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53 years ago today!

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  • Member since
    January 2010
53 years ago today!
Posted by rob44 on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 4:03 PM

Where does the time go? It has been 53 years since the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon! Five more lunar modlules followed. All based on 60's technology. In my mind some of the bravest and most intelligent people we have ever seen. All over in a flash in 4 years.

  • Member since
    March 2007
  • From: Northeast WA State
Posted by armornut on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 6:30 PM

   I remember the moon landing, kind of an image really but I know I seen it. Just think...less than 100years before we barely got off the ground.

we're modelers it's what we do

  • Member since
    May 2011
  • From: Honolulu, Hawaii
Posted by Real G on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 6:32 PM

Such a heady time - even as a four year old I could feel the excitement and energy the space race generated. Dad got our first color TV (a honking big RCA unit) just to watch the broadcast.  Mom let me stay home from preschool to watch.  I had my space helmet and even a "NASA" jumpsuit that my mom made for me.  God, I loved bounding around the yard in that getup.

Armornut, actually it was more like 60 years from the first official powered flight to the moon shot, so it's even more astonishing.  And to think we had civilization for well over 2,000 years before that.  The pace of technology during the 20th century was without precedent in our history.

“Ya ya ya, unicorn papoi!”

GAF
  • Member since
    June 2012
  • From: Anniston, AL
Posted by GAF on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 8:05 PM

Heady times.  I remember it was Sunday afternoon on that July 20th.  My dad passed away the next month, having lived to see the Wright brothers to the moon landing.  I've lived from the beginning of the first man in space, and wonder what event will close out mine?

Gary

  • Member since
    May 2011
  • From: Honolulu, Hawaii
Posted by Real G on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 8:26 PM

Holy Mandella Effect, GAFman!  After all these years I thought it was a school day!  Now I question all the other details of my childhood.  Tongue Tied

Did I really have a space helmet and jumpsuit?  Did I really get the scar on my chin from that epic tricycle crash when I was 3... OK my mom corroborated that one, as she had to clean me up.  Did I really have a chocolate cake with a icing Pan Am 747 on it for my 5th birthday?  Was "Thunderbirds are Go!" really a TV show?  So many questions and self-doubt now.  I gota lie down.

“Ya ya ya, unicorn papoi!”

GAF
  • Member since
    June 2012
  • From: Anniston, AL
Posted by GAF on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 10:43 PM

"Thunderbirds Are Go!"?  Never heard of it.  Wink

Gary

  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: North Carolina
Posted by Back to the bench on Wednesday, July 20, 2022 11:56 PM

I was so enthralled with the space program. I read everything I could find in the library about it and saved news paper articles about the moon landing (where they went I have no idea). One of my earliest recollections of really trying hard on a model was the "Everything is Go" Project Mercury kit.

 I REALLY wanted the Major Matt Mason toys but never had any of them. You can find the old commercials on YouTube and man are they hokeyBig Smile

And speaking of "Thunderbirds are Go", I stumbled across this yesterday and really  enjoyed it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K1vMaYlptNg

Rob44 sorry for drifting off topic and thanks for the reminder of that momentous occasion. Truly amazing times and so many wonderful memories.

Gil

  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Thursday, July 21, 2022 11:21 AM

Oh!

          I remember that day so well. I was over Seven Hundred miles from home and my truck got mad at me I think. I had to stop at a Truck Stop/Garage to get her fixed. Went in the restaurant and everyone's eyes were on the three suspended T.V.s watching the "Moon Landing" You could've heard a Pin drop!!

        Then I remembered my Load.Something for N.A.S.A. at the Cape! Gosh, I wondered if my cargo was something that would be the next object on the moon. I also wondered where they would put the Shuttle Together. Man that assembly Building was Huge! And it wasn't finished yet!

     

  • Member since
    January 2010
Posted by rob44 on Thursday, July 21, 2022 3:23 PM

Real G

 

What you probably remember is that President Nixion declared the next day, Monday as a national holiday and schools were closed. The moon walk occured almost midnight Sunday Eastern time. Take off from the lunar surface occured on Monday.

GAF
  • Member since
    June 2012
  • From: Anniston, AL
Posted by GAF on Thursday, July 21, 2022 9:09 PM

I don't remember that, probably because it was summer and schools were closed anyway.

Gary

  • Member since
    March 2019
  • From: Post Falls, Idaho
Posted by Sigep Ziggy on Monday, February 13, 2023 12:02 PM

I was 8yrs old, I had my Revell lunar module model and the lunar surface model and mimicked the landing while watching on a 'color' console televison!

your shipmate,

Ziggy

 

  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Towson MD
Posted by gregbale on Monday, February 13, 2023 2:16 PM

Sigep Ziggy

I was 8yrs old, I had my Revell lunar module model and the lunar surface model and mimicked the landing while watching on a 'color' console televison!

Much the same deal...though I was following and reenacting the action with a home-made model made from raisin boxes and cardboard scrap with matchstick legs!

And our Mongomery Ward TV was still B&W! Big Smile

Greg

George Lewis:

"Every time you correct me on my grammar I love you a little fewer."
 
  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Monday, February 13, 2023 2:27 PM

IIRC the Guidance computer had 72kb of ROM.

 

Bill

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    December 2021
Posted by Tennis Coach on Tuesday, February 14, 2023 7:00 PM

[quote user="armornut"]

   I remember the moon landing, kind of an image really but I know I seen it. Just think...less than100years before we barely got off the ground.

 

I often relive the first moon landing.  Technology sure moves fast.  My grandmother was 16 years old when the Wright Brothers first flew, and she lived to see man walk on the Moon (all of the lunar landings).  To me, that is something.

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