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  #21  
Old 12-10-2018, 09:06 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Andy,
I was at the Kennedy Space Centre in July and tried the space shuttle simulator a few times,crashed every time on landing. Some 12 or 13 year old kid followed after me and landed the damn thing perfectly.The cockpit has about 200 switches and this kid was flicking switched everywhere and landed right in the middle of the runway. He should sign up with Space X or Blue Origin
I’m a Space kid from the 60’s followed the Gemini and Apollo missions on my parents black and white TV set.
I too read the book about 9 years ago and enjoyed it immensely
Another good read is Neil Armstrong A Life of Flight by Jay Barbree.
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  #22  
Old 12-10-2018, 10:39 PM
Hans Tucker (Hans)
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Bought "First Man" book the other day and I cant put down.
Its a really good read and its been thoroughly gone through by Neil before it was released by James R Hansen...
I went searching for the book and subsequently read reviews where some readers state that Hansen goes into too much detail, some of it in their opinion is irrelevant detail. I guess you can't please everyone. I still want to read the book to try and bring some perspective to the movie.
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  #23  
Old 13-10-2018, 07:34 AM
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I can see what some people mean by that but sometimes you do need "irrelevant detail" to get the full picture about the man and what makes the man.
There a plenty of myths about the Apollo missions and their pilots esp the one about Neil being a recluse after walking on the moon.
He did all the public stuff early on but then just wanted to get on with life so he refused a lot of interviews so disgruntled journalists filled in their own words.
Better get back to my book as Neil and Buzz are fumbling around squeezing into their 140kg suits after putting on catheter like condoms and taping plastic bag type contraptions to their bums in an area not much bigger than the back seat of a station wagon with rows of buttons all around that are really important not to hit or brake off!
Cheers
Andy
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  #24  
Old 13-10-2018, 10:57 AM
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[QUOTE=Stonius;1398463 ... The film deals a lot with the stress the program placed on his family...

Markus[/QUOTE]

I get that impression when I view the trailer and I wonder how true it is, or whether it is a Hollywood creation. In reality, I believe the wife and family would have been more stoic. Armstrong was a test pilot and if his wife fretted to him about her concerns as shown in the trailer, he would either had to change jobs or change wives.

No, I think they voiced the wife's concern well beyond what she did in life. Of course she would have been worried, but Neil A could not have gone to the Moon without her being stoic and strongly supporting her man.

Still, I have not seen the movie, so I may be wrong. I am interested in the opinions of those that did and if the family dimension was really was a major part of the narrative. If so, I won't go to the movie coz I would find that manufactured drama to be aggravating.
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  #25  
Old 13-10-2018, 03:56 PM
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Hi Bob,
Just read about Janet Armstrong chain smoking during the decent listening to the 'squark box' (a direct feed from Nasa of the audio loop), she refused to watch tv and lisen to repeporters speculate whether her husband might not make it home.
She also studied the whole mission and knew when vital steps and ticked them off her check list.
She was seen banging on a coffee table when Columbia was a little late from signal acquisition from behind the moon the previous day.
I recon she would be pretty stressed out but still holding it together for the kids and the press in the front yard or the reporters for Time magazine in her lounge.
Cheers
Andy
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  #26  
Old 13-10-2018, 06:08 PM
Tropo-Bob (Bob)
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Thanks Andy,

I think I will read the book first.
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  #27  
Old 13-10-2018, 06:47 PM
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Thanks Hans and Graham, sounds a nice night out to be had then .
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  #28  
Old 15-10-2018, 01:30 AM
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Saw it last night, I was not overly impressed actually, , then again, I dont do movies much so I dont know what the standard is these days, but Id only give it 5/10, ,
So much vision of 'In their Faces' so close you only seen 50% of their faces, and soo much off it,,,, also thought the dialog was lacking, not much being said, low on suspense, and I just got sick of seeing soo much Vibrating Shaking instrument console, windows and helmets ...

In saying that, the movie did put a somewhat interesting perspective on the live of an astronaut/s, tho, reckon the Tom Hanks version did as well if not better on that side of things ?
I also thought the sound tracks were used over extensively, put it this way - A pitcher can paint a thousand words - but can music paint a thousand pitchers ? A pitcher is a pitcher, a movie is movie, not a sound room.

Sorry if not the write-up one is used to, but there ya go, maybe my expectation was too high ?
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  #29  
Old 15-10-2018, 06:44 AM
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I havent seen it yet but i know what you mean by overdoing it whith the instrument console shaking violently.
During apollo missions this only happended for about 2 minutes with the first stage of the saturn 5. The rest of the flight was pretty smooth even though they were pulling up to 4 gs. There was a bit uf a rough ride (up to 6 gs ) in reentry and maybe a jolt of 12gs as they hit the waves at spashdown but no real shaking more of a gentle rocking and swaying as the rcs and main engines were fighting against each other to keep the craft balanced.
During accent from the moon, because the LM was built with the centre of gravity offset the pilots decribed the motion like a gentle rocking horse as each automatic system corrected the other.
But it makes good drama having everything shake.
The only real time there would have been abit of shaking (more rolling and swaying) was when Neil Armstrong and David Scott were in an uncontrolled spin docked onto agena during tye Gemini 8 mission and had to undock and stabilize the Gemini which was spinning at about 1 rev a second and getting faster.
Armstrong closed one eye and tilted his head so he could see the now blurry pannel and started an automatic sequence which blew the mission and get ready to deorbit but saved their lives.
Cheers
Andy
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  #30  
Old 15-10-2018, 06:48 AM
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But it makes good drama having everything shake.
Imagine if it had been directed by J.J. Abrams. He's the kind of guy who plays bongo with the cameras in star trek action scenes.
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  #31  
Old 15-10-2018, 07:51 AM
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Anyone wants to waste a lot of time, i mean a real lot of time! Here's a glimpse of what orbiter is all about with the virtual AGC
Installing the right version, getting the right modules, loading the right textures, downloading and installing (all manual install of course) the mfds, going through all the checklists, learning the CSM and LM panels, and getting it stable so it doesnt crash windows.
Then you are ready to try a mission.

https://youtu.be/sHaS6sYJsMg

http://nassp.sourceforge.net/wiki/Main_Page

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk
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  #32  
Old 15-10-2018, 03:55 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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I too agree that Armstrong’s character was way too numb
All the archival footage and photographs of Neil both in mufty and in his space suit showed the viewer that he did have a sense of humour and did smile a lot even though he probably was aware he was being filmed or photographed
He was a no nonsense kinda guy but I’m sure he let his hair down too.
The movie started when he was flying the X15 as a test pilot around 30 years of age and finished when he was in quarantine at 38 years of age ( only 8 years of his life ) They could have included 10 or 15 minutes of his early life to show his grass roots and where he came from. The book was the real deal from birth to 2002.
Another annoying thing they do with movies , particularly American movies is they way over dramatise scenes.All the flight scenes showed Armstrong and during Gemini and Apollo he and the crew having the living daylights shaken out of them for an eternity. From all the autobiographies I have read on the Apollo missions they did shake during lift off and staging but not to that extent where you would probably have broken your neck in 3 places, had a cerebral hemorage and become a redundant passenger

My 2 cents worth .......
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  #33  
Old 15-10-2018, 08:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Startrek View Post
Andy,
I was at the Kennedy Space Centre in July and tried the space shuttle simulator a few times,crashed every time on landing. Some 12 or 13 year old kid followed after me and landed the damn thing perfectly.The cockpit has about 200 switches and this kid was flicking switched everywhere and landed right in the middle of the runway. He should sign up with Space X or Blue Origin
I’m a Space kid from the 60’s followed the Gemini and Apollo missions on my parents black and white TV set.
I too read the book about 9 years ago and enjoyed it immensely
Another good read is Neil Armstrong A Life of Flight by Jay Barbree.
Going to Kennedy is on the top of my bucket list. It must be awesome standing underneath a Saturn 5 or next to Comand Module. I heard its pretty expensive and some think its a bit lame but what I've seen looks pretty good.
Not too sure what areas are public but close up to a real AGC pad whould be enough for me.
Would also love to go to Star City or Baikonour Cosmodrone but not to sure about tourist access.
Cheers
Andy
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  #34  
Old 15-10-2018, 09:35 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Andy
The tickets for the KSC were reasonably priced for what you get, we booked 3 tickets
General daily admission ( access to everything in the park plus non priority admission to the Apollo Saturn 5 Centre
KSC explore tour ( priority to Apollo Saturn 5 Centre , VAB and more )
Cape Canaveral early space tour ( access to US airforce base where NASA launched the mercury missions from monkeys in 1959/60 to Alan Shepard 1961 and John Glenn 1962 and the others till 1963 )
We spent 3 days there which was spot on,saw almost everything. The whole facility is vast goes on and on but NASA do a great job running the centre, very well organised
The most expensive item was our cab rides,$130 to get from Orlando airport to Coco beach where we stayed and $35 each way to the KSC over 3 days ( theres no public transport and your a game person to drive over there , you don’t want to have an accident in a rental car it would send you broke
Definitely worth while and awe inspiring even for people who are not keen on space and technology etc. Met all kinds of people from all over the world
It’s one ticked off my bucket list now
Cheers
Martin
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  #35  
Old 15-10-2018, 10:42 PM
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Sounds like my type of holiday Martin.
I bet you couldn't leave the place, I'd even try to get a job there maybe apprentice pencil sharpener.

Im saving from now on.....
No more frivolous spending on astro gear...........
Maybe one more eyepiece and thats it.........
Ok just 1 more newt and maybe a better camera...
I think its going to take a while
Cheers
Andy
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  #36  
Old 16-10-2018, 10:40 AM
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multiweb (Marc)
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Going to see it tonight.
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  #37  
Old 16-10-2018, 12:32 PM
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Originally Posted by mynameiscd View Post
I havent seen it yet but i know what you mean by overdoing it whith the instrument console shaking violently.
During apollo missions this only happended for about 2 minutes with the first stage of the saturn 5. The rest of the flight was pretty smooth even though they were pulling up to 4 gs. There was a bit uf a rough ride (up to 6 gs ) in reentry and maybe a jolt of 12gs as they hit the waves at spashdown but no real shaking more of a gentle rocking and swaying as the rcs and main engines were fighting against each other to keep the craft balanced.
During accent from the moon, because the LM was built with the centre of gravity offset the pilots decribed the motion like a gentle rocking horse as each automatic system corrected the other.
But it makes good drama having everything shake.
The only real time there would have been abit of shaking (more rolling and swaying) was when Neil Armstrong and David Scott were in an uncontrolled spin docked onto agena during tye Gemini 8 mission and had to undock and stabilize the Gemini which was spinning at about 1 rev a second and getting faster.
Armstrong closed one eye and tilted his head so he could see the now blurry pannel and started an automatic sequence which blew the mission and get ready to deorbit but saved their lives.
Cheers
Andy
Apollo 10 had pogo during the first and second stages but violent shaking the whole time during the TLI while S3 burn was occurring...

But we digress, I enjoyed First Man a lot but agree that it was far better to know the ‘Who’s Who?’ .

Last edited by Kunama; 16-10-2018 at 12:48 PM.
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  #38  
Old 17-10-2018, 12:01 AM
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Enjoyed it. Wish they had picked up a bit earlier in the timeline but a great movie nonetheless.
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  #39  
Old 17-10-2018, 05:36 PM
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Imagine if it had been directed by J.J. Abrams.
Shudder. That would have been a catastrophe.

---------------------

I liked First Man but it left me feeling that something was missing, like I'd walked in half-way through.

I thought it captured the drama and shear scale of achievement - and the majesty of the moon - but left out much of the 'back room' effort that was evident in Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff.

And whether it was the actor or the direction, Ryan Gosling made Armstrong look a bit two-dimensional.

Well worth seeing, but it's not a feel good movie. And no Oscars for acting, one would think.
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  #40  
Old 18-10-2018, 07:26 AM
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Enjoyed the movie but with reservations, I agree the movie didn't do Neil Armstrongs character justice, it did show the incredible pressure that he had to contend with.

HRH Liz attended as well but without having prior knowledge of the various programs, procedures and outcomes she found the story difficult to follow, IMO as would any viewer with minimal knowledge of the Gemini/Apollo programs.
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