A 1/3 of a century ago today man first set foot on the moon.  Doesn't seem that long ago, does it?  Wish we had followed up on it with a permanent base.

Let me be the first to say, we never landed on the Moon...[:D]

I was 9 years old when Apollo 11 did that.  

Getting old   [img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/mecry.gif[/img]

Wonder if they will ever get to Mars?

July 20, 1969, I was 7 years old and over at the neighbors house in Titusville, FL (across the Indian River from the Kennedy Space Center) so we could watch Walter Cronkite in color covering the first step on the moon.  The whole family was there all day, from the descent of the LM until the completion of broadcasting for the day.

My dad was a QC engineer for IBM from 1966 until 1974, responsible for the guidance package installed in the Instrument Unit of the Saturn V rocket.  [img]history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/p246a.jpg[/img]That's the narrow black ring between the payload (storage area for the Lunar Module) and the upper stage.  Incredible, compact computing power for its time, it was less powerful and far slower than a Commodore 64 - with about as much memory.

We watched every Saturn V lift off from Pad 39A from our vantage point on the West bank of the Indian River.

What a great place and time to grow up!

And yes, marvl, we should be living on the moon right now.  If "Pro" is the opposite of "Con," then the opposite of "Progress" is...?

If you think about it, back then a bunch of guys with flattops, white shirts, skinny ties, and slide rules built and flew those Saturn Vs.

Nowadays, the equivalent is a bunch of Linux bigots with ZZ-Top beards, Phish T-shirts, birkenstocks, and the equivalent of an old Cray on their desktop that can't change the oil in a lawn mower.

No wonder we're not getting anywhere. [:D]

You [i]knew[/i] my dad?!?!?

Yeah, that was him to a "T."  In is copious spare time, he built a Heathkit stereo and then a Heathkit color telvision set, too, during that same period.  

I'm waiting for Heathkit to come out with the DVD recorder kit.  

It's gonna be a long wait. Heathkit is out of business.

Yeah, I know.  When integrated circuits and surface-mount stuff came out, Heathkit was out of date.  Just being amusing (not!)

America Kicks Butt!

It sure seems that way anymore, doesn't it? [:D]

I, too, was a nine year old kid that sat glued to the only color TV in the neighborhood, ours. [:)] Sat there for the launch, the trip to the moon, and except for short trips outside trying to find our guys with my telescope [rolleyes][:D], I didn't leave the TV the night of the landing. I also watched the trip back, right up to splash down.

The things this great country can do when we set our minds to it.

[marines]

... LOL, Ha too funny, but right on the money.

Not are there only bunches of Me, Myself and I Prima Donnas in the business now a days, it’s largely run by boatloads of liars, posers and politicians.

The biggest technical strides I’ve witnessed in the industry (in my career at least) were made when a diverse group of skilled and motivated individuals were isolated from the “general” population in a “black-hole” environment.

Only then is the relatively small team having the freedom to be creative, unrestrained and productive. The autonomous work groups achieved milestones that would be ten-fold the budget, schedule and confusion if done in the “white world”.

… It is one of my most vivid memories in life; sitting in a theater with my cousins when the lights came on to announce that the “Eagle had landed”.
I was in such awe that I had goose bumps all over and chills down my spine.

… I was eleven when it happened. It was at that time and the months preceding it that I knew I would be making my living in the space and aerospace business as an adult.

… It’s been a great ride so far, well except for those liars, posers and politicians.

Not totally out of business-

[url]http://www.heathkit.com/[/url]





I still have a 1989 catalog that lists:

New! Fundamentals of Surface Mount Technology, our latest home study couse EI-3135 $99.95

I guess that didn't last long. Now they are strictly into instructional stuff. And unlike before, it looks like with their courses you no longer have a finished product, you just basically seem to breadboard everything.

Also in the catalog:

HS-386 computer kit
80386 running at 16mhz
1 floppy drive
1mb ram
no monitor           $2,999

1mb expansion board $  799
4mb "               $2,999

I was raised in Central Florida and remember the rockets being launched and sometimes being blown up.  I had a tremendous interest in the space program and loved going over to the Cape as a teenager.  It was great times with a lot of excitement.  KBaker is right with his post.  Congrads to his father.  The engineers and scientist who worked on the early space program were all real American heros.

I did not see the landing on July 20, 1969.  I was out in the field in Vietnam.  It was not the best of times for myself and my friends that week.  There was another kid from Central Florida in my company.  We both loved the space program. Men landing on the moon did not even make to our list of things to discuss that day.  I would have loved to have been back home during that week.

Well Flash66, we're glad you're back here with us now. Thanks man.

"Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon. July 1969 A.D. We Came In Peace For All Mankind."

I was 19 and remember the grainy picture like it was yesterday.  My dad had killed himself only a few months before and never got to see it.  As a pilot and aircraft mechanic it would certainly have awed him.  I had to "arrange" to visit a friend to even have access to a TV set.  Somewhere I have a "grainyer yet" photo I took of the TV screen.  Guess I'm just an old fart!

It was the height of American technological achievement.  While we have done other great things nothing has come CLOSE to that amazing Saturn V or the moon landings.  So much was accomplished in such a small span of years it is mind boggling.  At no time since have we been as motivated or focused as a people on a single goal.  More new things were invented for that program than I can even begin to count.

I regret that I will not live to see anything even close to it again.  STS is such a weak program in comparison.  It has been flying more than 20 years and what will replace it?  Nobody really knows.  Politics has failed to fully exploit science's fantastic potential.  All to throw money into the bottomless pit of social engineering when REAL engineering was on the cusp of things still unknown and unappreciated.

This is a monumental anniversary in so many ways, both good and bad.....

... That ain't all bad!