Apollo Society advisor Dr. Jeff Bell noticed a familiar looking shape in a Navy storage yard during a bus tour of Ford Island in April 1998. From his seat on the opposite side of the bus, Dr. Bell saw the shape of an Apollo Command Module. He instantly knew that he had spotted a Navy rescue training mockup of the Apollo Command Module used by Navy divers and helicopter recovery teams in their Apollo splashdown command module recovery and astronaut rescue training exercises. Dr. Bell had chanced upon a forgotten artifact of the Apollo Space Program.

Dr. Bell informed The Apollo Society Directors Greg Smith and Chris Peterson of his find. As soon as Dr. Bell's email arrived, Greg Smith got on the phone to Navy information. Within a few minutes Greg Smith was put in contact with a security officer at Ford Island who knew that the Command Module mockup was in the custody of the Navy's Seal Delivery Vehicle Team 1, SID Ellington, LCDR, USN, Executive Officer. Commander Ellington met with Mr. Smith, Mr. Peterson and Dr. Bell the next week.

Determining the hardware to be worthy of preservation and display as an artifact of the Apollo Space Program and Hawaii's involvement with the only space program to land humans on another world, Greg Smith informed the staff of Hawaii's Bishop Museum in the hope that they will be able to arrange for its permanent display. Realizing the significance of the artifact, the Bishop Museum staff immediately began inquiries to acquire and display this unique and dramatic item of our space exploration heritage.

This story has just begun. Check back here again for further developments regarding this project!

The Apollo Society

The Apollo Society Education Programs

The Apollo Society
P.O. Box 61206
Honolulu, Hawaii 96839
USA

Email: capcom@apollo-society.org

WWW: http://apollo-society.org