My two cents is that the ability to 'relive' the adventure from 40 years ago right this minute is pretty great!!!!!
In July 1969 I was 11 years old, would be 12 in September, living in Redlands California and on summer break from school. We were all caught up in the excitement of the flight. I remember pretty much watching stuff on the evening news about it in addition to some of the numerous TV specials because of the scope of the event. Being 11 though I wasn't as interested then as I am now! I do remember us all watching the fuzzy black and white images on the TV that Sunday night of July 20th, 1969. It was truly amazing to see, just wish we could have seen it better! I remember almost straining to try to clearly see Armstrong as he came down the leg of the LEM (it was still the Lunar Excursion Module back then, they dropped the 'E' later) and did his "step for a man". Even with the new tech its still pretty fuzzy, but the 'remastered' footage being released a little at a time by NASA is a bit better.
Oh, and by the way if you get some of the fantastic DVD programs from the Discovery Channel, I strongly recommend you save a few bucks and don't get them in Blue-Ray! Why, because the transfer from the old film isn't that clear anyway! I saw that in my copy of the series "When we left the Earth, the NASA missions". As with many DVD's the 'up-convert' by the Blue-Ray player is really good as it is! Save more than a few bucks, get the DVD's!
High Def? Only thing high definition back in 1969 was being there yourself!
But (can you believe it!) 40 years later and I'm listening to some of the entire flight audio as it's being streamed on NASA.gov website. It was something a few hours ago when they did a 3 second course correction burn, listened to the audio on the computer, and listened to the soundtrack from Star Wars episode 4 on the satellite radio by happenstance playing at the exact moment. Kind of a really weird time travel kind of thing to think about! Listening at the approximate moment of an event 40 years ago with the background music being played back by a satellite to me! Think about the technology of 1969 to today also, a hand held video game has more computing power than the space crafts had back then. Watch the shows, "Moon Machines" next time it's on or get the DVD's.
If you're reading this and somehow hadn't seen anything about all the things available on line about this event, much in real time as it happened for now, but at your on pace afterword, I really suggest you check it out.
I find it very interesting to hear the actual amount of talking there was between the spacecraft and mission control. As far as I know, this audio was not available to much of anyone outside of involved agencies so I find it fascinating! The mission status updates are something to comprehend, the most recent; Apollo 11 was over 96,000 pounds, 105,853 miles out on its 240,000 mile flight and going 4, 233 feet per SECOND. Some of the background sounds recorded by the non digital recording of the day can be interesting in itself too! At this moment it sounds as if someone was recorded fast forward and rewind searching on the recording. It is historical in so many ways, the first time a human walked on another place off the Earth in the universe, and to be honest I think the way things are going with space exploration, those Apollo years may be the ONLY time this happens in most of my age groups lifetime.
UPDATE TO OUR LIGHTENING INCIDENT:
Well we still haven't be able to find out answers to any of the electrical riddles.
The home phone line was fixed first, the repair person said he couldn't find any fried connections but there was some damaged connections and one line in the house was shorted out. He couldn't explain that either.
We got the replacement Direct TV receiver yesterday so that's all back up and running.
Only hold out is the HughesNet satellite Internet receiver, seems it's on back order and we don't know when that's coming in.
Stacy's father is planning on taking his dead, probably also fried 'Mac' to the nearest repair shop for Apple in Spokane Washington on his next trip to the VA hospital. He has his Dell to hold him over till then.
In July 1969 I was 11 years old, would be 12 in September, living in Redlands California and on summer break from school. We were all caught up in the excitement of the flight. I remember pretty much watching stuff on the evening news about it in addition to some of the numerous TV specials because of the scope of the event. Being 11 though I wasn't as interested then as I am now! I do remember us all watching the fuzzy black and white images on the TV that Sunday night of July 20th, 1969. It was truly amazing to see, just wish we could have seen it better! I remember almost straining to try to clearly see Armstrong as he came down the leg of the LEM (it was still the Lunar Excursion Module back then, they dropped the 'E' later) and did his "step for a man". Even with the new tech its still pretty fuzzy, but the 'remastered' footage being released a little at a time by NASA is a bit better.
Oh, and by the way if you get some of the fantastic DVD programs from the Discovery Channel, I strongly recommend you save a few bucks and don't get them in Blue-Ray! Why, because the transfer from the old film isn't that clear anyway! I saw that in my copy of the series "When we left the Earth, the NASA missions". As with many DVD's the 'up-convert' by the Blue-Ray player is really good as it is! Save more than a few bucks, get the DVD's!
High Def? Only thing high definition back in 1969 was being there yourself!
But (can you believe it!) 40 years later and I'm listening to some of the entire flight audio as it's being streamed on NASA.gov website. It was something a few hours ago when they did a 3 second course correction burn, listened to the audio on the computer, and listened to the soundtrack from Star Wars episode 4 on the satellite radio by happenstance playing at the exact moment. Kind of a really weird time travel kind of thing to think about! Listening at the approximate moment of an event 40 years ago with the background music being played back by a satellite to me! Think about the technology of 1969 to today also, a hand held video game has more computing power than the space crafts had back then. Watch the shows, "Moon Machines" next time it's on or get the DVD's.
If you're reading this and somehow hadn't seen anything about all the things available on line about this event, much in real time as it happened for now, but at your on pace afterword, I really suggest you check it out.
I find it very interesting to hear the actual amount of talking there was between the spacecraft and mission control. As far as I know, this audio was not available to much of anyone outside of involved agencies so I find it fascinating! The mission status updates are something to comprehend, the most recent; Apollo 11 was over 96,000 pounds, 105,853 miles out on its 240,000 mile flight and going 4, 233 feet per SECOND. Some of the background sounds recorded by the non digital recording of the day can be interesting in itself too! At this moment it sounds as if someone was recorded fast forward and rewind searching on the recording. It is historical in so many ways, the first time a human walked on another place off the Earth in the universe, and to be honest I think the way things are going with space exploration, those Apollo years may be the ONLY time this happens in most of my age groups lifetime.
UPDATE TO OUR LIGHTENING INCIDENT:
Well we still haven't be able to find out answers to any of the electrical riddles.
The home phone line was fixed first, the repair person said he couldn't find any fried connections but there was some damaged connections and one line in the house was shorted out. He couldn't explain that either.
We got the replacement Direct TV receiver yesterday so that's all back up and running.
Only hold out is the HughesNet satellite Internet receiver, seems it's on back order and we don't know when that's coming in.
Stacy's father is planning on taking his dead, probably also fried 'Mac' to the nearest repair shop for Apple in Spokane Washington on his next trip to the VA hospital. He has his Dell to hold him over till then.
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