Comments on: An Oz perspective on Apollo 11 launch

By: Andy Holroyd

Andy Holroyd — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:38:05 +0000

Thanks for the memory jogger BA. I was 13 then, and I tape recorded it from TV with a mic up to the speaker. Launch, landing and first footfall. BBC James Burke version of course (cheers Michael L). Grr, what happened to that tape?

Also:
+1 to The Dish, good fun movie
++++++++++++++etc to Sir Patrick

By: quasidog

quasidog — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:36:36 +0000

@ Kaleberg Says: “Neat memories. For another, fictional, Australian take on the moon landing check out The Dish. The ground station for the moon landing was a big dish antenna in Australia. The Dish is a comic take on a small town’s moment in the sun, or perhaps the moon.”

That is one of my favorite Australian movies. Besides being Aussie its a damn good movie anyway. I love Sam Niell “Event Horizon” was my favorite movie he has been in but there are so many others. *tries to forget Jurassic Park 3* I am pretty sure “The Dish” won a few awards didn’t it? Great movie.

http://thecia.com.au/reviews/d/dish.shtml

By: Chas, PE

Chas, PE — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:36:56 +0000

“The Dish” is a movie showing a (fictionalized) account of the Apollo landing from the POV of the crew at the Parkes radiotelescope in austraila. Sam Neill, Patrick Warburton. a loverly little film, funny and warm. Technically skilled people doing their jobs right–how often do you see that?

One gripe (with “Apollo 13″ too) they show the engines lighting off at zero in the countdown–actually, the engines started at “ignition sequence start”, at T-8.9 seconds, ran up to full thrust, then the clamps released at zero. All these movies do it Wrong!!

PS: I was the little kid sitting on the floor with the book on my lap (although I was 19 at the time…)

By: Gordan

Gordan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:49:56 +0000

Greg23: Take a deep breath and calm down. It’s the shadow of the rocket on the cloud it just punched through. Look up other color TV footage of the launch and it’s clear. Not only is there the rocket’s shadow, there’s also the shadow of the condensation cloud(s) that just then appeared on the vehicle, giving the shadow a more peculiar shape.

By: Greg23

Greg23 — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:25:17 +0000

What was the shadow just after the audio glitch? (5:26) It looked like the rocket but I can’t imagine what lighting situation would produce that since the brightest light source was the rocket itself.

AN ALIEN GHOST ROCKET???

By: Peter B

Peter B — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:01:48 +0000

Don Wiseman said: “The real cliff hanger was when Charlie Duke said “10 seconds” during landing. We all knew that according to mission rules, Neil should have aborted.”

With the greatest of respect, but, “Pardon?”

Charlie Duke made the call “30 seconds,” which meant 30 seconds until “Bingo fuel,” which meant “land now or abort”. He never called “10 seconds”, and even if he had there was no requirement to immediately abort. So I’d be curious to know who the “we” is you refer to.

By: Don Wiseman

Don Wiseman — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:21:58 +0000

I was sitting in the viewing room of Mission Control, and when that baby lifted off, we were all holding our breaths. There had been two other lunar orbital flights, with the same type of launch – but this was two stages more dangerous and historic. The real cliff hanger was when Charlie Duke said “10 seconds” during landing. We all knew that according to mission rules, Neil should have aborted. And then, they were down.

I knew all three of the guys pretty well. This kinda brought back a few tears. Neil was a neighbor, Buzz a social friend as well, and Mike a professional associate.