Poll

Were you born before December 11th, 1972 when Apollo 17 Lunar Module left the Moon's surface?

Yes, I was born before 12/11/72 (at 5:55 PM EST)
85 (69.1%)
No, I am younger than that
38 (30.9%)

Total Members Voted: 123

Voting closed: 01/26/2017 04:45 pm


Author Topic: Were you born before the last Apollo Astronauts left the Moon?  (Read 22114 times)

Offline Rocket Science

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Pre-Sputnik, pre-Viking (rocket), and even pre-Aerobee.
Pre-history? ;D
"The laws of physics are unforgiving"
~Rob: Physics instructor, Aviator

Offline Ixian77

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1959 vintage here.
Remember the late Gemini missions. Before that, I remember everyone in the neighborhood gathering around in our backyard to watch 'one of our' satellites, apparently one of the very first visible on a regular basis, as it passed overhead.
Maybe one of the Echos?

Offline spacenut

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They landed on the moon on my 16th birthday.

Offline jtrame

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1952 model here, and yes I think it was Echo 1 that we went out to see, it was easily visible and bright.

Offline Quindar

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I'm an old codger I was born Pre-V2 let alone anything U.S. made for space so I got to watch all of the space race first hand.  I had an encounter with a Redstone missile in Germany in like 1962 that made me rocket aware and from then on I was hooked on following along as we went to the moon, heady times those were.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...

Offline whitelancer64

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Offline AS_501

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This 1950 model Terran made a point of taking a mental snapshot of the Moon while the Apollo 17 astronauts were on the surface.
Launches attended:  Apollo 11, ASTP (@KSC, not Baikonur!), STS-41G, STS-125, EFT-1, Starlink G4-24, Artemis 1
Notable Spacecraft Observed:  Echo 1, Skylab/S-II, Salyuts 6&7, Mir Core/Complete, HST, ISS Zarya/Present, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Dragon Demo-2, Starlink G4-14 (8 hrs. post-launch), Tiangong

Online catdlr

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1952 model here, and yes I think it was Echo 1 that we went out to see, it was easily visible and bright.

1953 and I also went out into my parent's backyard many dark evenings to view Echo 1 go by.
Tony De La Rosa, ...I'm no Feline Dealer!! I move mountains.  but I'm better known for "I think it's highly sexual." Japanese to English Translation.

Offline ZachS09

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I was born 24 years, 4 months, and 6 days after Apollo 17 left the surface of the Moon. Way too young to see this.

My birth date was April 17, 1997.
« Last Edit: 01/20/2017 01:18 am by ZachS09 »
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Offline AS-503

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I was born on the Friday that Apollo 8 splashed down (December 27th 1968). Also Kepler's Birthday!
For those that don't know already (looking at you Jim) my username AS-503 is the booster name for that mission.
A (Apollo) S (Saturn) 5 (Saturn 5 btw a 2 here is used for Saturb 1B Apollo missions) 03 (3rd flight of the Saturn 5).

If you follow that numbering scheme you'll see that Apollo 11 is AS-506.

Offline Eric Hedman

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I was born before Sputnik... ;D
A few weeks ago I drove past the spot a piece of Sputnik landed on in the city of Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

I was 10 years old when Neil and Buzz landed.  I remember it well hearing Neil Armstrong say the Eagle has landed.  I was excited.  I was sad when Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt took off from the Moon because I knew that nothing as exciting was going to happen for a while.  I just didn't think it would be this long a wait.

Offline Lee Jay

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I was born almost exactly 9 months after Neil took his small step.

Online cwr

Pre-Sputnik, pre-Viking (rocket), and even pre-Aerobee.

Ditto,
while I was interested in rockets pre-Sputnik, it was the Luniks and the Pioneers that triggered me into tracking rocket launches [as well as was possible over 50 years ago] and started me on my first version of my rocket launch database [paper variant].
Carl

Offline llanitedave

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I was 13 going on 14 for Apollo 11.  The biggest disappointment of my young life during that period was when Alan Bean accidentally pointed the TV camera at the Sun during Apollo 12.

Soon after that, I discovered girls, and disappointments multiplied quickly.
"I've just abducted an alien -- now what?"

Offline John Alan

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I was born between Gemini 11 and 12 flying... (fall of '66)

I remember watching the Apollo 11 landing coverage on a B&W TV...

Offline HighlandRay

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I was born in 1948 and was therefore 9 years old when Sputnik circled the earth. I remember reading the headlines in one of the UK newpapers the following day "Bleep, bleep, bleepski"
To old to die young

Offline MATTBLAK

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This Is My Story - My Own 'Space Odyssey'

My Mother was one of the first people in the world to see Sputnik One (or it's rocket stage) with the naked eye. She was at her washing line and happened to look up in the twilight sky and saw a bright, steady point of light swiftly crossing the sky. This was a story she told all her life.

I was born in December 19th 1965 in New Zealand – December 18th in the U.S. In fact; my mother was in labour birthing me as Frank Borman and Jim Lovell were undergoing re-entry and return to Earth during Gemini 7. So you could literally say I was born into the Space Age. I was 3 and a half years old when Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. I listened to the landing on the old, red AM tube radio with my Mother in our kitchen in Papatoetoe, Auckland on what was July 21st in New Zealand, shortly after 9:00am. I remember this event very clearly.

New Zealand had no satellite stations in those days – film and videotapes of major events had to be imported by aircraft to be shown often the next day on our one-channel national network television! But Apollo 11 was an exception – an N.Z. Airforce Canberra jet bomber flew a videotape of the landing and EVA from Sydney, Australia to our capital; Wellington city in time to get the tape to the TV station there. A special set of relay antenna trucks was setup to broadcast the special transmission at 7:30pm that evening, across most of New Zealand. New Zealand is about the same size as the U.K.

The special show was presented by our own equivalent of Patrick Moore: Mr Peter Reid, a veteran broadcaster and Astronomer. The ghostly Apollo 11 footage had such an impact on me. The next day, I borrowed my elder brother’s motorcycle helmet, old schoolbag backpack, and small instamatic camera, then went to my next-door neighbour’s back yard. They had a big sandpit. They also had a kids slide with attached ladder. I somehow managed to wobble and drag the slide and ladder a few feet and stick the bottom ladder legs into the sandpit. I threw some pebbles and rocks into the sandpit. I donned the helmet and bag, walked up the slide, then turned around and came slowly down the ladder. I made one very small step in the sand, then a few more. Then I pretended to take some pictures – the camera had no film in it – and I collected some rocks and pebbles.

After my ‘EVA’, I went back up the ladder and sat at the top of the slide. I took off the helmet, I think I let it go down the slide – then took out something from the schoolbag to eat. I don’t recall what that was, but it was likely a peanut butter sandwich, which Mum made me often. Shortly after this; the neighbours arrived home. They were a bit bemused, as I didn’t really have permission to be there, so I slunk off home!

On the morning of December 20th 1972 – December 19th evening in the U.S. – it was the day after my seventh birthday. I got up early to watch the live splashdown of Apollo 17, the final lunar mission. I had watched several other live Apollo splashdowns after New Zealand had finally obtained satellite TV service in 1971. And I did so again after every Skylab mission and Apollo Soyuz, too. In April 1981 my eldest brother Mark and I stayed up late into the night to watch on TV the eventually scrubbed launch of STS-1. When TVNZ declined to telecast the launch the next day, I was furious! I had to listen to the launch on a tiny transistor radio, huddled under my bedcovers. I was scared half to death as I listened to that epic first launch, shaking with excitement. I skipped school to watch 'Columbia' land a couple days later. And like John Young; I fist-pumped the air in excitement after the landing. It was a massive honour to finally meet the man himself in 1996.

…And I truly felt like close family members had died when I watched the horrifying destruction of Shuttles ‘Challenger’ and ‘Columbia’ on TV, years later…

…And finally in July 2011; my Wife, Maree and I were by the Countdown clock at Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of STS-135. Along with the thousands of others there, we cheered and roared. And some days later, I watched the landing of ‘Atlantis’ on the internet from my study, back home in New Zealand. And I wept openly...

It’s been a long way – but here I am… This is what Apollo and the American Space Program in general has meant to me. And it’s why I often do radio and television spots in my home country when Space Missions or events of note happen and they need “Expert” commentary (heh!). And it’s also why I get blood-red angry when I get ‘Hoaxtards’ and other rotten people saying to me that the launches I’ve seen in person were not real and that Apollo is fake. Can you even fathom how that makes me feel?!

Well – to Hell with them! I may not have climbed ‘Uphill’ with all those Astronauts. But I have seen that ‘Shining Moutaintop’ – I know it’s very, very, real. And I know I am not alone… Bless all you fellow ‘Space Cadets’ – I’m damned honoured to share this ‘Pale Blue Dot’ with each and every one of you.

Matthew Pavletich.
« Last Edit: 10/25/2018 08:55 pm by MATTBLAK »
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Offline Stardust9906

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Born 5 years before Apollo 11 so I was around for the first and last missions to the moon.

Offline cartman

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Wow, some great posts here. I am a relative youngster, born on the 4th of July 1981. My first space memories are from the late 80's shuttle missions, definitely after Challenger.

Offline gwiz

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Born pre-Sputnik, by 1957 already interested in space (anyone else remember Dan Dare?) and reading nearest thing in the UK to a popular space magazine, RAF Flying Review.  Career in the aerospace industry, on the Hawker-Siddeley team that went to St Louis to work with McDonnell-Douglas on Shuttle Phase B.  Long-time and active member of the BIS.

I was there at KSC for Cernan's Apollo 17 launch.

 

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