Daddy Dee Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 http://wechoosethemoon.org/s Apollo 11 was launched 40 years ago today. Armstrong and Aldrin stepped onto the moon on July 20. The first human beings to set foot on another celestial body. I was 14 at the time and had grown up watching the space program beginning with Project Mercury (Alan Shepherd - first American in space) watching the launch and entire mission space on TV in kindergarten class. US expertise and accomplishment of any goal was just assumed. Sometime as a young adult I watched an interview with Michael Collins, command module pilot, who orbited the moon waiting for the return of Armstrong and Aldrin. He said the crew never talked explicitly about the possibility that the lunar module would not make it back to dock with the command module, but that was always with them. They thought there was a 30% chance of failure and Collins would go home solo. Sobering odds there. For Kennedy to set this goal and then the nation see it accomplished is much more amazing in retrospect than it was at the time. from Kennedy's speech 12 Sep 62 There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency. http://www.quotesandsayings.com/sjfk.htm On this page is a link to Neil Armstrong's audio "giant leap for mankind" statement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 16, 2009 Moderators Share Posted July 16, 2009 Thanks Dee, like many I can remember exactly where I was when they landed on the moon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 It only took sixty-five years from the first heavier-than-air flight until the first landing on the Moon. That rate of progress may never be seen again, but that should only serve as encouragement to keep on trying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ace168516 Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 It only took sixty-five years from the first heavier-than-air flight until the first landing on the Moon. That rate of progress may never be matched again, but that should only serve as encouragement to keep on trying. Very true, and I think people today (even though I am a youngin') don't understand the full scale of what the space program has brought us. Not only in scientific knoweldge, or direct space related technologies, but even things discovered by accident while trying to accomplish our goals. Life would be inevitably changed if the space programs in the past had not existed. Your teflon pans and teflon toilet bowl cleaner would not exist, there would be no discussion on whether XM radio is worth it or not in the general forum, your GPS and satallite TV would not work, and we probably would not be sitting at these personal computers discussing Klipsch matters and otherwise, because there would have been no motivation to initially increase computing power at the rate we did. I only hope, that even through the troubling times with the economy we keep looking out there, even if there is no great goal in the near future like the moon landing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEC Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I was stationed in Italy at a small Air Force Station named San Vito Dei Normany near Brindisi Italy in 1969. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, I was watching it live on Italian TV in my house in Specchiolla, Italy. A couple of minutes after Neil stepped out onto the moon, I heard a lot of commotion outside my house. I opened the door to find a crowd of about 50 Italians cheering yelling "Bravo" to get me to come out for congratulations. Most of them were waving little American flags. That was the first time I really realized what a worldwide event this was. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Well doggone it!! I was going to start a thread asking if we did or did not land on the moon. My brother in law says it was a farce. I was going to post some pictures... heck...I'll do it anyway. That's me on the left, yes...I was there the day Apollo 11 blasted off. Went down with my father and the son of his good friend (Chris on the right). In the early 70's Chris passed away via drug over dose. These are out of the boxes of slides that my dad sent me literally, several weeks ago and I've been a busy beaver scanning them. I ALSO happen to have a 40 year old cassette tape of this event. I sent the tape out had it converted to a CD and can now play it over the Jubilees. I'm here to tell you that you can still feel the raw POWER of that Satern V when it was taking off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 The 'garage' for the rocket Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I think we were in some kind of tour group. I have memories of this but not of some of these details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Hard for me to think they let the general public get this close on what I think was the day prior. (not sure it was prior day). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Memory says that Dad "knew someone who knew someone" that allowed us to go on some of these closer views but again, that's vague memory. Here is one of the actual liftoff. Being so far away, the rocket was already in the air before we could hear it. That was kind of strange to me since I didn't comprehend that right away but boy.... when that rumble came to us, it was like an earthquake. You could really feel the power of the rocket. When my brother in law gets into his tirade about the whole thing being a Hollywood sham.... I just shake my head.... There is no doubt that this was real. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 16, 2009 Moderators Share Posted July 16, 2009 A little better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted July 16, 2009 Moderators Share Posted July 16, 2009 A little Coytee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Many giant leaps for technology!!!!!! The very sad truth is that we have lost a national treasure. The tapes were erased to be reused..... Sickening. http://www.scpr.org/news/2009/07/16/houston-we-erased-apollo-11-tapes/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capo72 Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Many giant leaps for technology!!!!!! Just think about this for a second. Our cell phones have more processing power than the computers aboard the spacecraft that took men to the moon! Jeremy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seti Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Many giant leaps for technology!!!!!! Just think about this for a second. Our cell phones have more processing power than the computers aboard the spacecraft that took men to the moon! Jeremy Poor guys didn't even have Google Earth or the internet to help them get home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbsl Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 It was a great acheivement for everyone around the world, well maybe not for the Soviets but for the rest of the world. I find it sad that 40 years latter the US space program is in a sad, sad state. IF Nasa had the funding then we could have made it to Mars by now. You can see what can be accomplished if the US puts it money and minds into something but the US lost interest in the space program once we made it to the moon. We should have been to Mars by now!! The way the world economy is in right now I don't see it happening anytime soon. If I"m lucky it will happen in my lifetime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Space travel is very expensive. Whichever country sends people into space has less money to spend on its people on the ground, so it would be more fair and more effective for many countries to share the cost. The European Space Agency may be an example of that concept, but I don't know the details of that organization. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I always wondered how you balance a 300 foot rocket without it tipping over. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddy Dee Posted July 16, 2009 Author Share Posted July 16, 2009 I always wondered how you balance a 300 foot rocket without it tipping over. JJK alot of finesse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 I always wondered how you balance a 300 foot rocket without it tipping over. Nobody said rocket science was simple. [8-|]The feat that really impressed me was sending a rocket by remote control to meet a speeding comet far out in space, land on it, scoop up a bit of it and bring the sample back to Earth. Would you even believe that was possible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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