Footage From the Apollo 11 Moon Landing of 1969 . . .
With Walter Cronkite (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) reporting:
This is just part one. With the appropriate clicking or a visit to Youtube, you can follow the whole landing!
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I remember staying up to watch when the rest of my family hit the sack. Of course, the simulation doesn't tell the true story of how the LEM strayed dangerously off course due to computer glitches caused by radar. So far off course, in fact, that Armstrong and Aldrin found themselves flying over fields laden with craters and boulders.
Armstrong managed to touch down safely with less than 15 seconds of descent fuel remaining.
After the astronauts finished their brief walk on the moon, they returned to the LEM only to find that, upon exiting, their bulky spacesuits had broken the switch to engage the ascent engine. Mission Control could offer no assistance. Buzz Aldrin finally used a ballpoint pen to manipulate the switch.
As amazing as the landing and moonwalk were, what truly boggles my mind is that the entire mission was achieved through the use of computing power equivalent to a current-day laptop. And the LEM? Ah, less than the computing power of one of our cell phones.
2 comments:
I remember staying up to watch when the rest of my family hit the sack. Of course, the simulation doesn't tell the true story of how the LEM strayed dangerously off course due to computer glitches caused by radar. So far off course, in fact, that Armstrong and Aldrin found themselves flying over fields laden with craters and boulders.
Armstrong managed to touch down safely with less than 15 seconds of descent fuel remaining.
After the astronauts finished their brief walk on the moon, they returned to the LEM only to find that, upon exiting, their bulky spacesuits had broken the switch to engage the ascent engine. Mission Control could offer no assistance. Buzz Aldrin finally used a ballpoint pen to manipulate the switch.
As amazing as the landing and moonwalk were, what truly boggles my mind is that the entire mission was achieved through the use of computing power equivalent to a current-day laptop. And the LEM? Ah, less than the computing power of one of our cell phones.
And slide rules. They used slide rules!
Thank you for sharing your memories, Liederlady! I don't think I really understood just how harrowing the landing must have been . . .
Liederlady said: And the LEM? Ah, less than the computing power of one of our cell phones.
That's jaw-dropping! Ok--why haven't we been back?!
~Rose
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