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On This Day, 53 Years Ago
Apollo 11 launched from Cape Canaveral. Four days later, two of its crew stepped out of the Lunar Landing Module onto the moon’s surface. I remember.
I was summering at home in the UK with my parents, my sister, and my infant brother. We’d rented a television, because many locals didn’t have one. And we celebrated together, those who came to our house to see the spectacle, via lunches, picnics, and other typically British means (can you say, “tea”), every step of the way.
Stay tuned. And glued to the set. As we did and were, all those years ago.
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Published in General
I wish I was there.
This’n still chokes Me up to no end, too:
Those guys. Talk about bravery. And trust. Launching themselves a quarter of a million miles into the ether on the strength of computers far less powerful than those we wear on our wrists today. With the promise that they’d get back.
Wow.
I was sitting on the floor of the den wearing my pajamas, watching the grainy black and white picture on the RCA set.
My fourteen birthday. Best birthday candle ever.
There was an ABC retrospective on the space program. After the Apollo 8 astronauts read from the Bible on Christmas Eve, John Chancellor was moved and said, “Brave men”.
It’s not my best picture, but here I am with Mike Collins in 2015.
You can watch what was happening exactly 53 years ago
https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/
It’s a wonderful picture!
This film is great.
I was in Houston for the 50th. They have the actual mission control set up as it was in July 1969 and you can see the landing and walking on the moon as the flight controllers would have seen. Here are some pictures I took.
In late February, on a day not good for bicycling, we went to visit the space center and got to visit the mission control. We were surprised at how ordinary the building was, at least to outward appearance. But it was exciting the way they took us through the moon landing. It was definitely the high point of the visit.
To be fair, they did not know their computers were unimpressive. They thought they were amazing. Which they were, in context.
The first Moon landing is one of my “I remember where I was when . . .” moments . . .
Here’s a short movie from 1964 which put the space program in the historical context of the American frontier. Produced by North American Aviation, music by John Stewart.
With their Eyes on the Stars
It was totally amazing!
We try to catch all the launches that are made out of Kennedy and Cape Canaveral outside our kitchen window! We watch the countdown on TV and then switch to the sky–woo-hoo! The launch shows up over the trees. The nighttime shots are the most fun. And we never tire of it.
I was just 11 when I witnessed the landing, however it so impressed and inspired me and my brothers, three of us ended up eventually working for NASA.
I got to listen to Micheal Collins speak at the EAA convention in Oshkosh WI the summer of 2019. Afterwards I waited in line and said hello, and let him know I worked for NASA. He thanked me, but I think he had it backward. I should thank him for the inspiration for lifetime of doing some incredible work.
I watched the landing sitting at the bar of the Fort Clayton, CZ NCO Club. I think.
Scheduled to start a new job on July 21, Nixon declared a holiday so my first day was a day off but my start date remained on the books as July 21, 1969 for the next 33 years.
It is the greatest accomplishment of the human species. Sometimes I wonder why we let that advancement lapse, but now I’m glad they did. It was a great thing for NACA/NASA to develop technology that was vital to our national defense, but the technology wasn’t good enough to make it worth going there yet. I think SpaceX is bringing us there and to Mars and they deserve all the accolades if they do. If NASA insists on going back again then I would be happy if they are greeted by SpaceX facilities.