Comments on: Repost: What Apollo means to me

By: Lorna’s Weekly Link Love – Uplifters, Food Conspiracies, and Recipes « The Spiritual Eclectic

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 17:24:02 +0000

[...] Repost: What Apollo Means to Me [...]

By: Wayne Harrison

Wayne Harrison — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:00:26 +0000

Thanks for posting this. I was 20 and covered Apollo 11 from the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my career. (I’m still at it). I look up at the moon and wonder how long it will be before we ever go back. In school, our textbooks forecast that we would have lunar bases by now. Both 2001 and 2010 have already passed us by, with none of the advancement or scientific technology envisioned in Arthur C. Clark’s novels. I look up at the moon and feel sad that wars distracted us from our goal. In 1969, it was easy to believe we would be on Mars by 2001.

I also live not far from Columbine and Aurora and feel the sense of loss. Because I was covering the Aurora shootings I missed pausing to reflect on the 40th anniversary of one of mankind’s greatest achievements .

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 21:42:33 +0000

My brother Tim was exactly 3 when Apollo 11 landed. He’s had that event to mark his birthday ever since. Now he’ll have another anniversary to coincide with his birthday for the rest of his life, tipping the scale of joy in the other direction. Of course, to him, in California, it’s not a local tragedy, but the rest of my family (including me) lives within 30 miles of the theater. I understand that one of the victims was also celebrating a birthday.

One of my coworkers knows a couple of people that left the theater right before the shooting. And to think I grew up in the neighborhood of Columbine High School too. (We moved away long before I went to high school, and I graduated from high school 6 years before that shooting anyway, but it’s a little spooky.)

By: Alex Gorlin

Alex Gorlin — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:21:14 +0000

I cannot share the same kind of reminiscences not only because I wasn’t born yet, but also because I’m from the other side of the planet. I do remember though the enthusiasm with which my dad, not particularly in the space industry, used to talk about the Apollo program and its challenging engineering complexity. He passed away some years ago, but l have his old cardboard file full of meticulously cut out and sorted Soviet newspaper articles about the events. Strangely enough, the usually dry and sarcastic phrasing as well as the whole attitude towards the Cold War foe go away in these messages, as if ceasing political fire for a moment.

BTW, do you know Steve Jurvetson scanned and made available the LEM Construction Log (www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/7610058658)?

By: David E. Francis

David E. Francis — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:21:00 +0000

I was 13 when Apollo 11 went to the moon. I remember watching Armstrong oh, so slowly, come down the LEM’s ladder and then to step firmly upon the surface of the Moon. I remember thinking that the future held incredible and wonderful opportunities for both myself and my generation. It has been both frustrating and depressing to have watched those opportunities through the years since become more and more just a shadow; without any real substance. I can not help but wonder what our world would be like today if we had stayed the course and had followed the dreams that lead to space stations, a permanent moonbase, and possibly to a manned mission to Mars in 1980′s. I, myself, imagine a more vibrant, more positive world, more kinder where almost anyone can work and live out their life’s dreams. Where did we, the U.S. and the world, go wrong?

The following analogy seems to sum it up: Christopher Columbus, (the Apollo program), sailed to the New World, (went to the Moon), and found a new and different land. When he returned, the King and Queen, (the U.S. and the world), said there would be no more trips would be made—too much to do at home, (turned their backs on perhaps Man’s greatest achievement).

By: Stu Harris

Stu Harris — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:05:49 +0000

Too bad that the so-called “science adviser” for the popular overnight radio show “Coast to Coast AM” — the untrained and unemployed Richard Hoagland — could not rise to the occasion of the anniversary in similar reminiscence. Instead he presented a fraudulent image of what he called a “ziggurat” on the far side on the Moon. This image was not even his discovery, although he presented it as though it was. It’s been around the “anomalist” web sites for years, and it has been shown definitively to be concocted. What will it take for the producers of that radio show to realize that he’s bringing them into disrepute?

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:21:50 +0000

@ Rorgg (32) -

Wait, what?

There were men on the moon watching a live broadcast of your birth?? Is that what you’re saying?

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:20:54 +0000

Just to join in . . . yes, men have walked on the moon in my lifetime, but I was too young at the time to remember it.

By: Rorgg

Rorgg — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:10:24 +0000

Thanks for this. I’d always remembered my parents talking about how there were men on the moon when I was born and watching the live broadcast just before and after the birth, and this reminded me of that… yep, it was the apollo 15 mission’s second EVA, August 1, 1971.

Kinda gave me a warm fuzzy.

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:56:01 +0000

I remember this post from last time, Phil.

What surprises me is that there are no posts from HBs. Have we finally eradicated that particular disease?