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Topic: Photo of the week 738 (December 15, 2018)
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heng44 Member Posts: 3387 From: Netherlands Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 12-15-2018 03:24 AM
Half a century ago this week, Apollo 8 stood ready on Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center as NASA was preparing to launch the first manned flight to the moon. |
Philip Member Posts: 5952 From: Brussels, Belgium Registered: Jan 2001
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posted 12-15-2018 04:03 AM
What a view! |
Ian Limbrey Member Posts: 124 From: England Registered: Nov 2012
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posted 12-15-2018 04:05 AM
Beautiful shot and obviously very appropriate come next Friday. I was a 14 year old at the time and remembered watching the launch live on the BBC and this began my interest into space exploration. |
Rick Mulheirn Member Posts: 4167 From: England Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 12-15-2018 05:50 AM
An iconic image. Thanks Ed! |
Ken Havekotte Member Posts: 2915 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 12-15-2018 06:28 AM
Wow, what a shot! I was only 12 years old when Apollo 8 went to the moon and saw the launch of that mighty Saturn V moon rocket from my own backyard on Merritt Island, FL. It was my first "live" liftoff witness of an Apollo/Saturn V and I still remember it like it was yesterday. |
Kite Member Posts: 831 From: Northampton UK Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 12-15-2018 06:47 AM
Great picture. Wish I could say I was only 12 or 14 but was 21 and always remember an old gentleman saying to me that they would never come back. So glad he was wrong. Exciting times. |
Fra Mauro Member Posts: 1587 From: Bethpage, N.Y. Registered: Jul 2002
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posted 12-15-2018 07:33 AM
Breathtaking! I was a boy back then, I still have the TV guide from that week. |
SPACEFACTS Member Posts: 301 From: Germany Registered: Aug 2006
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posted 12-15-2018 07:38 AM
Thanks Ed. It was the beginning of my interest in space exploration. At this time I was 13 years old. |
heng44 Member Posts: 3387 From: Netherlands Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 12-15-2018 07:53 AM
Looks like we have much in common. I was 12 years old in 1968 and my interest in spaceflight literally started the day Apollo 8 launched. Half a century ago this coming Friday. |
randy Member Posts: 2176 From: West Jordan, Utah USA Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 12-15-2018 08:18 AM
Great shot! I had just turned 13 and had my face plastered to the tv screen when they did the live broadcast on Dec. 24. What really fascinated me were the views of the far side. That was incredible! |
East-Frisian Member Posts: 586 From: Germany Registered: Apr 2005
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posted 12-15-2018 08:43 AM
Looks like artwork. Beautiful colours.
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Richard Easton Member Posts: 175 From: Winnetka, IL USA Registered: Jun 2006
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posted 12-15-2018 09:58 AM
Thank you for posting another great picture. I was thirteen when Apollo 8 was launched. My Dad designed Vanguard 1 so Iād been interested in space for a long tome. But Apollo 8 and 11 were especially exciting to me. |
Steven Kaplan Member Posts: 140 From: New Jersey Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 12-15-2018 12:14 PM
Interesting how an iconic photo can elicit such strong emotions and memories in so many of us. I was 11 at the time and echoing Ken, remember it like it was yesterday. |
ManInSpace Member Posts: 114 From: Brooklin, Ontario Canada Registered: Feb 2018
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posted 12-15-2018 03:59 PM
A lot of memories. Thanks yet again, Ed. |
ejectr Member Posts: 1751 From: Killingly, CT Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 12-15-2018 05:01 PM
I was in the US Navy when I saw this launch. Little did I know what was ahead. Brings back old memories.Thanks, Ed... |
star51L Member Posts: 340 From: Vilano Beach, FL, USA Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 12-15-2018 05:05 PM
Thank you Ed. My uncle lived in Titusville and was employed by Bendix, a NASA contractor. We were spending Christmas at his home with his family and attending the launch started my lifelong fascination with spaceflight. I was 10 years old when Apollo 8 launched. My first attended launch, I don't remember exactly where we were on the river but I do strongly recall the bright flame at ignition, the eerie silence as the rocket rose and finally the shock waves pounding once they reached us. In my opinion, the most magical spaceflight of them all. I'll likely relive the flight later this week through Lunar Module 5's full mission links on YouTube, which are fascinating. |
PowerCat Member Posts: 193 From: Herington, KS, USA Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 12-15-2018 05:53 PM
Looks like I'll be the baby of the replies....I was a whopping 4 years old for Apollo 8. Awesome prelaunch photo. Can't believe it's been 50 years now. |
Delta7 Member Posts: 1505 From: Bluffton IN USA Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 12-15-2018 06:01 PM
Truly the most beautiful rocket ever built. Majestic. |
Tom Member Posts: 1597 From: New York Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 12-15-2018 06:13 PM
Beautiful shot, Ed. The most exciting period in our space program's history! |
tlifan2 Member Posts: 38 From: Lawrenceville, GA 30043 Registered: Feb 2014
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posted 12-15-2018 07:34 PM
I was thirteen as well. My first launch ā spent Friday night sleeping in the car parked across from the badging station on the Nasa causeway. I have a polaroid photo that my dad took of me with the VAB in the background taken on the morning of the launch. My grandson (who ironically is also thirteen) and I will recreate the photo on the 21st of this year ā exactly fifty years later.Thanks for the photo. |
Ronpur Member Posts: 1211 From: Brandon, Fl Registered: May 2012
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posted 12-17-2018 11:04 AM
I was 5, but I can barely remember anything about Apollo 8. Apollo 9 and the rest, I remember well. |
Jonnyed Member Posts: 396 From: Dumfries, VA, USA Registered: Aug 2014
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posted 12-17-2018 09:02 PM
What was great about Apollo 8 too was that it was such a positive, majestic step forward for our country during a really tough time.1968 was a terrible year in terms of the MLKjr assassination in April, rioting and burning in Washington DC afterwards, the Bobby Kennedy killing in June, the awful war problems in SE Asia, the Chicago riots at the Democratic Convention that fall. It truly felt like society was coming apart at the seams. And then Apollo 8 comes along at the end of the year and reaffirmed so many terrific almost unimaginable things about what we can do together. AP8 was a fantastic reminder that there was reason to have hope in the future despite all the societal woes of the late 60s. I was only 5 and 1/2 but I remember thinking that those 3 astronauts were the bravest men ever. My family was a church-going crew so the Christmas connection is something my dad and mom highlighted for us too. |
moorouge Member Posts: 2454 From: U.K. Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 12-18-2018 01:43 AM
quote: Originally posted by PowerCat: Looks like I'll be the baby of the replies... I was a whopping 4 years old for Apollo 8.
Seems I might be the grandpa then - was 31 when Apollo 8 was launched. Many years later had the pleasure of having breakfast with Jim Lovell and his wife to mull over this event. |
Jonnyed Member Posts: 396 From: Dumfries, VA, USA Registered: Aug 2014
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posted 12-18-2018 08:24 PM
quote: Originally posted by Delta7: Truly the most beautiful rocket ever built. Majestic.
Another fun thing to think about is that we went from the Wright Brothers' first powered flyer in December 1903 to this beautiful machine on the launch pad to the moon in December 1968... it took only 65 years!Mind-blowing, really. How cool if the Brothers could have lived to see it?! |
astro-nut Member Posts: 946 From: Washington, IL Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 02-08-2019 01:54 PM
Majestic! Just beautiful! I could stand there all night and look at it!! |