Author Topic: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing  (Read 14744 times)

Offline brtbrt

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #20 on: 07/20/2011 07:58 pm »
HeyBrtBrt,

It's amazing that the Cold War ended and we're working together now. Very much a good thing. That's something no-one would have predicted in 1969.  Very interesting to have heard a Russian perspective on the Apollo mission.

As I go back and read my first response I was rather jingoistic and I do apologize for any hurt feelings.

Anyone wanna help get my foot out my mouth?

No need. Great countries value patriotism and pride in one's country, and don't begrudge the same to others.

Besides, I've been a flag-waving US citizen for going on 30 years now :-)

Offline clongton

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #21 on: 07/20/2011 09:00 pm »
Oh brtbrt - that SO made me smile. I actually teared up. Thank you!
Chuck - DIRECT co-founder
I started my career on the Saturn-V F-1A engine

Offline brtbrt

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #22 on: 07/20/2011 09:51 pm »
Oh brtbrt - that SO made me smile. I actually teared up. Thank you!

You're very welcome.

On a related note, I just saw this effort to commemorate the Apollo program (hat tip to Clark Lindsey): http://www.evoloterra.com/ - what do you folks think?

ps. what's the local etiquette for mentioning other sites?

Offline seawolfe

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #23 on: 07/21/2011 12:21 am »
In another post, I gave a little history of my lifelong fascination with all things space.  For the Apollo 11 landing though, it was very special.  It was hot, very hot in central California where I lived at the time.  I was out riding my bicycle, all of 12 years old, when I was called by my parents as loud as they could (my dad's voice was pretty loud!) to get home as the "spacemen" were about to go down to the moon.

I raced home but missed the LM sep from the CM, however, I was glued to the silly animations on CBS the rest of the time all the way down.  I think I was more nervous than Walter Cronkite! :)

I had my Apollo moon rocket model I had just built (but not painted yet).  I think that before the Apollo program was over, I had built and broken several Apollo lunar modules and CM/SM's  Those darn little pins just weren't made to be repeatedly taken apart and put back together.  But you know, a kid's gotta practice simulations in order to get the landing and return to Earth just right! ;)

Anyway, I stayed up very late watching the landing and the EVA and had to go to bed when the Neil and Buzz did.  But I was up early the next day ready for the docking as I think I missed the lift off, I don't remember it.

I found later back in the early '90's just before another anniversary of the landing, a broadcast on A&E network of the entire NBC broadcast of the whole mission.  This broadcast spanned three days on A&E.  I still have it and watch it as it was interesting to see the commentators of that network and of that time.  There was a bonus of that day in America with Charles Kuralt of CBS that I have on that tape as well, very interesting aspect.

To the visionaries of that era who are still with us, I salute you!  To the visionaries of today trying to get us worthwhile science from our only national lab in space, I salute you.  To the visionaries trying to get us back out to and beyond the moon, I urge you to follow your dreams and go for it!

Offline clongton

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #24 on: 07/21/2011 01:37 am »
Is this the broadcast you were speaking of? It was on MSNBC today.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43826355/ns/technology_and_science/
Chuck - DIRECT co-founder
I started my career on the Saturn-V F-1A engine

Offline clongton

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #25 on: 07/21/2011 01:40 am »
Well it's 9:40 pm Eastern and not a peep from NASA HQ about this anniversary of Apollo 11. But I did notice on their website a new video: "Elmo Visits the Kennedy Space Center".

Sigh.
Chuck - DIRECT co-founder
I started my career on the Saturn-V F-1A engine

Offline MATTBLAK

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #26 on: 07/21/2011 06:42 am »
It was an amazing day. I was four years old but I remember it very well. In New Zealand, we didn't have live satellite TV in those days. The landing and Moon walk footage was filmed by a 16mm 'kinescope' process from Australian equipment then flown across the Tasman sea by an RAAF B-57 'Canberra' bomber. A special network, including relay towers - broadcasted the historic footage from TVNZ studios in Wellington and it was able to be picked up by most receivers across the country: N.Z. is about the same size as the U.K.

I watched the landing and EVA wide-eyed. The next day, I borrowed my older brother's motorcycle helmet and school backpack. Then, I went over to my neighbours house. They had a sandpit and a kid's slide. I dragged the slide and placed the ladder legs in the sand. Then, I climbed carefully up the opposite slide side and came down the ladder, making one VERY small (4-year-old!) step for mankind. I even collected a couple of stones I had pre-positioned in the sand. For years, they were my 'Moonrocks'. I wish I still had them.

And on the morning of my seventh birthday, I got up real early to watch the splashdown of Apollo 17. Already, lunar exploration was over.... :(
"Those who can't, Blog".   'Space Cadets' of the World - Let us UNITE!! (crickets chirping)

Offline Phillip Clark

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #27 on: 07/21/2011 06:56 am »
Following my naming of days yesterday - HAPPY ARMSTRONG DAY!!
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane - WJ.

Offline FatherRob

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #28 on: 07/21/2011 02:21 pm »
Last night, in honor of the anniversary, I pulled out my Spacecraft Films DVD of "The Mighty Saturns - Part II: The Saturn V" and watched it. My 21 month old daughter was thrilled to see all the rockets go zoom! (Her first experience was the Ares IX lauch about 3 days after she was born, and her second was Atlantis' final launch).

Anyway, after that was over, during the 10 PM EDT hour, I pulled out my Spacecraft Films Apollo 11 DVD and did my best to time sync it to the right time on the clock. Close enough. I sat watching until I fell asleep (had to be up early this morning for the Atlantis landing before heading to the hospital).

Rob+
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Central Indiana

Offline seawolfe

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #29 on: 07/21/2011 02:32 pm »
Is this the broadcast you were speaking of? It was on MSNBC today.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43826355/ns/technology_and_science/

Hard to say, I saw your post after I got to work and there's no streaming video of any kind allowed here.  No Youtube, no nothin'.  So, I'll have to check it out in 8 hours.  ;)
« Last Edit: 07/21/2011 02:34 pm by seawolfe »

Offline clongton

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #30 on: 07/21/2011 03:00 pm »
Is this the broadcast you were speaking of? It was on MSNBC today.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43826355/ns/technology_and_science/

Hard to say, I saw your post after I got to work and there's no streaming video of any kind allowed here.  No Youtube, no nothin'.  So, I'll have to check it out in 8 hours.  ;)

Same here. We're behind such a lockdown that SingSing could take lessons from us. :-( That has cause me to miss a lot that has happened during the daylight hours. Let me know if that's the one.
Chuck - DIRECT co-founder
I started my career on the Saturn-V F-1A engine

Offline Skylon

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #31 on: 07/21/2011 03:50 pm »
For those of you who were not around, when did you first learn about Apollo 11 and how old were you? What effect did it have on you?

Its funny, I have no recollection about when I learned about Apollo 11. I was always reading a lot of space books as a kid, most on Apollo and the shuttle concurrently. As a result, I had a very early conception that shuttle was how we flew in Earth orbit and Apollo went to the moon in the present. I had a mentality that "if we went once, we must still be going." Or maybe some of those space books I was reading were referring to Apollo in the present tense.  :P

At some point I found out no, we weren't still visiting the Moon. That Apollo had ended and no one had walked on the Moon in my lifetime. That seemed rather nonsensical to me as a child. Why would we stop? It ran counter to everything I expected of humanity. I suppose it was an early lesson for me in the impact of politics on sheer reason. So, I have less recollection about learning we landed on the Moon, and more about learning that we stopped going. 
« Last Edit: 07/21/2011 03:51 pm by Skylon »

Offline luke strawwalker

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Re: 42nd Anniversary of the First Moon Landing
« Reply #32 on: 07/22/2011 05:38 am »
Well, I was born March 29th, 1971, so I missed almost everything Apollo-- too young to remember.  I have a VAGUE recollection of maybe Apollo 17, but that's it, and I might be remembering that from a replay I saw as a kid.  I remember ASTP though and the run-up to shuttle.  I was always an avid reader and starting reading books on space and the space program history when I was in grade school. 

I might have pursued a career in science or engineering; plenty of my teachers encouraged me, but I never had the math skills-- basically I DESPISED math, and being a farm kid I always had other stuff to do anyway that I found equally interesting and had to "get the job done".  I still enjoy learning about it, though.  As I've gotten older, I've focused more and more on history-- whether that's a natural occurrence for lots of folks or not I'm not sure, but it is for me. 

I look around and who and what we've become as a society, in a larger sense, and our space program, and I think "what a shame the greatest years in our country's history occurred before I was born". 

Sad but true.  Later! OL JR :)
NO plan IS the plan...

"His plan had no goals, no timeline, and no budgetary guidelines. Just maybe's, pretty speeches, and smokescreens."

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