July 20, 1969: Apollo 11

[Onkel Neal]

Man, what an amazing anniversary. I can just remember watching the moon landings as a kid, and then going to NASA to celebrate the 25th anniversary.

Now, it's been 50 years since America put a man on the moon and returned him safely to Earth.

I would like to start this thread with a nice illustration of the F1 engine, a colossal enterprise in engineering that was necessary to get the 6.5 million pound Saturn V rocket into orbit.

[Sailor Steve]

I was in boot camp at the time, at the San Diego Naval Training Center. Our Company Commander (the Naval equivalent of a Drill Instructor) brought in a small portable TV so we could watch it. Thirty young men crowded around a tiny screen. It was still quite a day.

[Rockstar]

I was only 7-1/2 years old when Apollo 11 launched. I remember dad setting up the TV and spending some time fine tuning the antenna to get the clearest picture. He was very excited and placed a great deal of importance on that occasion. Even if I didn't fully understand it's importance then I had to see it and I so remember this image flickering in front of me on our TV.





I never missed a mission to the moon.

I went to Kennedy Space Center in the late 70's. The Saturn V was displayed outside then but as part of the tour we got to go inside the Vehicle Assembly Building & the control center. Didn't seem like there was much too the tour. But I remember that Saturn V was freaking huge.

[Jimbuna]

I watched that on tv whilst at school and to think there are still some out there who claim it was an elaborate hoax.

[eddie]

Saw the landing on tv while stationed in North Carolina (MCAS Cherry Point), was awesome to see it! Would have loved to see and feel a Saturn V launch, but never did. Maybe with a little luck, could see the launch of the SLS though, closest thing to a Saturn V now.

[Falkirion]

Never saw a Saturn V launch in person but have seen the massive F1's up close. I have a shot from the Air and Space museum on Washington Mall of myself standing in front of one of those massive things. Just the sheer scale of the rocket is mind boggling.


The Kennedy Space center has a full mock up of the Saturn too, just walking the length of the museum its housed in took me a good hour, plus all the side exhibits with various pieces of Apollo/Gemini/Mercury equipment was fascinating.



I'm a huge space nut, and love NASA and all the other space agencies work to keep men and women in orbit and develop new tech and experiment to broaden our understanding of the universe. Can't wait for the new moon program to start and watch those missions as they unfold.

[Rockstar]

Then there was this guy Jules Bergman. I really enjoyed listening to him explain what was going on, he always had some cool toys to play with too.

[Von Due]

My 1m tall Lego Apollo/Saturn V is ready with its tiny crew to celebrate the anniversary of the maddest missions humans have ever plotted and executed.

[Platapus]

They can't put anything on YouTube that is not true.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Von Due

My 1m tall Lego Apollo/Saturn V is ready with its tiny crew to celebrate the anniversary of the maddest missions humans have ever plotted and executed.

I don't think the moon landing was our "maddest mission" For that, I would nominate Apollo 8. It was, frankly, a foolhardy mission and even the crew did not give themselves a high chance of coming back.



It was the first manned mission to use the Saturn V. The previous unmanned test had significant problems with the second stage and the third stage was unusable.


If this rocket was used on Apollo 8, the crew would have been stranded.



There was no LEM, which proved a good safety "lifeboat" for Apollo 13.


There was no backup system.



These were, in my opinion, the bravest three astronauts in our program.



All this because we were intimidated by Zond 5.

[Rockstar]

If you've never watch the mini series From The Earth To The Moon I suggest you git yer butt out to the store and get it.




pretty kewl sound track too

[Skybird]

I built two Revell models of the USS Forrestal, a carrier . I think four of the F-4 Phantom II. And three of the Saturn -V.

Unfortunately NASA did not consider my suggestions on how to improve the design. Else Apollo 11 could have made it as far as out to Neptune, I tell you.

[Dmitry Markov]

This anniversary is without any doubt amazing. Though I have quite mixed feelings about it (as any former USSR citizen probably has ;-) ) - of course I am happy for humankind to be able to travel to distant objects in space, happy for those three brave men (among others Space pioneers from USSR, USA and other countries) to be the First ones to step on the Moon, I feel lot of respect to USA for launching a Lunar program that had success, but the same time I feel regret for our Soviet Lunar Program was stopped after Korolyov's passage - yes it had it's narrow points but it was in very high degree of readiness (both orbit module and lunar module were ready - problem was only the rocket which could have been tweaked I believe) - shame that we didn't launch if only one piloted mission ((( but that's a kind of sport fan's regrets when his team doesn't make it.
However, this story may be interesting to our american colleagues - in USSR there were very good theme monthly magazines about specific countries named accordingly: "America", "England" etc. Well, when I was in a high school in early 90-s I was lurking through my parents's bookshelves in search for another interesting reading and I've found a pack of magazines America dated 1968-1975 years!!! They were printed on a very good paper with very high quality of pictures and photography. Among other issues there was one dated 1969 and it was totally dedicated to Apollo 11 as I can remember !!! It even included special pages with printed details of carton model of Lunar Module ! Being devoted modeller I cried WOW - and immediately built that little model - and it still is somwhere in my parents's home :-) . And much earlier Space model project I can now remember - in 1987 my parents bought me a carton model of Apollo-Soyuz - it was my first serious model project as it included both Apollo which has quite a simple geometry and Souyuz which is a difficult prototype to model from carton. So I could only handle with it with my father's help of course.

[Onkel Neal]

Watched First Man last night, enjoyed the astronaut POV to the liftoff and lunar landing phases.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Dmitry Markov

This anniversary is without any doubt amazing. Though I have quite mixed feelings about it (as any former USSR citizen probably has ;-) )

I'm sure we all have mixed feelings of that time. I remember the hostility and the fear, with each side thinking of the other as "The Threat" and each side afraid to see the other side "win", when there really was nothing to win at all. Americans had your same feelings long before the Russians did as we watched you put the first satellite in space, the first man in space, the first woman in space, and yes, the first dog in space.

I am happy for humankind to be able to travel to distant objects in space, happy for those three brave men (among others Space pioneers from USSR, USA and other countries) to be the First ones to step on the Moon, I feel lot of respect to USA for launching a Lunar program that had success, but the same time I feel regret for our Soviet Lunar Program was stopped after Korolyov's passage - yes it had it's narrow points but it was in very high degree of readiness (both orbit module and lunar module were ready - problem was only the rocket which could have been tweaked I believe) - shame that we didn't launch if only one piloted mission ((( but that's a kind of sport fan's regrets when his team doesn't make it.

The comparison to a sports fan is an interesting analogy. My greatest regret is that we didn't have the foresight to drop our animosities, see the true picture and work together. Of course that hostility is what drove us in the first place, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

However, this story may be interesting to our american colleagues...

Interesting? I find that story fascinating! Do you have photographs of any of those models?