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Apollo 11 50th Anniversary


GopherRock

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Oh, not only was he a party member.  He held officer rank in the SS.  And you wouldn’t believe the deal we cut him and his team for them to come here instead of any other Allied nation.  

But the SS didn’t like all the questions he asked.  Always asking and probing and wondering.  Question his background all you want, his questions got us to the moon.  

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5 minutes ago, Deej said:

Are they still working on their pieces about how mostly white and male their newspapers were in 1969?

Yes, they're on a quest to rid history of everything that's disagreeable to them, every agent that contributed to the problems of society today.

You know, like the New York Times, on July 20, 1969:
 

Quote

It was man's first landing on another world, the realization of centuries of dreams, the fulfillment of a decade of striving, a triumph of modern technology and personal courage, the most dramatic demonstration of what man can do if he applies his mind and resources with single-minded determination.

The moon, long the symbol of the impossible and the inaccessible, was now within man's reach, the first port of call in this new age of spacefaring.

Obviously this horrible, biased paper freely used the word "man" in a glorifying way - several times (oh the humanity!), and thereby enabled decades of misogyny and hatred against women.  What man can do if he applies his mind?  This article alone is responsible for every single abuse against women after that.

It's obvious that the Times' crusade against... well... the Times is long overdue.   

 

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8 hours ago, Lobo said:

Oh, not only was he a party member.  He held officer rank in the SS.  And you wouldn’t believe the deal we cut him and his team for them to come here instead of any other Allied nation.  

But the SS didn’t like all the questions he asked.  Always asking and probing and wondering.  Question his background all you want, his questions got us to the moon.  

 

This.  And this book is incredible:

 

51t8U6UEdaL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

 

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It all goes back to the founding fathers and them conscripting men to fight for our liberation from England. Assholes. If they had drafted women to fight King George then we would have had female fighter pilots for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. And no doubt some woman would have come up with the science too. George fucking Washington. Pfft.

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2 hours ago, El Diablo said:

The Summer of Love, the Vietnam War, Nixon in the White House and men on the moon. It was a confusing time to be a kid in America.

Confusing for some kids, I'm sure.  Not for the kids under my parent's roof.  Those were glorious times.  Sure, the war was on, and it would continue for a few more years, and while I was 7 years old there was an understanding that if it was still going on 11 years later that I could be drafted--as our fathers, uncles, and some grandfathers, had all been drafted for other wars.  If called upon, it was your duty to serve--or, if you choose, to enlist.  End of story.  But for my friends and I it didn't dominate our young lives.  We were more concerned about who would win the game of kickball at recess, or who would try to kiss Becky behind the school gym.  

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Just now, HouTex said:

Confusing for some kids, I'm sure.  Not for the kids under my parent's roof.  Those were glorious times.  Sure, the war was on, and it would continue for a few more years, and while I was 7 years old there was an understanding that if it was still going on 11 years later that I could be drafted--as our fathers, uncles, and some grandfathers, had all been drafted for other wars.  If called upon, it was your duty to serve--or, if you choose, to enlist.  End of story.  But for my friends and I it didn't dominate our young lives.  We were more concerned about who would win the game of kickball at recess, or who would try to kiss Becky behind the school gym.  

This.  It was a glorious time to be alive.  Absolutely.

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1 minute ago, HouTex said:

Confusing for some kids, I'm sure.  Not for the kids under my parent's roof.  Those were glorious times.  Sure, the war was on, and it would continue for a few more years, and while I was 7 years old there was an understanding that if it was still going on 11 years later that I could be drafted--as our fathers, uncles, and some grandfathers, had all been drafted for other wars.  If called upon, it was your duty to serve--or, if you choose, to enlist.  End of story.  But for my friends and I it didn't dominate our young lives.  We were more concerned about who would win the game of kickball at recess, or who would try to kiss Becky behind the school gym.  

I am the youngest of five, my oldest brother was 22 in 1969 so I suppose things were a little different in our house even for us younger ones. There was an awareness of the world outside that maybe others didn't get.

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1 minute ago, El Diablo said:

I am the youngest of five, my oldest brother was 22 in 1969 so I suppose things were a little different in our house even for us younger ones. There was an awareness of the world outside that maybe others didn't get.

We got the point and fully understood the situation. And I'm sure you and your family did as well.  We just had a different view of it.  And that's ok.  

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11 hours ago, austingirl said:

I work at a large tech company that had a ton of computer scientists and engineers working with NASA leading up to and during the launch. Today one of our SVPs in Houston did a livestream panel discussion with several of the guys who were involved, and it was really cool. One of them was 22 during the launch, and the oldest of this group was 27. It's crazy thinking how young they were.

there is a great podcast done by the BBC called 13 Minutes to the Moon.  I highly recommend it if you have any interest in the space program.  They touch on this aspect - the average age in mission control was late 20's.  One of the guys said the older engineers didn't work out well at NASA because they brought all their past experience which in a way worked against them in the space program. They were more conditioned to think this thing couldn't work, while the younger guys were like - "hell yes we can get to the moon".  I just finished the segment where they told the story of the MIT team that designed the hardware and software for the Apollo LEM. It was the first contract let by the Apollo program and it was 11 pages long (one of the guys interviewed said today it would be 15,000 pages).  Funny the word "software" wasn't even a term used back then.  The contract mostly covered the hardware requirements and then threw in something like...and MIT will provide an operating program to make the thing run. 

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12 minutes ago, HouTex said:

We got the point and fully understood the situation. And I'm sure you and your family did as well.  We just had a different view of it.  And that's ok.  

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, lol. And that's ok.

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33 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

I blame those racist "white" shuttles.

If we were really progressive we would be trying to put people (women and people of color) on black holes!  Not on white or silvery moons.  

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Just found out a couple of days ago that a guy who sits in with my band occasionally was on the medical team at NASA, he's been posting lots of cool pics lately, going up in the Vomet Comet, an experiment where they froze an Apollo capsule solid with astronauts inside to see how long they would last on the off chance the capsule came back to Earth and landed in the Arctic/Antarctica, cool stuff.

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12 minutes ago, HornsOverIthaca said:

It’s no surprise that the black part of the shuttle got the crap beat out of it at the end of every flight.

Yeah but it got back at 'em on Columbia.

Anyway, can't wait to visit JSC (well, the tourist part with a tram trip to the CC) tomorrow!  Pix to come (probably not too exciting but hey, they're pics!).

Edited by phdhorn
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6 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

Yeah but it got back at 'em on Columbia.

Anyway, can't wait to visit JSC (well, the tourist part with a tram trip to the CC) tomorrow!  Pix to come (probably not too exciting but hey, they're pics!).

Co-worker that went last week said it was all nice and air conditioned inside of course but the lines outside to get into each of the 3 tourist areas were brutal from the heat and humidity. Good luck, we're all counting on you.

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1 hour ago, El Diablo said:

Co-worker that went last week said it was all nice and air conditioned inside of course but the lines outside to get into each of the 3 tourist areas were brutal from the heat and humidity. Good luck, we're all counting on you.

I'm taking my Tom Kite hat, sunscreen, and a collared shirt. I hope the rest of them are from Minnesota and quit after 5 minutes.

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 9:56 p.m. CDT  https://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/apollo11_log/log.htm

Quote

10:56 p.m.- Armstrong puts his left foot to the Moon. It is the first time in history that man has ever stepped on anything that has not existed on or originated from the Earth.

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," Armstrong radios. Aldrin is taking photographs from inside the spacecraft.

The first print made by the weight of man on the Moon is that of a lunar boot which resembles an oversized galosh.

[6] Its soles are of silicon rubber and its 14-layer sidewalls of aluminized plastic. Specially designed for super-insulation, it protects against abrasion and has reduced friction to facilitate donning. On Earth, it weighs four pounds, nine ounces. on the Moon, 12 ounces.

 

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Okay, the following is very long, but it happened yesterday, and I wanted to make it a good narrative, so I put it in a spoiler.  I hope you enjoy it.  Nothing I've ever done could have prepared me for such a great day in Houston at the Space Center.  And I'm convinced that there was no more impactful way I could have celebrated the annivesary.  It was borderline mystical and magical.  Want more?  Read it.  And there's pix in it as well.

 
Spoiler

So, as it turned out, July 19, 2019, one micrometer from the 50 years of the first moonwalk, turned out to be amazing, almost auspiciously so, a perfect synergy of elements to give me a thrill I never, ever could have imagined had I tried to plan the day ten years prior. It was a perfect horizontal alignment of good fortune and timing, and a vertical one of historical pointers across decades. I'm still shaking my head about it.

I decided to go to JSC Friday the 19
th because: 1) it probably would be a madhouse the next day, 2) there was really nothing “extra” on the JSC schedule that motivated me to go that day and battle the crowds (2 concerts by some bands, that's about it), and 3) the July 20th tickets are unique – and rather expensive – starting at $50 and going up from there. So I thought going the day before, while the astronauts are “still on the mission” 50 years earlier, would suffice; I wanted to go as part of the “mission week” and so this would be a memorable day, more or less.

Little did I know how much.

I'll skip over the details of the visit in general; many here I'm sure have been to the JSC and the visitor (tourist) center, while somewhat offputting, like an overcrowded Disney theme park, is appropriate for the intended crowd – families and people who want to pay money. For this reason, a lot of gaudy things are offered – like a “virtual reality ride” which is supposed to simulate the bumps and grinds of a launch – which is four seats that are hydraulically shaken around. There are lots of hands on things for kids and nerds. I personally enjoyed the more “exhibit” type things, you know, with the little plaques that explain things, and of course some of the mementos of the historical space flights, particularly from the Mercury through Apollo programs (one pic is of the actual checklist from Apollo 13 for exploring the moon, which, unfortunately, went unused). Most of the travel sites' advice was accurate: get there early, because by late morning it's a zoo, and the crowd is thick. On this particular week, I anticipated this and left Austin with the roosters calling, and even fighting an expected Houston traffic jam somewhere (in this case it was out by Fry Road, 30 minutes to get two miles), I managed to get there about 9:40, only 10 minutes past my hoped-for arrival.

Because I was early I managed to presign for the 11 a.m. tram ticket to the Mission Control Center, yeah the famous one and all that. The tickets are free with general admission but you had to punch into a kiosk screen to get one. That was my first priority upon going in and it was the one of the best decisions I might have ever made.

I killed time for about an hour before lining up for the tram (they suggest 15 minutes early but the line was already about 40 long at 10:30 – the trams take about 80 each). However as the line worked itself out as it progressed through the doors to the tram platforms, it turns out that the huge bulk of people take the more expensive, “complete” tram tour (or the tram to other tram tours leaving from on the actual center grounds). I wasn't interested in these, just the single tram to the MCC. And that's essentially “all” you get. The tram pulls up to the center and you go in, wait a few minutes, and then climb the 90 or so stairs up to the “booth” entrance to the Control Room (it's the same glassed-in booth that you see in movies behind the actual control room). The tour guides repeatedly warned us about excessive noise resulting in a group being evicted from the room as “people are working” but in all honesty, I didn't see anyone really doing so in this room, as it's no longer a real-time area and hasn't been for some 20 years. However, I did like the idea of “keep it down.”

I also have to admit here that although I understood the “family” nature of the center, this tour was filled with little kids, say about 2 years old or younger. While I understand you can't just leave your kids hanging around back at the tourist center while you tour, most parents struck me as generally having little knowledge of the significance of this room, (most being way too young), or not really caring, expecting this to be like some “hands on” exhibit and not giving much of a shit when it turned out not to be so. However enough folks were around (though not that many, see below) who knew and understood, or more aptly
felt, the significance of the place. I did, but my adventure to the moon per se, one which I never could have imagined a half hour ago, was about to launch.

While we were downstairs grouping up to go in, our nice young tour guide again warned us about the noise, and said that pictures were fine as long as there was no flash, and in the case of “some interviews” possibly not allowed. He mentioned that “for example when I was last here about twenty minutes ago, Gene Kranz was upstairs setting up for an interview.” I assumed that this meant: 1) Kranz did an interview and took off by now, and 2) no pictures would be allowed if he were there (shit!). So I kind of actually hoped he'd be done so we could take some pic of the historic room, but I said this thinking there was no way he'd be around for mere mortals to see, and that at his ripe old age of 85 he'd be doing anything more than a few quick quips and be gone (although he was here like many actual participants in the mission to celebrate the 50
th).

We get upstairs and the seating is cinema-like; that is, there are about five rows of about 15-20 chairs per row. They urged us to go “all the way down” to avoid people stopping and then having others have to climb over them. As I was in the front 15 or so of the crowd, I decided I wanted to “start” my own row and not be trapped inside the cluster, so I went down all the way to the end (the very left of the booth looking into the room). This meant I had a wide space (aisle) to my left where I had some room, plus you can actually see the entire room better from this angle (as it's rowed, you have a better angle into each row of consoles, monitors and tables.

This began one of the several episodes of ethereal timing for me, for I had no idea that the entire control room had just, as in July 1 just, finished its five-year restoration as a National Historical Landmark and
had not looked so much like the original room as it was in the 60's for at least 40 years! Many of the original workers had taken their “stuff” home for years as personal souvenirs, but with the historical restoration, lovingly returned many things back to the room – and I'm talking stuff like the original coffee cups, pipes, papers, and even pocket protectors that they had worn during their tenures! It was absolutely amazing. The room itself was mimicking roughly the moments 50 years ago (on a running basis) so for me, the day before the moonwalk, they had a big map of the moon up on the huge screens (usually it was the Goode (or “orange peel” map of the earth, as many projects in the room of coruse from the 60's were earth-orbit only), showing where the LEM was at that moment. The other screen featured data from the LEM (left hand white screen) and an actual locator graphic of Armstrong and Aldren while on the Moon next to it on the right). It was all pretty breathtaking. No, it was borderline beautiful. And here I was, almost as if I was there in 1969 watching it. The only things missing were the actual men (sorry kids, that's about what there was there) at their consoles.

But there were two who where there, and it sent me for a complete, utter loop of amazed awe.

A few seconds after we all got situated in the room and took a few pics, the young guide informed us, that yes, Gene Kranz was “still here” and “wrapping up” his interview. Then I looked and to say my jaw dropped was unfair to dropping in general.

Because not only was Gene here,
he was sitting in the EXACT seat/console where he used to sit for all of those missions! I mean, you could never, ever have imagined such a perfect vertical/horizontal storm of time and place coming together, here, now, in front of my eyes. Yeah, I get that it was “possible” given the date, auspiciousness of this time and place, and the fact that, fortunately, Gene is still alive and kicking. But nothing can actually prepare for a moment like that. If I had paid a thousand bucks and got to hear Gene speak on some dais, then shook his hand, it still wouldn't have matched this perfect display of gawk-inducing appropriateness. Gene Kranz, in his historical seat, in this room, at this time! “Fantastic” cannot fully describe it. I almost had to fight back tears, this was so overwhelming.

And it wasn't done yet.

The sector of our group who could fully anticipate this (and again, there were a number of younger folks and “Disney types” who were either bored by this tour or simply were underwhelmed that there wasn't some Tilt-A-Whirl in there giving the kiddies a ride) performed their involuntary ooh's and aah's and everyone, even the bored types, were snapping phone pics.

But I noticed that there was someone else in the room that even our young guide didn't seem to know about. The face looks right, though older, seems like it... yes, could it be.. yes, it is!!

Charlie Duke was also in there, sitting right where
he sat, chatting it up with Gene (and the now-done and relaxed interview crew of about three)!!! Just chatting away with Gene in a scene that could have come right out of 1969!

I was clearly the only person in the room who knew this.  I think I mouthed "wow, that's Charlie Duke!" and even said it in a low voice, but absolutely no one seemed to grasp who that was with Gene.  I guess that was my at-the-time-unique-to-me secret.

Even now it can be expected that some might not quite grasp who Charlie was/is. First, he was an astronaut from the 60's, though he never flew a mission until Apollo 16. This in turn makes him one of the twelve men who set foot on the moon! But Charlie is also known for two things in particular: first, he was the CAPCOM (voice from Houston) who was the primary communicator with the Apollo 11 crew, and second, he was the guy in this role who uttered the now ubiquitous “Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a buncha guys here about to turn blue. We're breathing again.” quote after Armstrong's “the Eagle has landed” near-immortal statement. There he was, Charlie Duke!

Probably the two most significant historical figures of this day, 50 years earlier, after only the astronauts themselves! Right there! Right now! It was almost more than I could bear. It's as if I were experiencing a flashback in a movie, where the swirly, wavy screen leads into the past. It was just amazing, that both of these guys are still alive, and here there were chatting together just like they did in those days in 1969, and I didn't have to use one single bit of imagination. It was awesome.

And it still wasn't over. The best was up next.

After a few minutes of gawking at all this and taking a few oodles of pictures, Gene hit a pause in the conversation out there. Having a second, he glanced around behind him as he probably had so many times before, and panned across us in the room. Again, for the most part amost everyone had their cameras up and snapping, but I looked and almost no one was reacting beyond that.

Then Gene eventually worked all the way to his right, were I was in the room. Not wanting to violate the “no-noise” rule but too excited to just sit there, I stood up and wildly “air-clapped” with my arms spread wide, right as he was looking at me. He stopped for a second then focused on me. At that point I put my hand over my heart to say “thank you” and put my arm out and palm up (notoriously not down, as in the Hitler salute!) again as if to say “I get it, I saw it, thank you!”

At that moment, he threw his head back, let out a big laugh (which admittedly I couldn't hear), raised his arm up to me, and cocked his hand in a “thumbs up” position. It was a double blessing to sort of for a second see into the soul of this giant historical figure, one who helped change the world, being still humble and genuine enough to accept, and more astonishingly,
respond to my gestures. It would have been nothing for him to ignore it, or even just politely nod. But nope, he almost seemed like a kid who was genuinely taken with some schlub tepidly trying to show appreciation.

How will I ever forget that moment? I guess by dying. That's about it.

The rest of the day seemed like nap time. We went back to the center, I did a few touristy things, bought a NASA T-shirt, looked at a few more exhibits, and left by 2 p.m. What
possible reason was there left to stick around in the thick, sweaty crowds? I had climbed the Mt. Everest of Possibilities of this day (at least as far as I could probably get). If I would have driven from Fairbanks and back just for that 10 minutes in the Control Room, it would have been more than worth it. And I only had to drive three hours!

I won't ever, ever forget the day. And there is no conceivable way I could better have felt, and celebrated, the juxtaposition of time and space than I was lucky to have done. Those guys, in that room (again, fully restored to 1969), and those moments, on this anniversary.

I do believe, like some of these missions, I understand what “almost perfect” means now.

Here are a few pix:

The real 747 used to transport the shuttles across country with a mockup of a shuttle (entrance to the center).  Took this mostly because of the sky/clouds being pretty and all).

766031195_Pic1.thumb.jpg.a9874cbeb7939409b73a6299b1ec51e7.jpg
 
Gene Kranz in the controll room, at his traditional spot!!Pic3.thumb.jpg.98c5a7356e85a11e41b1a99126d1506b.jpg

Charlie Duke and Gene Kr
anz!  I mean, can you believe this picture?Pic2.thumb.jpg.3d1fdd9077f5e9a75a8ef4fc1a78c86e.jpg

Newly-restored (as of July 1) 1969 control room!  From L→R on screens:  some data on Apollo 11 LEM (sorry too bright); barely visible but doable screen with two graphics of bodies (Aldrin and Armstrong) showing their "current" positions in relation to LEM (tracking); surface map of moon showing LEM "current" position (you can see it almost smack in middle of map along horizontal white guideline);  Little screen to right showing broader view of landing area (Mare Tranquillitatis) Neil's first step (okay, a bit mocked up for effect, but hey, what better place to loop it??)Pic4.thumb.jpg.ff6da2c99f7bb3d941878fd41393838b.jpg


Checklist of procedures for exploring lunar surface by Apollo 13 (obviously never gotten to!) Pic6.thumb.jpg.fa4ab70f4d3ac81ddb7bed014debe1bd.jpg

I was in the mission control viewing room with you. Amazing moment that I will never forget.
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