Apollo 11

[Skuzzy]

Missing one vital piece of commentary from a representative of Rocketdyne.  The builder of the descent engine who was in Mission Control at the time of the landing.  I have the quotes at home.  I paraphrased the above.

Like I said, if anyone is interested.

[moot]

Yep, post it...

BTW, how close were you to the launch for Apollo 8?

[Skuzzy]

We were next to the stadium seating.  I was standing on a chair.  I do not recall what that exact distance was.

By the way, the resource for the new information recently released is the Smithsonian.

[moot]

I'm curious how close I'd have to be to give my little step brother (6 yo) that same impression next year.  It probably varies with the day's weather, but if thrust is the major factor, the Shuttle should be good enough.  I know a friend said he could feel it shake his guts on the launch he got to see from the VAB.  Car alarms went off.

[Strip]

Back home, they were pretty sure if the lander had run out of fuel it would have exploded as the last bit of fuel would not have been able to pump out and the flame would have fed back into the fuel chamber.  It was something they did not think they had to worry about.

In most rocket designs there is little chance of back feeding of fire. This is mainly due to lack of oxygen, helium pressurant and redundant check valves. Pressure fed rocket engines were run dry all the time back then. In the event the engine did run dry the helium pressurant would have suppressed any fire. The lunar decent engine was a marvel of simplicity and the ascent engine was even a better specimen. The engine had only one moving part, the propellant feed valves which were double redundant. The propellants themselves were hypergolic and required no ignition source. The biggest concern on landing was back pressure from the rocket exhaust. The close proximity of the ground to nozzle was thought to build pressure past safety margins. In fact, it was standard procedure to shut the engines off 5-10 feet off the ground to avoid this.

<S> To all the fine engineers who made this possible....have had a chance to meet and talk with a few of them.

Strip

[Skuzzy]

Strip here is the quote from the Rocketdyne rep (Apollo engineer) on how he felt about the landing.

"I was relieved.  Our tests had shown that there was a small chance the exhaust could shoot back into the rocket as it landed and ignite the remaining propellant."

More tidbits. 

NASA had seated the VIP's for the launch 3.5 miles away.  It was the distance NASA had calculated shrapnel, from the Saturn V, would fly if it exploded on the pad.

The lander was 4 miles off course for landing due to the cabin of the orbiter not being fully depressurized when they separated.  The force of the separation caused the error.

Armstrong let the descent engine burn too long and as a result the legs of the lander did not compress, upon landing, which caused him to have to jump from the bottom rung of the ladder to the Moon's surface.  About 3.5 feet.

When Buzz Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface, he had to be sure not to lock Eagle's door, as it had no outside handle.

The flag left on the Moon was made by Sears, but NASA would not allow Sears to advertise that fact as they did not want another  "Tang" episode again.


There are more.  Most of which has been compiled into a book by Viking named "Rocket Men".  Good read by the way.

[soda72]

The flag left on the Moon was made by Sears, but NASA would not allow Sears to advertise that fact as they did not want another  "Tang" episode again.

"Tang " episode?  what was the controversy surrounding that?

[Skuzzy]

The fact Tang built a marketing campaign around the product, which was never endorsed by NASA.  NASA got zero money for it and they were actually quite embarrassed about it and did not want a repeat of it.

[soda72]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8152161.stm

cool little slide show from the bbc..

 

[oakranger]

- 1 hr till stage 7

[ridley1]

I know 'Buzz' Aldrin right now is making the rounds of the radio talk/interviews talking about the anniversary.

What about Neil Armstrong? What's he up to these days? Or has he gone right royal reclusive?

[soda72]

Flying on the wings of 'Eagle'

[WilldCrd]

I know 'Buzz' Aldrin right now is making the rounds of the radio talk/interviews talking about the anniversary.

What about Neil Armstrong? What's he up to these days? Or has he gone right royal reclusive?

The most recent TIME magazine has a nice article about the Apollo Astronauts.
Armstrong (according to the article) has removed himself from the limelight so to speak. When any of the other Apollo Astronauts are asked about him especially Aldrin they get a little testy and pretty much say the same thing, He has done his time, done all the PR stuff NASA wanted and he is a great American....he just wants to be left alone now.

If you have the chance read the article. It goes into detail about how NASA let those guys down AFTER the missions were over, they all kinda suffered from some form of depression. After such a climatic achievement nothing else really compares.
The current Astronauts are better supported by NASA because of what they learned from the Apollo guys.
It also goes into what they are doing now. I found it interesting that one of them (can't recall which one ATM) is now a painter. Mainly he paints his compadres from the Apollo days as well as the rockets ect. Also several of them got into real estate and....beer distributorships  guess at the time there was alot of money in beer 

[Shuffler]

beer? you bet... a lot of money still in beer "IF" you can get a distributorship.

[Anodizer]

The most recent TIME magazine has a nice article about the Apollo Astronauts.
Armstrong (according to the article) has removed himself from the limelight so to speak. When any of the other Apollo Astronauts are asked about him especially Aldrin they get a little testy and pretty much say the same thing, He has done his time, done all the PR stuff NASA wanted and he is a great American....he just wants to be left alone now.

If you have the chance read the article. It goes into detail about how NASA let those guys down AFTER the missions were over, they all kinda suffered from some form of depression. After such a climatic achievement nothing else really compares.
The current Astronauts are better supported by NASA because of what they learned from the Apollo guys.
It also goes into what they are doing now. I found it interesting that one of them (can't recall which one ATM) is now a painter. Mainly he paints his compadres from the Apollo days as well as the rockets ect. Also several of them got into real estate and....beer distributorships  guess at the time there was alot of money in beer 

Al Bean from Apollo 12 is the artist...  I have this print signed by him...
http://www.alanbean.com/gallery3.cfm?id=1992-The-Fantasy-Conrad-Gordon-and-Bean
I'm a big Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo junkie...