50 Years Ago - Apollo 11

[T-Square]

50 years ago I was a 17 year old high kid sitting on the floor watching a black and white TV in absolute awe and wonder as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon as Mike Collins kept watch in Columbia in orbit. I’m still amazed that the United States was able to accomplish that as fast as we did. This is a day to look back in wonder and then look to the future. The latest launches of the Falcon Rockets give me hope that we will be going back in the near future. There is much to be learned and gained from the efforts.

 

[Dave Petersen]

I remember it well! I was in grade school on summer vacation in Colorado with my family.

 

[Jim Kenney]

I took a bike ride (hot one) today near Dulles Airport and because it was July 20 I went to the nearby Udvar Hazy location of the National Air and Space Museum. Here are a few photos.
This one is for @Gary Stolt who likes Bud Light. There was a group of about 500 Canadian kids and their chaperones there.

I went to the spacecraft section looking for Apollo 11 artifacts, but also had to stop and get a shot of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

This place is much bigger than the Air and Space Museum in downtown Wash DC, but probably no bigger than the huge aviation museum at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH.

Took a shot of this plane from about 1930 for obvious ski tripping implications.
According to the sign, the orange spacecraft is a trainer, but they've attached the real flotation devices from the actual Apollo 11 spacecraft that went to the moon. (The Apollo 11 command module is on display in downtown DC.)

External view of museum.


PS: I remember watching man walk on the moon back in 1969. Now that was what I call MUST SEE TV! I was 15.

 

[Tricia]

The posts I've seen on FB about the event at the Mall
Stole these images from Regina, which made me wish I'd been there.

 

[crgildart]

Buzz Aldrin was my father's room mate at USMA. Both class of 51. They remained friends until dad passed in 2006. The night they arrived at the moon dad took my sister and me outside and put us on top of the car lying on the roof looking up at the moon. He put the radio on with the mission feed broadcast. Then, when The Eagle landed we went inside and watched them on black and white TV. Probably the most amazing scientific and technological event of my lifetime as far as I'm concerned.

 

[scott43]

I can remember my brother and I drawing the command capsule controls in our closet up north and lying in our backs with feet up the wall pretending we were flying the LEM. That was a long time ago..I was only two..

 

[ADKmel]

Definitely and amazing feat! One of those moments I'll never forget where I was. I still look up at the moon in awe! Hearing Neil Armstrong say "One small leap for man, one giant leap for mankind" From the moon won't ever be forgotten.

 

[VickiK]

I went to an Apollo 11 immersive live experience show last weekend -- it was awful. Very disappointing. Think twice or look for discounted tickets if the Lunar Dome tent is coming to town.

 

[SpikeDog]

I was 10, lying on the couch, sick as a dog. I managed to catch colds in the summer or just on the school weekends as a kid.

That was the apogee of engineering coolness. Pocket protectors and poindexter glasses were sexy. Well, maybe not. I would still have to say that's the event that steered me into engineering (chemical) more than anything else. That we haven't been back since 1972 pisses me off to no end. Plus, where's my jetpack? Why aren't we running the grid on fusion power?

 

[Kneale Brownson]

Fifty years ago, I was 29 and joined PSIA!!! I was in high school when sputnik circled the earth. I've listened to or watched (when available) most of man's space history. It's a fascinating time.

 

[geepers]

Watched that moon Apollo 11 moonwalk at school, about 15 y/o. Even in Australia they pulled everyone out of classrooms to watch it.

Sorry to say by the the time of Apollo 15 it was "Seen one moon mission, seen them all." NASA made it look so routine even allowing for Apollo 13.

Now that I've read quite a lot about the space program I've learnt that it was anything but routine. Those folk were on the end of a very long, very thin and tenuous link back to Earth. Very much so for the 1st to land.

 

[pete]

Space exploration is pretty amazing, manned or unmanned.

We're so insignificant in grand scheme of things but it's our push to learn that makes us great.

One cool thing on space exploration is it's still risky and as hinted by @geepers , risky, a tribute to those willing to chance it and those who work the thousands of "little" things.

 

[Jenny]

I was six and remember being extremely bored and couldn’t figure out why my parents were insisting we watch this. Dad took pictures of the TV, which I also didn’t understand. Now I do.

 

[Popeye Cahn]

Just saw this thread.

I was 7 at the time and we were given the option of camping another day or driving back to Mpls and watching the moon landing, we choose to go to the moon in that decade and do the other things... We stopped at KFC and bought a bucket of chicken and then sat down in front of the RCA NuVista color set and watched in awe. I watched every launch that I could thereafter and was never bored of the amazing work by committed engineers, technicians and astronauts. God bless them all for their diligence and purpose.

50 years later I watched this site and shared my memories with my children:

https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/

 

[Laurel Hill Crazie]

I grew up with the space program and watched every launch. All network programming was preempted almost all day to cover these events. I would switch between the 3 but CBS and Walter Cronkite was my favorite. Jules Bergman was a distant second. Is it all surprising that TV broadcasters are a huge part of my memory of the event. How the nation changed from JFK's May 1961 speech until Armstrong set foot on the moon in July 1969. As a 15 year old, I was not immune to those changes. My interest in the space program was lost amid the other events between the two, especially of the preceding 2 years. I did not tune in until late that night but my sense of awe and pride was restored upon watching Neil Armstrong descend the ladder of the LEM then finally take that first step the speak those first words.