
Apollo 11 50th Anniversary - SpaceInvader
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
======
pcardoso
Just a reminder that in 40mins time the real time simulation will take off:

[https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/](https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/)

~~~
djaychela
I'd seen the site before, but thanks for the timely reminder. I'm too young to
have seen the real launch, but there's something special about being able to
watch the launch on this site, time-shifted by 50 years. Thanks!

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Tepix
If you missed the documentary "Apollo 11" in cinemas, you can watch "Moonwalk
One" (1970) on youtube in its entirety at
[https://youtu.be/9GVpoSrqMMg](https://youtu.be/9GVpoSrqMMg)

It features quite a few of the same scenes, alas in lower visual fidelity.

Description:

 _This film details the comprehensive coverage surrounding the July 1969
launch of Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael
Collins to the moon. The film details activities of both the astronauts and
mission control during pre-launch and launch sequences, daily activities
aboard the spacecraft and the moonwalk, and provides a view of the historical
and cultural events of the time. The footage includes clips from science
fiction television shows such as "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rogers," as well as
a lengthy segment on American rocket pioneer Robert Goddard. The film also
explores some of the critical preliminary stages of the Apollo program,
including medical testing of the human body in space conditions, as well as
the assembly and testing of space suits as worn by the astronauts._

ARC Identifier 1257628 / Local Identifier 255-HQ-199 National Archives and
Records Administration Moonwalk One, ca. 1970

~~~
scott_s
"Apollo 11" is available for purchase, both digitally and physically. It's one
of the best documentaries I have ever seen, as it creates a _narrative_ out of
the footage without using any interviews or actual narration.

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LeonM
Not so much an article about the 50th anniversary, but just the main article
about Apollo 11.

If you are into space stuff, and haven't seen it yet, there were some pretty
cool projects going on on Youtube in preparation for the 50th anniversary:

\- CuriousMarc's restoration series of an actual ACG [0]

\- Applied Science made a replica DSKY electroluminescent glass panel display
[1]

\- Project Egress: A maker collaboration on building a replica of the Apollo
11 door (Adam Savage, Jimmy Diresta, This old tony, Blondihacks, etc) [2]

[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KSahAoOLdU&list=PL-_93BVApb...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KSahAoOLdU&list=PL-_93BVApb59FWrLZfdlisi_x7-Ut_-w7)
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2o_Sp2-aBo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2o_Sp2-aBo)
[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23projectegres...](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23projectegress)

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cmpb
As a citizen of the United States (who came of age well after this event took
place), I've only ever been told that this was an act of heroic success,
something to be proud of, something that _America_ should be proud of. I'm
curious what the reception to this was outside of the U.S. Especially, e.g.,
to someone living in the USSR, what was it like hear that someone else had put
a man on the moon?

~~~
wobbleblob
As a little boy, I went through the usual astronaut phase. There was this
brilliant TIME magazine photo book of the space program up to and including
the then new space shuttle that I kept renewing from the library every time. I
remember at the time, that those events of 10-15 years earlier felt like
ancient history.

I didn't know or care about wars, cold or hot, or any dark side. To me America
was that place where they had a meteor crater and they put men on the moon.

Decades later when I got to visit Kennedy Space Center, seeing the rocket
garden, the actual vehicle assembly building, a real Saturn V rocket, the
actual Apollo 14 command module (!!!) in real life was an emotional
experience, like that 10 year old boy teleported back into me. I felt like
running around, crying, laughing, I can't describe it.

We dumped the kids with their grand parents at that Disney thing that trip. I
thought they would be bored, but I'm definitely taking them next time.

~~~
asark
If you ever find yourself in Kansas for some reason, there's an _excellent_
space exploration & rocketry museum in Hutchinson, Kansas, of all places,
called the Kansas Cosmosphere. It is _very_ good, doubly so considering where
it is. Nice collection, and very well presented. Not exactly close to other
places anyone's likely to visit, but a great detour destination if you happen
to be driving through.

[https://cosmo.org/](https://cosmo.org/)

~~~
madengr
I actually like the cosmosphere better than the Smithsonian or the rocket
center in Hunstville. They have a good collection of Russian stuff, and it’s
the most adult oriented, with good annotations on the displays.

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kitd
My main gripe against my otherwise entirely loving parents was that they
didn't get me up in the middle of the night to watch the landings on TV when I
was little!

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swsieber
So one of my friends is like "Moon landing is fake, here's a bunch of
reasons". One of them was the shadows in the photos not acting like the come
from a single distanct lightsource. Since this popped up here today, and I'm
sure there are many more knowledgeable than I, I'd like to ask:

What's up with the shadows in this picture? (it's one from wikipedia page)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#/media/File:Buzz_sal...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#/media/File:Buzz_salutes_the_U.S._Flag.jpg)

They seem odd. Thanks in advance for any insights.

~~~
rement
Instead of always trying to debunk conspiracy theories we can also talk about
some of the proof that astronauts went to the moon. See if they can debunk
that. For example, every mission with Extravehicular activity brought back
samples of moon rock (some collecting over 100kg). I find that to be pretty
conclusive.

~~~
mbowcutt
Devil's advocate: how can we verify these rocks originated from the moon, and
not somebody's back yard?

~~~
rement
It's a valid question. The environment required to form these rocks is not
found on Earth.[0] The chemistry and mineral composition of Moon rocks is
different from Earth rocks. Some of the rocks are older than almost all rocks
on Earth (Earth's crust is more active than the Moon's because of plate
tectonics). One of the more famous rocks collected is the Genesis Rock.[1]
Recently a few channels on YouTube did videos about where the Moon rocks are
currently stored [2][3][4] (It's a lot of work and money to keep backyard
rocks from getting contaminated if it really is a hoax.)

[0]
[http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/howdoweknow.htm](http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/howdoweknow.htm)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Rock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Rock)

[2] Where does NASA keep the Moon Rocks? - Smarter Every Day 220
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxZ_iPldGtI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxZ_iPldGtI)

[3] Apollo’s Most Important Discovery (Inside NASA’s Moon Rock Vault!)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr28zMXQ3bU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr28zMXQ3bU)

[4] The Genesis Rock - Objectivity #208
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvhLBzsDwSQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvhLBzsDwSQ)

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areoform
I have been meditating on Neil Armstrong's spirit. Project Apollo and his
legacy in the long lens of history. At the start of Apollo, no one ever
expected it to be _this_ impactful. They knew that they were making history,
but they simultaneously overestimated the short-term enthusiasm for their
project and underestimated its long-term impact. Most people at the time
misunderstood the program and thought that it would be just one note in a
longer symphony. But then we didn't go back to the moon. We prioritized the
F-35s of the world before achievements like Apollo, and that note became the
one and only note most people had ever heard.

The astronauts themselves didn't attempt to be this famous or be this defined
by this achievement. This misunderstanding became much clearer when the
program ended and all of the Apollo astronauts faced an existential crisis and
a deep depression following their crowning achievement. Their lives - the
lives of some of the smartest and most driven people to ever live - peaked in
their 40's and that was it.

It's hard to imagine a different perception of Apollo than the one we have
right now, but again hindsight is different than foresight. The agency didn't
seem to grasp the magnitude of their achievement - look at how they treated
the original video tapes that had been transformed for live TV video. It was a
thing, it happened and that was that. The rockets, science etc were more
valuable and no one was focused on the mission itself from our current
hagiographic perspective.

Their oversight came with a cost. No one - not even NASA - realized the
obvious at the time; the astronauts were never going to be human beings after
their moon walks. They were going to be such and such who walked on the moon.
And in a way - in the eyes of history - every act following that point was
essentially a footnote. After all, how the heck do you top walking on the
moon?

This burden was further magnified for Armstrong. Most of us forget the depth
of his fame. Carl Sagan wrote about an anecdote where an anthropologist told
him that a previously uncontacted tribe (or rather assumed to be uncontacted
tribe) asked about Apollo 11 and if it was true if human beings had indeed
walked on the moon. Try to put yourself in his shoes and lift the weight he
carried. Try to imagine being Neil Armstrong and waking up every single day
with the weight that every literate child in the world will learn your name
until humanity itself ceases to be. He became The First Man - not a person who
was allowed to make mistakes. No, that was too undignified for The First Man.

And he hated every second of it. He refused to sign autographs. He stopped
going out into public. Stopped giving interviews. (IIRC, the last one he gave
was to an accountant
[https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/05/neil-
ar...](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/05/neil-armstrong-
grants-rare-interview-accountant/327730/)) And chose to live his life as a
recluse.

But perhaps, this tendency is why he was chosen in the first place. Deke
Slayton and the other administrators, wisely, knew that he would be a better
First Man than someone like Aldrin, who can be described in the most
charitable of terms as a fame whore.
[http://www.americaspace.com/?p=24709](http://www.americaspace.com/?p=24709)
And so one of the most shy and cerebral men of his generation was chosen to be
a "living monument." And perhaps a monument to the American era as a whole. As
of writing, Armstrong is already more famous than Alexander the Great - after
whom at least three major languages have literally defined the word "great."
(even now his name isn't Alexander of Macedonia, but Alexander the Great.) And
Alexander himself will be forgotten before Armstrong is. He is without a
doubt, the most famous human to ever exist. And long after the American empire
ceases to be, he will still be remembered as an example of what we achieved.
Barring a calamity, he will be remembered for all time as long as human beings
are alive.

It was a very heavy burden, but Armstrong bore it with grace. Perhaps with
greater grace than Washington himself, who exemplified the ideal of doing your
service and saying goodbye to retire to a farm.

Beyond his technical mind. I am in awe of him as a human being. The more I
learn about him, the more I admire him.

You should read more about him here; [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/national/longterm/space...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
srv/national/longterm/space/armstrong1.htm)

~~~
toxik
The moon landing will look less fantastic once space travel becomes
commonplace. People will largely forget his name, especially when the US
hegemony has ended. Your assessment comes across as a tad hyperbolic.

~~~
areoform
Have you forgotten Alexander the Great given that there were empires like the
British Empire on whom the sun never set? Or, Archimedes given that the screw
is everywhere?

Did we forget the Illiad after Harry Potter came along?

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Tylast
New Atlas had the best story about it (out of all the obligatory stories) this
week:
[https://newatlas.com/apollo-11-anniversary/59993/](https://newatlas.com/apollo-11-anniversary/59993/)

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tectonic
We just sent out our 50th Anniversary special issue of The Orbital Index:
[https://orbitalindex.com/archive/2019-07-16-Issue-21/](https://orbitalindex.com/archive/2019-07-16-Issue-21/)

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musgravepeter
The BBC podcast "13 minutes to the moon" is very worth-while.

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Animats
And it's not even front page news.

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piyushpr134
As we recall Apollo 11, let us not forget about the rocket. Funny XKCD strip:
[https://xkcd.com/984/](https://xkcd.com/984/)

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accosine
Wow, didn't realize GraphQL ist THAT old!

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novaRom
With increased progress in robotics there will be even less reasons to send
people not just to the moon but even to low Earth orbit. If you downvote,
please explain why you disagree.

