Fifty years ago I was one year out of high school, lived in Atlanta. I got together with 2 of my high school buddies, I borrowed my parents' big old Ford station wagon, and we drove down to Cape Kennedy.

We arrived there at 3 am. We were 14 miles away, that was the closest you could get. We were on a country highway, and both shoulders were packed with people who wanted to see the launch. It was great, everybody was up and talking to one another, drinking beer, or coffee.
It was a great festival in celebration of America, which was a pleasant change from the acrimony present every day, due to Vietnam. There was an air of excitement.

NASA did a great pr job, the rocket was very well lit up. Even from 14 miles away you could clearly see the giant white rocket, it looked beautiful.
About 9 am, they lit it up! What a fantastic fireball!
But, apparently we were so far away the sound didn't carry, for it made no noise at all. We all watched as the giant rocket slowly climbed into the clear blue sky.
Then, the sound wave hit us. It is the loudest sound I have ever heard. It made the earth shake, or at least it felt like it did.
We watched the big rocket slowly climb into the blue sky, and slowly angle towards the east. In a minute or two, it was gone.

That’s a great story.
I had just graduated from high school.
Was at a lake in west central Ks, drinking beer and listening to it on the radio.

Dad was headed to viet nam

And I wasn't even born yet, I take your word for it.




You "I retired from johns manville asbestos factory in 1959" guys crack me up.

Brain in a jar with wires coming out.

😄😄

While at the time, I thought that it was a marvel that it could be pulled off, I am even more amazed looking back at the technology then as compared to now.

Really an amazing time. I was only 5 but remember it and later saw a Saturn IB launch for skylab - That was impressive yet a shell of the moon rockets.

American Experience on PBS is running a bunch of really great 2 hour episodes on the space program from past seasons right now. (American Experience Episodes)

I' m sure we have others but I'll call out our own Rocky Raab, as a former NASA guy, and his recent interview. Summer of Space. Scroll down to the "memories of the moon" section for Rocky's section and to hear him call a Space Shuttle launch. Very very cool Rocky.

They did a very nice job of editing what I thought was a so-so interview on my part. I've been interviewed thousands of times, and it stuns me to realize that was almost certainly my last one.

One Million gallons of fuel lighting up. It must have been spectacular.

I was 8 years old and we were on vacation in Nantucket, MA. I don't remember the launch, but I remember the landing and Armstrong's first steps on the moon as if it was yesterday. It was hard to see the images on the black & white TV because the reception was so bad and the rabbit ears weren't quite cutting it.

Since we're all doing this with computers over what started as the ARPANet, a little info on the Apollo 11 guidance computer.

Program memory 73,728 bytes (8 bit equivalent) (0.000073728 gigabyte)
Random access memory 4096 bytes (0.0000004096 gigabyte)
Memory was a matrix of bead-like magnetic cores strung with a spider web of hair-fine wire all assembled by hand
Processor hand wired, looks like wire wrap, discreet RTL integrated circuits
Speed 2.048 MHz
Weight 70 lbs
Power consumption 55 Watts (RTL chips were slow and power hungry)
Dimensions 24×12.5×6.5 inches

Compare that with your phone.

My computer runs at 3.4 GHz or 3,400 MHz.
Apollo communications were in the S band, 3-4 GHZ and very few people could eavesdrop on communications at that frequency which was chosen partly for privacy - in case things went badly. Now common computers can handle that speed. And your Wifi can handle those frequencies.

I watched it from a small plane about 10 miles west of the Cape. Me and about 500 others! That count came from ATC controllers later that day. They quit counting targets in a 10 square mile area. Talk about dodge ball with planes....to make it worse, the Air Force sent a flight of 4 F-4's up through the mess about 1 minute pre launch! We had a radio with the count down going and everyone timed a turn so we were all pointing at the pad as it went off. Got an old picture of it here somewhere....all you can see is a small pinpoint of light as the candle burned oh so bright! Will never forget the day I saw history made.

Your voice?

His face too. Scroll down on that page Summer of Space and about half-way down is some more videos titled "Moon Memories" and Rocky's interview is there.

Fifty years ago today when they took off I was 19 and at work that day. Ran the grease rack at a Chevy dealer. A couple of the mechanics had their radios tuned in to it. I was able to catch most of it that way.

I was 22, and working on the assembly line at IBM. Pulled silicon crystals , that we had doped with either phosphorus, arsenic, antimony. The crystals, through many operations, became integrated circuit memory chips..... The brains for computers, involved in the space program. We watched with pride 50 years ago, from the cafeteria, as our handiwork was going to the Moon....

Heard it said, well actually read at the San Diego Air and Space Museum that a cell phone today has more computer power then the whole NASA control room during the Apollo 11 time frame!

I was but a young buck back then, but remember my great grand mother stating that the world would never be the same after a moon landing. She believed it would upset the "balance" of the world and change everything with the most noticeable thing being the weather!

Although I had entertained a career as a pilot/astronaut, I got distracted/derailed/missed the turn and went a different path, I am proud that my son is enjoying a career as one of the most experienced rocket propulsion engineers in the world today!

I remember the lousy live TV feed of Armstrong stepping off. Couldn't see $&*@#T. But I'll never forget the giant leap. Wow. We all cheered like crazy.

Dave, that lousy picture was due to the downlink limitations of the lander. It had a weak signal, with a small bandwidth, and was sent at only 10 frames per second. Not compatible with broadcast TV, in other words. By the time it was converted into something the TV could use, it was pretty bad.

I was 9. Remember watching it on TV. Seemed unreal at the time. Now it’s amazing with the technology they had at that time.
Read a article today on a speech Nixon had prepared just in case they were stuck on the moon’s surface.

Very cool, RockyRaab. Enjoyed your interview.

Cool thread


One big question though ? 🤔. How did Rocky ever come up with his 24 hour handle ? 😂.


Really is pretty cool to have you here Rocky, you’ve lived a life I’d like to read more about. Just so you know, I’ve counted down a few launches myself, but my family kept tellling me to shut up so they could hear you and others count the launch down 🤷🏻‍♂️

Oh and Pugs a big thank you to you for providing the link to Rocky’s interview

Part of the reason for the poor pictures is they would have been using vidicon imaging tubes (yes, a vacuum tube) and they were famous for having problems dealing with contrast even in a studio. The moon is a very contrasty place.