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Happy 45th Anniversary, Moon Landing — Parallax Forums

Happy 45th Anniversary, Moon Landing

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
edited 2014-07-23 17:48 in General Discussion
Lest you forgot... http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2014/07/45th-anniversary-apollo-11-mission.html

I was about to start 5th grade and remember it well. Where were you?

I might have to download Eagle Lander 3D if it runs on Win 8. IIRC, there is a Win7 patch.

http://eaglelander3d.com/downloads.html

Edit: Here's a web-based lunar lander.

http://www.lander.dunnbypaul.net/
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Comments

  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2014-07-20 13:07
    just got in to a orbit around Mun ( KSP) .. Erco you should try KSP . its more addictive then solder fumes
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2014-07-20 18:10
    erco, I believe that puts us in the same age group!!!! I too remember it well. And what a year that was!!!! I also remember the year before when Bobby Kennedy was shot. I had an uncle named Bobby and went crying to my mom in the kitchen telling her they shot Bobby!!!!!
  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2014-07-20 18:52
    Those were great times. We had just gotten TVs in classrooms back then and I remember watching the Gemini missions at school. I was 12 years old at the time of Apollo 11. The entire family watched the landing together in the living room on the big 19" TV, then later that night I saw Neil Armstrong step off the ladder on my little 12" GE black and white TV down in our basement. We had no A.C. back then and July nights in the Ohio Valley could be unbearable. It was a lot cooler in the basement, so that's where I lived during the summer.
  • twm47099twm47099 Posts: 867
    edited 2014-07-20 18:59
    I had just graduated with my BS in Metallurgical Engineering. I was at my parents home, and getting ready to move to Brooklyn NY to work for the Navy. I remember watching most of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launches (on TV unfortunately). Also remember watching the Vanguard explosion and the Explorer 1 launch (also on TV). It was a time when the US went from not being able to get anything off the pad to almost routine success. Then Apollo 13, and after a few more missions a retreat from manned space exploration.

    Kind of depressing that we (earthlings) haven't gone back since.

    Tom
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2014-07-20 19:26
    I was 17 and at home for stuvac (study vacation in between test exams before the final end-of-school "Higher School Certificate" exams in November). I saw the landing live on B&W TV. Absolutely amazing. I still have specially minted coins and the Apollo 11 clothe badges packed away. I finally threw out all the newspaper and magazine clippings when we moved on 2001 :(
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2014-07-20 19:50
    Sadly, I have no memory of this event. I was 2-1/2 years old. I do remember watching one of the later landings though.

    Now go watch the excellent HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon" and the movies Apollo 13, and "The Dish"!
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2014-07-20 19:57
    I still have my book "We Came in Peace" which was sold at Gulf gas stations at the time of the landing. I bugged my dad incessantly until he took me there. Sadly, it's not a million dollar collectible, they are all over Ebay for $1-10.

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/WE-CAME-IN-PEACE-THE-STORY-OF-MAN-IN-SPACE-/121378720707?pt=Antiquarian_Collectible&hash=item1c42bc4bc3
  • jonesjones Posts: 281
    edited 2014-07-20 20:44
    I was 16 and also watched it with the family on our B&W TV. I watched all the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches, though the Apollo 17 launch I had to watch from the day room of my barracks in basic training at Lackland AFB. I don't think I'd agree that the shuttle program represented a retreat from manned exploration, but it was of a different sort. In my mind the Hubble telescope qualifies as exploration, and the servicing missions were certainly breaking new ground, as was the assembly of the ISS. Not the same as the moon missions, to be sure.

    My wife's been lucky enough to be part of two shuttle missions as a member of a group that had biological experiments flown, and was at Cape Canaveral for one launch and two landings. I watched a few landings at Edwards but was never able to get to a launch. A memorable moment from the shuttle program was being at work in the San Fernando Valley when the orbiter took an unusually southern track en route to Edwards. It was something to be sitting at work in the LA area and to hear the double sonic boom of a returning spaceship. I thought that was a signal that spaceflight was really becoming routine, but then came the Challenger accident.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2014-07-20 21:39
    I was nine. It was awesome.

    The TV pictures were pretty bad, but I figured we were fortunate to see anything from so far away. Neil Armstrong's first step was dramatic to me; I had no idea what would happen. Would he sink into the cheese? LOL. Memories like that and watching football with my dad represent some of the best times of my life.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2014-07-20 22:28
    Just saw this. In 2002, Buzz Aldrin punched a guy out for calling him a liar and thief, since the moon landing "was faked". Go Buzz!

    http://theweek.com/article/index/265042/speedreads-watch-a-72-year-old-buzz-aldrin-punch-a-jerk-in-the-face-for-calling-him-a-liar
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2014-07-20 22:45
    I use to enjoy watching when the Astronauts returned from space and landed in the ocean. It was awesome to see them emerge from the capsule and then head off to be quarantined. There's a small park somewhere in CA, Bakersfield or Lancaster or somewhere around there, that has one of the capsules on display. Imagine living in that thing with 2 others for several days!!!!
    PICT0047.jpg
    1024 x 686 - 104K
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-07-20 22:47
    Oh yeah, we had just returned from Australia to England and still did not have a TV in the house, had to beg to watch it all on the neighbors crappy black and white telly.

    My bedroom walls were covered in Apollo posters, moon maps, mission schedules, the works.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2014-07-21 07:11
    I'm too young to have witnessed this... I was in junior high when the Challenger accident happened.

    I did manage to find someone who was selling a bunch of newspapers from the day after at a yard sale. (Got them all for $2.00).

    Watching that happen on live TV must have been sureal.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2014-07-21 07:17
    erco wrote: »
    Just saw this. In 2002, Buzz Aldrin punched a guy out for calling him a liar and thief, since the moon landing "was faked". Go Buzz!

    http://theweek.com/article/index/265042/speedreads-watch-a-72-year-old-buzz-aldrin-punch-a-jerk-in-the-face-for-calling-him-a-liar

    It's amazing how many will embrace ignorance when there is proof that we were there..

    I had a friend who worked on the NASA campus when the Apollo went up, he said it was like watching a 30 story build go into space.
    His words, "If we didn't go to the moon, we sure went somewhere..." :)
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2014-07-21 08:32
    W9GFO wrote: »


    Now go watch the excellent HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon" and the movies Apollo 13, and "The Dish"!

    This was right before High School. I remember sitting in front of the B/W TV in our pajamas. Glad it wasn't a school night! :)

    Rich mentioned The Dish. An excellent movie as all our Aussie friends will attest to. I won awards there.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0205873/

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NSGJBW/ref=atv_feed_catalog?tag=imdb-amazonvideo-20

    I picked it up at a Flea Market for 2 bucks, and I watch it about every four months.
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2014-07-21 08:53
    erco wrote: »
    Just saw this. In 2002, Buzz Aldrin punched a guy out for calling him a liar and thief, since the moon landing "was faked". Go Buzz!

    http://theweek.com/article/index/265042/speedreads-watch-a-72-year-old-buzz-aldrin-punch-a-jerk-in-the-face-for-calling-him-a-liar
    But if you mention 'the Castle', he won't get involved at all...:blank::blank:
  • davejamesdavejames Posts: 4,047
    edited 2014-07-21 08:55
    ...stunning:
    http://www.space.com/26587-apollo-11-moon-landing-site-spied-by-orbiter-video.html
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    edited 2014-07-21 18:13
    I have had to deal with re-runs since I was -3 years old at the time. :lol:

    erco wrote: »
    Just saw this. In 2002, Buzz Aldrin punched a guy out for calling him a liar and thief, since the moon landing "was faked". Go Buzz!
    http://theweek.com/article/index/265042/speedreads-watch-a-72-year-old-buzz-aldrin-punch-a-jerk-in-the-face-for-calling-him-a-liar

    Buzz kept his cool as long as he could until the guy started poking at him. A while back I read some of his stuff and he definitely is one of the most hilarious reads of all time. I can't believe that the Apollo conspiracy still goes on after 45 years.
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2014-07-21 18:25
    My reply was (of course) Tongue in Cheek, referencing the opinion, 'Aliens landed on the moon before we did'...
    The 'Castle' is just one of many Alien formations that can be found on YouTube with a quick search.

    I know we landed on the moon because,

    1: I could mail order a Moon Rock if i wanted to.
    2: I did cut enough cereal box tops to actually order an actual plastic model of an Apollo Moon lander.

    I don't think you could buy that stuff if we did not actually land on the moon...:cool:



    -Tommy
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2014-07-21 18:41
    You can also buy "Moon Estate" land from someone who doesn't own it LOL ;-)
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2014-07-21 19:49
    The Moon landing was real. How do I know this??? I was there!!! (Just kidding!). However, It would have taken an awful lot of people to pull off a fake moon landing. Of all those people, surely one of them would have gained a "conscience" by now and would have spilled the beans in either a book or on their death bed. One of the best kept secrets of the 70's was "who was Deep Throat" and even that was eventually revealed.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2014-07-21 20:02
    Capricone One taught us that there are a lot of potential problems trying to fake a moon (or mars) landing... :)
    ...And it wasn't a bad flick...
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2014-07-21 21:04
    Oldbitcollector (Jeff) wrote: »
    Capricone One taught us that there are a lot of potential problems trying to fake a moon (or mars) landing... :)
    ...And it wasn't a bad flick...

    Speaking of fakery, does anyone else remember the ABC movie "The Astronaut"? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068229/
  • JLockeJLocke Posts: 354
    edited 2014-07-21 22:26
    I've touched a moon rock. At Johnson Space Center in Houston. If you ever get a chance to go through there, I HIGHLY recommend it. We took the 11-year old grandson last year when he attended a week-long hockey camp in Houston. He's going back to camp in a couple of weeks, and he's already asked if we can go to the Space Center again.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2014-07-22 00:07
    Ditto touchable moon rock at the National Air & Space Museum in DC. Ditto "don't miss it". :)
  • RichKRichK Posts: 54
    edited 2014-07-22 07:19
    Remember watching on a B&W TV that I had just repaired following a visit to the tube tester at the local REXALL drug store. Interesting times.

    The sad thing is this:

    No man or woman born after 1935 has ever walked on the moon.
  • Dave HeinDave Hein Posts: 6,347
    edited 2014-07-22 07:50
    It's a shame that we didn't continue going to the moon and set up a permanent base there. The money that we wasted on the shuttle program and continue to waste on the ISS would have been better served on the moon. Just imagine what we could have discovered by exploring the surface and depths of the moon.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-07-22 08:00
    RichK,

    Yes, the number of people still alive who have set foot on the moon is rapidly approaching zero. As nicely shown here:
    http://xkcd.com/893/
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2014-07-22 08:25
    jazzed wrote: »
    I was nine. It was awesome.

    Same here. I may have been young, but not too young to appreciate Nancy Sinatra wearing go go boots and singing "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'."

    Staying at my cousin's house that week, we watched the event on my uncle's new RCA TV. Said uncle had designed parts for Explorer I, and ran the Space Dynamics lab at the university.
  • 4x5n4x5n Posts: 745
    edited 2014-07-22 17:10
    erco wrote: »
    Lest you forgot... http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2014/07/45th-anniversary-apollo-11-mission.html

    I was about to start 5th grade and remember it well. Where were you?

    I might have to download Eagle Lander 3D if it runs on Win 8. IIRC, there is a Win7 patch.

    http://eaglelander3d.com/downloads.html

    Edit: Here's a web-based lunar lander.

    http://www.lander.dunnbypaul.net/

    I was very young at the time but I remember the moon landing well. My father took the day off of work and we sat as a family and watched it on TV!! I remember wanting to go out and play after a while of watching what seemed to be nothing going on. That desire was refused because it was "an historic moment for the history of mankind and we were going to watch it as a family!!" period, end of discussion, end of conversation!!! Looking back at it my parents were right. I still remember sitting on the couch watching the moon landing live on TV and I feel more then a little bit of pride knowing that it was "my" country that did it!

    The closest I can remember since then was the first shuttle landing. I was in high school at the time and my brother, sister didn't go to school that day and watched it with our parents in the same living room. Both were life changing events!!!
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