Thor’s Hall

40 years ago, now, we heard these words… “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

With them, the goal set forth by John F. Kennedy in 1961 to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade.  The focus and support of the American government, industry, and citizens in reaching this goal was astounding.

Kennedy’s vision was announced just months prior to my birth and during a time of hightened brinksmanship during the cold war.  Obviously I grew up during this period of time and was enamored of (and still am) the space program.

We had gathered as a family at my grandfather’s home on this day in 1969.  It was a hot summer’s day in Portland.  My cousins made the trip in from Spokane (about 6 hrs) and we were tearing up the house and the yard as children (all between 4 and 9) do.  Normal summer time frollicking.  Soon enough we were all brought into the house to watch and listen to the proceedings.   Cronkite and Schirra, with their commentary and the support crews at Mission Control providing some context for what was happening…  then it was back outside to run and play.

As the day progressed, and moved on we were becoming totally worn out.  My sister and I both whining about going home.  Yet we were made to stay, and as the shadows were lengthening we were all brought back inside the house to that small den in the house on Insley, and gathered around the television again.  Poor quality , ghostly black and white images eventually appeared and what was happening was finally made clear.  Man was walking on the moon.  11 people of three generations gathered in that small den that night and witnessed history.

1. The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad.

2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone.

3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11’s hydrogen-gas filters didn’t work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhoea drug to avoid it.

4. When Apollo 11’s lunar lander, the Eagle, separated from the orbiter, the cabin wasn’t fully depressurized, resulting in a burst of gas equivalent to popping a champagne cork. It threw the module’s landing four miles off-target.

5. Pilot Neil Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing the Eagle, and many at mission control worried he might crash. Apollo engineer Milton Silveira, however, was relieved: His tests had shown that there was a small chance the exhaust could shoot back into the rocket as it landed and ignite the remaining propellant.

6. The “one small step for man” wasn’t actually that small. Armstrong set the ship down so gently that its shock absorbers didn’t compress. He had to hop 3.5 feet from the Eagle’s ladder to the surface.

7. When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to make sure not to lock the Eagle’s door because there was no outer handle.

8. The toughest moonwalk task? Planting the flag. NASA’s studies suggested that the lunar soil was soft, but Armstrong and Aldrin found the surface to be a thin wisp of dust over hard rock. They managed to drive the flagpole a few inches into the ground and film it for broadcast, and then took care not to accidentally knock it over.

9. The flag was made by Sears, but NASA refused to acknowledge this because they didn’t want “another Tang.”

10. The inner bladder of the space suits—the airtight liner that keeps the astronaut’s body under Earth-like pressure—and the ship’s computer’s ROM chips were handmade by teams of “little old ladies.”

Mercury, Gemini, Apollo. The classical space program. Yet at the same time we have the U2 program being developed and executed. Amazing stuff.

Today was the day, 40 years ago, that Apollo 11 was launched on it’s journey to the moon.  I remember the major events of the Apollo program as if it were yesterday.  Just for the record, I was still just a wee lad when the launch took place but I was already fixated on being the first man to land on Mars.  I might be over the hill (and the age limits) but seeing as how we have not yet made the trip I guess I still have a shot at that goal.

Hey NASA – where is that astronaut application package again??  I may need that.

Stay tuned, I will be posting on Apollo 11 more as we come up to the anniversary of the moon landing.

No matter what you think of NASA they do capture some of the most incredible stuff.  Like these photos of a volcanic eruption.    Or you can try this link or this one that has an animation of the images as well

Atlantis is in place, fueled and ready to go.  Crew is boarding.  Weather looks good.  There won’t be too many more of these space shuttle flights as the platform ages, and the budgets continue to shrink.  Take the time to be an active spectator in these historic flights.

Follow today’s events at  http://spaceflightnow.com