This Lunar Module is on display at the Saturn V center at Kennedy Space Center, hanging obove the tables outside a small cafeteria. This is LM-9, a flight Lunar Module originally designated for the H-mission Apollo 15 was to have flown before the original Apollo 15 flight was canceled and changed to a J-mission with a lunar rover and LM-10, an improved lunar module that allowed heavier payloads to land and longer duration stays on the surface. Just imagine standing on the Moon watching a LM come in for landing from about this angle. You'd see two helmeted heads in the windows, with the commander in the right window as you look at the LM who at this point would be busy trying to set the LM down in his chosen landing site, having some trouble seeing through the dust being blown away by the descent engine visible at the bottom, firing at about 3,000 pounds of thrust to just balance the lunar weight of the LM whose descent tanks would be nearly empty now. This image was taken with the kit lens at 18mm focal length on my 20D with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 800.
BTW, today is the 1st anniversary of my first entry in this photoblog. Hard to believe it's been a year already.
3 comments:
Happy anniversary, Jim! And, thanks for the great shots from KSC. I haven't been there since I was a kid, and we were only there very briefly so I didn't get to see much.
~Dan
Hey Dan,
Thanks! I hadn't been to KSC in about 24 years, so lots have changed. I had a great time over 2 days and highly recommend a visit - especially if you can time it to catch a launch (which I still have not!). I gotta get back sometime soon to see a shuttle launch before we're through launching shuttles!
Jim.
Yeah, that's about when I was there last... if memory serves it was December of 1983, so I bet there are all sorts of new additions. I'd love to go back and spend a day or two there, particularly for a launch. Hopefully I'll bring that to fruition in the next year or two.
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