Where were you when Apollo 11 landed?

[Merlin66]

Just realised it's 40 years this year since the Apollo 11 landings....
The whole Apollo saga in the 60's was pure excitement.. and when the landings came it was unbelievable.
What memories do you have...

[jjjnettie]

Man, that just makes me feel so old.
I don't feel old enough to be able to remember something that happened 40 years ago.:sadeyes::lol:

My primary school class was lined up and we all walked over to a house near the school, where they sat us down on the floor, gave us a glass of cordial, and we watched the landing.
I've been interested in Space ever since.:)

[MrB]

Not even a twinkle......

[Chrissyo]

I was born pretty much exactly between then and now - May 1989. :P Makes me feel young!

[glenc]

I was at my aunt's place in Hunters Hill, NSW watching a very blurry picture of the moon on a B&W TV.

[Lester]

I was in grade 7 and the whole class was walked to the teachers home to see the first man step onto the Moon, on a snowy B & W TV. Yes we say it, but only just through the snowy reception.

[OneOfOne]

I was in grade 3 and was allowed to go home to watch it because we had a TV. Kids that didn't have one, or couldn't go home, watched it in one of the school rooms on the school TV. I remember it was a wet rainy day.

I now have my own piece of Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 :D

I also remember that on one of the later missions Jupiter appeared very close to the Moon when they were on the way home and many people rang the radio stations to say that they could see the craft coming home :). I guess they didn't think of looking at it with binoculars or a scope back in those days.

[Omaroo]

I was in 1st grade at Castle Cove Primary School. We sat in class, up the front out of our chairs to group around the classroom TV. Every classroom had one, so each class watched it seperately. I even remember where I sat - on the left of the group near the window - remember it like it was yesterday. :)

[sheeny]

I was in 3rd grade at Kanwal Public School and I was with 1/2 the school crammed into the library (which was the same size as a normal classroom) since it was the only room with a TV in it. I remember the teachers brought another TV in and set it up in the room next door so the other half of the school could watch it. Black and white TV, lots of kids squashed together, sweaty, I was about 3/4 of the way back on the LHS, all the windows were open but it was still hot inside:lol:... but the vision and realisation of what was happening was just fantastic!

I'm glad they got off the rock:)... imagine the all devastated kids if they hadn't!:sadeyes:

Al.

[iceman]

ditto!

[Omaroo]

LOL! It's a great pity Mike. It's good to be young but I'm SO GLAD I'm the age I am, so that I got to see this - arguably the most significant history ever made. Sure - world wars, civilisations rising and falling were and are monumental in their effect on humanity - but in my mind they all pale into insignificance in comparison to landing humans on another world for the first time. Actually getting to see that in real time is completely off the wall! How many generations of humans have there been throughout time - and mine gets to see it? Wow. :thumbsup:

[33South]

Agog in front of a b/w telly.

I was already into astronomy, space and science fiction at this time - all my birthdays had come at once.

[darrellx]

Primary School in Wingham, NSW. They had to get a B&W TV in for us to watch. This was pretty well what started my facination and interest in astronomy. They took us into our Assembly Hall. I was lucky and got to sit on the floor in the second row from the TV, so I had a good view.

For the next few nights, my two brothers and I stood outside to see if we could see the moon and hopefully see the spacecraft. No luck by the way.

The next day they marched us back into the Hall for a polio vaccination.

Darrell

[multiweb]

I remember my dad pulling me in front of the black and white TV one morning. I think it must have been a week-end coz he wasn't working. He told me: "just watch this. it's pretty important". All I saw was a bloke getting down a ladder on a noisy picture, then I must have said "ok, can I go and play now?" :lol: Still remember it like it was yesterday though. Looking back on it I'm glad he did.

[Barrykgerdes]

I was at work but a couple of my friends had already seen the video as it was transmitted. They had taken the information straight off the microwave link that was transferring the material to NASA.

Barry

[Baddad]

The media lead-up in Adelaide to the event was humungous for that era. It was a school day and I figured I gotta' see this.:astron:

Instead of cycling the 3miles (5Km) to school that morning I wagged it. Just had to see the event.:wink2:

My sister, 18mths my junior, did the right thing and went to school that morning.

Just before they started televising my sister walks in. I thought, "Oh oh, she's gonna' dob me in.":scared:

Well, everyone was sent home from school to watch the landing.
YESsss!!.. And watch it we did on monochrome (B&W) TV.:eyepop:

[toryglen-boy]

+1


;)

[Paddy]

We were allowed to go home from school to watch it, which I did.

[ngcles]

Hi Merlin, Chris & All,

A excellent thread indeed!



My recollection very similar Chris -- except as to the numbers of the T.Vs at school! Like Chris I was in 1st grade, about a month before I turned 7. I see from Chris's profile that he is exactly two days older then me! Hey Chris, you weren't born at King George V Hospital for mothers and babies opposite RPA in Missenden Rd Newtown, were you?

In my case, the school was Oyster Bay Public School in Sydney's leafy south. In this school, the "Infant's Department" (Kindergarten and Grades 1 & 2) was about 300 yeards up the road from the main primary school (Grades 3-6). The whole of the Infants Department (about 130 kids) were herded into the big kindergarten room (where the only telly was) and we watched it en-mass sitting cross-legged on the floor. It was a pretty big telly on a metal stand that tilted it slightly downward and the B&W telly had wooden shutters that could close the screen.

Lunch-time came part of the way through proceedings and most if not nearly all the kids went out to play leaving the teachers, and a handful of kids to watch the rest -- I was one of them. The whole Apollo thing transfixed me -- even then. I have a very clear recall of Aldrin's Kangaroo (Bunny) hops as part of the thing.

At the end of the school-day I walked the exactly one mile (as it was then) home and remember walking in to see my mum watching replays in the lounge-room. I watched it again!

I wrote away to NASA for the picture-packs and souvenir stuff that included a mission patch. It arrived a few months later and I also wrote away for the Apollo 12, 14 & 15 ones.

I still have my (faded and tattered) Apollo 11 mission patch that used to be on a Larco tracksuit when I was a kid (remember Larco track-suits? -- lots of kids had one). When I grew out of the tracksuit I took the patch off and kept it.

A scan of the old mission patch is attached !! :eyepop:


Best,

Les D

[astroron]

As posted once before on this subject;)I was on a jungle dropping zone in Malaysia listening to it on the "Voice of America" broadcast from Vietnam.
Then when I got back to Singapore watched continuous reruns over the next week:)
It was a very exciting time in human history:):):)

[Ric]

I was nine at the time we were all told to go to the School hall where the teachers had set up B&W tellys around the hall (probably their own) and there we watched it.

I always remember the final step by Neil Armstrong there was not a single sound in the entire hall, I reckon all of us must have holding our breath waiting to see what happened.

It was a great time to grow up with all the Apollo missions, I'll never forget that.
Now I hope that I'll be around to see the first step on Mars.

Cheers

[astroron]

I hope that I'll be around to see the first step on Mars.
The odds are not looking to great for me Ric:sadeyes:

[csb]

I was in Grade 2 and we were sent home to watch the landing (Funny, I seem to remember no forewarning that we would be sent home on that day - we went to school for a little while then sent home . . .?)

My brothers and I got bored with it after a short while (no action, just talking) but Mum made us stay and watch it for 1hour because that's why we were sent home, then we went out to play.

I really enjoyed the news coverage and class excercises in the lead-up to the landing. We collected a daily comic strip of the progress of the mission featured in our newspaper.

I would have loved the patch Les. Many kids had patches which I greatly envied.

[Rick Petrie]

It feels like only yesterday the world stopped to witness one of the most significant achievements of mankind.
I was at work and everyone stopped to watch on B&W TV. It was a shame that the pictures that came through were rather scratchy and blurry, however that's how it was back then but nobody cared,history was happenning before our eyes, just like watching the universe through our telescopes.
The atmosphere at the time was electric. It's a shame that we lately don't seem to have the same steely ambitions that drove man to these heights back then, but the economy of it all makes it more out of reach now and also more political. But I'm sure we will see it again maybe when a mission to Mars is realized, but still won't have the impact of the first.
Cheers:)

[StevenA]

I was at school in the country, Inglewood Vic. The whole school was assembled in the hall to watch this magnificent event. I remember it so clearly. The static the delay, the excitement and the concern. It was a mixed bag of emotions, even though I was only 6 years old. We didn't have a good TV at home and living in the country on a farm meant that one one could really be sent home or have the day off anyway.

[erick]

Grade 9, Kepnock High School, Bundaberg. B/W televisions were set up around the school so we could watch.

Went home and sat for an hour watching............... well nothing really - the moon landers were having a sleep! :lol:

[Baddad]

I particularly remember among the hype leading up to the Moon Landing, I heard of a wager 100 pounds ($200). The bet was made by two AFL football fans in the early 60's.
South Australian team, Glenelg, would win the premiership before Man landed on the Moon.

$30 was about an average weekly wage, = 6 or 7 weeks pay.

Man on Moon 1969
Glenelg Premiership 1973.
Glenelg's former premiership was 1934
They won a further two in the mid 80's

Everyone got into it.
Popular thread. Well thought of Merlin.:thumbsup::clap:

[SteveCav]

I was Ten and at Primary School we were all told that if we had younger brothers and sisters to get them and we were all told to go home and watch it on TV as the school did not have one.

I remember sitting there with my 8 year old brother and 7 year old sister absolutely gobsmacked at what we were seeing. My Grandma had a little cry as she thought she would never see the day that man would actually stand on the moon.

[wavelandscott]

I was 4.5 years old and while I can't really say what I remembered (we've all seen the footage) my Mom did get me out of bed to watch on our b&w television...

I think it would have been around 9:00 PM or so (my bed time was 8:00)...it was so exciting and I do remember being excited. My Mom cried...which was something in itself.

I became enamoured with all things "space or flight related"...still am.

[gary]

Thanks for the post.

Do you mean the landing or the walk? ;)

I note that you are in the UK but most of the respondents are in Australia.

In Australia, unless they were incredibly eager school goers, nobody would have been at
school for the landing. :thumbsup: Touchdown was at around 06:18am Australian Eastern
Standard Time (AEST) which was the morning of the 21st July.

As you will recollect, Armstrong and Aldrin skipped the rest period (how they
ever expected them to sleep is beyond me :) ) and brought the walk forward.
Armstrong stepped onto the Moon at approx. 12:56pm AEST on the afternoon
of 21 July. In the UK, it was 02:56 in the morning of 21 July.

It was the walk that most respondents will be recollecting watching on the
fuzzy black and white TV at school. :thumbsup:

As for myself, my brother and I stayed at home and watched it on TV.
I would certainly regard it as the most historically significant event in my life
and I actually feel sorry for anyone that was either too young to remember it
or not born at the time as they missed out on an event that rivaled all
milestones in human exploration that had ever come before it.

Of the major events in the mission - liftoff, docking, lunar orbit, landing, the walk,
the ascent, rendevouz and splashdown, for spectators here on Earth, it was the liftoff,
the walk and splashdown that probably remain the most vivid because there
was live television coverage. There was also live television during parts of the
trans-lunar phase. During the actual landing sequence one had to listen
to the commentary between the astronauts and mission control and I still
remember wishing at times that the television commentators would just
keep quiet for long enough during the lead-up so that we could hear for
ourselves what was happening. :)

The actual walk was made all the more indelible because there was live
television coverage from the camera on the LM. Neil was part way down the
ladder when the camera was first turned on and initially the picture
was upside down. :) However, for all that witnessed it, the moment of the
walk is a permanent memory of the type that you don't forget where
you were at the time.

I remember standing in George Street, Sydney for the motorcade
as Armstrong, Aldrin & Collins drove past standing up in an open
top Rolls Royce, waving as they went by in November of '69.
Afterwards, I even remember us going immediately into seeing
the movie the "Battle of Britain" in the cinema, which was a
big screen smash at the time.

Prior to Apollo 11, the first Apollo 8 lunar orbit was among the most heart-stopping
moments of the Apollo missions. These were the first guys ever to circle
around the far side of the Moon and during that time they are out of radio
communication with Earth. There was that interminably long anxious wait
whilst all of us back here waited for their first words as they came back around.
It was hard not to be affected by it.

Thanks again for the post and I look forward to reading other's recollections! :thumbsup:

Best Regards

Gary
Mt. Kuring-Gai NSW Australia

P.S.

Thanks to Les for posting his Apollo 11 patch. I had one of these too and
they were popular at the time. The newspapers would offer them as a memento
you could buy.

[avandonk]

At the time I worked at Kodak Research Labs in Coburg. The whole factory started to bristle with TV arials in nearly every available spot. We all watched the whole thing in the electronics lab as they had the best setup. After it was all over went back to my Digital PDP 8 computer with 2k of memory to aquire and process some photometric data from a Cary Spectrophotometer. That was cutting edge in those days. We also had a 'game' on the PDP 8 that simulated landing the lunar module. You had to type in your % thrust and wait for the computer to type out your altitude, velocity components and fuel left, on a teletype (gloryfied typewriter). If I was flying the Lunar module we would have run out of fuel and crashed nine out of ten. There was one person who was a computer wiz and he could land it every time. Yep even in in those days they already existed!

Bert

[h0ughy]

i was 2 - dont remember it but i do the later ones in the early 70's

[goober]

Filling nappies, but mum tells me I watched it.

[Quark]

I remember all of the hype but was unable to watch the walk, I was in the first year of an apprenticeship with CRA on the Zinc Mine in Broken Hill. That day I was in the Apprentice Training Workshop, there was no TV but I recall hearing about it on the radio.

Regards
Trevor

[Nightshift]

I think the odds are better than you think Ron, but I suspect the landing may be sub titled in English for those of us that dont speak Mandarin.

I was 7 in grade two, the teacher sent me to Johnny Johnsons house because he lived closer to school than me, I then walked home from his house anyway? Pretty dumb. I too dont remember any warning that we were going to be sent home, they just assembled us, told us what was going on, paired us with other kids and sent us home. I suspect the teachers all had a piss up in the staff room watching it on the TV there. I thought it was pretty cool and thus started my long and detailed interest in astronomy and space travel.

Dennis.

[astroron]

I think the odds are better than you think Ron, but I suspect the landing may be sub titled in English for those of us that dont speak Mandarin.

Dennis, I don't care what language they speak :P as long as I am around to hear and see them do it :thumbsup:

[Omaroo]

I still have my Straight 8 Bert, and a PDP11/40. The 11 still runs PICK :) The 8 was dedicated to "Adventure" - "You're at the end of a small brook, and it dissappears into a grate."...

[erick]

I only had 1k memory in my PDP8 a few years later - jealous!

I liked putting in 100% thrust, regardless of the start conditions. It would stop, think while the lights would flash, then it would tell you the maximum altitude reached and the impact velocity, after you ran out of fuel and finally slowed down and returned to an almighty crash on the surface! I was always fairly destructive! :D

[MarkN]

I was inside the Rushcutter's Bay Bowl watching on the teev while my car was being serviced.

Funny this subject should come up because just a few days ago the missus found some photos of the walk which the Sun newspaper provided for a small cost. "Do you want to keep these" says she! Hadn't laid eyes on them for almost the whole forty years.

Mark.

[mozzie]

there isnt many of us that were to young to remember david they all seem to be a lot older then us:lol::lol:i was also around 2
mozzie

[jjjnettie]

Define "A lot older":P
Without putting the other foot in your mouth.:rofl:

[TrevorW]

I was 14 and still in high school and I watched all the TV telecasts and collected all the news paper clippings I could.

[Jen]

My parents hadnt even shared their DNA at this time :lol::lol:

[astroron]

This is the cover of a 33 1/3rd EP that was in the shops in Singapore within a fortnight:jawdrop:
It is one of my prized collections:)
I also have the Apollo 11 patch on my observing suit:D

[pgc hunter]

about 19 years too early for me...



i just had to lol at that :D

[Paul Haese]

To answer the question of where I was when Apollo 11 landed. I was in my parents living room with 15 or so other kids and we were watching the coverage live on television. I was 5 years old, had no idea what I was looking at but was told it was important. I can only just remember seeing the event.

[marki]

I was about 4 at the time and living in a caravan by a river roughly 1200km northwest of Perth. Tv?? Hah we didn't even have a road, my Dad was building that :D.

Mark

[MrB]

1200k nor'west of Perth? In the Indian Ocean? :eyepop:

Cheers to everyone for their stories, have enjoyed reading them, wish I could've been part of the moment :(
Cheers also to Ron for the scanned EP cover, will study that.

I do have a couple of newspaper covers from the following day, with colour photo's, they were given to me by a neighbour. Have hidden them away.... somewhere :shrug:

[marki]

Not that far west MrB :D. It was called Robe River and lies on the road to karratha.

Ciao Mark

[BerrieK]

Hmmnn... on 21st July 1969 I was not yet conceived...that happened approx 4 weeks after!

[lacad01]

I was in the 2 year old club as well and remember zip :family2: :)

[Robert9]

I was well and truly at work. Someone had brought in a small TV and we all sat in a meeting room adjacent to the canteen and watched it all happen.
I remember thinking at the time of my dad and how he would take it. He was born in 1897 and the technological progress that had been made in his lifetime must have been beyond belief. Up until a few years before that time, he believed it wasn't possible. As the technology developed and Sputniks became the go, he accepted that to get to the moon was possible but getting back just was out of the question. Then it happened. And he saw it himself on television. :eyepop:

Robert

[gary]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the great story!

As you state, the technological progress from the first flight by the Wright Brothers
to Apollo was staggering.

A particularly poignant story was that the night before they lifted off to fly
around the Moon, the Apollo 8 crew had a surprise visit from Charles
Lindbergh and his wife. At lift-off, the Saturn V first-stage consumed every
second ten times the entire fuel Lindbergh used in the Spirit of St Louis on his 1927
New York to Paris flight!

Best regards

Gary

[chrisp9au]

I was working on the 19th floor of 60 Market Street in Melbourne for the English Scottish & Australian Bank finance arm Esanda. B&W TV set up for everyone in the staff lunch room to see the first steps on the moon. Awesome then, and still is today!

Times have changed a bit, but I'm still wondering what I'll be when I grow up! :whistle:
Chris

[Robert9]

The ES&A bank. Now that takes me back! A time when banks gave service, interest, and didn't charge account keeping fees. They accepted that a small part of the interest they earned using "your money" was adequate recompense. But I guess that's another topic.
Robert

[chrisp9au]

Robert9,

As I said, times have changed, and being in the grumpy old man age group, I am allowed to suggest that whilst you and I have changed for the better, times have not!

Chris

[Jen]

Nice collectors item there Ron :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[M54]

Hi there all,
14 years old, in the science room at school watching it on the telly.
Our maths teacher was flitting around excitedly trying to take photo's of the tv screen.
I was totally over awed by the whole thing.
Also sat up all night watching apollo 8 orbiting the moon. Fell asleep on the couch in the early hours of Christmas morning only to be woken up by my little sisters opening their presents.
Amazing time!

Have just joined this forum to find a little encouragement and guidance and have already found plenty of helpful stuff for someone trying to rekindle a part of themselves that was left behind quite a few years ago.

My darling Son organised the family to buy me a telescope (Orion 130mm)
because he knew I'd always been interested in Astronomy.

Great thread,
Molly. :newbie:

[Paddy]

Hi Molly and welcome! Like the avatar BTW

[astroron]

[QUOTE=Paddy;421429]Hi Molly and welcome! Like the avatar BTW[/QUOTE
Ditto
I was just about to say the same:D
I also think your moniker is also clever:thumbsup:

[M54]

[quote=astroron;421434]

Thanks astroron and Paddy,
Re the moniker: As you probably worked out I was born in '54, and my star sign is actually Sagittarius (not that I follow astrology by the way:rolleyes:), so it kind of fit like a glove.

[[1ponders]]

Great thread Merlin.

Like most others we were sent home, but I nearly missed it. There was a huge tree down the back bush growing at the edge of a really really reaaaaly steep slope. The 1" sisal rope (damn it was scratchy :lol: ) went over the first branch about 40 feet up. The rope had a foot loop at the end but you could sit in it ( dad had to use a shanghai with a sinker and fishing line to get the rope up there. It was a HUGE old Pink Stringybark, but that tree is a whole other story :love: ) and when you swung out you felt like you were really flying. You felt miles in the air. I was pretending I was in the Apollo 11 ship swinging out through space.

It was only when my mum screamed out to me that I made it back just as Armstrong was coming down the ladder. I remember it so clearly. It was amazing. :eyepop: Next Xmas Mum and Dad.....oops ....Santa :lol: bought me my first telescope. :party:

[Screwdriverone]

Hmmmmm, strange BerrieK, I too was born almost EXACTLY 9 months after the 21st July 1969.....hmmmmmm.

Does this mean I am a Lunartik? or just a product of the Space Race? I am surprised I am not called Velcro or Lem etc.

Funny, I never thought of this before.

That's one small step for my Dad, one giant leap for me.

:lol:

Cheers

Chris

[acropolite]

I was at Launceston matriculation college, classes were suspended wand we watched a b&W tele in one of the lecture rooms. It was a very memorable time, I could never understand why, on subsequent missions, coverage was reduced by the media.

[barx1963]

I was 6yo and in 1st grade. Sat on the floor of the school library opf Stockdale Rd Primary School in Traralgon watching it with whole lot of other kids and their teachers on a tiny little BW tv. Remember I wasn't really sure what the fuss was about, didn't really see the difference between a man ON the moon and a man IN the moon, and everyone knew there was a man IN the moon, at least thats how a 6yo saw it!
I also remember that my teacher was very excited!

[gary]

Hi Phil,

Media coverage of subsequent Apollo missions, with the exception of 13 and
only then after the cryogenic oxygen tank rupture event, was appalling.

Though there is no doubt, as far as the broad viewing public was concerned,
that anything after Apollo 11 could only be an anti-climax, nevertheless none
of the Australian TV channels would provide live coverage from Apollo 14 and
onwards.

In my own personal opinion, one of the reasons why viewing interest dropped can
be traced back to the early parts of the Apollo 12 walk. There was live
television coverage up to the point when Alan Bean, whilst moving the
camera, accidentally pointed it at the Sun and burnt out the videocon tube.
Then that was it. Nothing to see on television so people switched off.

So by the time Apollo 13 rolled around, the limited attention span of
the broader viewing public was lost and the television stations ran
their regular programming instead.

The demise of the general publics' interest in Apollo, particularly within
the United States, was more complex than that and has been well documented
by others. We all know that events back on Earth such as Vietnam,
the civil rights movement and poverty, were held by many to be far more pressing
problems.

However, I have often wondered if the camera had not burnt out on 12,
whether live coverage of subsequent Apollo missions might have continued
by the broadcasters.

Best Regards

Gary

[Robert9]

ChrisP9
Near 70 I may be, but I would hate to be thought of as a "Grumpy Old Man". I have a "joie de vie" that keeps me active and young at heart. :jump2:(Not a second childhood either!)
Certainly things look bad globally at the moment, but I try not to worry too much about it although my hard won nest-egg has dwindled substantially. There is nothing I can do about it, and worrying won't help. Times have changed, generally I think for the better,:thumbsup: but everything has its ups and downs.
So endeth the sermon.:D
Robert

[wavelandscott]

News and information was still available but it was no longer "front page" stuff...I think all of the things listed contributed but I also think that expectations had been so built up for the future that the reality could never have lived up to the expectation...as noted earlier the speed of "progress" from the Wright Brothers to NASA was astonishingly quick...after the first landing/return the moon shots looked "too easy" and when there was not a bigger splashier next trick, the masses got bored. Until Apollo 12, each new launch got NASA closer to the moon landing...for those after 11 the feeling may have become we've already seen people walk on the moon and come back yawn...

But I still loved every minute of it!

I attended Purdue University, alma mater of the first person (Neil A.) on the moon and the most recent (Eugene C.) and a whole bunch of other Astronauts. A couple of years ago the Armstrong Building was opened on campus and we happened to be back in the states and were able to attend the cermony with my kids...it was pretty cool to see so many Astronauts (and Purdue Alumni) at one place. Nasa had a big traveling display and they gave out pins and patches I was so excited by it and so were my kids it was pretty cool...

[gary]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your post and perspective from being within the U.S. at the time.



Do you have any recollection of whether the 14 to 17 missions had any
live coverage of the walks on any of the US networks at all? In other words,
if you really wanted to tune in and watch, was it possible?

As you can appreciate having lived here in Australia, there were are a limited
number of broadcasters and television channels here and they provided minimal
coverage.



Absolutely! It's "15 minutes of fame" seemed to have been well and truly used up
as far as the broader public and media were concerned.



Fabulous story and I can well imagine they must have a pretty amazing
aeronautical and astronautical engineering faculty there with such a rich legacy
of alumni. :)

Best Regards

Gary

[leon]

Have a look at the movie, "The Dish", my favorite movie of all time I have played it to death.

Leon

[BerrieK]

I guess your parents didn't have a TV at that stage then.

[avandonk]

I just remembered that the computer would also estimate the size of crater that you would make on impact!

Bert

[wavelandscott]

My memory of the program is colored by my interest (casual not fanatical) so it is hard to speak of my accuracy in remembering from the actual time or what I've seen and learned later. I lived in rural Indiana and depending on the weather and which direction our antennae was turned (imagine one person outside turning the mounting pipe and some one inside hollering "a little more North"), we could get 5 or 6 channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, Channel 4 local Independant, PBS "usually", and sometimes another "Independent") so there was not much difference in the coverage available...It is hard to remember how "primitive" information flow was then and any news from the "outside" (outside being our small community) was also limited and "filtered" for the unwashed masses.

Our standard was CBS and Walter Cronkite...From memory there would always be a segment on the news for launch and landing (at least excerpted) and recovery. Usually there was also some kind of "show and tell" during the mission. Newspapers would have updates as well but they were usually no front page kind of stuff (except for launch and landing). Basically we got to see the same thing every time...

I don't recall much about Apollo 14 I think that was "the golf shot" for Sheppard but there was a bit of hullabulloo after it was made known of Ed Mitchell's ESP experiment (a little to close to "witchcraft" where I grew up for the comfort of many Church goers ;))

Apollo 15 had the moon buggy with a mounted TV so that made for a good "sound bite" as they drove around

Apollo 16 and 17 I don't recall so much. My recollection is that they just did variations off of the above but again the same pattern was repeated, it was shown on the news and by that time unless there was something special (launch and recovery) broadcasts were confined to the News programs.

Marathon Oil Company did a "promotion" linked with the Apollo programs...fill your tank and get an "Apollo Glass" a new one with each launch...my family did collect them all although the full sets whereabouts are a matter of secrecy at the moment.

[Analog6]

I would have been 16 and I remember watching it, totally enthralled, because from growing up in the country I wqs already fascinated by the night sky, but cannot for the life of me recall how I came to be at home on the day. Maybe the school let us stay home.

[Lert]

I was on shift at the OTC (remember us?) Carnarvon Satellite Comm station in WA.. We were looking after several voice/data circuits between the Carnarvon tracking station and the USA.. Saw the TV off Satellite at work. Still pretty pleased to have played a small part in history..

[space oddity]

I remember(age 9) being captivated by all of the apollo missions. At school, only a few classes were allowed to watch it live in the assembly hall. Luckily mine was one of them:).I remember being absolutely thrilled to bits. Still watched it over and over on the news when I got home from school.Maybe I am some sort of astronut:screwy: but seeing the moon landing of '69 live was one of the highlights of my life.

[Omaroo]

How cool that would have been. Thanks for sharing :) I guess the merger of the Overseas Telecommunications Commission with Telecom in '92 killed it off, yeah? I was doing a fair bit with them in my day at IBM. Telstra is so pathetic nowadays in comparison with what we had in a compnay like OTC back then.

[Lert]

Thanks for the sentiments mate.. yeah, was a good outfit but eventually when the suits moved in I moved out.. and that was after 35 years of the best part of my life. No regrets mind.. It was a great time.
Seeing you are at Cooma, one of my mates (Fred) went to Cooma to work for the SMH early 80's.. Hope to catch up with him some day..

[stephenb]

I was propped up in front of the Pye, a few days old. Do I have to explain what a 'Pye' was?? LOL

I have a lot of archived NASA audio most of the Apollo missions. I need to work out how to share them.

Here is the Apollo 11 landing with the Flight Director on the left channel and the Air-to-Ground on the right channel. Note the famous 'fuel calls'.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=decebee5bc6049278ef1259ff 1b60e81e04e75f6e8ebb871

I am happy to put more up on Mediafire. I have all the Apollo 11 from 5 minutes before launch to splashdown with many audio people may have never heard. I understand these are public domain recordings.

[Omaroo]

I proudly wear a large SMH sticker on the rear quarter panel of my Landy. :thumbsup:

[ngcles]

Hi Leon & All,



As a matter of trivia, I believe the home of the "Mayor" or "Shire President" (can't remember which) in the movie is in fact the current (Forbes) residence of the Catholic Bishop of Forbes-Willcania.

His name is known to many here -- Chris Toohey, a well known amateur astronomer in the Central-West Astronomical Society and formerly President of the Sutherland Astronomical Society.

I've also played cricket (with a tennis-ball) in the Parkes dish too ...


Best,

Les D

[kinetic]

Thanks Stephen,

I had heard the 'twelve oh one alarm' recording many times over the
years but never anything after the touchdown.
I didn't realise the audio continued almost a full minute afterwards with
'stay/ no stay' decisions still being made by Flight.
Awesome stuff....still get goosebumps listening to that audio.

Thanks for sharing.

Steve

[Jay-qu]

I was a collection of atoms spread far and wide around the planet. It wasnt until about 19 years after the moon landing that the atoms coalesced into a coherent being. :D

[stephenb]

No worries Steve,

After a few solid hours of searching I located the source of the audio (at least the site where I originally downloaded the audio)

http://www.apolloarchive.com/

I'm sure some others may already be aware of this, but for those who are not, look under Apollo Multimedia in the left menu. All the audio for all the Apollo missions are there.

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Lert,

Yes I remember OTC, was a trainee technical officer and worked there from '88 to 91 and remember working in the Satellite Earth Station in Oxford Falls when the Gulf War I was going round and patching through the TV feeds to Channels 7,9 and 10. It was humbling to be part of that event but I cant compare that to the moon landings. - Awesome!

Cheers

Chris

[bones]

Turning 40 in a few weeks, I just made it and sometimes refer to my age as being born just before they landed on the moon. Anyway, I was only about 3 months old so unfortunately I don't have any memories of this epic event. I was probably asleep in the cot.:zzz2:.