The sky was our original clock face, and continues to be: despite breaking from celestially observed GMT, our astronomers still adjust our global network of 200-plus atomic clocks every few years, according to Earth's occasional wobble in relation to the stars – adjustments known as leap seconds. Photo: Omegaīefore mankind knew whether the Earth was flat, let alone toyed with taking "one small step", timekeepers were looking to the heavens. In 2017, Omega unveiled the Speedmaster Moonphase Co-Axial Chronometer Chronograph, which features an image of the Moon that is so high in resolution that if one zooms in, Buzz Aldrin’s footprint can be seen. And, yes, it does have to be mechanical – LCD screens, quartz crystals and lithium batteries don't mix with the sub-sub-sub-zero conditions of outer space. Under pressure from domestic watch brands, citing the importance of "buy American", Nasa's quartermasters have been forced back into the lab on a number of occasions, only to emerge every time with the same conclusion: Switzerland's beloved "Speedie" really is the most precise, reliable, rugged and readable chronograph going. It awarded “Flight-Qualified by Nasa for all Manned Space Missions” status to the Speedmaster – the only watch still ticking by the end. It’s a claim that Omega has obviously capitalised on, ever since the Apollo programme’s boffins bombarded four market-leading stopwatch “chronographs” with punishing tests in 1964.
NASA OMEGA PROFESSIONAL
"Secondly," notes the Apollo 17 astronaut, even more poignantly, "the Speedmaster Professional chronographs remained virtually unchanged throughout the entire Apollo programme – no other piece of mission-qualified equipment can make that claim." "With the exception of the Velcro straps used to fit around the outside of our spacesuits," writes last-man-on-the-Moon Gene Cernan in the foreword of Moonwatch Only, " were not modified by Nasa – they were the same watches bought and cherished by Omega fans around the world. The original 'space watch', the Omega Speedmaster. It’s difficult to imagine a more ringing brand endorsement. What’s more, Omega’s Speedmaster – still mechanical, still hand-wound, still based on centuries-old horological principles – remains standard-issue kit for Nasa’s finest to this day. The Nasa-certified piece of equipment strapped around every astronaut’s suit was powered and programmed by mechanical principles dating back over a century teeny-tiny springs, cogs and levers were what captain Jack Swigert depended on in 1970, to time Apollo 13’s critical 14-second fuel burn, perfectly realigning the stricken lunar module for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s even more difficult to believe, then, that things were even more primitive when it came to keeping Neil, Buzz, et al on time.
What once looked like the future now looks like the first Star Wars : innocent, scuffed-up and a long, long time ago.Īnd that’s before you remember Apollo 11 possessed as much computing power as a Casio calculator. But putting the Cold War politics of the space race aside, what this dose of cosmic nostalgia brings is not only much-needed global perspective in these times of international unrest and climate crisis, but also a startling reminder of how rudimentary the technology was back in the 1960s. Space is hot all right, and this year's 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing is fanning the flames. Elon Musk's SpaceX is being subcontracted by Nasa to bring manned missions back to American soil, and his tech-billionaire contemporary, Jeff Bezos, will soon be stealing a march on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic tourist shuttle with his cheaper Blue Origin programme. Since the Twitter phenomenon that is commander Chris Hadfield crooned along to David Bowie's Space Oddity in 2015 while floating around the International Space Station (ISS), kids have been opening their eyes to an inspiring era of Russian/western collaboration, bolstered back in Britain by Tim Peake's Union Flag-adorned exploits.Įven adults who were tired of the Space Shuttle programme during the 1980s are excited again, if not by the extraordinary footage beamed back by the Mars rover, then that of the Rosetta probe, which the European Space Agency managed to land on a four-kilometre-wide asteroid travelling at 135,000kph. T here's no denying it: despite a "cosmic microwave background" temperature of minus 232 ° C, space is hot right now.
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