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.
BZ
There is so much technology in that video. From the high speed camera to development of the quartz protective lens to the water delivery system (IIRC, one million gallons in 5 seconds), to the fire tunnel and the high strength concrete. Just the swing arms are an amazing piece of engineering (with ablative coating).
I remember watching the whole flight from countdown to lift off to moon landing to splash down. I was in summer school and the tech had wheeled a TV into the room. (Imagine that, a transportable television!) I had also built a model of the entire launch complex, a very detailed model right down to what seemed like miles of pipes. I bought two models (gotten by taping a dime to a postcard found in the back of a comic book). One was for me to build, the 2nd to sell at a tremendous mark-up.
Also from that time, “Ricketts not rockets” was the hue and cry from a certain sect of society who complained that money shot into space was not available for disease research. Hint: coloreds had a higher incidence of rickets than other ethnicities.
I’m this wordy because of those fond memories. Yes, it seemed people everywhere were excited about the space program.
One more thing, about that same time, at a Boy Scout Jamboree, I saw Virgil White’s space suit. That guy was small in physical stature.
Very cool video, one I hadn’t seen before. So, thanks!
Richard, you are EVER so welcome. It’s good to bring back memories, especially of something you haven’t thought of in some time.
You’re correct about the quartz lens; without such a grinding technology the footage (literally, back when that described the aspect of film) would have been impossible. The technology of that time hearkens me back to other great aviation benchmarks of long ago, from the B-52s still flying today (airframes over 60 years old!) to the SR-71s (no jet aircraft today comes close) — these were all advances made by Caucasoid males in white short sleeved shirts with glasses, pocket protectors and SLIDE RULES.
BZ
Those were the days…
Yes, when we had goals and the resolution to achieve them. Back when achievement was valued instead of denigrated.
BZ
Slide rules and the will to succeed… Both sadly lacking today…
Thanks for the video and information on the computing “power” on-board at the time. Those were different times.
Thank you kindly sir.
BZ