Apollo 11

[ace22]

50 years ago today, apollo 11 successfully blasted off on it's trip to the moon. 4 days later july 20, 1969 they landed and accomplished a feat that no other country has equaled let alone surpassed in all of these years!

i tip my hat to the brave men that made that trip and to all the behind the scenes people that helped them do it!

astronaut buzz aldrin recalls first moments on the moon..

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin recalls first moments on the moon on 50th anniversary of mission

50 photos of the mission..

These 50 photos offer a rare glimpse of the Apollo 11 mission

 

[Sistema1927]

I think that I sat glued to our B&W TV from lift off to splash down. (And Mom didn't say "Why don't you go play outside?")

 

[Rustyt1953]

I was 16. Our family was also glued to the telly.

Dad was 3 years retired from the Air Force and when Armstrong stepped off the ladder, dad said: "that's how you put a country on its feet"!

 

[ladder13]

'MURICA

 

[loknload]

I'd have to say one of the greatest events and accomplishments of my time!
We had our noses glued to the TV and my grandmother had just gotten a new color set.

 

[muddocktor]

Yep, those were the truly good old days back then, as far as our space program goes.

Stupidest thing NASA ever did in my opinion was to retire the Saturn V launch system. That monster could loft over 150 tons to LEO. Think of how fast they could have assembled the ISS with that instead of the Shuttle.

 

[Watchdog]

Yep, those were the truly good old days back then, as far as our space program goes.

Stupidest thing NASA ever did in my opinion was to retire the Saturn V launch system.

Pretty much in agreement with you regarding NASA. For an organization that's supposedly comprised of the most brilliant minds in the world, it seems incredibly short-sighted.

Then there was the problem of funding. President Kennedy made the space program one of the highest priorities. Years after his death, it became less important in the eyes of other presidents and Congress. Then it became important again...and so on and so forth.

Private corporations are now taking on leadership roles. And sooner or later, I believe one of them is going to develop a propulsion system that isn't based on our current system. Then, and only then, will we begin to realize the dream of true space exploration.

 

[PALADIN85020]

I was 30 years old then, and my wife was pregnant with what was to become our 4th daughter. I was then an industry HR manager in Chandler, AZ, living in nearby Tempe.

I remember being glued to our black and white TV, and watching with amazement as Neil Armstrong took a hop down off of Eagle's ladder to the surface of the moon. The stuff only science fiction could match.

And yes, the TV picture was just this indistinct and fuzzy...

John

 

[hoc9sw]

For the landing, I was in an amphitheater with some 40,000 other Scouts in Idaho.

 

[ladder13]

I think every American, and most of the civilized world, watched this historic event.

 

[walkinghorse]

I think that the first moon landing by US astronauts was one the significant events in our country's history!
I was kind of limited in activiies and watching the event on B&W tv was a big event! Watching TV and reading books was about all I could do at the time. I was recovering from an encounter with 34,000 volts, and in the hospital for a 6 week stay!

 

[Chuck24]

Both of my inlaws were engineers at NASA Langley and i remember them saying how flabbergasted they were when Kennedy said we were going to the moon before the end of the decade. Think about it, wed only had a man in space about 15 minutes. But they said after the shock wore off, we can do this.

 

[Maddog 521]

I spent the night before the moon launch with my buddy on Cocoa Beach waiting for sunrise. We consumed many cans of beer and told many stories that night. When the sun came up we were ready to watch history being made. What a crazy night that was. I called him and asked him what he remembered about it, he said "probably about as much as you remember". What a great memory. When I mention this my wife just laughs and says WOW.

 

[loknload]

I'm still waiting for a Starfleet Galaxy Class Strship with a transporter room!

 

[ace22]

I'd have to say one of the greatest events and accomplishments of my time!

of any time! nobody else has ever matched it since!

 

[notsofast]

I was 15 and it was incredibly exciting, Americans with American know how and desire would leave the earth and set foot on a foreign heavenly body. Real inspiration that unfortunately we don't find much of today

 

[Fishinfool]

Its funny, everybody remembers Neil Armstrong's famous first step off the ladder, and the famous words "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"

No one remembers what Buzz Aldrin did on the last step of the landing craft ladder before being the second man to step on the moon - He took a leak.

That's why he paused with his leg lifted before stepping down onto the surface of the moon.....

Larry

 

[Rudi]

I remember grade school, they would wheel in the TVs and we would all watch the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launches. A great time in history. Until we land a human on Mars, the Moon landing won't be topped. USA USA USA!!!

 

[Absalom]

.... Americans with American know how and desire ....

...A great time in history. Until we land a human on Mars, the Moon landing won't be topped. USA USA USA!!!

Umm, yeah, but let's not forget that the Saturn V which made it possible was largely developed by Wernher von Braun, using the metric system ...

 

[BLUEDOT37]

No one remembers what Buzz Aldrin did on the last step of the landing craft ladder before being the second man to step on the moon - He took a leak.

Well, I'm sure if Neil had done it we would have never heard about it anyway. He was just a tad more modest.

.

Re-watching all the recent specials about the space race & lunar mission makes you wonder how people can't help but to be proud of what we did.

.