My Dad was an Apollo lead engineer from 66 through end of 1970. I was born in Merrit Island just south of the Space Center. Great times. We have a lot of information and pictures from that time. A shot of Apollo V from my Dads site
When you really stop and think about it for a minute...it's an absolute miracle that they pulled this off with the technology of that day...a computer that doesn't come close to the simplest kids toys of today!
I agree that it was significant, but I think WW1, WW2, The Marshall plan and the Berlin Airlift were every bit as significant.
One black and white TV for the whole of our school, classes taking turns at occupying the TV room to watch the telecast, I was 12 yrs young at the time, and already obsessed with cars and bikes, Lunar fever ran high in Australia too. 50 years hey......my how we have digressed....
Another really great book is Michael Collins "Carrying the Fire" for those that are interested. It summarizes his career in the military and as a test pilot as well as his Apollo service.
Worked with every type of radiation know to man at Delco......check out Gamma.....especially in space...... Why the heck did'nt we load up the storage bay on the Space Shuttle with extra fuel and supplies and make a loop around the Moon on the 30th or 40th anniversary and take some GOOD pictures of the Apollo landing sites ?.......the answer is Gamma radiation but you would have to find a scientific text from the 60's-70's to find the truth nowdays.. And the pictures you can find of the landing sites on the internet are a joke......we are not the only country that has been to the moon....where are their pictures...... Gamma radiation......the SUN is a beast.....and solar flares in space....very bad for someone in a tin can..... 50 years later and we can barely make it to the space station...... Peace as always ! WildBill
Growing up, the father of one my friends was a very senior design engineer at Grumman and was a lead designer of the LEM. This man was brilliant, amongst other things, he built a huge observatory, including a powerful telescope, in his backyard from excess F14 airplane parts. Unfortunately, he also had a major alcohol problem...as an example, we would meet up at his house to go to the movies and there would be a full quart of vodka on the kitchen counter. When we returned, it would be empty. He drank like this pretty much every night. How this man could function at such a high level still amazes me...it's a wonder the LEM could fly much less be responsible for saving the astronauts on Apollo 13.
