Buzz Aldrin | Bloviating Zeppelin

Apollo 11, the first manned flight to the moon, took off on July 16th of 1969.

The Apollo 11 capsule contained Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

This sequence was taken by a very high speed 16mm camera running at 500 feet-per-second, protected by a quartz lens, and delineates what actually occurred on the launch pad. The five F-1 engines of the Saturn V launch vehicle are absolutely awesome to watch and I found myself fascinated with the detailed narrative.

The perspective above was from Camera E-8, on the launch pad itself.

At the time, the computing power of the entire Apollo 11 rocket, capsule and LEM consisted of 64KB of memory and only 0.043 MHz of processing power. The computer was more basic than the electronics in modern toasters that have computer controlled stop/start/defrost buttons.

Three brave men put their trust in calculations from those seemingly-prehistoric computers.

When America was brave, strong and willing to take chances.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist; I believe that the United States did in fact land two men on the moon for the first time on this day, 45 years ago, July 20th of 1969.

Watch live webcasts celebrating this event here.

I wrote about the 40th anniversary here.

An outstanding photo tribute to Apollo 11 is here.

Man last stepped on the moon in 1972. The United States never returned.

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the surface of our moon, passed away at the age of 82 on August 26th, 2012. My personal tribute to this American hero is here.

How many men walked on the moon, and who were they? In chronological order:

Neil Armstrong – Apollo 11 – July, 1969
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin – Apollo 11 – July, 1969
Charles “Pete” Conrad – Apollo 12 – November, 1969
Alan Bean – Apollo 12 – November, 1969
Alan Shepard – Apollo 14 – February, 1971
Edgar Mitchell – Apollo 14 – February, 1971
David Scott – Apollo 15 – July, 1971
James Irwin – Apollo 15 – July, 1971
John Young – Apollo 16 – April, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)
Charles Duke – Apollo 16 – April, 1972
Eugene Cernan – Apollo 17 – December, 1972 (also on Apollo 10, without landing)
Harrison Schmitt – Apollo 17 – December, 1972

Another little known fact: no one has walked on the moon who was born after 1935.

I can still recall that day distinctly: I was with my parents at the home of one of their friends in Centerville, Ohio. The television was on in the living room. Grainy black and white images jumped back and forth on the screen.

Can you recall: where were you and what were you doing when America landed on the moon?

P.S.
Here is what a flawed but still important president looks like:

Bloviating Zeppelin

Right thinking from a Left brain.

Tag Archives: Buzz Aldrin

Under Apollo 11’s Saturn V engines

45 years ago today: Apollo 11 lands on the moon