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We chose to go to the moon

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Starman, Jul 16, 2019.

  1. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    The three-part American experience show is really fascinating. Gus Grissom talking about not having crap in six days in space or whatever it was was hilarious. And the family member deaths that surrounded the astronauts was pretty sad.
     
  2. Jake from State Farm

    Jake from State Farm Well-Known Member

    The Right Stuff is one of my favorite movies

    “Our Germans are better than their Germans.”
     
  3. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    The USSR didn't really have that many Germans when it came to rocketry.

    Most of the best scientists on Von Braun's team elected to surrender to the US, figuring the Soviets would probably throw them in the gulag, if not drop them in a trench.

    Plus the US recovered over 100 unlaunched V-2's while the Soviets got a dozen or two.

    The Soviets program was run pretty much personally by Sergei Korolev, who was homegrown (Ukrainian).
     
  4. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    My Apollo 11 story. If I've told this here before I apologize. Old people repeat themselves. In 1990 I was on a Sox road trip on the Coast in Oakland and my boss, a boxing fan, told me to go to Tahoe to see Macho Camacho fight some stiff. Following orders, I took a jet to Reno and on to Tahoe (which is not 15 minutes from anywhere). Camacho dispatches stiff in a fight I only remember because he wore a fringed set of trunks. So on the way back, from the Tahoe airport. we're in one of those one seat on a side prop jobs. Take off, clear the Sierras by 100 feet easy. We're going over boring Sac Valley landscape when I notice two things. 1. Passenger across the aisle from me is very nervous. 2. It's fucking Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon. I discreetly ask "Mr. Aldrin, is there something we should know?" He laughs loudly and says, "oh, I'm a typical pilot, the worst backseat driver there is."
     
  5. swingline

    swingline Well-Known Member

    Love button.
     
  6. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    I met Buzz about five years ago when he came to the station I still work at. Great guy.
     
  7. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    About 20 seconds before landing, when Eagle was about 50 feet up and Armstrong had just cleared the boulder field, Buzz says "bring her down."
     
    maumann likes this.
  8. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    These are among my favorite YouTube Apollo clips. You get the final 13-14 minutes of the landing with the transmissions synced with the film shot from an onboard camera. You can get them in all six moon landings.

     
    HanSenSE likes this.
  9. PCLoadLetter

    PCLoadLetter Well-Known Member

    I named my dog after Buzz Aldrin. Great dog.
     
  10. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

    ICYMI, this was the scene overnight at the Washington Monument.
     
    CD Boogie, garrow, swingline and 2 others like this.
  11. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    And his death in 1966 pretty much killed the Soviets' momentum. Two weeks after he died on the operating table, Luna 9 landed on the moon. It was the Soviets' last space first for a long time (of course, by that point the score was about 12-0 . . . ;)).
     
  12. Neutral Corner

    Neutral Corner Well-Known Member

    Heard something recently that I was totally unaware of. The first man to orbit the earth, Yuri Gagarin, rode a rocket up and orbited the earth in a capsule which had zero provision for landing. The Russians didn't have a heat shield technology that could be depended on. On re-entry, Gagarin pulled the handle on an ejection seat which blew him out into a free-fall parachute drop at around 25,000 feet. Cosmonaut, seat, and capsule all landed separately.

    The Russians hid this because they were concerned that if Gagarin did not take off and land with his ship they might not be credited with the first successful orbit of the earth.

    Think about the kind of balls it takes to ride an early rocket with no provision for landing?
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2019
    maumann likes this.
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