I was just watching a program on the History Channel about 60's tech. Part of the program talked about television technology of the day, and the guy who was in charge of creating the camera the astronauts used to beam back their images from the moon.

Since I was -2 years old, I'm curious to hear from the people who actually saw it, and hear their memories. Was it mind blowing, or just another thing to watch on the glowing box?

Definitely mind-blowing! I had just graduated from high school and the future seemed so bright! I would imagine there were very few eyeballs not glued to a "glowing box."

I've always been a big fan of the space program (I also was 2 when Neil stepped on the moon). I'm looking forward to the new Ron Howard film about the Apollo program, "In the Shadow of the Moon."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0925248/

It comes to Cinema 21 in Portland for a week in September.

Andrew

Mind blowing for sure.

I remember watching the TV then running outside to look up at the moon, then going back inside to watch it on TV again.


Here's a question that's bugged me for years about transmissions from the Shuttle & Space Station.

Why is it there is enough bandwidth for color video, but it still sounds like shit?

What's up with that?

"Made in Taiwan" sticker on Mr. Microphone!

It was unbelievable. I was working for Don Burden at the time and he insisted all employees watch it.

It's funny the things we take for granted. I was certain that the moon landing wouldn't be one of them. Bus, also listed during this show as things that happened that year, was the premiere of Sesame street and the release of the first Led Zeppelin album. Two of the most influential things in the last 50 years.

It made me think of things that came out or happened when I was young, and I guess the two biggest for me, were the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the release of Nirvanas: Nevermind. These were two things that at the time, I didn't realize how life changing they were, but have grown to appreciate them immensely now.

I was 14 and at Farragut State Park in Idaho at the 1969 Boy Scout National Jamboree.

I remember a bunch of us sitting around a picnic table and listening to it on AM radio!

I also read somewhere, fairly recently, that the PC you use today has more computing power than the Apollo capsule that landed on the moon!

Amazing!!!

The early Apollo capsuls used core memory, they had under 64K. and the processors were under 1MHZ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_Guidance_Computer

My cell phone has more computing power than Apollo 11 did!

The engineers on the Apollo program were still using slide rules, any one remember those, somewhere i still got a couple.

I still have mine!

My graduation present from High School (1974) was a Texas Instruments SR-50 calculator.

We had to order it direct from TI. Back then you couldn't just go to Kmart or Target (Wal-Mart was still only out in the sticks back then). It was $175.

When I went to tech school the teachers told us it was OK to use calculators on our homework, but for tests we HAD to use the slide rule!

Never used a slide rule. I think I saw one once. I was intrigued.
Texas Instruments SR-50... was $175.
Back then you couldn't just go to Kmart or Target.
That's just mind-blowing to me, however. I'm looking at the TI-89 Titanium I bought at Best Buy a few months ago for $150! It looks like it also has more power than the Apollos did... now, why in the world can't I fly to the moon with this thing?!

I was alive, but my earliest memories of the space program are of Skylab. Here is an interesting legacy from the lunar missions:

Moon Trees

"Apollo 14 launched in the late afternoon of January 31, 1971 on what was to be our third trip to the lunar surface. Five days later Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell walked on the Moon while Stuart Roosa, a former U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper, orbited above in the command module. Packed in small containers in Roosa's personal kit were hundreds of tree seeds, part of a joint NASA/USFS project. Upon return to Earth, the seeds were germinated by the Forest Service. Known as the "Moon Trees", the resulting seedlings were planted throughout the United States (often as part of the nation's bicentennial in 1976) and the world. They stand as a tribute to astronaut Roosa and the Apollo program."

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/moon_tree.html

I have a picture of me taking my first step - literally - while the moon landing was being aired on TV. People think it's fake considering how lucky the TV clarity came through.

I'm not exactly bragging. I just hold that one dear.

If you're interested in the first moonwalk televsion transmission, you MUST watch this very excellent film: "The Dish" -- 4 stars, 2 big thumbs up!


ps: my dad woke me up early to watch all the rocket launches -- from the mercury program, thru gemini, then finally, apollo.

PUDDY!

Great film.

I've been an astrobuff as long as I can remember! I remember my mom running the vacuum cleaner during John Glenn's Mercury launch. I was 5 years old.

I was glued to the TV for all the Gemini flights. I had Gemini models, a big model of Ed White, the first space walker. I made scrapbooks of newspaper articles about thee Gemini flights. My friends and I played "astronaut" for hours.

One of my prized possessions was the GI Joe Mercury capsule, complete with 45-rpm record of radio transmissions. My friend and I filled a garbage can with water and had several splashdowns, followed by the "sinking" of the capsule. His GI Joe, who had the deep sea diving outfit, would "rescue" my GI Joe spaceman from the bottomless deep of the garbage can.

My entire family watched, totally in awe, Apollo 8 astronauts taking turns reading from Genesis an Dec. 24, 1968, with scenes of the lunar landscape passing by the Apollo's window. It still gives me goosebumps.

All of my friends were at my house for the Apollo 11 landing. Our living room was like mission control. Everyone had their model CSM's, LEM's, lunar maps, you name it. We all fell silent, holding our breath during the lunar module descent.

Watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon was one of greatest moments of my life.

It was sad that the TV networks failed to broadcast the other lunar landings. People just didn't care anymore. They wanted to watch their soap operas.

I have a DVD collection of archived NASA color footage of the other Apollo moon landings. I still watch it from time to time. Incredible stuff.

"One of my prized possessions was the GI Joe Mercury capsule, complete with 45-rpm record of radio transmissions."

I wanted one of those SO bad!
Never did get one.

K-mart was Kress's back then. The superstores hadn't been developed. Woolworths became Woolco
Kress's becake K-mart. Walmart started as Walmart.thr CRC book had all the log tables and that kind of stuff, you do remember using log tables don't you?

Back in high school, we used slide rules and the CRC book, wh

"K-mart was Kress's back then."

You're close. Kmart began as Kresge. Kress was an unrelated chain.

Your right, too many old brain cells.

Most cities still have a kresge building.

Used to be, you had to go downtown to do your shopping. I remember my parents taking me to Kresge's to get school clothes.

And architecturally significant Kress buildings, too! When I grew up in SW Portland in the 50's, I remember my mom grocery shopping at Fred Meyer, Safeway and Piggly Wiggly. But, for special purchases, we rode the old blue busses downtown to Meier & Frank, Olds & King, Penney's, Lipman's, Newberry's, Woolworth's, etc. I hardly ever get downtown now!