Remembering Apollo 11

I was a bit older, around 14 I think. My step-mum actually worked at the in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Centre during that period and remembers seeing the various components of the Saturn IV and Saturn V rockets passing through, as well as the astronauts and support staff. She was then moved in 1968 to Cape Canaveral and remembers all the staff gathering around in the mission control room to watch various launches of the Saturn V rockets. She left there in June 1969 after getting married so just missed the launch of Apollo 11.

The launch of Apollo 11 was reckoned [in 1969] to be

'The most photographed 30 Seconds in history'

... That's the title of a memorable article in 'Photography' magazine.

MichaelG.

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http://museedelapresse.com/archives-de-la-presse/page/15129/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/07/2019 07:07:12

Apparently when Armstrong was piloting the lander down to the surface his heartbeat reached 160, mission control were worried! This got me thinking, is this bad for you if the elevated rate is caused by stress, as it was piloting the lander (I guess) rather than physical exertion?

I agree with the comments on "The Dish", a wonderful film, I'm hoping one of the TV networks will broadcast it as part of the moon landing celebrations.

John

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About that time, John, I was studying 'Ergonomics with Human Biology' and participated in an experiment where 'non-drivers' were monitored whilst driving on a closed road on campus. ... Armstrong's rate is consistent with the results, and I suppose the activity is 'proportional'

MichaelG.

I was 11, and was one of those who stayed up till the early hours (was it around 4am UK time?) to watch, on an ancient black and white TV, Armstrong step out on the the moon surface.....It did seem ages to wait after the landing until they decided to get out though.

What I don't recall is watching the launch, although I followed all the space stuff during the early 70's. Including rushing home from school to catch up on the latest news!

One other thing can you imagine the frustration of this event being behind a pay wall/pay for view i.e. sky, and not being able to witness live this massive event in human history?

Regards

Derek

Hi, the Dish, Houston's other problem, starring Sam Neill. I have it on DVD, it is one of three DVD's that came free with the first DVD player I bought. A good film.

Regards Nick.

One of those complicated things you need to cross-reference with blood pressure, blood oxygen and CO2 carriage and moon-lander air quality. I'm sure there was a huge surge of adrenalin but likely also a lot of muscle activity even though it was to hold things steady rather than haul on them and a lot of energy burn in the brain from concentration and calculation.
In my fit sporting days i had a resting HR around 30bpm but could push it up over 250 on excercise but the sign of fitness was how fast it came back down.

Here in NZ we got radio live but the TV was delayed, the RNZAF sent a Canbera bomber over to Australia to pick up the film to go on the TV, I think the flight time record stayed until broken by Concorde(some time in the 1990s (I think). I have the LP "Apollo 11 We Have Landed On The Moon" produced by Capitol Records featuring official NASA tapes. Special narration by Paul Haney. It cost me the grand sum of $NZ1.99.

Ian S C

Not to mention that the ongoing medical condition of the Astronauts' hearts in the years leading up to their 'event' were probably the best (and best known) in history. I doubt anyone had any real worries about these rates. Good fodder for the media though.

A very nice project going on at the moment commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 named Project Egress. Adam Savage and a group of well known makers (most of them on you tube channels) are building a replica of the Apollo 11 command module hatch door. Very interesting. There are a lot of different videos of the various parts by various makers on youtube right now, this is one of them, probably the most complicated one:

I could not get home quick enough from school to catch up on how it was going. It was a fascinating time for me trying to get a grip of the enormity of it all.

Brian

Not seen that one yet. Here is This Old Tony’s piece.

**LINK**

Like Tony's videos. There are a bunch of makers at the moment involved it that project, if you search Project Egress in youtube you'll find most of them.

I was eight. Father appeared at whatever hour it was and basically said "Get up, you need to see this.". So I did.

If you ever get to Cape Caneveral, consider the 'Early Space' tour. The exact content may have changed since 2001. My tour included block houses (with numerous ash trays) and walking round on a Saturn V launch pad. I don't recall exactly where the refractory bricks were made, but is was somehere 'Up North' in the UK. Slightly weird to see 'Major Matt Mason' again, as a museum exhibit. I ran out of time to see the Saturn V itself, had a plane to catch

Related, if you want to attract attention, visit the (London) Science Museum with somebody who had relatives who worked for NASA. He was innocently saying 'my uncle worked on that' and 'my cousin worked on that' when we realised we were being looked at. Somebody had to build the stuff ! 400,000 somebodys according the to the figure currently being quoted.

That's a pity. They have one lying on its side and it really puts the size into perspective.

I know! That was the #1 planned objective for the visit. Then I saw the add-on tour. The time required for the add-on tour was not stated. If I had realised how generous the add-on was, the Saturn V might well have won. On the bright side, the Saturn V is still there.

On that trip, I also got to do some basic aerobatics in a T-6 Texan. Short version, you can barrel roll anything, only some aircraft can be looped.

While there are no doubt things to criticise about American media, it is striking that EVERYTHING that NASA puts out is in the public domain. You can make any use of NASA imagery you want, from Apollo landings to Hubble images, as long as you acknowledge the source.

Neil

And the Anniversary Eclipse last night (I wonder how they arranged this!)