Apollo 11 48th anniversary

[roadgeek01]

Hello!  Today is the twentieth, which means that it is the 48th anniversary of Apollo 11.  So, if you were alive then, what do you remember?  And for those like me, who weren't alive, or can't remember, do you have any memories having to do with space in general?


Well, when I was young, I had a phase about space.  I still like space, nonetheless, but here are some things that I remember from that time in my childhood.

   
• Watching Apollo 13 over and over and over and over again, much to the ad nauseum of my siblings. 
• Wanting the models of the Saturn V rocket that Jeffery had in the movie, which Jim Lovell was showing how the rocket works.
• Wanting to have rocket stuff in general.
• Having a giant tent in my room that looked like a rocket that I got for Christmas one time. 
• Drawing rockets that looked insane, and would never fly.
• Wanting to be an astronaut for any Halloween every year.

Well, that's as much as I remember, so have a good day,

[nexus73]

Growing up watching the Mercury and Gemini launches, which were broadcast live on the networks, was like watching the NFL playoffs.  Landing on the Moon was the long awaited Super Bowl of the Space Race!  After that the USA lost its way and political will and no one else has landed on the Moon let alone Mars since Apollo 18 did so. 

The Ming Dynasty built up a massive fleet and China was on the verge of becoming Seapower #1 on the planet, only to slink back to the Celestial Kingdom, where the fleet was scrapped.  It was all downhill for the Chinese after that.  We repeated the same history of voyaging and now look where we are as a nation, mired in debt, dissolution and division.  Go forward or die!

Now we have to hope Elon Musk, Richard Branson and other pioneers in privatized spaceflight come to the rescue.  So far the going is slow.  Whoever gets to the resources of the Solar System first is going to match another bit of history, namely the Spanish conquistadors finding the Aztec and Incan gold that made Spain the top dog for a century.  With so much reward to be had, one would think the race to space in the 21st century was not being done at a snail's pace.  We humans have done much better in terms of technological development when war causes the curve to zoom up very fast.  I guess destruction is a better lure for progress than profit...LOL!

Rick

[briantroutman]

I grew up in the post-Challenger era–certainly well after humans left the moon. That said, it seemed like every kid around my age had a Space Shuttle poster on his or her wall, dreamed of going to Space Camp, and seriously thought that living in space was our inevitable future. It was the kind of starry-eyed optimism that you'd find at EPCOT in those days before it became the place bored adults went to get drunk.

But I get the impression that most of today's kids aren't really interested in space–especially not in any kind of a practical, realistic sense.

[Rothman]

NASA's space program was a source of national pride when I was younger.  It is horrible what has happened to it.

Loved reading about the Viking and Voyager missions.

Here is hoping that our society can come together to do truly great things again after these dark ages.

[SP Cook]

I was a little kid in 1969.  While I remember the tail end of the Apollo program, I can't say I really remember 11. 

As an exercise in scientific research, the advancements from Apollo, particularly in computers, moved society forward greatly.

The ability to place satellites in orbit has revolutionized communications, mapping, weather forecasting, military spying, and other fields.  This is done, on a commercial basis, via tested and true unmanned rockets by multiple nations.

However, what we found on the moon was a lifeless rock with no recoverable resource that can benefit mankind in any way.   Done at a cost of billions of $$ and at a time that the country was bogged down in a endless war with an 8th rate military power that failed presidents of both parties refused to give our soldiers permission to win.  The best way to look at Apollo is really it was the world's most expensive publicity stunt. 

This was followed by the space shuttle at $1.5BILLION per launch.  Which acomplished pretty much nothing.  Blumt fact is that having people in orbit is not worth the cost, and the only other "place" it is possible to go, Mars, is another dead rock of no practical benefit to anybody.  Blunt fact is that Einstein was right, and that means Roddenberry was wrong and Mars is as far as it gets.

I hope to see the end of people in space in my lifetime.

[rte66man]

I happened to be living in Houston the summer of 1969.  Between Apollo 11 and the Astros finally being a part of a pennant race, things were very exciting for this young boy.

[US 81]

I was quite small. We had a tiny black-and-white TV, and I remember seeing it happen. I was excited but also (I am told) kept falling asleep.

I also remember when Apollo 13 happened, I couldn't understand why all the adults were so worried. It was NASA, it was those larger-than-life super-hero astronauts, OF COURSE they were going to get back safely to Earth.

[gonealookin]

We lived in the East Bay (San Francisco area) and our neighborhood was a relatively early adopter of "Community Antenna Television", or cable TV, due to the hills and terrible reception via antenna.  It was the broadcast channels from San Francisco and maybe a couple from Sacramento.  The service was unreliable, and naturally a while before Neil Armstrong was due to descend the steps we lost everything, just looking at snow on the black and white 19" Zenith.  We didn't have a rooftop antenna because of the cable, and rabbit ears by themselves couldn't pull in a signal.  I'm pretty sure it did come back by the time Armstrong set his foot down but Mom and Dad were not happy.

I liked watching the launches, but too often I would run to the TV in the morning to watch Captain Kangaroo and instead would see Walter Cronkite sitting at a desk droning on endlessly during the buildup to the launch.

[wxfree]

We should celebrate the 48th anniversary of one of humanity's greatest accomplishments: faking a landing on the moon in a hoax so perfect and convincing that the whole world has accepted it as truth for nearly half a century.

[GaryV]

I remember watching one of the moon landings - but I'm not sure it was Apollo 11 - and seeing the moon outside the family room windows above the TV.

[PHLBOS]

I remember watching one of the moon landings - but I'm not sure it was Apollo 11 - and seeing the moon outside the family room windows above the TV.

Same with me.  I was a bit too young (3 going on 4 at the time) to remember Apollo 11.

[jeffandnicole]

NASA's space program was a source of national pride when I was younger.  It is horrible what has happened to it.

Loved reading about the Viking and Voyager missions.

Here is hoping that our society can come together to do truly great things again after these dark ages.

In my carpool I have a few space nuts that, after the shuttle program ended, swore that they'll have something else up and running in short order because it's just too important not to.  Other than a few unmanned rockets (which they're not exploding at the launch pad), the US hasn't done much at all in terms of getting people into space.

We should celebrate the 48th anniversary of one of humanity's greatest accomplishments: faking a landing on the moon in a hoax so perfect and convincing that the whole world has accepted it as truth for nearly half a century.

And not a sole, of the many, many people that would be involved in such a hoax, has ever mentioned it.  What are the odds??!!!

[roadman]

I recall the tail end of the Gemini program, and followed the Apollo program closely (at one point, my brothers and I built the Revell Saturn 5 model kit).  I remember Apollo 11 and the moon landing very well, as well as Apollo 13.

As others have stated, in those days the space program was a great source of national pride.  As for the decline in NASA since, I think Hal Holbrook summed it up best in Capricorn One:  Look around with what's happened to this country.  Nobody gives a c^@p about anything anymore.

[Takumi]

We should celebrate the 48th anniversary of one of humanity's greatest accomplishments: faking a landing on the moon in a hoax so perfect and convincing that the whole world has accepted it as truth for nearly half a century.

Please let this be sarcasm.

[freebrickproductions]

We should celebrate the 48th anniversary of one of humanity's greatest accomplishments: faking a landing on the moon in a hoax so perfect and convincing that the whole world has accepted it as truth for nearly half a century.

And not a sole, of the many, many people that would be involved in such a hoax, has ever mentioned it.  What are the odds??!!!

Not to mention other countries, including our main rivals at the time, the USSR, who would've loved it if the US did really fake the moon landings!

In fact, the USSR had receivers pointed at the moon and were able to determine, that yes, we really did send people up there. Had the US faked the whole thing, they would've exposed us very, very quickly!

Many amateur radio operators were also able to pick up the signals being sent from the moon by the Apollo missions, so they also would've known if the whole thing was a farce!

[Desert Man]

The first manned moon landing coverage is on Youtube, available for anyone not around or alive in 1969 (that would be me, born in 1980). I wish NASA could do more manned lunar missions or put humans on Mars in the future.

[freebrickproductions]

The first manned moon landing coverage is on Youtube, available for anyone not around or alive in 1969 (that would be me, born in 1980). I wish NASA could do more manned lunar missions or put humans on Mars in the future.

Problem is cost. With the moon landings, NASA was essentially written blank check after blank check by the government, to the point where it made up 4% of the federal budget, so they could get man to the moon in under a decade. When it came to doing the same thing with what would become the ISS, we wound-up having NASA work with the Russian space program to get the ISS into space and built, thus reducing the costs for NASA (as they didn't have nearly 4% of the federal budget at the time). Not sure how Trump's gonna manage to get NASA to get us to Mars in 10 years or less, especially with how he wants to cut NASA's funding in the process.

[US71]

The first manned moon landing coverage is on Youtube, available for anyone not around or alive in 1969 (that would be me, born in 1980). I wish NASA could do more manned lunar missions or put humans on Mars in the future.

Problem is cost. With the moon landings, NASA was essentially written blank check after blank check by the government, to the point where it made up 4% of the federal budget, so they could get man to the moon in under a decade. When it came to doing the same thing with what would become the ISS, we wound-up having NASA work with the Russian space program to get the ISS into space and built, thus reducing the costs for NASA (as they didn't have nearly 4% of the federal budget at the time). Not sure how Trump's gonna manage to get NASA to get us to Mars in 10 years or less, especially with how he wants to cut NASA's funding in the process.

Now we just write blank checks to corporations

[ZLoth]

It sucks to think that the media thinks we are more interested in Beyonce and the Kardashians instead of good science stories.

Excuse me, but it's how you present the science stories. Make it sounds like a science class, and of course people aren't interested. Make it sound more like Mythbusters or Mike Massimino's Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, and people will be interested.

[kurumi]

It sucks to think that the media thinks we are more interested in Beyonce and the Kardashians instead of good science stories.

A lot of people in power would prefer we stay more interested in celebrities and disregard science and facts

[davewiecking]

The upcoming Apollo 11 landing caused many families (mine included) to purchase one of those relatively new-fangled color TV's in order to view an event that was filmed and broadcast in black and white.