Mike,
an excellent overview of the background and landing ... where did the last 40 years go ...?
In July 69 I had just finished my A levels in pommy land and was having the proverbial Summer of 69 as per the song prior to going to Uni to study ... and eventually ended up with a degree in Electronic Engineering .... After having been exposed to several years of the original Star-trek series since 66 , Stanley Kubrick's 2001 in 68 with my teenage years spent avidly reading the SF of A.C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein et al - I must admit with the impatience of youth that I was somewhat underwhelmed at the time with the crude looking Apollo Command Module and Lunar lander ....tho' still quite impressed with the Saturn V launcher. However I still remember sitting with the rest of the family watching the landing live on TV and the goose-bumps as Armstrong took his famous step, wondering all the while if he would disappear into unknown depths of moondust .... Only on looking back on those heady days can one appreciate the enormity of the achievement of the Apollo missions ... and wonder where we lost the drive to continue on to Mars by the early 80s ....
I found on the international year of astronomy website details of a series of celebrations in Canberra to which all are invited to mark the 40th anniversary of the Moon Landing Sun 19 to Wed 22 July - see
http://iya.aao.gov.au/astronomy2009/...view&extid=370
and
http://jsaxon.org/space/hsk/Reunions/40th2009/
As the organisor John Saxon says :-
"Realistically this will be the last reunion and celebration organised and attended by many of the people who took an active part in the moon landing project. I'm hopeful that I will make the 50th anniversary in 2019 (with luck I may not even need that Zimmer frame), but I will not be organising it!
So we plan to make the 40th the biggest and best of all.
This year we are having a 4 day event. We are inviting everyone who participated in Apollo, anyone who worked (or still works) at
any of the Space tracking stations and other related organisations,
anyone interested in Apollo and any of their children, Grand children and friends. That should cover just about everyone {:-)) ...
all events except the main event (Lunch on the 21st) are FREE! "
A couple of interesting resources on the Apollo missions are
1. the NASA Mission Reports see
http://www.apogeespacebooks.com/Books/Apollo11c.html
2.
and "Live From The Moon: The Story of Apollo Television" - a film which will be pre-viewed on day 4 of the celebration in Canberra - this will be available in HD Blu-Ray see
http://www.spacecraftfilms.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdI D=59
regards,
John vk2emq