7.21.2009
Happy Birthday Apollo 11
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Amidst the media hubbub for the initial flight to the moon mission (though there were numerous Apollo missions before - note this was number 11) one of the facts that is not mentioned is that Tang was not included.
This fact was confirmed by Buzz Aldrin himself in an interview...
"We... instead chose a grapefruit-orange mixture as our citrus drink. If Tang was on our flight, I was unaware of it." It might be that Tang was one of those items of National Security that is usually responded to with the statement 'I can neither confirm nor deny...'
Neil Armstrong has also stated that Tang was not used on the Apollo flights [citation needed - source: Wikipedia].
Tang was used, however, starting with the Gemini program...
A NASA engineer working with the Gemini Space Program on a life-support module explained the story of how and why it was used. Paraphrased:
"... There was a particular component of the Gemini life support-system module which produced H2O (water) among other things. This was a byproduct of a recurring chemical reaction of one of the mechanical devices on the life-support module. The astronauts would use this water to drink during their space flight. The problem was, the astronauts did not like the taste of the water because of some of the byproducts produced, which were not harmful of course. So, they added Tang to make the water taste better ..."
The inventor of Tang, William A. Mitchell, also invented Pop Rocks, which it was rumored, caused the untimely demise of Life Cereal's Mikey.
This fact was confirmed by Buzz Aldrin himself in an interview...
"We... instead chose a grapefruit-orange mixture as our citrus drink. If Tang was on our flight, I was unaware of it." It might be that Tang was one of those items of National Security that is usually responded to with the statement 'I can neither confirm nor deny...'
Neil Armstrong has also stated that Tang was not used on the Apollo flights [citation needed - source: Wikipedia].
Tang was used, however, starting with the Gemini program...
A NASA engineer working with the Gemini Space Program on a life-support module explained the story of how and why it was used. Paraphrased:
"... There was a particular component of the Gemini life support-system module which produced H2O (water) among other things. This was a byproduct of a recurring chemical reaction of one of the mechanical devices on the life-support module. The astronauts would use this water to drink during their space flight. The problem was, the astronauts did not like the taste of the water because of some of the byproducts produced, which were not harmful of course. So, they added Tang to make the water taste better ..."
The inventor of Tang, William A. Mitchell, also invented Pop Rocks, which it was rumored, caused the untimely demise of Life Cereal's Mikey.
Labels: aldrin, apollo, mitchell, poprocks, tang
