The Space-Page

The Audio-Section:

• Vladimir Komarov on his Soyuz 1 - flight: komarov.zip (ZIPped Wave, 11KHz, 8Bit, 340KB)

  This is Komarov repeatedly transmitting a general greeting from aboard his craft ('Privet narodam nashej Rodiny, prokladyvayushchim put'k kommunizmu. Letchik-kosmonavt Komarov.').

Note: There's more to come. The remaining soundclips that I have here are going to be added to this site as Real-Audio versions as soon as I have the time to fiddle around with them. The above sample will be RealAudio-ed as well. Unfortunately I can't tell for sure when this is going to be the case, though.

The Photo-Section:

Photo taken from aboard the CSM Endeavor with the panoramic camera in the SIM-Bay at an altitude of 110km, as requested.

Though browsing extensively through NASA's servers I had no luck yet in localizing the original image, or other images from this series, not to speak of some relevant Image-IDs. If you want to go for the original negative yourself, you may want to check this out (which I haven't done yet):

• Apollo 15 Preliminary Science Report, NASA/SP-289, 1972
• Apollo 15 Lunar Photography, NSSDC 72-07
• Apollo 15 SIM-Bay Photographic Equipment and Mission Summary, NASA, MSC, 1971

According to postings in sci.space.history by Dwayne Allen Day, the image (or a similar version thereof) appeared in the February 1973 edition of 'Scientific American' in an article by Ted Greenwood, and according to Rick Sternbach such images were published in 'Aviation Week & Space Technology' as well.

Overview over the landing site in the Hadley Plains, with north to the right. The big crater immediately in the bottom left corner is Index, directly to the left and below the LM (i.e. SE of it) is Last, and right and above the LM (i.e. NW of it) is Quark. The shadow of the LM Falcon is the tiny black dot at the end of the white arrow. The black box resembles the next image, see the close-up below.

Image 2:
(586x548, 38k)

Close-up on the site, again with north to the right. Thanks go to Brian Lawrence for providing the scan.

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The "Optical Bar Panoramic Camera" (OBPC):

Manufacturer	ITEK
Objective	Petzval 3,5/600mm
Picture angle	10.6 x 108°
Picture field	22 x 340 km (at 110km)
Resolution	135 Lin/mm (1.5 m at 110km)
Film size	12.7 cm x 2160 m (f. 1650 imgs.)
Emulsion	(Dünnschicht-Film EK 3414)
Negativ size	11.4 x 122.5 cm
(Verschluss-Breite)	0.04 - 0.8 cm
Size	74 x 65 x 152 cm
Weight	168 kg

Thanks to Jay Sekora for helping me out with translations to most of the technical terms above!

The OBPC (diagram, 800x1248, 73k)

The film transport inside the OBPC (schematic diagram, 848x600, 45k)

Source:
"Fotografie im Weltraum 1 - Von der Erde zum Mond" by Wolfgang Engelhardt; published by vwi-Verlag Gerhard Knülle GmbH, Herrsching/Ammersee in 1980; ISBN 3-88369-011-2;

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More examples of photos from lunar orbit:

Image 3:
(1112x326, 90k)

Overview of the landing site of Surveyor 1, taken from Lunar Orbiter 3 at an altitude of 40km. Included are the nearest small craters in order to easily verify the position.

Image 4:
(274x238, 17k)

Close-up on the Surveyor 1 site. You can easily identify the lander by its long shadow.

Image 5:
(573x597, 119k)

This is the crash site of Ranger 8 at 2°N and 24.5°O (south-western Mare Tranqillitatis), the crater marked with 'C1' was created upon impact on February 20th, 1965. Lunar Orbiter 2 took this photo about 21 months later. The scale and north arrow are "original", i.e. they belong to this image but were copy'n'pasted closer to the relevant part of the photo. Judging from the scale, the inner crater -surrounded by lighter-colored ejecta- is about 4 meters in diameter.

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Miscellaneous Pictures:

A piggybacked Shuttle...:

To me it looks as if this picture shows OV-101 Enterprise (look at the old cars in the foreground - late 70ies, eh?), but it would be really neat to know precisely when and where this photo was taken...

Taking the tour: The orbiter-mockup 'Pathfinder' and the Saturn, becoming more or less rusty...

KSC & VAB
(946x702, 168k)
With thanks to Dr. Ulrich Walter

The Kennedy Space Center complex with the huge Vehicle Assembly Building in the foreground, from which the Crawlerway leads to the Pads 39A (immediate background, about 5km distance) and 39B (left background). Both pads seem to be empty at the time the photo was taken. The street crossing from left to right (actually north-south) in the immediate foreground is Kennedy Parkway North, adjacent to the NASA Railroad. Slightly right from the middle of the photo -just at the right end of the huge parking lot- is the Saturn V display, from this point of view optically below the Turn Basin.

The Software-Section:

The Apollo Mission Simulator (DOS, 177k)

A nice little piece of software. Over 10 years old and with only ASCII-based graphics this is still a fine simulation of an Apollo mission. Far from easy to master, but very complete and accurate, with extensive description.