Apollo 15 and the "Fallen Astronaut"

[syscom3]

You learn something new every day.

Fallen Astronaut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fallen Astronaut is an 8.5 cm (slightly over 3") aluminum sculpture of an astronaut in a spacesuit, which commemorates astronauts and cosmonauts who have died in the advancement of space exploration. It is at Hadley Rille on the Moon, placed there by the crew of Apollo 15 on August 1, 1971.

On August 1, 1971,[1] Fallen Astronaut was placed on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 15, along with a plaque bearing the names of eight American astronauts and six Soviet cosmonauts who had died:

Theodore Freeman (October 31, 1964, aircraft accident)
Charles Bassett (February 28, 1966, aircraft accident)
Elliott See (February 28, 1966, aircraft accident)
Gus Grissom (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)
Roger Chaffee (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)
Edward White (January 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire)
Vladimir Komarov (April 24, 1967, Soyuz 1 re-entry parachute failure)
Edward Givens (June 6, 1967 automobile accident)
Clifton Williams (October 5, 1967, aircraft accident)
Yuri Gagarin (March 27, 1968, aircraft accident)
Pavel Belyayev (January 10, 1970, disease)
Georgi Dobrovolski (June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure)
Viktor Patsayev (June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure)
Vladislav Volkov (June 30, 1971, Soyuz 11 re-entry pressurization failure)

Scott, Commander of the Apollo 15 mission, noted that "Sadly, two names are missing (from the plaque), those of Valentin Bondarenko and Grigori Nelyubov." He explained that because of the secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program at the time, they were unaware of their deaths.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I've never heard of this myself, cool find!

 

[Capt. Vick]

Very interesting...thanks for posting!

 

[J dog]

cool never knew that well you learn something new every day!

 

[Gnomey]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

I had never herd of this plaque either. Nice find.


Wheels

 

[oldcrowcv63]

Since the plaque was left on the Moon, I believe the number of the fallen has roughly doubled, mainly due to the loss of the 14 souls aboard Challenger and Columbia.

 

[RabidAlien]

Guess we'll have to send another mission to the moon, then.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Very cool. I was not aware of this.

I wonder if we will ever go back to the moon, or do something of a similar nature to Mars or somewhere else in my lifetime.

 

[oldcrowcv63]

I thought we'd have a human outpost on Mars by now. NASA is an extremely conservative institution as are many engineers who tend to be acutely aware of the technical problems in a new venture with new or undeveloped technology. Engineers tend to see the multitude of opportunities for a lose-lose outcome. From the histories I've read, NASA engineers didn't want to send human's into orbit 60 years ago but Soviet Russia forced the hand of the new US president. Contrary to popular opinion about the USA accepting the pioneering work of the Wright Brothers, Europe quickly became the leaders in flight technology once they saw the Wrights demonstrate what they had learned. The US was slow to accept flight as a revolutionary development. If the Chinese decide its time to go to the Moon, maybe the USA will renew its efforts. That's why I celebrate each foreign spaceflight development. The US is best when its shamed into a stepping up.

 

[RabidAlien]

Can't argue that. We do tend to coast when we hit the peak. We need a challenger to step up our game....maybe its a national arrogance, but we Americans like to think we're the best (as, I'm sure, every nation does).

 

[Matt308]

Chinese have already announced they are going to the moon.

Great post Sys. Never knew about the plaque.