Apollo 11 Moon Landing 52nd Anniversary - July 19th, 1969
tj_1ca9500b
Posts: 2,057
So, I don't have an Apollo related render handy atm (digging through my Daz model library now to see what I can whip up), best I can do on the fly is a Starman related render atm. That's barely relevant because NASA has selected the Falcon Heavy to help build the Lunar Gateway (let's avoid the new lander discussion for now...)
I don't want to post other people's pics, or anything I could find on Google, so I'm off to render something...
I'll post a moon lander render later. Anyways, PBS is showing some Apollo related programs atm, and I'm having fond memories of the space program from 'back in the day'. Lots of exciting stuff happening right now as well (finally), but it's been waaaaay too long since mankind last stepped foot on the moon!
Those were heady days, and IMHO heady days are finally upon us again!
Thoughts? Renders?
Edit: 50th Anniversary would be 2019, edited title to 52nd Anniversary. DOH!
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Who amongst us saw the first moon landing live on tv, raise your hand
Not me, although I remember watching the last one on TV as a kid.
I was 11 years old and our family was touring Kennedy Space Center on the day of the landing. The tour bus stopped at the launch pad and we were able to hear the broadcast of the landing. We got home (about 250 miles from Kennedy Space Center) in time to watch the astronauts set foot on the Moon.
In 1981, I returned to Kennedy Space Center, this time as a fresh out of college software engineer. I worked in the Launch Control Center and wrote parts of the Space Shuttle launch simulation software. I had missed the first shuttle launch, but was there for the second one and quite a few after that. :) We were able to stand in front of the Launch Control Center for an excellent and close view of the launches and landings.
So happy to be involved in manned space flight and the wonderful inspiration that the moon landing gave me at a young age.
Lee
I was just five myself but I remember looking at it through snowy b&w television with our neighbours (not everybody had one yet) and how the adults were so exited about it.
And being allowed to stay up late (here in germany it was 9;17 pm on July, the 20th, when "the eagle (was) landed" and even 3:56 am of the next day (= the 21st of July) until there were the "small step.." and "giant leap...") was a really big thing for a nine years old (= me)
So maybe time to edit the thread title, as it will be the 20th July when that anniversary happens...
I was 12 and it was huge! Watched as much of the coverage from Walter Cronkite as I could.
One of the fondest memories of my childhood was being led down to the school hall to watch the launch of Apollo 11 live on one of the earliest colour televisions.
These guys (together with the Battle of Britain fighter pilots) were my childhood heroes.
Cheers,
Alex.
I remember one morning, when I got up, that my parents have not been in bed, as they usually have been on a Saturday morning. So I found them in my Grandmother's room watching TV, which was unusual to have a program early in the morning. I was just 4 at that time and my brain was unable to "decode" the images on the TV screen. Those pictures just did not make sense to me, but my parents and my grandma were highly focused watching those images.
It took me years to understand, that this have been one of the greatest events in human history.
I didn't understand it, but at least I watched it.
Unless I'm suffering heatstroke (it is quite hot and I've been manually scraping rust out of a boat hold) or this thread has been kicked up after a couple or years, 1969 to 2021 would be the 52nd anniversary.
Time flies by faster than you realize when you get older
I remember sitting on the floor watching it on TV with my mom and my aunt... I had no idea why it was such a big deal because Abbot and Costello had already gone to Mars... Man, I was a stupid five year old.
HAH! You are correct! It is indeed the 52nd anniversary... Closest mission for 50 years would be Apollo 15 (Launched July 26th, Landed 30 July). Last mission was Apollo 17 in December '72.
I used to be a LOT better at math, but the brain isn't as nimble as it used to be...DOH!
Thread title has been corrected accordingly...
In honor of the momentous day...
we got half a day off school to watch it, I was 7yo.
Mum was a teacher and half of her class crowded into out tiny loungeroom to watch it on our snowy BW TV.
One I did some time ago:
One Small Step
Link to Gallery image
I was 6 and a half (born 1962/11/21) and saw it live. I remember my father helping me (okay, he did 95% percent of the work) to build the Saturn V launch vehicle as well as a combo kit of the Apollo capsule and lunar lander. I no doubt had pulled out all my Major Matt Mason figurines and accessories during July '69 in rapt anticipation!
My parents bought their first television so we could see it. I wasn't yet 5 to at the time. I have a vague memory of seeing the launch live, but I think we saw the landing on the news as it wasn't at a time when the BBC was broadcasting on either of its two channels.
Raising hand. I was 29 and was so exicted about it that I even bought a new TV so I could get a better picture.
I was a bit older than you but I watched those first steps on B&W TV in the middle of the night even though I was confused because Tintin had already been there.
You are the winner of this tread! Excellent story, and accomplishment!
On topic, I was too young to even know what a TV was at the time, so I pretty much missed out...
...was in my mid teens at the time. Remember watching the launch (announced by none other Walter Cronkite). the landing on the moon and that historic step off the LEM to the surface. Yeah the live feed was no where near what we're used to today, black & white and with the bright sun and no atmosphere to scatter light, so everything the shadow of the LEM (where Armstrong exited the craft) had more of a silhouette appearance as he descended the ladder to the LEM's footpad and then took that historic step.
Yeah that was still something to be witness to back then.
Ooh, ooh, me, me. I remember!
Junior in a newly established college. I was visiting classmate friends in a room on "3rd floor East" of what was then called "North Dorm" (as opposed to "South Dorm") one of two new, but as of then, unnamed dormitories at Florida Institute of Technology. There was no public TV on campus at the time. We were up late to watch the first steps on the moon on a black & white TV with a 5 inch screen using a "rabbit ears" antenna and poor snow laden reception. Which made the poor resolution of the moon camera not quite so noticeable. A few years later I was working at the Kennedy Space Center(KSC) in the Launch Control Center(LCC). I'd missed seeing the Apollo manned launches from there but I was standing outside the LCC building for the launch of the last of the Saturn5 rockets, The one that carried the SkyLab space station up to orbit. Wheee... big rockets those Saturn5's were.
...yeah, very envious. Always wanted to see an actual Saturn V launch when I was young. Basically a 35 storey building in flight.
Best I could get was a 44" tall scale Estes model of the rocket I had. Still had a somewhat majestic takeoff for a model with it's cluster of 3 engines.
Thanks everyone... I was feeling a bit old today... but most of your comments have made me feel less old... slightly... but still.
Just joking, none of us are old... just well seasoned or experienced... or something like that.
We were sent home from school at lunch time ( our school didn't have a TV ) to watch it, I started to watch but quickly got bored and went outside to kick the footy around with some mates..
probably a bad decision at the time as next day we had to do a map of where the launch had taken place .... hey to a kid South America looked a lot more cooler than the look of North America, so I drew that with a big rocket blasting off......
at least I thought it was cool... then it was back to the footy.
I remember the 1969 Moon Landing. It was before I started school. First non-series bit of television that I remember seeing. The others were all series like Jonny Quest, Speed Racer, The Flying Nun, Hazel, WGN's Bozo the Clown, and a bunch of other series shows.
The Eagle has landed....
Wait, wrong Eagle!
(link to gallery page)
I was between my Junior and Senior year of High School and sat on my bed working on an arts project for summer school. I embroidered a little lander into the border of the batik piece. I had a little black and white TV I had bought with my first $100.00 earned at a real job. I sat watching the small screen mesmerized. The rest of my family was downstairs watching on the color TV.
My father, who was an aerospace electrical engineer, had worked on Gemini and Apollo spacecraft when I was younger and he and I would go to every display of capsules in the Southern California region.
Later, when I was in the Air Force, I was stationed at Edwards AFB in California and my father visited and my son and he were allowed to tour the hangar where one of the shuttles were being kept one time, and the tour guide carried my small son up to the ship to let him touch the outer hull.
Ah, but who amongst us can remember hearing a certain astronaut drop F-bombs on the moon? Yes, it happened although NASA tried to delay the feed and such. Hmmm... think corned beef sandwich, NASA-philes, and you'll get it right away.
I recorded the sounds with a reel-to-reel tape recorder patched in to the speaker leads on an old B+W television set.
I recommend the color movies brought back from the follow-up landings - some of this appears in various DVD compilations. Also the recently put together documentaries like the "Apollo 11" one on Netflix is just mind-blowing. Ditto the books and documentary about astronaut Pete Conrad.
Kathy Sawyer's book The Rock From Mars goes on a bit about the geology, and teaching Armstrong and Aldrin about collecting desirable samples. Other interesting "back stories" include Dark Side Of The Moon by Wayne Biddle and V-2 (fiction from last summer) by Robert Harris. Also, Camelot's Court by Robert Dallek is a bit of a fresh take on the scramble inside the Kennedy White House for a suitable project to counter Russia's success with Sputnik/Gagarin etc.
Some of the collectiing was a "late add-on" to the first mission; in particular data from one experiment relating to the regolith (sp? - the powder on the ground) came close to being lost IIRC.
I also liked the story about a picture of model Dede Lind and other, ah, unauthorized stuff being... left behind aboard one of the LEM's (IIRC).