One small step for a man; one giant leap.... (Read 1542 times)


sugnim

    I had to google the Mr. Gorsky story: good one.  Smile

    LedLincoln


    not bad for mile 25

      "Each of the engines weighs nearly 9 tons, and they came in a cluster of five. They provided 32 million horsepower by burning 6,000 pounds of fuel every second, and together, they lifted the largest rocket in history 38 miles above the Earth in less than three minutes."

       

      I would've loved to have been there for a Saturn V launch.

       

      Just walking past that monster is awesome.  And considering it was done with slide rules, discrete transistors, and probably even some vacuum tubes...


      an amazing likeness

        One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind...

         

        So one day back at the very dawn of the digital age, a guy walks into a room says....I need you to figure out a way to get a person from there to there and back, and points at this:

         

         

        ...and oh, by the way...you have less than 10 years.

         

        I believe to this day that I will never experience anything in my lifetime like that of living in the Apollo age of adventure. They were truly the Greatest Generation.

         

        I can close my eyes and picture the living room on that July where we watched. The heat of a July night in the WV hills....the sense of absolute amazement and wonder that this could possibly happen...the gasp from everyone when he stepped off the landing leg...everyone's struggling to hear what Armstrong had said....I have not the words.

        Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.


        325th place or bust!

          I also highly recommend "The Martian" by Andy Weir.  A fictional book about an astronaut stranded on Mars and his struggle to survive.

           

          I highly recommend reading Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach. It is everything you never thought to ask about the human side of manned space travel.

          PR: 5K 22:41, 10K 51:05, HM 1:59, Sprint Tri: done!


          Best Present Ever

            I was not quite 5.  I was befuddled.  My parents obviously thought something was a big deal.  It was less clear to me.

            I was not quite 4. It's my first clear memory. My parents made sure I knew how important it was.

             

            I thought we'd all be living on Mars by now. Sad

              My defining space moment was Challenger when I was in 5th grade.  I lived in Concord, NH, so they had been making a huge deal of the launch and had us all watching it live.  We didn't really understand what happened, and held out vain hope for several hours that maybe some of the astronauts had ejected safely.  I walked by Christa's portrait every day, and sang in the chorus when we dedicated the auditorium to her on the fifth anniversary.  She was always with us.

               

              With that tragedy so ingrained, the idea that we put men on the moon seems surreal.

                I was not quite 5.  I was befuddled.  My parents obviously thought something was a big deal.  It was less clear to me.

                 

                I was a few months past turning 4. Sadly, I have zero memory of it. One of my earliest memories however did follow a few months after that, with the premiere of Sesame Street.

                Dave

                bhearn


                  One of my earliest memories however did follow a few months after that, with the premiere of Sesame Street.

                   

                  That I remember. It was a big deal. I guess I also formed early strange memories of how the show starts... later, whenever I had a cold, I would describe it as "I feel like I'm walking on Sesame Street".

                  Chantilly75


                    I was at summer camp.  They let us stay up late and crowd around a small black and white TV in the camp director's office to watch the moon landing.

                    The moon landing and the JFK shooting were the most powerful events I watched on TV when I was young.

                    "dancing on the path and singing, now you got away,

                    you can reach the goals you set from now on, every day"

                    Sonata Arctica

                     

                     

                     

                     

                     

                    kcam


                      I was 8 years old.  Watched it with my family.  I was completely enthralled by the entire space program from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo and finally to Skylab.  By the time the Shuttle came around I was, sadly, an adult and over my space obsession.  I know nowadays you can actually buy at auction equipment such as computer panels etc from those spacecraft.  I don't have a man-cave but I still would consider buying a piece of hardware from any of those eras just to have around.

                        I was 7 weeks old.  I pissed my pants when they landed.

                         

                        Of course I probably would have done the same if I was age 45 at the time.

                         

                         

                         

                         

                        AmoresPerros


                        Options,Account, Forums

                          I was on the moon when they landed. Scared the bejeesez out of all of us locals, lemme tell you--some crazy noisy funny looking thing came whooshing down out of nowhere.

                          It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.

                            I was on the moon when they landed. Scared the bejeesez out of all of us locals, lemme tell you--some crazy noisy funny looking thing came whooshing down out of nowhere.

                             

                            Thanks for changing your avatar. There will be much less confusion now.

                             

                            MTA: this explains a lot.

                            Dave

                            Joann Y


                              Thanks for changing your avatar.

                               

                              +1.   Much better than that annoying green walking guy.

                               

                               

                              MTA: this explains a lot.

                               

                              MTA: totally.


                              Feeling the growl again

                                I was 8 years old.  Watched it with my family.  I was completely enthralled by the entire space program from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo and finally to Skylab.  By the time the Shuttle came around I was, sadly, an adult and over my space obsession.  

                                 

                                I wasn't around for the moon landing but I vividly remember standing a cardboard box vertically so my cousin and I could sit in it with backs on the ground, feet pointed skyward and pretend we were piloting one of the early Challenger launches.

                                 

                                It would be nice if we had some of that excitement back for today's kids.  Showing them the ISS passing overhead isn't the same.

                                "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                                 

                                I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills