Moon landing

[J D 8]

I am sure most on this forum will have memory's of the 60s / 70s moon missions.

Pic is of my Eagle lander model made shortly after the event. Airfix [ I think ] were ready and had them on sale almost immediately. However there is a mistake you may be able to see on the model, the date is wrong.

Armstrong and Aldrin were to excited for a rest period as planed and went ahead with the moon walk sooner than expected while the date in America was still the 20th.

[Denis Watkins]

That model brings back memories JD, I have it too

I took my driving test the following day, and passed, so 50 years of driving and flying

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[J D 8]

What ? Never happened ! Try proofing that.

[Wilco Wingco]

What about the Nazi war criminal who helped America land on the Moon by developing the V1 and V2 rockets that helped destroy London. Or the 60,000 slaves who died building these rockets or the concentration camp inmates who were experimented on to develop the basis for some of the space research on the effects on the human body of cold, pressure and the lack of oxygen. Well done America.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by Denis Watkins on 19/07/2019 16:42:45:

That model brings back memories JD, I have it too

I took my driving test the following day, and passed, so 50 years of driving and flying

Posted by Doc Marten on 19/07/2019 22:12:25:

You do know it never happened?

I'm rather surprised that the police haven't locked Denis up by now if that's the case!

[Jim Purcha]

I went into work today expecting some talk about the moon landing. Then i realized,I'm the only person in the office "old" enough to remember watching the event on tv.

Jim

[Nigel Dell]

You are not alone Jim, I find it a little sad that actually it is taken for granted and somehow it is not of interest but I guess that is an age thing🥴 I well remember my Mum waking me up at 4.30am to watch the BBC and James Burke the presenter then catching it live from the states as a 10 year old I ate, drank and slept the space program and still have 10 year old’s buzz about it now, don’t get me started on the Apollo 13 mission, the stress! 😳🤒

[cymaz]

My sister built the Saturn v from an airfix kit . Ok , it was 5 years after the first moon landing but as I remember space was so exciting. And then came Skylab

[leccyflyer]

I had the Revell LEM at the time and it's interesting that they were shown painted in black and white, like the model in the OP, we didn't have the notion at the time that they were covered in gold, orange and silver reflective coating. Some years later I built the Saturn V as well, but don;t know where either of the originals ended up. After my son started building plastic kits we built the Saturn V together and a while later on the 40th anniversary he put together a wee film on You Tube, with the cine footage of me and my family watching the Apollo 11 launch as a youngster. I find Billy Bragg's take on it to be very poignant, especially today.

 

 

 

It was a magnificent, epochal, achievement but the political will and public interest couldn't be sustained. A bit sad to think that fifty years on we still haven't set foot on another planet.

Edited By leccyflyer on 20/07/2019 09:18:56

[Don Fry]

idiot comment.

Edited By Don Fry on 20/07/2019 09:46:01

[Cuban8]

I have a bookcase full of books and publications connected with space exploration and have been fascinated by the subject since as far back as I can remember, certainly as a six years old back in '63. An amazing flow of info has been available on the internet and in otherwise classified documents, newly released, so there's still so much new stuff to learn as it becomes available.

A great book (reprint facsimile) is the collection of NASA Saturn V documents that was given to all the Apollo astronauts and from which they were expected to gain a working knowledge of its operation and engineering. I've read it cover to cover (believe me, it's not an easy read even for an enthusiast!), but the technology is truly staggering. In particular, the F1 engine ignition sequence is a masterpiece of complexity with so many details dependent on each other with critical timings that even if fractionally out, would cause a shut-down.

Many Brits feature in very senior positions within NASA and its contractors, obviously the result of the 50s and 60s 'brain drain'. If you can get the DVD 'Moon Machines' there's a lot of background that's usually omitted from many documentaries.

A favourite snippet of mine is from a book about Wernher von Braun and how he was interrogated after giving up to US forces. On being asked some highly technical questions about rocket design by US scientists, von Braun is alleged to have replied "why are you asking me this"? "We got all this information from papers published by your own Robert Goddard!"..................

[Geoff S]

We didn't have a TV in 1969 so I borrowed one from the family TV shop just so we could see the landing in as near real time as possible (illegally, I guess, as we didn't have a licence). I remember trying to stay awake as Armstrong inched his way so slowly down the ladder. IIIRC it was around 3 am BST and I probably dozed off at my desk the following day.

What still surprises me (quite unreasonably, I guess) is that there are middle aged people who are too young to remember it. Makes me feel old, which I suppose I am

Geoff

[iqon]

Not many photos but worth the visit

[leccyflyer]

Posted by Don Fry on 20/07/2019 09:44:19:

idiot comment.

Edited By Don Fry on 20/07/2019 09:46:01

What is?

[Peter Christy]

I'd just left college, and had a couple of months to spare before starting my first full-time job. As a stop-gap, I was working for the local electrical goods shop (remember them?) as a salesman and delivery van driver.

The morning after the landing, we had all the TV sets in the shop window showing the dim, flickering images of Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon (all in glorious 405-line! Remember that?)

The crowd on the pavement outside got quite large, and was in danger of spilling on to the main road....!

--

Pete

[Don Fry]

Posted by leccyflyer on 20/07/2019 11:48:37:

Posted by Don Fry on 20/07/2019 09:44:19:

idiot comment.

Edited By Don Fry on 20/07/2019 09:46:01

What is?

Sorry, my comment what I got rid of.

[Martin Dilly 1]

I worked as a cameraman on some of the BBC’s Apollo programmes, though not the moon landing one. What annoyed me was James Burke rabbiting on about what was happening, and putting it all in ultra-simple terms that he assumed were right for a British audience, while in the background over talkback we could hear the CBS feed, live in the USA, with the engineer who had actually worked on the bit of kit explaining it properly for the viewers there. Maybe an early example of dumbing down for the average TV viewer. Sadly, we never seem to have recovered from that in the UK when engineering is concerned on the media.

[Wilco Wingco]

It was not an anti American rant but an attempt to tell the truth about this fantastic American ? project. All those people who died in order to make this happen should be remembered for the parts they played.

[Cuban8]

I was 12 in '69, so recall the moon walk quite well, although I missed it live at 3.00 am . James Burke could sometimes 'over popularise' things I agree, and for my money, ITV's Peter Fairley was the better choice IIRC. I recall being frustrated at the lack of in-depth coverage, despite the unprecedented time that TV gave to Apollo 11 and the others, if you missed the TV programme, then that was that. Domestic video recorders wern't around yet. Newspapers just didn't have the immediacy of TV. How things are different now with NASA TV and live feeds from the ISS and the commercial operators and the web awash with detail.

[Cuban8]

Posted by Wilco Wingco on 20/07/2019 12:37:05:

It was not an anti American rant but an attempt to tell the truth about this fantastic American ? project. All those people who died in order to make this happen should be remembered for the parts they played.

I think people do understand the darker side of the space race, whether it's the terrible conditions of slave labourers working on the V2, or the counter arguments regarding the cost of the US space programme when they had such poverty at home. The same could be argued against the Vietnam War, I suppose. On that subject, I looked up US casualty records in Vietnam on the day of the moon landing and learned that 30 troops were killed.. Not much to celebrate every year and anniversary for the families affected.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[barryt]

I was 17 and managed to stay awake all night while staring at the largely inanimate black, white and shadowy tv pictures. Luckily, for me anyway, the advent of the internet and more recently Youtube channels, has shed light on some of the fascinating and innovative engineering that made the project so successful.

I have just reread James Hansen's book First Man, It reveals that as a schoolboy Neil Armstrong was an Aeromodeller, building enough balsa and tissue models to fill his bedroom.

He was issued a student pilots licence on his sixteenth birthday and soloed two weeks later. A special man indeed.

[Colin Leighfield]

It sounds as if we should stop buying German cars because BMW etc were major users/abusers of slave labour, also coffee from Brazil which was probably the largest slave owning nation. We would probably find a reason to condemn everything if we pursue this line, so best stick to the subject and celebrate human achievement that commemorates all of those that contributed to it. The moon landing was perhaps the greatest technical achievement of all time and I really hope that we are now seeing the beginning of the next episode in our journey into space. There’s nothing more exciting. I will never forget following the adventure of Apollo 11 from start of finish, the experience of a lifetime.