You know on the Apollo missions to the moon we/they had very serious and risky moments in most missions,some close to death moments such as Apollo 13, an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks crippled the spacecraft during flight and the crew were forced to orbit the Moon and return to the Earth without landing. This was the first aborted Apollo mission.

But you know, to counter those harsh moments, we/they had very funny moments which for a while made us forget about the risks and just have a laugh. Here is one of these moments:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=62jvcmjr0GE#EPfSvvuDCxk

The description of the video explains it very well:


Jack-Oh daggummit.

Bob Parker-Hey, Gene, would you go over and help Twinkletoes, please?


Clumsy astronauts.



Edit: My apologies on the title of the thread, wrote Moon without the M capital letter, looks like I'm having clumsy moments whith my keyboard.

haha:D Looks like it's one hell of a struggle just to move around with those suits. Thanks alex

Alex...


You know in my mind, it was always a toss up between Charlie Duke and Jack for the "twinkletoes" award! Both missions had a bunch of moments like the one you illustrated. I'm thinking Charlie was probably the award winner with Jack as the runner-up.

One way or another, they both provided some moments of almost tear inducing laughter...and I recall Apollo 16 being comical in other ways as well. Some of the dialogue that was happening was really funny.

These guys are all human beings, of course, and they all have different personalities, and they were all reflected in their behavior on the Moon. You saw dignity in someone like Neil Armstrong, and then the contrast of Pete Conrad and his Whoop-Dee-Doo's and jokes on Apollo 12, and the awe in Dave Scott's voice on Apollo 15 at certain times--to the almost child-like wonder of a guy like Charlie Duke, the the emotionalism of Gene Cernan on Apollo 17.

It made for some really good TV!


These falling-all-over-yourself scenes, of which there are quite a few are actually classic illustrations of the relationship between mass and weight in 1/6g, and how difficult that could be to manage when you got your center of mass off-center!

Look upon the moderator in awe for his powers are many and fearsome!

Or, put another way, I've fixed it.

Yes MID I agree, what is most pleasing about this is that even though there were moments where concentration was most needed, there were moments when these astronauts and mission control all together actually had fun while on the missions, these laughs and the astronaut's sense of humour indicate all that. This goes to show what a wonderful profession this is, even though it's risks are high. Best job in the world in my opinion.



Thank you very much Waspie Dwarf.

I'd be inclined to agree with your opinion!

It does people well to remember that human beings, not robots, did, and do these things.

They talked like humans, they acted like humans, and, while they were by and large research pilots who were specially trained and very cool under pressure, they were also organically inclined!

The language was sometimes rather graphic and all too nominal, as it were....

I shall never forget the "hot mike" on Apollo 16 one night when John Young was complaining to Charlie Duke:

"I got the farts again again, Charlie. I don't know what gives 'em to me. I really don't. I think it's acid in the stomach, I really do."

"Prob'ly is."

"I mean, I haven't eaten this much citrus fruit in twenty years. But I'll tell you one thing., In another twelve f***in' days, I ain't eatin any more. And if they offer to serve me potassium with my breakfast, I'm gonna throw up. I like an occasional orange---really do, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna be buried in oranges!"


As Andrew Chaikin said in his wonderful book, "A Man on the Moon", it was a backstage look into the John and Charlie Show.

It showed their humanity. You just can't fake that kind of stuff.
Apollo was very human endeavor, executed by very human beings....

MID did you see the Emeril the cheff is doing some of the menus for nasa maybe a hype but they did have some of the shuttle flyers on the last week,quite interesting one of the STS?117 maybe had a sudo home cook the made a taso-chicken dish that was then converted into space baggie food for the mission.Mans gotta eat. wonder if they ever got the loss of taste repaired? DONTEATUS

Oh yea...actually Emeril was consulted to provide some of his particularly "kicked up" recipies, like Jambalaya for the ISS crew menus and they were partaken of a couple years back during Expedition 13.

They liked it alot, especially the extra spiciness, because taste does tend to become a little diminished if one's in zero g for a while. I honestly don't know if those items are still being made and shipped upstairs...but I'd hope so if I was on-board.

"Pork Fat Rules!"

me too no honest Texan would dare blast off without a slab of pork stowed away. B,B,Q rules even in space,Thats what I would offer to the new vistors if they ever stop by the ISS. now the beer would be the hard choice? Great post again MID. DONTEATUS