From the Earth to the Moon ... and Beyond ...

The 47th anniversary of Apollo 11 is coming up next month. On a whim, I decided to watch "From the Earth to the Moon" again last night (bad decision starting last night -- after episode 4, I realized it was 0300 ...). Now, I could go all maudlin about how society has changed from a nation of pioneers and explorers just 50-60 years ago to a nation of safe zone-needing, trigger warning-required pajama boys today but I'd rather be positive. We as a people can do remarkable things when we set our mind to it.

12 people (Armstrong, Aldrin, Conrad, Bean, Shephard, Mitchell, Scott, Irwin, Young, Duke, Cernan, Schmitt) have set foot on the moon and trod its surface. 13 more orbited the moon (Borman, Lovell, Anders, Stafford, Young, Collins, Gordon, Haise, Swigert, Roosa, Worden, Mattingly, Evans). 2 of them made the trip twice (Lovell and Cernan). Behind them lay an army of Americans who made the voyages possible.

This capability is not limited to Americans (although our nation has been responsible for some truly remarkable things that the community organizers and social justice warriors never recognize). Humanity -- as individual group or as a whole -- can moan and groan about mistakes of the past or debate what's "fair" until the cows come home. We can piss and moan and try to be "low impact" so that the passage of time will eventually erase any sign that we ever existed, that we ever mattered ... or we can dare to achieve, to set our mark on the universe.

Building something concrete used to be a good thing. It still is even if society has become more virtual and less virtuous.

We can learn from the past but we don't have to live in the past (positively or negatively). Rather, we can continue striving forward to the future, a future envisioned incompletely by our Founding Fathers but filled in by explorers, farmers, ranchers, scientists, engineers, industrialists, mechanics, and so on for the last 200-plus years. We can defend freedom and liberty and basic human decency as the doughboys and grunts and service personnel of World Wars I and II did. We can push the limits of our boundaries as Lewis and Clark and Cousteau and von Braun and all those others did.

Amazing feat always been a dream

We where born too late to explore the world but too early to explore the cosmos

Incredible what they did given the technology at that time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DFBrews

Amazing feat always been a dream

We where born too late to explore the world but too early to explore the cosmos

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I thought Colorado fixed that by making dope legal.

I always wanted to be born early enough to be a WWII fighter pilot. But I gotta say, I loved growing up when I did and watching the Apollo missions live on TV...some of the later ones were even in color at our house! And then the Space Shuttle era came along after I was a little older. I really appreciate, and I'm very proud of, all we've accomplished as a country.

I guess that's why I hate seeing so many people that try to diminish our country and what it stands for.

That's a great series and if you haven't seen it, you should. My favorite episode is the one about the LEM. ("spider") and the one about the geologist.

and at the end, you are really really sad. Not for what we accomplished but we can no longer do. Hell we no longer even try.

America peaked about 1969/1970 or so.

Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the Moon.

I used to really like that saying but now-a-days not so much. In my pessimism I doubt mankind will ever make it back there in my lifetime. If ever.

I love From the Earth to the Moon. The first Earth Rise scene from Apollo 8, Paul McCrane as Pete Conrad from the Apollo 12 Mission and the LEM episode were all classic.

My favorite line from the entire series that I used many times in my professional career is when Chris Kraft says "Come on out Ed, make us all look good". Make Us All Look Good, the world was watching Ed White, but it reflects the thousands of men and women who got him there.


I was lucky to have the opportunity to visit Johnson Space Center to fly on the Reduced Gravity Aircraft as part of the NASA HUNCH program. We got some nice behind the scene tours of the facilities. Here are some pics (no idea why it is rotating them). What we got to see keeps my hope alive that we will continue to push the edge of technology and keep testing ourselves to achieve greatness. There are some cool people doing some really cool things. If our leaders would let them go and do great things it would be awesome. I hope we get to Mars before I die, but it looks more and more doubtful all the time.

Panic Button in the Apollo Mission Control Center
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This is a plaque from the Apollo 13 Crew, hard to read but it says "This mirror flown on Aquarius, LM-7, to the moon on April 11-17, 1970. Returned by a grateful Apollo 13 crew to "reflect the image" of the people in Mission Control who got us back. Jim Lovell, John Swigert, Fred Haise
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Next generation spacesuit being fabricated. Awesome fabrication facilities.
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Neutral Buoyancy Lab - Chris Cassidy was walking out when we were walking in, he stopped to talk with us a bit.
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Gus Grissom - Apollo 1, lived in the town where my parents grew up. Many tributes and memorials for him and the others.

My mom on a Parade Float seated (looking at camera) in front of Gus Grissom photo; unknown year. (Mitchell, Indiana)

Photo is of a collage on a wall at the Spring Mill State Park. (Mitchell, Indiana)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/4d...=w1152-h864-no

for you lazy birds who don't have it as part of your collection: https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Moon-Va...th+to+the+moon

http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/From-th...ition/70038101