law was on a recovery ship that did recover one of the capsules. I wish I could remember which one it was, I'll have to ask next time I speak to him.
on the face of it, its not my cup of tea" but lots of facts i didnt know, so thanks, excellent" cheers.
I just watched seasons 1 and 2 of "For All Mankind" and can't wait for season 3. What do you think about that series? I like it a lot. Nice vid btw 😉👍🏻
Great subject in a great series -🌟
I hope you can do a piece on the ability of the Apollo capsules to *steer* due to the shape of the heat shield and rolling maneuvers (I think).
Nice video, and great topic. I recall that one benefit cited for a space plane was that it wouldn't require an extensive recovery operation, and hence would yield savings on that front (along with savings from some form of reusability). Wonder what the economics of the X-37B look like given that line of thinking? Or, to echo your point how things are turning out for SpaceX with Falcon 9 launches, manned or unmanned?
Have you considered a follow up video in the future, for comparing current manned splashdowns with those of the past on cost and resources? Or compare the US approach with the Soviet's/Russian's (and/or Starliner?)?
Otherwise, good job on laying out the thinking on reentry, splashdown and recovery. One thing though, I thought Harvey Allen (or Harry Allen) was the one who discovered blunt body theory?
Very informative and interesting. No love for the USAF (ARIA and ARRS and WRS) and land based USN aircraft also deployed? Thank you.
I am so completely in love with Amy. Would watch her every day. Problem though, I am 70 years old.
I concur & I'm only 62. 👀
60 here...😊
I feel your pain brother. She's a gal after my own space nerdy heart.
G'day,
Two cliches for you to ponder, olde Bean...
Firstly, assuming that you do have a Learning Curve...;
"Young Women...,
Are
A Young Man's Game...!"
And, then, for the old Codgers with flat Learning Curves...;
"There's
No Fool...,
Like an
Old Fool...!"
(witness Rupert Murdoch...!).
It's considered polite to keep one's sad old counterfactual fantasies to oneself.
The young women who do shimmy-up to time-expired Old Men..., are either targeting his Bank Account & Assets - with a view to draining & inheriting them...; or they have "a thing" for old men, apparently because they started out with someone old enough to be their father, or grandfather..., & they have yet to recieve sufficient Therapy to get over it.
The
"Too Young For You !"
Cutoff, is of course a movable Barrier...; to wit,
Half Your Age Plus Seven Years....
That works for a 14 year-old looking for their first encounter ; and for you, at 70, then anybody under 42 will be, Socially Unacceptable -and you'll be considered a "Cradle-Snatcher" if you go there until your Bank Balance disappears....
Hence the Cliches.
Such is life.
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
Just(ifiably sayin'.
А мне 40, и все путём!
Would love to hear one of these in French (well Québécois French :-))
Just an added observation…. Maybe….
These estimates might be somewhat low because…… these are all military vessel during the hottest part of both the Cold War and the vietnam war. Just because they were on a mission for nasa doesn’t mean they are not potential military tartlet, particularly the carriers and destroyers, which means that the navy is gonna have a lot of vessel close enough to provide combat mutual support EVEN if they are not officially part of the Capsule recovery mission which means THIER regular mission assignments have to be covered by other naval vessels.
But we had a lot of surplus WW2 Naval Vessel. That’s something we don’t have anymore, especially with the carriers. Right now the navy has exactly zero reserve carriers in mothballs and two gator carriers in reserve one of those (Tarawa) slated to become a museum ship and the other (Peleliu) in reserve but under consideration for reactivation to pick up the slack for the fire destroyed B Richards and the delay in certification for the Ford class carriers. This is why the return of the American manned (excuse me crewed) Space program is gonna have to require civilian vessels for oceanic retrieval , something that is fortunately easier given advances in civilian nautical and naval aviation technology since the 60s
It is almost a more difficult problem, but you could make like a Concorde sort of thing that could fly along and then turn into a Harrier and rope it in and fly back more slowly. Hey maybe the shuttle didn't suck so bad it always turned up in one place and could fix Hubbles.
I wonder if back in the days office types at the Pentagon would croak looking at the costs but those on the ships were more than happy to participate in the recovery work. And probably gave Navy opportunity to brag about ocean operations unlike most of their missions had to be hush-hush per OPSEC.
Great video, especially re the initial design of re entry vehicles. They just worked out so much back in the fifties. Astonishing to see that after wasting four decades and billions of dollars on the shuttle, the US or Space X / Boeing have both reverted to the capsule for their respective space transport systems!
The changes in design for the shuttle were so many that the initial idea of a safe, plane-like craft was lost. Recall that the failures of the shuttles were due to one of two factors: failure of solid rocket booster or the orbiter being hit by debris from the external tank insulation that was above the orbiter. Initial designs had the orbiter stacked above the lifting vehicle and the lifting vehicle did not use solid rocket boosters. The changes were due entirely to budget concerns. The Space X and Boeing designs are to save money and, frankly, to have everyone feel better about the safety issue. Note that Virgin uses the spaceplane design, admittedly for a suborbital flight, while Musk’s Starship uses an interesting ‘in between’ design of a heat shield, ‘bellyflop’, and powered landing. Personally, I think that the spaceplane and Starship designs will win out in the long run due to the fact that water landings, while cheap, do have recovery issues and do not allow for the best landing security. I noticed that Space X landings had quite a few pleasure craft surrounding the landing area as the splashdown area was kept close to shore to reduce the complexity of the recovery ships (read ‘cost’, again) and to avoid the dangers of the open ocean. However, there may never be a time we will see a ‘standard’ re-entry vehicle design.
For SpaceX that's just a temporary solution, Starship will land next to the launch pad and won't require much support.
And the Space Shuttle wasn't a complete failure either. It was far more capable than a capsule and it's problems were mostly due to the implementation, not the idea.
@@andrasbiro3007 Starship is not going to replace Crew Dragon for flights to/from the ISS.
@@Gerard1971
It will, simply because it's going to be vastly cheaper.
And not long after that it will be used to build a new space station. It would be stupid not to.
Thank you for the content😎🙏🌎🚀
I'd be interested to learn about the headaches organizing A13's recovery from the USN side of things...
Amy, you are the bomb... Not just saying.
That's funny, every time you mention Coles Notes you translate it into American. I giggle every time.
the spider webs are back!!!! representative of the great story telling you weave
Capsules vs Aircraft. Capsules= 'Spam in a can' if you listened to Yeager et al but one look at a Mercury capsule in the Air and Space Museum made me think ol' Chuck was right.
The logistic sorting is always the most difficult.
According to his autobiography Deke Slayton recognized early on the high cost of splashdowns and the amount of personnel involved in ocean recoveries, he was in favor of a proposed para glider wing which would have allowed Gemini capsules to glide down to a runway landing, the concept was tested but rejected by the higher ups in favor of the ocean splashdowns.
It's a really cool design. I heard that there is even this one space geek who had it tattoo'd to their arm! Imagine that!
Of course. I remember a cover of "Popular Science" magazine showing a Gemini capsule gliding to a landing on skids under the Rogallo wing.
@@christophermarsh6983 space geeks rule! Congrats to who ever had that tattooed on their arm!
Thank You very interesting 🧔
One of the main reasons the US could devote so many carriers is they built an astronomical number during WWII. 24 Essex class along with 3 Midway carriers were completed during or eight after the war. Along with 4 Forrestals and the Enterprise before the space race got going. The US literally had more carriers than they know what to do with. So just stringing a few along catching astronauts didn’t impact their readiness for war in any way.
Not all the splashdowns went perfectly. In 1961, in the Liberty Bell 7, Grissom's hatch prematurely blew off, letting seawater in. He quickly swam out to avoid drowning and was rescued. That capsule was on the bottom of the ocean until 1999 when it was recovered. Gus was not as lucky in the Apollo 1 capsule, where he died in the a fire.
Thanks for another great video!
In future splashdowns, a Nimitz Class Carrier will have upwards of 6,000 crew…. About 2,000 ships crew, and 4,000 air wing.
Engineers doing calculations with a slide rule, amazing.
MOCR HAS gotten lazy; now they can do the calculations on one of their 2 monitors in front of them. Slide rules force you to actually THINK 🤔.
I'm sure you noticed a billionaire strap himself and team to a modern version of the X-15 and blast into space, but did you notice the little bit about the passengers signing in as 001, 002, 003, 004? Interesting. Of course naming the Mothership WhiteKnight2 is also interesting. After all the billionaire once named the 1st Virgin America Jetliner "Jefferson Airplane". I gather he is a Starship fan. Oh wait the other billionaire named his rocket 'Starship"....
I never realized so many vessels were out and about during a recovery of a space module. That is a lot of man power and vessels. That is interesting how that changed as Apollo went along.