Apollo 11
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misswired
Absent Comrade
Huntsville Space & Rocket Center
U.S. Space and Rocket Center launches 5,000 rockets to celebrate 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 launch | WHNT.com...
Edit: skip to 8:00 in video for launch
U.S. Space and Rocket Center launches 5,000 rockets to celebrate 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11 launch | WHNT.com...
Edit: skip to 8:00 in video for launch
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I was in basic training at Ft. Benning.
Happily, we were allowed to watch the landing on the dayroom B&W TV.
Remember it like yesterday.
Still in awe of the Saturn V. 160 million (equivalent) horsepower.
Burned 15 tons of fuel per second at liftoff.
Happily, we were allowed to watch the landing on the dayroom B&W TV.
Remember it like yesterday.
Still in awe of the Saturn V. 160 million (equivalent) horsepower.
Burned 15 tons of fuel per second at liftoff.
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 ...
Operation Paperclip, we grabbed as many NAZI scientists as we could. Von Braun was an ardent NAZI, they had to scrub his record a bit.
misswired
Absent Comrade
Heard it said von Braun designed the unique Memorial Parkway splitting Huntsville down the middle.... still functional with today's traffic.
Guess his allegiance did need a bit of scrubbing.
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Let's never forget Apollo 1
What Happened to NASA's Apollo 1 Mission?
Or the Challenger for that matter. And all the others who put us where we are today.
What Happened to NASA's Apollo 1 Mission?
Or the Challenger for that matter. And all the others who put us where we are today.
Ziggy2525
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The achievement changed America for the better for a generation, maybe more. But... wasn't the real competition between our Nazis and Russia'a Nazis?
I have a coworker who refuses to believe we actually went to the moon. Today she asked me, "The moon is how many light years away? And yet they claimed to have gone there in four days. It's just not possible."
Sometimes you just have to walk away to keep from insulting some one.
Sometimes you just have to walk away to keep from insulting some one.
Indeed, it changed everything. For the better.
A truly heroic event. One of the amazing things is that your cell phone probably has more power and memory then the computers on Apollo 11, combined.
I saw on one of the recent space race specials that the Russian's used "their" Nazi scientists for a while & then they sent them all back to Germany after they concluded they could do better themselves.
They created their large rockets themselves & hide the failures to create the illusion they were farther ahead than they were.
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New color set?
New color set and the pics from the moon look like black and white ghosts.
Of course we got to see Walter Cronkite almost go to pieces in living color.
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.
New color set and the pics from the moon look like black and white ghosts.
Of course we got to see Walter Cronkite almost go to pieces in living color.
Was it Werner von Braun.....
....In "The Right Stuff" movie that said, "OUR GERMANS ARE BETTER THAN THEIR GERMANS!"
....In "The Right Stuff" movie that said, "OUR GERMANS ARE BETTER THAN THEIR GERMANS!"
Money.
Money was the problem then.w/the space program, Vietnam, bases all over the US and the world and weapons programs for the Cold War That's why we went to the moon and sort wound everything down after that. There simply wasn't enough money.
Now, it's even worse, $22 trillion in debt with huge deficits and endless, perpetual, wars. The current spending is unsustainable. Where is the money going to come from to fund an endeavor back to the Moon, much less Mars?
Money. There isn't any.
Money was the problem then.w/the space program, Vietnam, bases all over the US and the world and weapons programs for the Cold War That's why we went to the moon and sort wound everything down after that. There simply wasn't enough money.
Now, it's even worse, $22 trillion in debt with huge deficits and endless, perpetual, wars. The current spending is unsustainable. Where is the money going to come from to fund an endeavor back to the Moon, much less Mars?
Money. There isn't any.
I hate to complain...
The shuttle was an unbelievable technical accomplishment and I won't take anything from that. But they said they HAD to have the shuttle to do this and that. They could have used conventional rockets and more likely had a better safety and cost record.
The shuttle was an unbelievable technical accomplishment and I won't take anything from that. But they said they HAD to have the shuttle to do this and that. They could have used conventional rockets and more likely had a better safety and cost record.
Titan Tom
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I grew up in Titusville, FL, situated right across the Indian River lagoon from the Vehicle Assembly Building and launch complexes 39 A&B. I was eight years old on launch day.
I had pestered my Mom for quite a while to get enough S&H Green Stamps from her trips to the grocery store to purchase a chintzy little telescope to watch Apollo 11 fly. Come the morning of July 16, 1969 I was in Taylor Dunn's backyard right on the Indian River, across US 1 from Searstown Mall in Titusville. I got all set up with my little telescope on its tripod prior to liftoff, but as I was peering through my 'scope, I could hear everybody around me whooping and yelling, I saw nothing! I had focused in on the Ordnance Tower, which obviously was rolled back into the 'Launch" position! It didn't take me long to get on target, and I only missed the first few seconds of 1st stage ignition. I did watch the stack climb S-L-O-W-L-Y up past the umbilical tower, and then, bit by bit, gain speed to orbit. A few moments later the sound of the launch reached us, along with the HUGE rumble that shook the ground like a small quake. As with all of the Saturn V launches I witnessed, one of the highlights was 1st Staging, when the giant stage 1 booster fell away. When that thing fell away it was so big, and you could watch it fall forever. I saw all of the Saturn 5 launches, with the exception of Apollo 15, which I watched on TV as I was at my Grandmother's house in Gainesville. The 2nd most memorable for me was Apollo 17, the last moon mission, which was launched in the middle of the night. Awesome!
I ended up spending my whole career in the space launch/missile industry. Six years in the Navy as a Missile Tech on the Poseidon/Trident I systems, including duty aboard the first sub tender in Kings Bay, GA (USS Simon Lake AS-33), followed up by a DASO (Demonstration and Shakedown Operation) test launch of a Trident 1 (my first launch) and two patrols on the USS Casimir Pulaski SSBN 633(G). After the Navy I spent 20 years on the Titan program at Cape Canaveral AFS, on Complexes 40 & 41, which are now used by Space X and ULA Atlas 5, respectively. The Titan program at Cape Canaveral ended in 2005, and I was transferred back to the SLBM world, spending my last 10 years on the Trident II system. In 2015 I retired after 30 years with Martin Marietta/Lockheed Martin, and thought I was done. Nope, I ended up as a consultant for 18 months on the NASA project that did the electrical installation on the new mobile launcher that will be used in support of the SLS/Orion launches off Pad 39B.
I think I've posted this picture here before a few years ago, but sorry, here it is again. I shows me the moment I pushed the 'Resume Countdown' and 'Launch' pushbuttons for the last Titan to fly from the Cape, Titan 4B-30, which flew in the evening of April 30, 2005., a very bittersweet moment for me. If you look real close in the monitors in the upper right, you can see the vehicle sitting on CX 40 before it flew up to Heaven like a homesick Angel.
I had pestered my Mom for quite a while to get enough S&H Green Stamps from her trips to the grocery store to purchase a chintzy little telescope to watch Apollo 11 fly. Come the morning of July 16, 1969 I was in Taylor Dunn's backyard right on the Indian River, across US 1 from Searstown Mall in Titusville. I got all set up with my little telescope on its tripod prior to liftoff, but as I was peering through my 'scope, I could hear everybody around me whooping and yelling, I saw nothing! I had focused in on the Ordnance Tower, which obviously was rolled back into the 'Launch" position! It didn't take me long to get on target, and I only missed the first few seconds of 1st stage ignition. I did watch the stack climb S-L-O-W-L-Y up past the umbilical tower, and then, bit by bit, gain speed to orbit. A few moments later the sound of the launch reached us, along with the HUGE rumble that shook the ground like a small quake. As with all of the Saturn V launches I witnessed, one of the highlights was 1st Staging, when the giant stage 1 booster fell away. When that thing fell away it was so big, and you could watch it fall forever. I saw all of the Saturn 5 launches, with the exception of Apollo 15, which I watched on TV as I was at my Grandmother's house in Gainesville. The 2nd most memorable for me was Apollo 17, the last moon mission, which was launched in the middle of the night. Awesome!
I ended up spending my whole career in the space launch/missile industry. Six years in the Navy as a Missile Tech on the Poseidon/Trident I systems, including duty aboard the first sub tender in Kings Bay, GA (USS Simon Lake AS-33), followed up by a DASO (Demonstration and Shakedown Operation) test launch of a Trident 1 (my first launch) and two patrols on the USS Casimir Pulaski SSBN 633(G). After the Navy I spent 20 years on the Titan program at Cape Canaveral AFS, on Complexes 40 & 41, which are now used by Space X and ULA Atlas 5, respectively. The Titan program at Cape Canaveral ended in 2005, and I was transferred back to the SLBM world, spending my last 10 years on the Trident II system. In 2015 I retired after 30 years with Martin Marietta/Lockheed Martin, and thought I was done. Nope, I ended up as a consultant for 18 months on the NASA project that did the electrical installation on the new mobile launcher that will be used in support of the SLS/Orion launches off Pad 39B.
I think I've posted this picture here before a few years ago, but sorry, here it is again. I shows me the moment I pushed the 'Resume Countdown' and 'Launch' pushbuttons for the last Titan to fly from the Cape, Titan 4B-30, which flew in the evening of April 30, 2005., a very bittersweet moment for me. If you look real close in the monitors in the upper right, you can see the vehicle sitting on CX 40 before it flew up to Heaven like a homesick Angel.
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I was 8 years old and glued to a tiny black and white tv on a wire tv stand, those around in those days will know what I am referring to. It was the most incredible thing to see. It made me understand what it was to be an American, something that is lost on todays generation. I too recall the tv's being wheeled in to the classroom for viewing special events. It was a very different time.
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