Posted on 04/11/2020 7:06:47 AM PDT by TFG
When I got home and opened it, there was a bookplate. Yep, a signed edition!
WOW! Awesome!!!!
Anyone waiting to hear the words, "Houston, we have a problem." is going to be disappointed; they were actually spoken by Jack Swigert in the past tense: "Houston, we've had a problem here." Jim Lovell then repeated the phrase to Houson: "Houston, we've had a problem." (Ron Howard had taken some creative license and dramatized that scene.)
Thanks for posting. To think the pinnacle of our achievement was 50 years ago.
That last moon trip was in December 1972, and Roe v Wade was decided the next month. Humans have not left earth orbit in almost 50 years. I’m certain that our sentence for the sin of nationwide, legal abortion for any reason is suppression of our technological advancements and reach into space. Maybe it was Charles Krauthammer who said we’ve turned inward to the instant gratification of smart phones and instant communication as opposed to outward toward space. (Yes, I know not all technological achievement is stunted.) It’s a theme in science fiction, that dangerous civilizations are kept in check. But just as some challenged people such as Down’s Syndrome and autistic individuals have tremendous artistic or mathematical abilities, maybe because they are less capable of sin, I think humanity is intellectually suppressed by sin.
If abortion goes back to the states, expect remarkable advances in material synthesis, R&D in biology and physics, etc. That state will be rewarded by the equivalent of a solid gold meteorite landing in their collective back yard.
Did Apollo 9 sneak off out of Earth orbit at some point, without anyone noticing?
I was always an astronomy and space nerd, but really got the bug in ‘99 after reading a slew of books from Mercury through Apollo. Then, I was thunderstruck to read Gordon Cooper’s narration of Biblical themes during his 22 solo orbits in Faith 7. (Try naming a spacecraft that today.) Also, the Tom Hank’s series “From the Earth to the Moon” has numerous gems. Watch “Spider”, the story of the lunar lander development. As a child, I couldn’t appreciate the monumental accomplishments and vertical learning curve that got us to the moon. It was great rediscovering it as an adult. Landing on the moon in 8 years was divinely supported, especially the Apollo 13 miracle.
Shuttle didn’t do too much for me.
That is a fascinating thought. Not far fetched in my opinion.
It is incredible that we never set foot again since 1972.
I bet people at the time though we’d be playing basketball up there by now :)
I do recall seeing the movie and some guys being handed a plastic bag, a rubber band and a paper clip and being told to make a respirator :) I’m exaggerating of course, but I do remember being VERY shocked that they made what they need to!!
As a child of the 70s I missed all of this. However, I watched the launch of Columbia in 1981 with Bob Crippen and John Young and was hooked ever since.
I wanted to be an astronaut. I studied physics and astronomy in college but was unable to finish due to financial circumstances. But I’m still a huge space buff to this day.
(All of the Apollo missions went to the moon.) :p
I dispute this...
Apollo One never made it off the launch pad — fire.
Apollo Nine never left Earth orbit — did testing of the modules to be used on the Moon, but in Earth orbit.
“I bet people at the time though we’d be playing basketball up there by now :)”
With 60 foot hoops ?!~ (1/6 Earth gravity) gotta be fair
ROFL!!!
That would be exciting :)
I have/had a reel to reel of most of this flight, as well as Apollo 11. Very insteresting listening.
Apollo 1 wasn't considered Apollo 1 until after the fire; it was named retroactively. (It was designated "AS-204" at the time of the fire.)
This is brilliant - thanks for the link. I was 7 at the time and still remember it being all over the news. I followed all the Apollo missions and kept a scrapbook of all the newspaper headlines over here in the UK.
I have an autographed picture by Captain Lovell taken on Apollo 8 of the earth rising over the moon (not the famous color one, it’s black and white). I’m inspired every morning when I see it walking into my home office.
That the "Apollo" designation was for those missions in the space program geared towards putting men on the moon does not mean that every mission actually went to the moon.
Apollo 13 was man’s greatest technological achievement ever. Not that they launched but that they blew up in space and safely returned.
When my kid was five, my wife asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. He said he wanted to work at NASA building rockets. That year, she made him a rocket shaped birthday cake.
Buzz Lightyear and October Sky were some of his early favorites followed by The Right Stuff and Apollo 13.
Fast forward a few years. She made him the same rocket cake for his 22nd birthday. The next day he graduated as an Astronautical Engineer and he works at NASA.
That’s wonderful!! Can’t think of anything more difficult than Aero engineering. I forgot about October Sky, that was great, also. On Facebook I’m a member of the Mercury, Apollo, Gemini group. So many people as nuts about manned spaceflight as you or your son, so many cool anecdotes. Those folks paint spaceflight, astronauts, build models, decorate their houses with everything space. I’m a poor imitation. We have a guy at work that was kind of an annoying salesman but found out his Dad was an old time engineer and his kid is is in payload engineering at SpaceEx. I saw him in a whole new light, clearly passed on some good genes and virtue to his kid. Congratulations!
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