Happy Man on the Moon Day!

[AJL67]

Ok pretty sure that's not a real thing, but July 16 1969 was the day, a little after 9am EST. Growing up less than 40 miles from Pad 39A and living here a majority of my life I'm a lover off all things space.

I was 2 when Apollo 11 lifted off and sadly remember nothing of it, my mom told me that when the Saturns launched in the dark it lit the entire state up like it was daylight out and the entire house shook from the launches 40 miles away.

Shuttle launches shook the ground a bit, Space X launches no shake just the rumble / noise of the engines, nothing compared to those Saturn V beasts.

Fun Facts:

The first stage of the Saturn V had five F-1s for a total lift-off thrust of 7.5 million pounds.

The fully-fueled Saturn V weighed 6.5 million pounds.

The F-1 used RP-1, a type of kerosene, and liquid oxygen as the propellants and had a decibel level of approx 203. This created more power than 85 Hoover Dams and could launch 130 tons into orbit and could carry 50 tons to the moon.

The rocket was taller than the Statue of Liberty, over 36 stories tall.

 

[mso489]

I saw the moon-landing on a TV in a Navy service-school barracks, upgraded from boot camp to four-man rooms. We were scrubbing and waxing the decks and watching the landing on TV.

We were watching the creme-de-la-creme of the military, the U.S. astronauts, as scruffy little enlisted worker bees doing our janitorial best.

I was also a university grad with my career on indefinite hold on my way to a combat zone. The moon-landing was thrilling. My future, totally uncertain.

 

[AJL67]

Used to love taking the tour of Kennedy when i was little, the bus would go to the VAB and they would drive inside and you could get out and walking around, then the same with Pad 39A, i was sad when they tore it down and rebuilt it for Space X rockets, progress i suppose.

Now on the tour you don't do any of that since the Cape has a lot going on but they have the Saturn V experience which is an entire Saturn V on it's side in a building, all of the stages are from various Saturn V rockets, there is also a Saturn V-b out in the Rocket Garden.



To show how large the engines are

 

[rmpeeps]

I was 10 then. The event totally riveted the young me.
SpaceX Starship launch on 4-20-23 had me in its clutches; the whole world rumbled on South Padre.
History happened.

 

[Wet Dottle]

Man on the moon? That's an hoax.

By the way, I was in Houston recently and they have the original command control room set to display exactly the same things shown on that day. The visitors sit in the room where the astronauts' families sat and watch the whole thing. It's a great place to visit. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

 

[mawnansmiff]

I was aged 8 on that momentous day. I was awoken from my sleep (as was planned) and went downstairs to watch it all happen on TV with my parents & 2 elder sisters.

On my bedroom wall I had several posters which my father had got for me.

One giant leap and all that. How things have changed since that day.

Regards,

Jay.

 

[sablebrush52]

My father was an integral part of the team that engineered Apollo’s life support systems and my uncle trained the astronauts to collect geological samples from the moon.

So, yeah, space exploration has always fascinated me.

 

[AJL67]

My father was an integral part of the team that engineered Apollo’s life support systems and my uncle trained the astronauts to collect geological samples from the moon.

So, yeah, space exploration has always fascinated me.

My father was a project manager with RCA at the time and ran the teams that set up the radar installations in the islands and africa for the apollo missions, hence why the family relocated from MA to FL in the early 60s

 

[kcghost]

I had just gotten out of the military then and watched the launch with amazement as the rocker lifted off. It had to be the most amazing thing I had ever seen.

 

[sablebrush52]

My father was a project manager with RCA at the time and ran the teams that set up the radar installations in the islands and africa for the apollo missions, hence why the family relocated from MA to FL in the early 60s

Very cool!

Above Pop's desk in his den, were pictures of the surface of the moon, named for our family, that were given to him by NASA.

I figure in a few years I'll be able to get it subdivided and put in a golf course.

 

[AJL67]

Very cool!

Above Pop's desk in his den, were pictures of the surface of the moon, named for our family, that were given to him by NASA.

I figure in a few years I'll be able to get it subdivided and put in a golf course.

Par Infinity holes!

 

[RookieGuy80]

I missed out on that. My big little kid space memory was Challenger exploding.

 

[brian64]

One giant leap and all that. How things have changed since that day.

I clearly remember my 5 year old self being called into the living room by my Dad to watch the TV broadcast.

At that time everyone thought it was just the beginning of "the space age" rather than the pinnacle of it. No one would have believed that 54 years later we would still be looking back at it as the high point of the space program.

I realize it can be argued that the unmanned Mars missions represent progress, but not the kind of progress that was generally expected back then.

 

[AJL67]

I missed out on that. My big little kid space memory was Challenger exploding.

Was up at the beach in Satellite Beach when it exploded, a bunch of us were surfing and all split right away, rode our bikes home to turn on the TV, after seeing so many launches we knew it went bad. I remember the talking heads saying "there might have been an issue" while looking out the front window of the living room and seeing the contrails from the pieces still falling into the ocean.

There's a famous picture of a helmet that washed up on the beach, the item that showed they were still alive at some point, my best friend was the one that found the helmet and turned it in ... well called the cops. I lived about 2 miles from Patrick Air Force Base where they brought the pieces and reassembled them, very very dark days for the Space Coast, a lot of friends parents were out of work, the economy tanked, it's bad when the local and only pizza hut finally gives up and shuts down. Somewhere in a moving box i haven't opened in decades I have a small corner of one of the tiles that i found on the beach a few months after the fact.

 

[mso489]

The planetarium in Chapel Hill at UNC is proud of its role in training early astronauts on aspects of celestial navigation that they could use to supplement all of the electronics that did most of that.

They give great shows to the public on a regular basis too. But they often mention their role in the space program.

I'm always intrigued when the practical hard-nosed never-flustered former astronauts try to verbalize their emotional experiences in space. Some of them are eloquent and somewhat poetic, and others try very hard but revert mostly to the nuts and bolts of the experience. As a group, they are an interesting portrait of human variations in perception.

 

[AJL67]

The planetarium in Chapel Hill at UNC is proud of its role in training early astronauts on aspects of celestial navigation that they could use to supplement all of the electronics that did most of that.

They give great shows to the public on a regular basis too. But they often mention their role in the space program.

I'm always intrigued when the practical hard-nosed never-flustered former astronauts try to verbalize their emotional experiences in space. Some of them are eloquent and somewhat poetic, and others try very hard but revert mostly to the nuts and bolts of the experience. As a group, they are an interesting portrait of human variations in perception.

The Original 7 where always heroes of mine. Now anyone can be an astronaut and it really has lost the shine to me, no more guys with balls the size of Saturn truly ground breaking.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I was up early enough that I considered posting this at 9:32 a.m., but was a bit too tired from staying up for UFC last night. Going to have Savinelli Janus in an unfinished, unstained, 2019 Savinelli Apollo 11 Author 320 limited edition (number 32/50) that celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, to celebrate the 54th Anniversary of Apollo 11 taking off.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Very happy to see Space X reinvigorating enthusiasm for space travel.