Apollo 11

[DrRoy]

If you are not a space nerd or history buff, I just thought I would mention that today is the 49th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11. There was nothing that had more of my attention back then than the space program. I met Mike Collins from the crew two years ago at Spacefest, and saw Buzz Aldrin last year at AirVenture.

 

[Bamaman]

I went to the Cape in 1973 and watched the original Space Station launch on the Saturn rocket. It was an incredible sight.

It is hard to believe that a government agency could do such a good job designing and managing our rocket program and having them built by the lowest priced contractor. I often drive past the Space and Rocket.Museum in Huntsville where they have an assembled Saturn rocket standing and another on its side inside.

I just wonder about the sanity of.our early astronauts being shot into space in tiny capsules. And my hat is off to the incredible workers building those rockets and capsules.

 

[Chuckanut]

Here's a journal of the flight. It's long, detailed, and I'm glad we have these records.

https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap11fj/index.html

https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap11fj/a11-documents.html

Of interest to me is how propellant sloshing in the LEM tank caused significant problems for Armstrong as he landed the LEM. Thankfully, the guy knew what he was doing.

[Fjeld - "At the end of the yaw maneuver, you can really see in the descent film how dramatic the propellant slosh problem is becoming. As the propellant level gets to near fifty percent, there is more room for the fluid to swirl and slosh yet still enough mass for that movement to really torque the LM out of its tight deadband. This is the reason that there is much more thruster activity than Neil has been expecting. In the absence of slosh, slow gimbaling of the engine would be keeping them level. The effects of the sloshing reaches its peak right about here, with the spacecraft wiggling 2 to 3 degrees back-and-forth and side-to-side every couple of seconds. Later, more seriously, the spacecraft motions caused by slosh will render the LPD essentially useless and then, at 102:44:45, will cause the propellant low-level sensor to latch nearly 30 seconds early."]

 

[sumdaysoon]

So interesting, yet unintended timing... I recently finished a project to frame newspapers from the mission. My mother saved all of the Houston Post front sections for all days of the mission. Despite their having been saved in a cardboard box in the Houston humidity all of these years, they were in reasonable, but weathered condition. I had an amazing day carefully pressing the sections page by page before mounting the whole sections in frames. I just love the commentary as well as looking at the retail ads of the time. Now I have 10 of these framed and need to clear a wall off to hang them.

By the way the Dow closed one day during the week at 855...