On this date in 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins spoke to a jubilant crowd at the North American Rockwell (now Boeing) plant in Seal Beach across Bay Boulevard (now Seal Beach Boulevard) from where the second stage Saturn rockets were assembled.
Neil Armstrong had become the first man to walk on the moon a little over two months earlier on July 20, 1969, but he was already looking to a future where larger space vehicles would allow for cooperative missions with both U.S. and Russian astronauts. He felt that manned space flights were “good mediums” for cooperation between nations.
When asked if the Apollo 11 crew had heard from the Flat Earth Society about the moon landing, Armstrong joked that Mike Collins had suggested sending in applications.
Armstrong and Collins then left by helicopter to attend a celebration in Downey where the Apollo capsules were built.
Also my baby brother Matt was born on this date in 1969.
– Michael Dobkins
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On this date in 1965, construction foreman Russell Wilfong, 44, plummeted ninety feet to his death when a cable holding a platform snapped as it was being run through a pulley. The platform was being installed on North American Aviation’s one hundred-eleven foot vertical assembly building where the S-2 second-stages of the Saturn V rockets were assembled for the Apollo space program. Witnesses said Wolfing was able to grab on to some metal rods sticking from the tower, but ultimately he lost his grip and fell feet first to the ground.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
This Date in Seal Beach History also has an online store hosted at Cafepress where you can order shirts, tote bags, stationery, and other gift items imprinted with vintage Seal Beach images. Visit the online store by clicking here.
North American Aviation Rockwell – September 26, 1969
“… The Saturn V rocket which put us in orbit is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, every piece of which worked flawlessly … We have always had confidence that this equipment will work properly. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of a number of a people …All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all of those, I would like to say, ‘Thank you very much.’” – Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot Michael Collins
The words above were spoken from the command module Columbia on July 23rd, 1969 , the last night of the Apollo 11 space mission before splashdown. Three days earlier, while Michael Collins orbited the moon alone, Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin had become the first men to step on the surface of the Moon, making a reality of President Kennedy’s bold promise on September 12,1962 at Rice University.
(l to r) Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, “Buzz” Aldrin
Shortly after they were released from a post-mission quarantine, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins visited the North American Aviation Rockwell building in Seal Beach to thank in person the engineers and workers who had built the S-II stage of the Saturn V rocket. The following photographs were taken from a collection of 56 slides I purchased on eBay a few years. The seller had acquired the slides in the estate sale of a photographer some years earlier. Unfortunately, the seller didn’t have a record of the photographer’s name, but I’m grateful to him for documenting this historical visit to Seal Beach.
These are not all the slides from that collection, but I’m sharing just enough (and without commentary, for once) to present a full flavor of the event.
Be sure to check back each week for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach.
– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
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Apollo Saturn V S-II Rocket on Bay Boulevard – 1960s
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. – President John F. Kennedy, Rice University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1962
This past Sunday, it was the 48th anniversary of the famous Rice Stadium speech quoted above. Early in that same month, a groundbreaking ceremony was held just off Bay Boulevard for the S-II Saturn assembly and test facilities to be built by the Navy for North American Aviation’s Space and Information Systems Division. This provides commemorative significance to today’s inspiring photo, which comes to us courtesy of Nancey Kredell.
click on the image for a larger view
The next time you drive up Seal Beach Boulevard to the 405 freeway, dreading a long commute for a holiday family visit, a vacation road trip, or the rush hour stop and go conga to work, perhaps you can take some comfort in contemplating the really long commute each Saturn V S-2 rocket took going the opposite direction down Seal Beach Boulevard (still called Bay Boulevard back in the sixties).
What you see in this photo are stage components for a Saturn V rocket being driven down Bay Boulevard (renamed Seal Beach Boulevard in the late sixties) to Anaheim Landing where they will be loaded on a transport (probably the U.S.N.S. Barrow Point). From Anaheim Bay, they embarked on a sixteen day journey that took them through the Panama Canal to a testing facility in Mississippi. Ultimately, they would end up on a launch pad at Cape Kennedy in Florida and would propel an Apollo spacecraft into outer space.
There’s a bit of a mystery about the above photograph. The first stage in the foreground is a Saturn S-II rocket manufactured in the North American Aviation Assembly plant building in the background. The second component is the interstage engine skirt that would protect the S-II’s engines during separation from the first stage rocket after take-off. The third component is much harder to identify. It could be a Saturn S-IVB stage rocket that had been manufactured at the Douglas Aircraft plant in Huntington Beach that was returned to Seal Beach for shipping to the Kennedy Space Center on June 13, 1966. Or it might be a F-1 rocket engine that was shipped with a Saturn S-II on February 2, 1968. Or it could be some other component and date I haven’t been able to discover in my search through NASA documentation.
I’m hoping a more technically adept Apollo expert will provide more information (and/or corrections) to clear up this mystery in the comments.
As an added bonus, here’s a color film footage taken from a Saturn S-II stage while in action. This was filmed on November 9, 1967 during Apollo 4’s unmanned test flight mission. First you’ll see the first stage (S-I) separate from S-II, and then the interstage engine skirt separates from the actual S-II. Finally, from the other end of the S-II, you’ll see the S-IV separate from the S-II.
Be sure to check back each week for more historical photos and stories of Seal Beach.– Michael Dobkins
Have you enjoyed this and other This Date in Seal Beach History posts?
If so, please consider making a small donation of a dollar or more to help defray the online subscriptions and other research costs that make this blog possible.
Donations can be made securely with most major credit cards directly through PayPal. Just click on paypal.me/MichaelDobkins to go to PayPal. Thank you.
