60 years of NASA’s accreditation of Omega Speedmaster

On March 1, 1965, NASA declared that Omega Speedmaster was “suitable for flight in all manned space missions.” This key day marked the official beginning of Omega’s extraordinary trip beyond the Earth, which since then has understood all the alunizas of history and many of the most relevant missions of our time.

NASA’s accreditation embodies Omega’s pioneering spirit and his design excellence. 60 years after the homologation was announced, the firm looks back to that hopeful was the adventure of the human being and celebrates the moment when its watches became part of this story.

The background

In 1962, the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, appeared before an auditorium at the University of Rice and made his famous statement: “We chose to go to the moon.” The most ambitious thing is that he promised to achieve that goal in that same decade. The American space race had begun.

The Mercury project was the first manned space flight program in the country and became famous for its brave group of pilots, the seven of Mercury. When the program ended in 1963, NASA’s astronauts went to their operations director, Deke Slayton, and asked for a reliable watch for future missions.

The watches were necessary as a safety element: if the digital timers of the astronauts stopped working aboard the spacecraft, the only thing they could trust would be the mechanical watches they carry. Therefore, quality was essential.

NASA had already started the process to reassess its team for the next Gemini and Apollo missions, so in 1964, Slayton issued a request for “high quality chronographs” and sent it to several watch firms.

Of all the firms that received the letter from Deke Slayton, only four responded, including Omega. Each company was asked to send “three bracelet chronographs” that would be subjected to the most demanding imaginable exams.

The tests

Any device that travels in space vehicles should be approved by NASA’s Safety, Reliability and Quality Inspectors.

The engineer James Ragan was in charge of testing the watches. during their 36 years of aerospace career, one of its crucial responsibilities was to examine and certify the chronographs that astronauts used in NASA manned missions.

When James Ragan received the clocks from the four firms, he immediately excluded one, because it was not a bracelet watch with the capabilities specified by NASA.

In the end, watches of three different firms were tested and, to succeed, each clock had to overcome the 11 tests:

1. High temperature test: After supporting 48 hours at 70 ° C, the watches faced 30 minutes at 93 ° C in a partial vacuum. It was in this phase, in the thermal vacuum, when the watches of two other brands failed. The Omega Speedmaster was the only clock that survived.

2. Low temperature test: The clock spent 4 hours in an environment at -18 ° C.

3. Vacuum test: The clock was heated in a vacuum chamber and immediately cooled at -18 ° C for several cycles.

4. Moisture test: An environment was created with a humidity of 95% and temperatures ranging between 25 ° C and 70 ° C. The clock had to survive this environment after ten 24 -hour cycles.

5. Corrosion test: The clock faced an oxygen atmosphere for 48 hours at 70 ° C.

6. Dock resistance tests: Replicating the demand for space trips, the clock faced six clashes of 40 g in six different directions.

7. Acceleration test: The clock endured a progressive acceleration up to 7.25 g for about five minutes and then up to 16 g for 30 seconds in three axes.

8. Low pressure test: The clock underwent a pressure of 10-6 atmospheres at 70 ° C for 90 minutes and then at 93 ° C for 30 minutes.

9. High pressure test: The clock underwent a pressure of 1.6 atmospheres for 60 minutes.

10. Vibration test: To simulate the extremes of the launch of a spacecraft, the clock faced random vibrations in three axes between 5 and 2000 Hz with an acceleration of 8.8 g.

11. Sound test: To guarantee reliability against noise, the clock underwent 130 decibels at frequencies of 40 000 Hz for 30 minutes.

The result approved by astronauts

The Omega Speedmaster St 105.003 successfully exceeded the 11 tests. It was exactly the same model available for customers in stores.

However, the watches of other firms were eliminated during the high temperature test. On a clock of one of the firms, the second second combined and stuck against the other needles. On the clock of another firm, the chronograph glass deforms and detached from the box.

In relation to the success of Speedmaster, James Ragan declared: “Even I was surprised that some clock could overcome those tests. The environments were really designed for devices that are mounted on vehicles. It was not easy. It was the most extreme test that could be done to an device.”

But there was a final test for accreditation, and perhaps it was the most important of all: watches should also be personally approved by the astronauts themselves.

Ragan gave the crews the Speedmaster and other watches to examine and evaluate them. Without knowing the results of the tests, the astronauts returned and unanimously chose the Speedmaster as their favorite model, due to its greater precision, reliability, readability and ease of handling.

Ragan later said: “I made things very much.

What happened next?

Just three weeks after the accreditation was granted, on March 23, 1965, the Speedmaster St 105.003 officially traveled to space for the first time in the virgil wrists “Gus” Grissom and John Young during submission Gemini 3. The only modification of the clocks was the addition of a long velcro strap that could be taken over the space costumes.

After Gemini 3, the Speedmaster and its various updates became a valuable tool for crews on board each of NASA’s manned missions. Ed White took him during the first American space promenade in 1965 and also the crew of Apollo 8, which saw the “hidden face of the moon” for the first time in 1968.

While the Speedmaster continued to serve astronauts in space, NASA was getting closer and more to its great goal. Finally, on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon for the first time in history, fulfilling John F. Kennedy’s promise

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent two and a half hours walking on the lunar surface and, at that time, the Omega Speedmaster became the first clock that took the moon. Since then, he has been present in all alunizages and has long been an essential element of NASA’s astronaut team.

A durable design

At first glance, Speedmaster watches manufactured over the past 60 years seem almost unaltered. After all, why modifying something that is so iconic and appreciated? However, if we look a little more closely, we will discover the great evolutions and similarities that customers can enjoy today.

Speedmaster’s difference

Precision, reliability, readability and ease of handling were the reasons adduced by astronauts when asked why they preferred their Speedmaster. In fact, the watches had numerous qualities that many other watches could not offer.

Robust design

When the original Speedmaster was created in 1957, it included many protection technologies used by Omega at that time, such as the sealing power of the Toric Boards and the famous “Naiad” crown. Thanks to this, Omega was able to create an incredibly robust chronograph, hermetically sealed against the elements and with a tightness that reached a depth of 200 feet (approx. 60 meters).

In addition, the Hesalite glass offered the advantage of flexibility and, therefore, the resistance to breakage in situations of strong impacts. The last thing an astronaut wants during a mission are small glass fragments floating in the spacecraft.

Pioneer spirit

The Speedmaster was a pioneer of design. When it was presented in 1957, it became the first clock with taquimetric scale in the bezel, instead of the sphere. This was ideal for the client to which he was destined: racing drivers. Since then, the iconic timing scale has remained an essential and distinctive element of the Speedmaster design.

Readability

The original Speedmaster of 1957 was designed thinking about racing cars pilots. Therefore, it was easily eligible, so that times could be seen at a glance. This feature not only continued at ST 105.003, but also the baston needles and schedule indices were also given to the use of tritium. In the darkest confines of space, this distinctive readability was a critical factor.

Precision

In 1965, Omega enjoyed an excellent reputation in precision, and especially in the design of chronographs. The first chronograph movement of the firm with 30 -minute and 12 hours counters was 27 Chroc12. Designed and manufactured for the first time in 1941, it was a movement that was distinguished by the use of a pillar wheel, a characteristic that was mechanized from one piece and added technical value. In this way the 321 caliber was born, thus baptized in 1949. Using the same pillar wheel system, this movement embodied Omega’s commitment to precision and its excellence in ultrafine mechanics.