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Man on the Moon! July 20, 1969

Anyone see “American Experience” tonight. Chasing the Moon. Wow. Emotional rollercoaster.
 
American Experience one of only 3 shows that my dvr is set to record automatically.

The other 2 would be Nova &Nature.
 
I don't recall seeing or hearing we did claim the moon. I will bet, however, that had Russia or China beat us there THEY sure as hell would have!
China has recently landed (unmanned) on the far side of the moon. We'll never be able to see what they're up to there. But, seeing all these "new islands" sprouting up in the South China Sea ..... they are an *industrious* people (like Americans used to be).
I was 10 years old when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. A middle class kid in a large family with limited resources, yet so inspired by the Apollo Program and, subsequently, aviation. The pinnacle of my career has now been flying captain on the 747. What inspires kids these days?
 
There's a good series on "Apollo: Mission to the Moon"
this week on National Geographic & another About the space race
on Science Channel all week, select times
a couple other channels have some documentary stuff too

I find it all extremely interesting, great part of US history

there were some 36,000+ (? IIRC) NASA employees
& some 360,000+ (? IIRC) contractors, some 400,000 that contributed
it's amazing the logistics, demographics & procurement processes,
it must have been mind boggling

average age of the NASA engineers was 27 y/o
I find that telling & patriotic

both shows have been really good
some 1st hand accounts & some documentary style narratives

there's another one on the AHC network,
usually all military stuff, has some NASA/Apollo programing stuff too

Cold war era stuff, NASA (CIA even) it was really a race to get to the moon
Russia was kicking our *** prior to the Apollo program
1st manned space craft to orbit the earth or in space (?)
1st satellite launched & orbit the earth (Sputnik)
we were truly chasing them
the prior Gemini space program was sort of the tipping point
we were catching up & surpassed them
the 1st Mercury program was sort of behind, rocket development was behind
until we got the Saturn V rockets

Nasa Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket.jpg


Russia USSR was still trying to use huge 32+ engine rockets
massive & complicated way more chances of failures
Saturn V was 5 huge rockets millions of pounds of thrust each
out of only 5, instead of 32 like the Russians...

Crazy to think they were originally going to try to land
a huge full rocket on the moon surface...
1 sole engineer came up with the separate LEM idea

Nasa Apollo 11 Lunar Landing module.jpg


& re-launch back into Moons orbit off the surface
back to the space capsule, dock get back into the capsule
& go back to earth

Nasa Apollo 11 Command module.jpg


Race to the Moon :usflag:

there were covert CIA space programs
right along side that we didn't ever see,
trained right beside the famous "Right Stuff" guys

:thumbsup: SPACE FORCE next :usflag:
 
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It's been a long time since I've heard a peep out of the "fake moon landing" crowd.:)
 
It's been a long time since I've heard a peep out of the "fake moon landing" :jackoff: tinfoil hat crowd.:)
They should just go away, back to under the primordial ooze
that they crawled out of, in their caves :poke:
STFU :realcrazy:

the Hollyweirdo's Conspiracy theorists
(Like Capricorn One, movie to Mars, was based on)
It's pretty much been debunked, proven wrong

Even a couple of the shows I watched
were dedicated to that very subject (tinfoil hat loons)
all sides were considered & conspiracies all debunked
even the people that were 'alleged to have the capability'
(allegedly the 2001 Space Odyssey, director & special effects experts)
& NASA access said; 'no way, it never happened'
Moon landing was real...
 
Space Pioneers. Took Balls to go up there. How about that hot Blonde in Houston Control bringing the boys home! Who knew.
 
For a time, the "one shot rocket" (direct course to the moon) was considered by the USA. The size required would have sunk the island at Cape Canaveral! Also considered: multiple separate launches with an earth orbit rendezvous of all the hardware required for the moon landing. The 32 story tall Saturn V was the answer! Three separate stages, the first two with the five nozzles at the bottom. "Staging" was a choreographed event, with sequenced steps for getting everything to separate without damaging the remaining stage(s). Astronauts in the Command Module at the tip of the Saturn V would go from +4g (!) to slight negative g in an instant, as the spent stage engines shutdown for separation. They said it felt like they were going to be slammed right through the instrument panels in front of them! Launch ascent & staging also included a "pogo" effect of the Saturn "stack" (think: "pogo-stick") which caused all kinds of interesting challenges. These guys were TEST pilots, to be sure! A far cry from what 27 year old's are doing today. (There I go again, sounding like an old man.)
 
For a time, the "one shot rocket" (direct course to the moon) was considered by the USA. The size required would have sunk the island at Cape Canaveral! Also considered: multiple separate launches with an earth orbit rendezvous of all the hardware required for the moon landing. The 32 story tall Saturn V was the answer! Three separate stages, the first two with the five nozzles at the bottom. "Staging" was a choreographed event, with sequenced steps for getting everything to separate without damaging the remaining stage(s). Astronauts in the Command Module at the tip of the Saturn V would go from +4g (!) to slight negative g in an instant, as the spent stage engines shutdown for separation. They said it felt like they were going to be slammed right through the instrument panels in front of them! Launch ascent & staging also included a "pogo" effect of the Saturn "stack" (think: "pogo-stick") which caused all kinds of interesting challenges. These guys were TEST pilots, to be sure! A far cry from what 27 year old's are doing today. (There I go again, sounding like an old man.)
 
For a time, the "one shot rocket" (direct course to the moon) was considered by the USA. The size required would have sunk the island at Cape Canaveral! Also considered: multiple separate launches with an earth orbit rendezvous of all the hardware required for the moon landing. The 32 story tall Saturn V was the answer! Three separate stages, the first two with the five nozzles at the bottom. "Staging" was a choreographed event, with sequenced steps for getting everything to separate without damaging the remaining stage(s). Astronauts in the Command Module at the tip of the Saturn V would go from +4g (!) to slight negative g in an instant, as the spent stage engines shutdown for separation. They said it felt like they were going to be slammed right through the instrument panels in front of them! Launch ascent & staging also included a "pogo" effect of the Saturn "stack" (think: "pogo-stick") which caused all kinds of interesting challenges. These guys were TEST pilots, to be sure! A far cry from what 27 year old's are doing today. (There I go again, sounding like an old man.)
:thankyou: :thumbsup:
 
American exceptionalism on a German Rocket. Amazing.
 
After all the years watching these documentaries, whether it's the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, or Space Shuttle launches, I always find myself on my feet cheering every launch on when they light off those rocket engines. What a great era it was; in my opinion, our space programs were the nation's greatest technological achievements.
 
today was the day 50 years ago, the Apollo 11 crew
set off to the moon, launched July 16th 1969
& the eight great days following it
it was truly amazing

landed & walked on the moon, 4 days later July 20th 1969
I was & still am so proud to be an American
it was a great time, to be a kid & see all of it
truly the American dream (Kennedy's prediction) come true
Happened under Nixon's presidency...

I was a 10 y/o boy (just turned 10) & glued to the TV

I still like watching the stuff !!!
I've been seeing/watching the documentaries all month
about the whole space program, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle
even the Hubble stuff
 
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Today was the day. Set down with 5 seconds of rocket-decel fuel left.
 
Do something industrious today in honor of that human effort 50 years ago. That took enormous group effort will power, ingenuity, and budget backing.

I’m swapping my 22” rad to the new 26” griffin today.
 
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