Fiftieth Anniversary of Apollo 11 Moon Landing

[SoTier]

Saturday, July 20, 2019, is the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.  The Weather Channel has been showing lots of info snippets since Tuesday, the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo launch.  One of them I found interesting, having worked in IT for 30 years, is that the chips in today's musical/talking greeting cards have more power than the guidance system that took Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon and back!  PBS had an American Experience episode on it, and I'm sure that there will be more programs on Saturday.

[row_33]

Cronkite completely biffing on Armstrong's one small step statement is awesome

 

[RochesterRob]

1 hour ago, SoTier said:

Saturday, July 20, 2019, is the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.  The Weather Channel has been showing lots of info snippets since Tuesday, the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo launch.  One of them I found interesting, having worked in IT for 30 years, is that the chips in today's musical/talking greeting cards have more power than the guidance system that took Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon and back!  PBS had an American Experience episode on it, and I'm sure that there will be more programs on Saturday.

  I was elementary school age when Apollo 11 made its landing.  Nonetheless, I had an interest in the space program and remember due to my family visiting a relative I could not watch it while it actually happened.  I saw maybe the last 15 minutes after they touched down but did see the full recap on the evening news.  Pretty sure we watched it on NBC with Huntley-Brinkley.  Too young to really appreciate Huntley-Brinkley and my political views were not even forming that young but it had to be nice to watch newsmen who presented the news and nothing more.

 

  I guess my memory is not too bad as I double checked the day of the week it happened and it was a Sunday just like I thought it was.

Edited July 18, 2019 by RochesterRob

[Gugny]

This is easily one of my top 3 favorite movies of all time!

[RochesterRob]

1 minute ago, Gugny said:

This is easily one of my top 3 favorite movies of all time!

  You're thinking of Apollo 13 unless there is a movie covering the first landing I am unaware of.  Apollo 13 was the aborted mission where the crew almost did not make it back to Earth.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

3 minutes ago, Gugny said:

This is easily one of my top 3 favorite movies of all time!

I think you might be confusing the event with ‘Capricorn 1’...the one with (?dum dum dum?) OJ in it...?

[BuffaloBud]

Saw the Apollo 11 movie at the IMAX theater Sunday.  45 minutes, but very enjoyable.  I've been picking up various shows / programs all week.

[Gugny]

 

How does a flag wave when there is no air?

 

Where are the stars?

 

 

[sherpa]

7 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

How does a flag wave when there is no air?

 

Where are the stars?

 

 

 

All explained many times, and I'm sure you're kidding.

 

I've always been into this, to the point where I understand all of the com during the descent phase, as well as the 1201 and 1202 alarms.

 

It is quite surprising it worked, and equally surprising at how young the people were who made decisions in the last two minutes, though if I  was Armstrong and would have been told to abort on the 1202, I would have pressed on.

 

Just an amazing event.

 

I was at  the Sherkston Quarry when they landed, with a transistor radio. 

One of the things I'll never forget.

[KD in CA]

1 hour ago, row_33 said:

Cronkite completely biffing on Armstrong's one small step statement is awesome

 

 

That is one of the great shots ever.  America’s most unflappable guy having that ‘can you believe this???’ moment with his colleagues on the air, echoing what everyone else was thinking.

[SoTier]

28 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

I think you might be confusing the event with ‘Capricorn 1’...the one with (?dum dum dum?) OJ in it...?

 

That's about a faked landing on Mars.  I thought that there was also a movie that claimed the moon landing was faked but I didn't find anything about that, but maybe I too confused it with Capricorn 1.   Maybe I was thinking of the FOX documentary on  Moon landing conspiracies.

 

For those interested in conspiracy theories about the moon landing see here:  Moon Landing Conspiracies.   The thing that surprised me -- or maybe it shouldo n't -- are how many come from individuals who could easily appear to be "knowledgeable" because of their educational or employment backgrounds or military service records.   I guess it's a necessity for any conspiracy theory to gain hold of the public imagination to have supposed "experts" support it for whatever reasons they choose to do so.   The 9/11 conspiracy theories have attracted "respected experts" like flies on excrement over the years.

 

Two excellent movies about the Apollo missions: Apollo 13 and Hidden Figures.  I found Hidden Figures to be especially interesting because it focused on how NASA personnel struggled to get the first American, Alan Shepard, into space (but not into orbit) at a time when a "computer" was actually a person -- in the case of NASA, primarily female mathematicians.

 

There's a new documentary out on Apollo 11, too, with that title.  It's apparently created using all actual audio and video from the mission.

[Gugny]

6 minutes ago, sherpa said:

 

All explained many times, and I'm sure you're kidding.

 

I've always been into this, to the point where I understand all of the com during the descent phase, as well as the 1201 and 1202 alarms.

 

It is quite surprising it worked, and equally surprising at how young the people were who made decisions in the last two minutes, though if I  was Armstrong and would have been told to abort on the 1202, I would have pressed on.

 

Just an amazing event.

 

I was at  the Sherkston Quarry when they landed, with a transistor radio. 

One of the things I'll never forget.

 

I'd say I'm less than half kidding.  More of me believes that we landed on the moon, than that we didn't.  But I am certainly not convinced.  And I do think this is a good question (how a flag waves with no air).

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

20 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

Where are the stars?

 

 

Hollywood?  Making ‘Capricorn 1’?

1 minute ago, SoTier said:

 

That's about a faked landing on Mars.  I thought that there was also a movie that claimed the moon landing was faked but I didn't find anything about that, but maybe I too confused it with Capricorn 1.   Maybe I was thinking of the FOX documentary on  Moon landing conspiracies.

Do you know of any moon landing movies with OJ?  Fine, you get ‘Capricorn 1’.

[RochesterRob]

5 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

I'd say I'm less than half kidding.  More of me believes that we landed on the moon, than that we didn't.  But I am certainly not convinced.  And I do think this is a good question (how a flag waves with no air).

  Think of it this way.  Well over 10,000 people were closely involved with NASA in the Apollo program.  That is potentially 10,000 chances to spill the beans.  Do you really think that not one person would blab about it being fake?  Further, it would have been the achievement of the century for the communist world to make the Americans look like liars so I would have to think the KGB would have been waiting outside of every NASA-related building to offer a million dollars or more if they go to the media about such a fraud and then offer asylum.  That's the cynicism that would have convinced me if I had any doubts before.

[Gugny]

2 minutes ago, RochesterRob said:

  Think of it this way.  Well over 10,000 people were closely involved with NASA in the Apollo program.  That is potentially 10,000 chances to spill the beans.  Do you really think that not one person would blab about it being fake?  Further, it would have been the achievement of the century for the communist world to make the Americans look like liars so I would have to think the KGB would have been waiting outside of every NASA-related building to offer a million dollars or more if they go to the media about such a fraud and then offer asylum.  That's the cynicism that would have convinced me if I had any doubts before.

 

Again ... most of me believes it.  I just think the flag waving is peculiar.

 

Kind of like when Stevie Wonder caught the falling microphone stand.  Makes you wonder if he's really blind.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

4 minutes ago, RochesterRob said:

  Think of it this way.  Well over 10,000 people were closely involved with NASA in the Apollo program.  That is potentially 10,000 chances to spill the beans.  Do you really think that not one person would blab about it being fake?

But what if we’re in the Matrix?...?

[SoTier]

11 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

 

Do you know of any moon landing movies with OJ?  Fine, you get ‘Capricorn 1’.

 

Conspiracy theories aren't my thing.  I don't believe 'em.   It's not that I think people are always honest but that if more than 1 person knows a secret, it won't stay a secret for long --- and every conspiracy theory requires numerous individuals -- sometimes thousands of them -- keeping secrets forever and hiding all evidence of those secrets.   I know I've never seen any movie on any faked landing of any US spacecraft any where, but I've seen reports/trailers/descriptions of such.

 

 

[RochesterRob]

7 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

Again ... most of me believes it.  I just think the flag waving is peculiar.

 

Kind of like when Stevie Wonder caught the falling microphone stand.  Makes you wonder if he's really blind.

  We'll just have to not fully agree then.  The Apollo program would have been a full blown disaster for the US if it being faked had been revealed.  Enough to change the course of history and I am pretty sure the Soviet Union at the time understood the stakes.

[SoTier]

12 minutes ago, RochesterRob said:

  Think of it this way.  Well over 10,000 people were closely involved with NASA in the Apollo program.  That is potentially 10,000 chances to spill the beans.  Do you really think that not one person would blab about it being fake?  Further, it would have been the achievement of the century for the communist world to make the Americans look like liars so I would have to think the KGB would have been waiting outside of every NASA-related building to offer a million dollars or more if they go to the media about such a fraud and then offer asylum.  That's the cynicism that would have convinced me if I had any doubts before.

 

Exactly this.  It's the same way with the every conspiracy theory ever, most notably the 9-11 conspiracy theory that the Bush administration actually blew up the towers.  Conspiracy theorists ALWAYS ignore the fact that people will talk about stuff that's supposed to be secret.  Always.  The reasons that they do differ, but somebody always "spills the beans" at some point.

[RochesterRob]

11 minutes ago, SoTier said:

 

Exactly this.  It's the same way with the every conspiracy theory ever, most notably the 9-11 conspiracy theory that the Bush administration actually blew up the towers.  Conspiracy theorists ALWAYS ignore the fact that people will talk about stuff that's supposed to be secret.  Always.  The reasons that they do differ, but somebody always "spills the beans" at some point.

  Not to keep beating on this but you also have a motivated political entity in the Soviet Union to say that you faked it and now for sure the Americans cannot be trusted.