Explaining the moon shots to SWMBO

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McCall St. Brewer

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I am 51, but SWMBO is only 37. She is reading about all the hoopla surrounding the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's setting foot on the moon and can't figure out what all the fuss is about. Now Walter Cronkite has died and she is wondering why everyone is all upset about that.

Did things change that much in just a few short years? I am not doing very well at explaining to her just how big the NASA missions during the 60's were. Today not very many people even pay attention to the space shuttle missions unless a disaster happens, but back in those days the eyes of the whole world (including mine) were on everything NASA (and the Soviet space agency) did.

I remember like it was yesterday sitting on the living room floor in front of our 19" b & w television. I would spend hour after hour staring at the image of those Mercury/Atlas rockets sitting on the pad at Cape Canaveral, while NASA worked through one seemingly endless delay after another. All the while I would have Walter Cronkite's reassuring voice providing all the latest updates.

Usually, but not always, the countdowns would resume at last and the liftoff would occur. It never seemed like anything would go right with the Mercury's.

When the Gemini program started I was older and in school, so it seemed like many of the launches were during the day time when I could no longer watch. But I would look forward all day to the CBS evening news where they would replay the launches. If a mission happened during summer vacation, I would stayed glued to the set watching space walks and rendevous's and dockings with Thor/Agenas.

After watching the struggles of the Mercury and Gemini missions, the Apollo missions that followed the tragic Apollo 1 were simply amazing. NASA had really gotten their sh*t together by then, and it was breathtaking all the amazing things they could do by then.

I remember sitting in a Holiday Inn with my family on the night of July 20, 1969 (we were, believe it or not, on the way to Florida that summer, where as part of our family vacation were were going to take a tour of the Kennedy Space Center) watching the grainy black and white images of Neil Armstrong climbing down the ladder and setting foot on the moon.

CBS showed shots from all over the world as people everywhere watched and cheered for the astronauts.

I am surprised that a few short years could make so much difference that my wife has such a hard time relating to how huge that was. No one had to explain anything to her when Michael Jackson died.

NASA is working on a new program to get us back to the moon now, but I wonder how many people are even aware of it? If you had told me back in 1969 that 40 years later we had not even tried to go to Mars, I would have thought you were crazy.
 
My wife loves that stuff. I picked up a 4 disc Blueray set that has the NASA stuff in it. Quality time together.

Most people don't realize that the technology had been in development since turn of the century, and it wasn't until the 60's that they could actually try many of the theories. They used a ballistic trajectory, but there were others that were thought of decades before, like skip trajectory. Way back before they had any way to test this stuff. They were really practically trying new and dangerous things back then. Now that it's been done, it seems mundane.
 
Turn the color level to zero on your smallest tube TV (if available), and (using a converter box :mad:) have her enjoy the maybe three channels that are broadcast through the air.
 
Something is a miss there. I am 38 the Mrs. is 37 and we both remember having 3 channels and Atari games. True I don't remember the Moon landing but realize it was a big deal.
 
definatley a big deal concidering my $2 calculator has more computing power than the apolo lander had.
 
I've been watching the history channel all morning. Space exploration has always been fascinating to me. I wish it was still as big of a deal as it was 40 years ago. Spaceflight is still a dream I hope to fulfill someday. (my 3rd grade teacher said I could)
 
I wasn't even a though in my parent's heads when these events were big, but even I realize the significance. I was also sad at the passing of Walter Cronkite, the term "anchor" was first used to describe him. He reported on some very big events, including the JFK assassination.
 
Yeah, I am watching something on discovery about the moon shoot now. It was a little before my time, but living on the space coast I was exposed to it and the history.
But things have definitely changed. They played the news break where Cronkite announced the training fire. There was a level of emotion that you don't see any more. His voice ever so slightly breaking, showing restrained grief and genuine compassion. Current news casters have to use restraint to hide their inner elation for breaking 'the big story'. Makes me sick to watch these people pretend to care in times of tragedy and then return to all smiles in an instant to talk about a water skiing squirrel .

NASA has done wonderful things. I read an interesting tidbit, not sure how accurate but, it stated that the space programs (ours and Russia's) had accelerated technology by at least 20 years. Just think, Al Gore would be inventing the internet now...
 
definatley a big deal concidering my $2 calculator has more computing power than the apolo lander had.

Those guys were pioneers, very brave men. There was no guarantee that they would land on the Moon, or even survive.
 
Steal her GPS, cell phone and disconnect the cable tv for a full day. That ought to help her appreciate what the space program means.

and make her drive into the sunset without sunglasses....

NASA invented lots of cool stuff that we all take for granted now.
 
To be fair, there a lot of myths about things that NASA supposedly invented. Velcro, for instance gets falsely accredited to NASA
 
Understandable, we've had people in space off and on her entire life. We went to the moon before she was born and haven't done anything exciting since. NASA has been working on the spacestation twice as long as Apollo took, it's in LEO, and not done yet. Bush said we would go back to the moon and that it would take longer than the Gemini and Apollo programs combined. I worked on ISS and it's boring!

I find the civilian programs: SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, etc. exciting. And I curse the senators that killed the Delta Clipper program!
 
I was five, and I remember it like yesterday. My dad and I watched it, and for some reason my five siblings and my mother weren't there. But once my dad told me that there was a spaceship with our astronauts landing on the moon I was glued to that TV. It was awesome.



It's one of those events where you always remember where you were when it happened, like when Reagan got shot I was in study hall in high school, I was working at a jobsite during 9/11, and I was in our living room with my dad during the moon landing. If it falls into the category of "you always remember where you were", then it's a huge event.
 
Man walking on the moon is quite simply THE crowning achievement of our species. Since the early prototypes of humans, we've looked up at the moon with wonder, even reaching out, trying to touch it with our hands; like infants trying to touch a toy they cannot reach. For roughly 2 million years it was an impossible dream. While man created civilization, built & destroyed cities, nations, even created & destroyed gods; the moon was always there, always out of reach, an everpresent reminder that some things are impossible. Until that day in 1969 when man did the impossible & walked on the moon. Landing on another world. Lives were lost, billions spent, and the work of centuries went into it; nothing can compare to the level & scope of such an incredible achievement. Now I hope to see man walk on Mars in my lifetime. Regards, GF.
 
I am 51, but SWMBO is only 37. She is reading about all the hoopla surrounding the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's setting foot on the moon and can't figure out what all the fuss is about. Now Walter Cronkite has died and she is wondering why everyone is all upset about that.
You're own fault for robbing the craddle :D
I remember having to walk a mile and a half to watch the landing at our church.
 
It's one of those events where you always remember where you were when it happened, like when Reagan got shot I was in study hall in high school, I was working at a jobsite during 9/11, and I was in our living room with my dad during the moon landing. If it falls into the category of "you always remember where you were", then it's a huge event.

I was three years old at the time, so I don't remember the actual event, but my father used his home movie camera to film the event on our black and white TV. The film has since degraded and is unwatchable now, but I watched it many times as I was growing up. As for the Reagan shooting, I was in math class in high school. I heard about it in between classes. I was in college when the Challenger exploded. And on 9/11, I was on duty at the fire dept. We had a medical run, and being on the ambulance that day, we were returning from the hospital and stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a coffee. They had a TV on the wall, and everyone was standing there watching. I was watching it too as the second plane hit the second tower. So yeah, I remember where I was.
 
Understandable, we've had people in space off and on her entire life. We went to the moon before she was born and haven't done anything exciting since. NASA has been working on the spacestation twice as long as Apollo took, it's in LEO, and not done yet. Bush said we would go back to the moon and that it would take longer than the Gemini and Apollo programs combined. I worked on ISS and it's boring!

I find the civilian programs: SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, etc. exciting. And I curse the senators that killed the Delta Clipper program!

David,

I worked on some componets also very early on when I was GE Aerospace. Can you say who you worked for? Have you worked in the industry long? I continued with GE through Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin. I spent time at VAFB working launch operations too. I worked at SLC6 for several months, cool place if you know anything about it.
 
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