OT: We Choose The Moon

[Kiralynx]

http://wechoosethemoon.org/#

is a website dedicated to the Apollo 11 mission.

Forty years ago, I was about to start my senior year in high school. I remember walking out into the muggy New Orleans night, to stare up at the waxing crescent moon.

"A man is walking on the moon," I thought. My dreams of spaceflight seemed likely to come true in a few short years.

I didn't know then what my future husband, with a degree in space science and applied physics already knew: that there were no more programs in the works after Apollo. That was why he was working for a shipyard in New Orleans, instead of for NASA.

Though our failure to follow up on this accomplishment was, and is a disappointment to me, I still get the chills when I think of the accomplishment which Apollo 11 represents.

Where were YOU (or your parents) when they landed on the moon?

[BlackSpinner]

I remember watching it happen!

I was in school - university - I was totally inspired to take physics and computer sciences by the space program.

Do you know that 6% the the US population strongly believe it was all a hoax?

[Snorebert]

I was about to enter my Sophomore year of High School. Freshman year was part of the middle school back then so I was going to go to that scary place in a matter of days.
I actually have no real memory of what I was doing or where I was for that momentous even - only that I had eyes fixed on the old Zenith TV. I may have been walking on the moon in my imagination.

Strange, I remember Kennedy's death, Martin Luther King's assassination, the burning of Washington in the riot but I can't remember where I was for the first moonwalk. Maybe because the walk was expected where the other events were terrible shocking events.

People our age lived the whole space program - we watched the blast offs and landings on TV in school. Walter Cronkite (RIP) took us by the hand and made sure that we understood every facet of the missions. I do remember being in the crowd to welcome John Glenn when he got back to his home in Arlington, VA after his trip around the earth.

In my world of public education, we got to watch launches on TV, had music and art classes and PE with real instructors. We took field trips to movies, to the Smithsonian, to classical concerts. Thank God we weren't just sent to class to study up for the next standardized test. We were allowed/encouraged to dream and to create.

[Kiralynx]

I remember watching it happen!

I was in school - university - I was totally inspired to take physics and computer sciences by the space program.

Do you know that 6% the the US population strongly believe it was all a hoax?

Yes, I can believe that 6% of the US population believe it was a hoax. Bet they think all the products we've achieved as a direct result of the space program are also a hoax.

I remember watching. "The Eagle has landed!" and also, all the Unknown Heroes!

http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/songs/toast ... eroes.html

"For all the unknown heroes, sing out to every shore:
"What makes one step a giant leap is all the steps before"

[Kiralynx]

I was about to enter my Sophomore year of High School. Freshman year was part of the middle school back then so I was going to go to that scary place in a matter of days.
I actually have no real memory of what I was doing or where I was for that momentous even - only that I had eyes fixed on the old Zenith TV. I may have been walking on the moon in my imagination.

Strange, I remember Kennedy's death, Martin Luther King's assassination, the burning of Washington in the riot but I can't remember where I was for the first moonwalk. Maybe because the walk was expected where the other events were terrible shocking events.

People our age lived the whole space program - we watched the blast offs and landings on TV in school. Walter Cronkite (RIP) took us by the hand and made sure that we understood every facet of the missions. I do remember being in the crowd to welcome John Glenn when he got back to his home in Arlington, VA after his trip around the earth.

In my world of public education, we got to watch launches on TV, had music and art classes and PE with real instructors. We took field trips to movies, to the Smithsonian, to classical concerts. Thank God we weren't just sent to class to study up for the next standardized test. We were allowed/encouraged to dream and to create.

Amen! Especially, "We were allowed to dream and create."

I still have the scar on my knee from John Glenn's three orbits. I remember that bad weather delayed HIS flight several times, and when I heard he'd actually taken off, I was so excited I raced down the hall, tripped, and skidded most of the length of the hall on my knee, on the carpet.

How many kids today have those kind of heroes?

[BeanMeScot]

I was just under 3 years old at the time but I do remember it. My brother is 13 years older than me so he made sure to get me up to watch it on the TV because it would be a historic event. I remember playing on the floor with him and watching it. I didn't pay much attention to it but it stuck for some reason. Probably because my brother was so keen to see it.

[LSAT]

I remember watching it on our 23" B&W TV.. I got my 35mm camera and took pictures off the screen. I still have those pictures...they are really cool...It looks like I was really there.

[twokatmew]

I was 7 and remember watching it with my mom and brother, who would have been almost 5. We watched the televised space missions with great interest. Even at a young age, my brother could quote all sorts of statistics related to space exploration. It sure was pretty exciting! My, how 40 years fly.

[jdm2857]

I was 11 and away at camp that summer. There were no TVs at all.

I remember being shocked when the camp staff carried in a bunch of sets early on July 20. They were smart enough to realize the importance of the event, and made sure everyone watched. I remember being disappointed when the last two Apollo missions were canceled for budgetary reasons. How shortsighted.

[DreamStalker]

I was 9 ... I remember building a paper model of the lunar module just like this one ...



Then I had a real hard time trying to stay awake to watch the TV while they walked on the moon.

[GumbyCT]

A few years back I stayed at a hotel in Tampa where Neal Armstrong gave a presentation. At the end the reporters were asking questions. I remember one question was about Mr. Gorsky, who was he?

The reported quoted, when you said "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Good Luck Mr. Gorsky!" Since the news agencies never reported on that part - Was it maybe some Russian code name?

Col. Armstrong said the Gorsky's have long since passed so he thought it was now Ok to reveal the meaning.

Armstrong explained when he was a kid playing ball in the yard, the ball sometimes went into the neighbors yard. He remembers once when he went to get the ball, he could here the neighbor lady say -

"Oral sex, YOU want oral sex. I'll give you oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon".
Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky

[jules]

Well the moon landing - hmm - bah humbug ----

Not to compete at all with Gumby's tale, I was due to get married. My husband to be was in the Army at an training program at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama. After the class was over (he graduated top by a long shot - this was AIT on munitions records or the like) the class had orders take leave then to go to Germany. At least he was being sent East and not to Viet Nam.

The class was over on Friday 18th and they were to outprocess on Monday the 21st. We were to get married on Thursday July 24 on what my mother had called the "on again off again" wedding. It wasn't us but Uncle Sam (and my mother's strange ideas about facial hair on my future brother in law and future male cousins) that was causing the plan changes.

I had flown back into Seattle on Friday 18th and was busy doing all the final prewedding arrangements that needed to be done. We did have a license in hand, the minister was on vacation, the church was available, but there were still a ton of other things. The reception was at my parents house and so food had to be ordered, chairs rented, house cleaned and more. I had done what I could before I left Seattle the month before after graduating from UW.

Well the moon landing happened and all of a sudden Monday was declared a national holiday. We went round and round again on the wedding plans. He needed to outprocess the base on Monday and we didn't know what was going to happen on Monday after it became a holiday. They hadn't outprocessed the last day of the class as planned. Then after outprocessing the base he had to fly standby to Seattle (several leg flight) and I had to pick him up, get him a tuxedo rented, meet the new minister, and help with the stuff at the house. Eloping would have been so much easier but this wedding was for my mother not me.

They did let them outprocess on Monday 21 and he was able to fly out either late Tuesday or early Wednesday as I do recall picking him up Wednesday morning - either at Sea Tac or his Aunt's house in south part of Seattle. We then hit the tux place, the church, and back to my parents house (north end of Seattle long ways from Sea Tac). He slept that night in my brother's bedroom. The next day was full of errands too and everything until the wedding.

So that is what I remember about the moon landing.

[Juliebove]

I was in the 6th grade and we had to watch it on TV at school. I can remember sitting there thinking I didn't really believe it. Sure, we ate the awful Space Food Sticks and drank Tang.

Then I saw the space rocks at the Seattle Science Center on a class trip. I snickered and said they were not space rocks but granite.

I didn't believe it then and I don't believe it now. We haven't gone back there because we can't!

[luke]

I have always been fascinated with spaceflight and saw it live from my (our) couch in the recreation room when it happened.
I also saw live the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald on that same couch
Fascinating this thing called TV.
For those who dont believe we really went there download google-moon and find the part of the lunar vehicle still there.

Bill



P.S. opportunities in the space program still exist in a project called "Orion" which is a new vehicle being built I think by Lockheed-Martin

[SleepyT]

I was 9 years old...and remember my father waking me up and telling me to come downstairs to watch the landing with him because it was 'historic'. My brother was only 5 years old...so he didn't get a wake up call...and I guess Mom didn't care (?) 'cause she chose to sleep on....so....it was just Dad and me...and I loved sharing it with him. The coolest!