Author
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Topic: Did you watch any Apollo missions live?
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Dwight Member Posts: 577 From: Germany Registered: Dec 2003
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posted 10-01-2006 04:35 PM
Then I'd like to talk with you! Without giving too much away, I'm researching people's experiences as live TV was broadcast from the missions. I'd like to hear what made it special for you, and what impacted you the most.please resond via my mail. thanks Dwight |
MCroft04 Member Posts: 1647 From: Smithfield, Me, USA Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 10-01-2006 05:27 PM
Dwight,As a poor country boy living in Martin County just south of the cape, I followed (and watched weather permitting) every lunch very closely, as well as each flight as closely as I could. Like when JFK was assasinated, I still recall what I was doing when Neil and Buzz performed their EVA.
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randy Member Posts: 2231 From: West Jordan, Utah USA Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 10-01-2006 11:55 PM
Yes, I watched them live. Even the lunar EVA's, which were on in the wee hours of the morning. |
heng44 Member Posts: 3413 From: Netherlands Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 10-02-2006 04:59 AM
I watched them all live, starting with Apollo-8.Ed |
albatron@aol.com New Member Posts: From: Registered:
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posted 10-02-2006 09:09 AM
As a poor country boy living in the county south of Mr. Croft and the county north of Mr. Croft (in Florida), I too watched all of the launches from pre-Mercury through the last Shuttle mission. Including some I wish I had not seen. I was on site for Apollo 12 and Apollo 13's launches (yes in the storm). And have memories of the Apollo 11 1st EVA that are shall we say bittersweet. Joy at watching the 1st steps, but not so much joy and having totalled my mothers car earlier in the day. LOL |
Blackarrow Member Posts: 3160 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 10-02-2006 05:55 PM
I saw live TV of every Apollo mission, from the recovery of Apollo 7 to the recovery of Apollo 17. I saw every launch live on TV from Apollo 10 to Apollo 16. (I had to make do with radio for Apollo 17 - the launch delay meant that British TV had shut down for the night(!). I may have seen the Apollo 8 launch live, but I can't remember. Most important, I saw the live TV transmissions from the Moon on every landing mission, although the live coverage got a bit patchy during the later missions, and I had to use some ingenuity to get to see the transmissions which took place during school hours! Those were magic years, magic memories. I remember it like it was yesterday. For those of you who were too young for Apollo, I hope you can share the magic of future live Orion transmissions with us old-timers. |
Duke Of URL Member Posts: 1316 From: Syracuse, NY Registered: Jan 2005
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posted 10-02-2006 11:43 PM
Y'know, it's wierd, but the thing that floored me most on the first Moon landing broadcast were the AT&T commercials. They were pretty much THE phone company back then.Anyhow, it's my memory that they announced call forwarding, call waiting and 3-way calling as being generally abvailable and that was about the wildest thing to me. Pretty screwy, I know. There's more to this story if you give me a way to contact you. It's simply not appropriate for this forum. And it's pretty funny, too, because it involves hippies, a teenager who carried a briefcase around trying to convince college girls he was a doctor and Nelson Rockefeller. Honest to God. The best part - or worst, depending on your perspective - is that it's all true, apart from a certain amount of hyperbole.
[Edited by Duke Of URL (October 02, 2006).] |
STEVE SMITH unregistered
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posted 10-03-2006 06:56 PM
Yes I did. I think I listened and/or watched every MGA mission.Some audio highlights and memories. Listneing to Alan Shepard in my first hour drafting class my Senior year in HS in 1961 (and sharing the story with Alan's daughter Laura and hearing what whe was doing); listening to the entire John Glenn flight with a college friend who was a ham radio operator (up in the Attic of the College Science Building), the fear of seeing LB7 go down, and now I get to see it at Cosmosphere; the sorrow my late wife and I felt on news of A1 disaster; and hearing Ed White's spacewalk on my car radio in June 1965 driving to my first job in Houston. Regarding Apollo, my best memory is A11 landing. Not just because of the great moment it was in history, but for family reasons. My two sons (a third came later) were 23 months old and 1 month old. I was bound and determined as a responsilble Father that they would watch Man walk on the Moon. The ETA for the walk kept dragging by into the evening. Barry the oldest who was very precocious and excited was not a problem to keep up. Greg the youngest had finally gone to bed after much coaxing and fretting by his Mom. I thought she was going to kill me when I got Greg up so he could watch. He still reminesces with me (at age 37, with two children of his own) about how well he remembers that, and what an important thing it was. Smart Alec.
Watching and listening to A13 was a long duration nail biter. I was pretty sure we were going to lose those great man. One of the great trimuphs ever, and some of the best engineering and team work I've ever witnessed. I get goose bumps every time I take a tour group past it at Cosmosphere. My final memory to share-just the coolness of Walter Cronkite in genral. Loved the guy, and especially him and Wally during A13 (and what a privilige to have been able to share my memories and admiration with them). If either would have said that the sun wasn't going to come up the next morning, I would not have bothered to get up. If they said it, I bought it. Still do. Excuse my blabbering. Still brings back such great memories that I hope to see when my Grandchildren go to the Moon or Mars ( I think Mooon is safer, and they are my grandchildren). God Bless everyone here. Love this forum. |
Dwight Member Posts: 577 From: Germany Registered: Dec 2003
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posted 10-04-2006 11:27 AM
Thanks to all who have responded. This is great. |
ilbasso Member Posts: 1522 From: Greensboro, NC USA Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 10-04-2006 10:12 PM
I watched them all live. I watched Ken Mattingly's Apollo 16 EVA in the library of the National Air & Space Museum on a small black & white TV with Michael Collins!!One of my memories from the NBC broadcasts was the Gulf Oil commercials for a new planned community in Virginia - a place called Reston. I have been living there since 1985! |
zee_aladdin Member Posts: 781 From: California Registered: Oct 2004
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posted 10-04-2006 10:31 PM
I watched the Apollo 11 Landing Live. I was 8 months old and my dad put me right infront of the TV Set ... and I was like 'What the Heck is going on Here!'.- Zee |
C. Anderton Member Posts: 14 From: Great Britain Registered: Apr 2006
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posted 10-05-2006 02:42 PM
I will never forget the night Armstrong and Aldrin landed. I was fourteen - old enough to fully comprehend the achievement, yet young enough to be awed in that way that only kids can.I went up to my bedroom a while after touchdown, walked to the window, intending to draw the curtains, but ended up staring at the moon for over an hour. I just could not pull myself away from that window. A magical memory that I shall cherish all my life. Colin.
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starhopper Member Posts: 58 From: Kathleen, GA, USA Registered: Aug 2005
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posted 10-05-2006 02:59 PM
I watched every space launch - especially the Apollo launches - I went to Westpoint to see Ed White buried after the Apollo fire. I'll never forget the first landing on the moon - the upside down pic really made me mad! lol |
Joe Frasketi Member Posts: 191 From: Florida USA Registered: Aug 2003
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posted 10-10-2006 08:37 PM
Unfortunately, I've only been able to watch 2-1/2 Apollo flights in my lifetime! I planned a vacation back to the USA so I could see the Apollo 8 launch in person and followed the whole flight on TV. The 2nd Apollo flight that I was able to see in its entirety was Apollo 17, since I was back in the USA full time then. The "1/2 flight" that I was able to at least watch on TV was Apollo 11s Armstrong first step on the moon. For the other flights I could only watch snippits due to my work.While I missed the TV coverage, I was fortunate to be involved with the actual tracking of the Apollo flights as I was employed downrange on the Eastern Test Range telemetry tracking stations. Joe Frasketi [Edited by Joe Frasketi (October 10, 2006).] |
SpaceCat Member Posts: 151 From: Florida, US Registered: May 2006
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posted 10-10-2006 10:05 PM
Things seemed to happen so quickly back then, even though years are 'longer' when you're young. I saw bits of 7,8 & 9 on television at school in Philadelphia; and watched the Apollo 11 landing on tv from my mother's living room in New Jersey. By 12, I'd transferred to Florida Tech (F.I.T. then) and saw the liftoff from the Port Canaveral causeway. By 13, I was on Cape grounds as an engineering tech for Skylab and watched from the NASA causeway where I also saw 14 and 15 leave. By 16, I'd been layed off and watched from Cocoa Beach. By 17, I'd moved 100 miles downrange but drove up to Satellite Beach to watch with some old Cape friends. It all seems like just yesterday.... sort of. And just to bring things full circle reference Mr. Croft's post above- I'm now pretty much the last poor country boy left in Martin County! |
Dwight Member Posts: 577 From: Germany Registered: Dec 2003
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posted 10-18-2006 04:35 AM
Just a quick note of thanks to everyone who replied. I haven't been at home much the last few days, so sorry about the delay in getting back to you all.thanks Dwight |
divemaster Member Posts: 1376 From: ridgefield, ct Registered: May 2002
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posted 10-19-2006 07:27 AM
During the MGA missions - especially during launches - everything and everyone stopped to watch the launch. Schools rolled TV's into the classrooms, you watched from the street at the local appliance store who had a TV in the window. You knew WHO was going up, what the mission was and when it was due to land. You held your breath throughout.Apollo 7 comes to mind as I couldn't believe that three astronauts would get on top of a Saturn after losing three of their friends. I felt that A7 was the gutsiest mission. I was in the hospital during Apollo 8. I was due to be discharged on splashdown day. I wouldn't leave the hospital until I knew they were on the carrier. Asking about Apollo 11 is like asking where were you when Kennedy was shot. Believe me, you remember. A couple of hundred of us were glued to a 19" TV watching the whole thing. Apollo 12 and the lightning strike was something we'll never forget. Apollo 13 taught you how to pray. My dad was very sick in the hospital during that mission and we used up more than our share of prayers. Al's chip shot on Apollo 14 gave us all a good roar A15-17 were the most interesting because of the tv pictures from the rover. None of could believe that there was a dune buggy on the moon. The deep space EVA's were also pretty incredible. I remember being quite sad when A17 was the last mission. Skylab and ASTP were a bit of a blur. Pete fixing the broken wing was a major accomplishment. However, going back to the earlier missions. Every time Mercury and Gemini was due to launch, the world stopped. That is as vivid of a memory to me as having lunch yesterday. Everyone cared, everyone held their breath, everyone wanted success. No one asked why we were spending money to send people into space. It was quite a time.
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mensax Member Posts: 861 From: Virginia Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 10-19-2006 02:19 PM
"...Everyone cared, everyone held their breath, everyone wanted success. No one asked why we were spending money to send people into space. It was quite a time."Well said Tracy. Noah |
GACspaceguy Member Posts: 2516 From: Guyton, GA Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 10-20-2006 07:45 AM
Every time there was an event I was there watching, from Mercury on. I would even get my school teachers to bring TV's into the class so we could watch, this was even after Apollo 11 ! I became the class expert and go to guy for info on Apollo 13 . It was exciting times to be a part of. |
Duke Of URL Member Posts: 1316 From: Syracuse, NY Registered: Jan 2005
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posted 10-22-2006 11:29 PM
During the early launches we used to watch with the Old Man, and he was the best thing ever. The Old Man was Il Capo De Tutti Capi of obscenity and could reach into his bag of profanities and string together so many names or descriptions of bedroom and bathroom functions, anatomy, various dieties and inanimate objects he could make a Marine Sergeant fairly weep from envy. So you can imagine how great it was for my brother and me (11 and 9, respectively) when something as exciting as a Mercury launch took place. We got to watch these great things going on, precisely they type to capture boys that age, and World-Class swearing was the soundtrack. [Edited by Duke Of URL (October 22, 2006).] |