Moon Landing (1 Viewer)

I was 12. My mom was a big fan of the space program. Those were HER boys up there! We knew all the astronaut names from the days of Mercury and Gemini. We scraped together the money to buy models of the Apollo capsule, Service Module and LEM. At each step, we walked through the moment with the models on the coffee table.

When Apollo 13 aborted, my mom slept on the couch for three days with the TV on. My Service Module's cut away panel lay open, so we knew exactly where the oxygen tank that blew up was located.

119577

I always wanted the 6 ft. tall model of the Saturn V, made by Revell, but never could afford it.

Yes, all my classmates knew about the moon landing, but when they wanted to know something they turned to the one kid who knew EVERYTHING about the moon landing. Thanks to my mom, that was me . . . the space nerd who was a nerd before being a nerd was cool!
 
I wasn't alive for the Moon landing, but I remember where I was with the Challenger... in school watching the launch on one of these... I can still remember the silence in the room after the explosion, it was beyond eerie...

The Moon landing was a scientific feat considering the tech they used to make it happen. The contribution women made to it is also very important IMO, Hidden Figures was an excellent film. 0aaglzz4ffl01.png
yep. bissonet plaza elementary cafeteria for me
 
From back in the day:
"We can put a man on the moon but we can't put a clock in a car that keeps time!" :hihi:

On this the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, NASA has asked that everybody get behind our effort to go back to the moon by 2024, build an orbiting lunar space station and a permanent base on the moon at the south pole, where water has been detected.
The program's name is Artemis, goddess of the moon named after the twin sister of the Greek god Apollo.

I'd like to think this is something we can all support.

 
I was 12. My mom was a big fan of the space program. Those were HER boys up there! We knew all the astronaut names from the days of Mercury and Gemini. We scraped together the money to buy models of the Apollo capsule, Service Module and LEM. At each step, we walked through the moment with the models on the coffee table.

When Apollo 13 aborted, my mom slept on the couch for three days with the TV on. My Service Module's cut away panel lay open, so we knew exactly where the oxygen tank that blew up was located.
I think I would have loved your mom. Not only was I locked on to all of the space program as a kid, but I could not keep away from the news media during the entire Apollo 13 mission, especially after the explosion. The space program was the greatest 'reality TV' this country has ever seen. :9:

I truly can't understand all those 'conspiracy clowns' out there. :jpshakehead:
 
I was a space junkie as a kid and remember watching the moon landing on TV (CBS, of course - only Walter Cronkite in my dad's house!) and then running outside and looking at the moon -- I remember just being amazed that people were up there walking at the very moment I waslooking at it.

Also, I remember Apollo 13 and the nuns rolling in a TV for us to watch coverage (and pray) during school.

Finally, I also remember watching the Apollo-Soyuz hook-up and, while waiting for the big handshake moment, switching back and forth playing Pong on the same TV set!!
 
All I remember "where I was then" is the Challenger explosion. Its promise was to engender some new enthusiasm for our space program with the inclusion of the first civilian "astronaut". And then .........

I don't know how I feel now. We went to the moon during a time of great unrest and turmoil in the US, not unlike now. I loved no Smithsonian museum more than going to the Air & Space, love looking up into the sky at night but sort of share some of the sentiments of the dissenters back in the 1960s who wondered why we were doing this when we have so many problems here back on Earth.

I was also vehemently against the New Coke and considered that pure folly. And I was right.


I remember when Reagan was shot. 2nd grade (I only went to this school that year so I remember my grade) Another teacher came rushing in with a TV stand so all us 1st graders could watch lol

Reagan getting shot was real though.
 
We were on vacation that week. We had rented an oceanfront cottage and the owner of the cottages had invited everyone to the main house to watch the landing. The owner's house was the only one with a television. My father tried to get me to come in and watch the landing, but I was too interested in playing on the beach with my friends :covri:

Dad said (not for the last time) "You'll regret this one day"
 
I was 12. My mom was a big fan of the space program. Those were HER boys up there! We knew all the astronaut names from the days of Mercury and Gemini. We scraped together the money to buy models of the Apollo capsule, Service Module and LEM. At each step, we walked through the moment with the models on the coffee table.

When Apollo 13 aborted, my mom slept on the couch for three days with the TV on. My Service Module's cut away panel lay open, so we knew exactly where the oxygen tank that blew up was located.

119577

I always wanted the 6 ft. tall model of the Saturn V, made by Revell, but never could afford it.

Yes, all my classmates knew about the moon landing, but when they wanted to know something they turned to the one kid who knew EVERYTHING about the moon landing. Thanks to my mom, that was me . . . the space nerd who was a nerd before being a nerd was cool!
I had that same model, but wasn't quite the space nerd. I was too busy reading about the war against the Barbary pirates :hihi:
 
For all of you space nerds old enough to remember - Major.Matt.Mason.



We couldn't afford it all, but that one Christmas was still the best Christmas ever! I also had some of the models, but like @DadsDream I could never have the 6 foot tall Saturn V. I still have one of my Matt's with his space sled and I have been thinking about building one of the models again.
 
I read The Right Stuff when I was 12 and was absolutely riveted by the entire test pilot/astronaut scene.

All I wanted in life was to be an astronaut and drive a Corvette convertible and roll up to the mermaid pool bar in Cocoa Beach....
 
Today is the 50th anniversary of the moon landing

Any memories of those old enough to have watched it live?

Also the 50th anniversary of expressing any kind of tech frustration

“We can put a man on the moon but we can’t (fill in the blank)!”

I was -11 years old.
 

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