Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 52nd anniversary of Apollo 11

I was at summer camp, at Camp McCoy, I remember watching on a grainy Black, and white TV.

and it all ended in '72 with Apollo 17. What a shame and a disgrace.

The only real NASA SNAFU imho was not having a launch vehicle to replace the shuttle before they retired the shuttle program.
That we had to hitch rides and pay Russia for seats was a real disgrace.

I was at a PBA picnic. Everyone was gathered around a small B&W to watch the landing. After the landing most left to go home to watch.

The Dillduck made big money on that mission.

Him and Chuck Yeager watched the launch from the Craps table at the Sahara.

They pulled us off the Melmac line at American Cyanamid and let us all watch some of the coverage in the middle break room.

Hahahahahaha!

Oh......that hurt.

I remember watching the TV, how lousy the images were. Didn't really sink in until the mission film was processed and those pictures came out.

I watched the landing at my parent's house in Atlanta. Several days earlier, my Dad let me borrow the Ford station wagon. I drove down to Cape Canaveral with two high school friends and we watched the launch.
We arrived at 3 am. We were 14 miles from the rocket, and the roads were just jammed. We figured we couldn't get any closer so we found a place to park on the shoulder, we were out in the country on a country road, not an interstate. The cars were bumper to bumper there at 3 am. NASA pr was great, the Saturn 5 was all lit up and you could see it clearly, it looked beautiful. If you held your hand out at arm's length, the rocket was about 4 inches high.

Hundreds of people were up and about, it was like a big block party, everybody celebrating all night long. After all the divisions of the Vietnam war, it was like a great coming together for the American people. Nobody went to sleep, we all stayed up for the night, we were so excited about the upcoming launch.
Day broke and you could still clearly see the rocket by daylight. It was about 9 am they lit it off. A massive fireball, even from 14 miles away. The rocket slowly climbed into the sky. Strangely, there was no sound. I figured we were too far away to hear it.

In about 30 seconds the noise hit. It was the loudest sound I ever have heard. I was just an overwhelming roar. It felt like it was going to knock you over. We watched Apollo 11 slowly climb into the summer sky, and fly out of sight.

The photos of the starry sky taken from the moon were absolutely spectacular!

I wondered when the token conspiracy theorist would show up...

Where’s ole Gus to tell us about the “High Priests of NASA” ?

Cool. I was 2-½. I vaguely remember some of the later launches, and the Saturn/Soyuz 1975 Hookup.

Watched it at my grandparents house, with mom and dad. They've all since passed. The passage of time is relentless. Memories are precious.

You mean us folks that thing congress threw a big party with the money?

All the scenes were filmed in Arizona.

Yeah them folk.... lol