On this day in 1969, man set foot on another world for the very first time

[Major Nikon]

The first beer of the night is dedicated to those 3 men and everyone else who got them there.

[madinmaryland]

1. Interesting video clip of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon...

[drm604]

29. Wow, that brings back memories.

The picture on the TV really was that bad for some reason. I think they had some kind of glitch with the broadcast.

But I watched this in awe at the time.

[SeattleVet]

62. Yes, there was a glitch with the feed ...

what we all saw was from a TV camera pointed at a monitor screen!

[drm604]

64. Now that you said it

I remember hearing that.

[rurallib]

2. good thing the gummint never helped them - the project would have failed

I can still remember where I was when all this happened.

Oh and a toast to Dick Nixon - the guy who made it happen

[Major Nikon]

4. Just like Raygun won the cold war

[Archae]

3. I was 9 years old.

I stayed up all night watching.

[frogmarch]

5. I remember it well!

I happened to be buying chocolate bars for my three little kids (and myself, of course) at country general store in the Wyoming boondocks, when footage of the landing came on the little b&w TV in the store. The store owner was a Jehovah’s Witness and kept saying the moon landing was a hoax.

My daughter, who was around three at the time, became a physicist and was on the Cassini launch team. Her two brothers are engineers and also worked on the Cassini project. At the time of the moon landing, my daughter wanted to be a kitty when she grew up (I’d always told my kids they could be whatever they wanted to be when they grew up) and her brothers both wanted to be Superman.

The moon landing was truly momentous!

[unc70]

25. Was doing rocket science that summer

My wife and I stayed up for hours for the landing, the long time waiting, and finally actually setting foot on the moon.

I was doing rocket science that summer under contract to White Sands, working for the senior civilian Herr Dr. among the "paper clip" scientists. Some of my much later software products are widely used by NASA, was used for shuttle and still for station.

To have three children involved with Cassini must be a record. Reason to be proud.

BTW A lunar lander (used for training) is on display at the NC Museum of Life + Science in Durham, NC.

[frogmarch]

30. Wonderful, unc70! I

don't know you, but I am very proud of you and your rocket science contributions and accomplishments!

Yes, whew - my kids turned out fine. There were times when they were teenagers that all I dared to hope was that they wouldn't end up in jail, or worse, for some of the stupid shenanigans they pulled.

I'll Google to see if I can find a picture of the the lunar lander. Thanks!

[unc70]

48. Have done other things more than rockets

I have had a very interesting ride so far, been a tiny part of a lot of really big big things, and have lived to tell about it. Rocket science is just a small part of it, though an exciting one.

Actually trying to document some of it as I can. Have posted a few things in my journal. There are so many DUers with their own interesting experiences and recollections. As a group, be provide a wonderful mosaic of the last 60+ years.

I looked for info on the lander in Durham. It wasn't a focus on their web site. I assume it is still there. I last saw it a couple of years ago.

[frogmarch]

50. The last photo

on this page is captioned "Moon Lander." I assume this is a photo of the real thing.
http://www.houstontours.com/Web%20Page%20NASA.html

All the Durham Museum of Life + Science had to say about the lander was this: “Sit inside a real Apollo Space Capsule, explore a full-scale Lunar Lander...” (It sounds as if this lunar lander could be a replica.)

I checked your DU journal, but it was empty – or maybe I’ll need to renew my star to see it.

I agree that DUers have, or have had, interesting experiences to share here!

[unc70]

51. Check my DU2 journal and archive

The Apollo module you can crawl in is a mock up used for some type of training. The Lunar Lander was used in training. Obviously, the ones that flew did not return.

[drm604]

63. I think that lander may be the one from Apollo 18, which was cancelled.

But I could be mistaken.

[unc70]

65. The module is TM-5 aka JSC-12 an engineering trainer

I found it on a site called "The Field Guide to American Spacecraft" which has what happened to the various modules, which ones are on exhibit, which are on the moon, etc.


[link:http://americanspacecraft.com/pages/lunarmod/tm-5.html|

[unc70]

66. Here are reference pages for TM-5 lander in NC, and all the others

Finally found good documentation of all the places you can find pieces of the US space program

Here are the links for the specific pieces in Durham NC. The site has a rather complete directory.

http://americanspacecraft.com/pages/apollo/ap-ncmls.html

http://americanspacecraft.com/pages/lunarmod/tm-5.html

[frogmarch]

68. Thanks!

I'm on my way to check them out.

[drm604]

31. I was thirteen.

I ended up going into software and I actually got to spend time on a team writing software for a NASA satellite ground station.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_and_Data_Relay_Satellite_System

[frogmarch]

33. Very, very cool!

Oh, and thanks for the link. I've got it open and ready to read. I'm not sure how much of it I'll be able to grasp, but I always try my best.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

6. Sure he did. Suuuuure he did.

You just go on believing that....


Kidding. It was a great night. I remember running out onto the lawn (I had just turned eight years old) to look up at the moon to see them.

[4th law of robotics]

7. And none of them, from the astronauts to the engineers had access

to computing power even equal to an average phone today.

But they did it.

And we can't.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

36. We can,...we just wont....

During the last Apollo mission Nixon told the astronauts they were to be the last men on the moon in that century.

That made some of them really mad. They were just getting good at it.

The reason Nixon killed it is because he considered it a "Kennedy" thing.

What have Republicans contributed that has been seen as a benefit for all of humanity?

Tax cuts?

Sad.

[Confusious]

53. I believe congress and Nixon cut it

Becuase the united states was hemorraging money becuase of the vietnam war.

the vietnam war and the hemorraging of moneywas also the reason for taking us off the gold standard.

The public also didn't really care anymore.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

55. Actually, on the Democratic side of the aisle it Walter Mondale that wanted to cut NASA.

But that's because he wanted to take care of the poor.

NASA was cut.

The poor never got the money.

Thanks Walt.

[Confusious]

56. That was in 67

NASA wasn't cut until the budget of the 70's, and by that time everyone was cutting it.

Apollo 19 and 20 were the first to go.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

58. The attitude was "nobody cares anymore".

Spend the money here.

[eppur_se_muova]

47. You can recreate the experience using an emulated AGC ...

http://www.ibiblio.org/apollo/

The Block I AGC initially had 12 kilowords of fixed memory, but this was later increased to 24 kilowords. Block II had 32 kilowords of fixed memory and 4 kilowords of erasable memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

[MiddleFingerMom]

8. There's a GREAT Intertubes meme -- a picture of Neil Armstrong on the moon with the caption...

.
.
.
... "This was done with a slide rule. Your smartphone has more computing power than
NASA had to accomplish this. Why don't you kids go update your Facebook status?"
.
.
.

[Kaleva]

9. In the 1950's, test pilots were being killed at the rate of about 1 a week.

Russians probably lost far more.

[SeattleVet]

10. I was between 8th & 9th grade...

and spent most of that evening (and the next) laying on my stomach in front of the TV, enthralled.

I still tend to get a little misty when looking at the Moon for any length of time, knowing that we were there, then let it all slip away.

A friend put it into context - the late 60's and early 70's were almost like having a slice of time that belonged in the mid-21st Century that somehow got plopped back to the mid-20th Century.

[LongTomH]

35. And the first decades of the 21st Century feel like...

...a slice of time from the late 19th Century inserted into the 21st. God, I wish we were still the young, vibrant, can-do country that sent humans to the moon! I pray, I pray that we haven't completely lost that country!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

37. In the 60's the 21st Century was supposed to be about space.

Instead, the only "space" was about how much is was in an SUV.

[xtraxritical]

45. I consider NASA's programs welfare for the MIC.

[eppur_se_muova]

46. "A bit of 21st century history that just happend to fall in the 20th century" ...

can't remember who said that, and a quick Google didn't help.

[kentauros]

11. I'm surprised there aren't more recs of this

Thanks for posting though, and reminding us!

We lived in the little incorporated town (Nassau Bay, or "Nasa Bay" to the media) directly across from NASA-JSC, so I grew up playing with the astronauts' kids. I remember Schweikart's kids, Garriot's son, and astronaut James Irwin (his kids were in Boy Scouts with me, and he was a really nice guy.)

One of the doctors that had to remain in isolation with the returning astronauts lived across the street from us, but I never really knew him as he and his wife kept to themselves. Still, we were literally surrounded by Apollo astronauts (Bean, Irwin, Schweikart, Aldrin), their families and plenty of the support teams.

It was a very exciting time to live as a kid

[Tumbulu]

24. wow- how interesting!

do you know what they wanted to be when they grew up?

Thanks for sharing this with us.

[kentauros]

28. It's been too long for me to remember something like that.

However, you could tell what Richard Garriot was going to do with his life in high school (he went on to become wealthy from his creation of the Ultima computer games.) The rest were just some of my good friends in school. Ultimately, I ended up with more (crazy) friends from marching band than any other mutual interests

[Spitfire of ATJ]

38. My parents were stationed at Vandenberg so I grew up watching rockets launch

from the back yard. There was one launch at sunset they intentionally blew up over the ocean. The colors were literally unforgettable.

Everyone thought space travel would be as routine as air travel. The Concorde was introduced as flying passengers at supersonic speeds and the Pan Am Space Clipper was considered to be the future. Talk of weightless travel from New York to Tokyo in about an hour.

Then came Nixon who promised to bridge the gaps. The Generation Gap and the Poverty Gap. Instead, he not only maintained those gaps, he created new ones.

[Populist_Prole]

12. Most impressive thing we've ever done IMO

....And it was 43 years ago. Not much to wave the flag about these days..............

[krispos42]

13. The Onion was there

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. Fuck. That's the kind of shit I would have posted.

Before I got polite.

[Archae]

14. Yet there still are "Moon Landing Hoax" ditwits out there.

Including the guy who had his bell rung by Buzz Aldrin.

[Odin2005]

16. Didn't Buzz once say he wanted to choke those bastards?

[Tumbulu]

27. My mother was completely convinced that it was a hoax at the time....

We were watching it on the TV and my dad was so excited- in fact we were watching it at a fundraiser that my mom had organized to build a hall that would feed the homeless- and there was one TV with a huge crowd around trying to watch it. Lots of excited people...my mom became convinced that it was a hollywood hoax though and my dad got so perturbed! He just refused to talk to her about it.

She remained convinced that it was a hoax because the anniversary day was not made into a national holiday- which in her mind- if it were real- it should have been. She maintained that there should have been coins minted and every school child should need to memorize the astronauts names, etc. The fact that a bigger deal was not made of it convinced her that it was a hoax. She was in her late 50's at the time and perhaps it was just too big of a stretch? Don't know really, but I agree with her that a much bigger deal should have been made of it.

It was/is a big amazing deal!

[awoke_in_2003]

41. You don't call guys...

who willingly strap themselves to thousands and thousands of gallons of rocket fuel liars, cowards, and thieves without tasting some fist

[Lionel Mandrake]

60. Yep. They're still around.

The Flat Earth Society and other cranks thrive on the internet.

http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/

[Odin2005]

15. This 26yo is in awe at what this guys did.

I'm reminded of a Sagan quote:

A scientific colleague tells me about a recent trip to the New Guinea highlands where she visited a stone age culture hardly contacted by Western civilization. They were ignorant of wristwatches, soft drinks, and frozen food. But they knew about Apollo 11. They knew that humans had walked on the Moon. They knew the names of Armstrong and Aldrin and Collins. They wanted to know who was visiting the Moon these days.

[HeiressofBickworth]

17. I remember it well

My daughter was just learning to walk. We were all gathered around the TV at my in-laws house. She was toddling around the coffee table, fell and gashed her forehead open. Oh, boy, did it bleed for a few minutes but then slowed down a lot. I called the pediatrician's office to get her in right away. They asked about the wound, the amount of blood and her condition and then told me to wait a half an hour and then bring her in. We did so. She got several stitches and was thereafter known at the clinic as the "Moonwalk Laceration". She still has the scar.

[kwolf68]

18. Holy shit

Just posted this on facebook and my cousin said she doesn't think this happened. My god...

I love this girl, she is so important to me, but that baffles me.

[Major Nikon]

19. Ask your cousin how they got the mirror on the moon that is still used today to measure distance

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/21jul_llr/

[kwolf68]

20. Awesome...had no idea

I've posted this on my Facebook but as it's late I expect she's out for the count, but this is good stuff. Thanks for the post.

[awoke_in_2003]

42. Also ask her...

why the Soviets didn't speak up. They tracked us all the way there- if we had lied they would of let everyone know about it.

[neeksgeek]

43. Like my Sister-in-law

I love her dearly but she is convinced this never happened. She was born in 1980, I was born in 1970 and though I can't remember the moon landings I certainly remember Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz linkup... Even though she rejects the moon landings, she accepts weather satellites, satellite TV, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars Rovers, etc... I just don't get it.

[valerief]

21. Good pics, but we all know the REAL other world is where the filthy rich live. nt

[malthaussen]

22. Interesting site for lunatics:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/apollo11.htm

Contains transcripts of every Apollo mission. As well as Mercury and Geminii.

I honestly remember Alan Shepherd better than Apollo 11. Weird, given that I was 6 at the time.

-- Mal

[truedelphi]

44. Transcripts of every flight? Really?

That is way too kuhl. Thanks for posting.

[whistler162]

23. Man you are gullible.

[Graybeard]

26. It really was a great adventure.

The way Armstrong took control of the LEM and set it down perfectly.

And so much was unknown that it was a relief to see him able to plant his foot on solid ground. Many thought the Moon might be covered in fine sand many feet deep.

And when the three returned they were put into a "quarantine capsule" as a precaution against bringing some alien bacteria back with them.

[drm604]

32. I remember it well.

And I still get teary-eyed.

Subsequent generations have had nothing remotely like this. Why did we stop?

[kentauros]

34. One part of the movie "Koyaanisqatsi" that's always been a favorite

is near the beginning when they use some of the high-speed camera footage of this launch. Here's that clip, plus some later clips where an in-operation engine-gimbal test is being performed
(That leads into what looks like an Atlas failure early on in the space program.)

[Spitfire of ATJ]

40. Part of the whole mythic quallity of the launch was the fire and ice thing.

[6000eliot]

49. That we KNOW OF.

[A HERETIC I AM]

52. Great thread.

Two years ago on the old DU I put up a thread of pics showing the assembly and rollout of the Apollo 11 craft;


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6091080

[Tikki]

54. Four GI's and I watched the Moon landing and walk on a tiny B&W television..

even then it was amazing...


Tikki

[demguy_5692]

57. one of the greatest accomplishments of mankind.

[Graybeard]

59. "...a giant leap..."

...as Armstrong so perfectly said it.

And welcome to DU demguy 5692!!

[RedCloud]

61. We have set foot on our other Earth.

The moon came from our Earth. Without our moon life as we know it would not exist. Yet we shot a bomb at it!

[1620rock]

67. "Magnificent Desolation" -Buzz Aldrin