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"It Was Impossible"— The Starry-Eyed Dream that Launched Us to the Moon 50 Years Ago This Week
The Sun Also Rises Radio Show ^ | 15 July 2019

Posted on 07/15/2019 6:51:19 AM PDT by Thistooshallpass9

50 years ago this summer, the U.S. landed men on the moon. We’ve all seen the grainy video footage of Neil Armstrong. We’ve heard the recording of his famous words about the “small step" and the "giant leap." And in our imaginations, this unbelievable achievement has essentially been distilled down to that. But this accomplishment was the result of a massive team of people laboring for a decade on an effort unlike anything that came before it. And it was driven largely by a desire to keep the world from being enslaved to a most dangerous ideology. In this episode, we examine what made this "impossible" dream happen, and what it means for mankind 50 years on.


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: apollo11; apolloprogram; moon; themoon
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1 posted on 07/15/2019 6:51:19 AM PDT by Thistooshallpass9
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To: rktman

Ping.


2 posted on 07/15/2019 6:53:29 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: Thistooshallpass9

C’mon, everybody knows it was a Hollywood produced movie.


3 posted on 07/15/2019 6:54:09 AM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: Thistooshallpass9

I was privileged to grow up in the time to witness the space program unfold. It was thrilling, and had a great deal to do with my choice of career. I will never forget sitting in the TV room of my dorm watching the moon landing.


4 posted on 07/15/2019 6:54:43 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: unixfox

Even though the lighting to bathe a movie set in such fey luminescence wasn’t extant in 69?


5 posted on 07/15/2019 6:56:08 AM PDT by Thistooshallpass9
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To: GingisK

It seems to me like the most exciting chapter in history, so I agree that you were privileged to have lived through it. I asked my dad if he remembered watching it and he doesn’t, which is bizarre. I think he was too bitter from having just been drafted to care much about it.


6 posted on 07/15/2019 6:58:43 AM PDT by Thistooshallpass9
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To: GingisK

I live in north Houston area, and take visitors to NASA mainly to see the Saturn V display. Even by today’s standards, it is an amazing display of engineering mastery! Truly an incredible accomplishment.


7 posted on 07/15/2019 6:58:56 AM PDT by broken_arrow1 (I regret that I have but one life to give for my country - Nathan Hale "Patriot")
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To: Thistooshallpass9
♪ Oh my starry eyed surprise, sundown to sunrise ♫
8 posted on 07/15/2019 7:12:34 AM PDT by ßuddaßudd ((>> M A G A << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: broken_arrow1
The Saturn V is still the most powerful machine built by man. It you don't know this already, consider that if the F1 stage could be laid horizontally on wheels on a railroad track, it could out push 2,200 diesel-electric locomotives!

The Apollo Program is so very important, and the achievements are flabbergasting.

9 posted on 07/15/2019 7:17:21 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: broken_arrow1

And they did it all with computers that were primitive by today’s standards!!!! (And some—but by no means all—of their “computers” were women, not machines!!!!)

https://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Human_Computers


10 posted on 07/15/2019 7:21:19 AM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: Thistooshallpass9
Bill Whittle Now - Back to the Moon:Rebooting NASA

Apollo 11 +50 years starts July 16th

7
11 posted on 07/15/2019 7:22:41 AM PDT by infool7 (Observe, Orient, Pray, Decide, Act!(it's an OOPDA loop))
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To: Whenifhow; null and void; aragorn; EnigmaticAnomaly; kalee; Kale; 2ndDivisionVet; azishot; ...

p


12 posted on 07/15/2019 7:31:19 AM PDT by bitt (US intel is there to protect the safety and security of Americans. It is not a political tool.)
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To: Thistooshallpass9
But this accomplishment was the result of a massive team of people laboring for a decade on an effort unlike anything that came before it.

And they did it with sliderules...

13 posted on 07/15/2019 8:06:20 AM PDT by pfflier
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To: Thistooshallpass9

Going to the moon?

I thought that was a ploy by JFK et al to divert attention away from a growing racial problem.

*We will go to the moon* speech - given @ Rice Stadium in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1962.

On Sept 30 of the same year, the Ol Miss riots broke out. So, maybe not too effective.


14 posted on 07/15/2019 8:12:52 AM PDT by ASOC (Having humility really means one is rarely humiliated)
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To: broken_arrow1
I live in north Houston area, and take visitors to NASA mainly to see the Saturn V display

I do the same with my visitors here in the Huntsville, AL area. The Space and Rocket Center has an vertical Saturn V outside, and a horizontal one inside.

15 posted on 07/15/2019 8:17:22 AM PDT by kosciusko51
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To: Thistooshallpass9

and the democrats blocked further flights and other exploration.


16 posted on 07/15/2019 8:37:47 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: broken_arrow1
I grew up in the Orlando area, which was close enough to see the manned boosters climbing upwards when launched. For Mercury and Gemini, one saw a bright point on a column of smoke, but the Saturn V was large enough that even in Orlando, one could see the rocket itself on launch and could even see the first stage detach dozens of miles downrange.

Astonishingly, NASA originally planned on even larger boosters, with competing designs known as Nova and the Saturn C-8 that were to be capable of supporting a direct landing on the Moon. The most likely designs had eight F-1 engines in the first stage, as compared to the five in the Saturn V. NASA dropped development of such models though after recognizing the advantages of Lunar Orbit Rendevous, which made it possible to use the smaller Saturn V. This likely shaved a couple of years or more off the schedule for the Apollo landing.

17 posted on 07/15/2019 8:54:00 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: Thistooshallpass9

and keep in mind that all of the engineering and navigation was done with slide rules ... the onboard flight computer had less computing power than your toaster ...


18 posted on 07/15/2019 11:15:25 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: Thistooshallpass9; bitt

I vas dere, Charley! ...at the news staging area, just outside the Vehicle Assembly Building. :^D I still have some of my credentials.
19 posted on 07/15/2019 12:01:20 PM PDT by Bob Ireland (The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise)
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To: pfflier

Back when people could think.


20 posted on 07/15/2019 2:31:14 PM PDT by ealgeone
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