[DonaldC]

40 years from now, we can celebrate failure.

[El Gran Salseron]

As far as I am concerned these heroes are not failures. They completed their mission.

I have met Captain Lovell. He is truly a humble, friendly, gentle man.

[djf]

For those of us who lived through that event, as a young kid with his little 2 1/2 in refractor, who watched EVERY launch, I think I can say there is NOTHING in the modern world that compares to it.

Hats off to NASA who did an unbelievable job getting them back.

Hats off to the crew who performed, under the circumstances, flawlessly.

It’s a serious damn shame that almost two generations have grown up and never saw a man walk on the moon.

It’s like every Star Trek you ever saw, all the Sci-Fi movies, all of it, rolled up in to one event. Jaw dropping and awe inspiring at the same time.

But hey, we got I-Pods!!

[Haiku Guy]

40 years ago?

Damn, we’re old!

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was just a kid, but I was fascinated by the technology. I am convinced that I am an engineer today because of the Apollo missions.

[KevinDavis]

For other space news go to: http://www.spacetoday.net
For a list of Private Space Companies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies

[Vaquero]

Lost Moon.

[MikeD]

Fred Haise went on to fly some of the Enterprise test flights in the late 70’s. One of my co-workers was a technician at JSC at the same time, and says they had a meeting after one of the drop tests to talk about the landing gear. I guess there was some concern about how the landing gear held on return. Anyway, Haise noted that the tests were all done with an empty orbiter, but wondered about the safety of the landing gear if the orbiter returned with cargo. Someone ran the numbers, and discovered that the extra weight would break the nose gear. Haise left the astronaut corps shortly after...

Ken Mattingly went on to command two Shuttle flights, including the last “test” flight in 1982. There is a picture that shows up on FR every so often of a shuttle crew saluting President Reagan, with Reagan wearing a pinkish suit — Mattingly is the commander saluting in those pictures.