We Choose the Moon
Jul. 18th, 2009 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petercatI'm a true child of the Space Age -- I was born in late June, 1958, meaning I was conceived in the month after Sputnik was launched. I'm told that when I was a small child, it was my turn to say grace, and I asked for blessings on the two things most important to me: "Thanks, God, for peanut butter and satellites."
I grew up with Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Built the model kits (somewhere in my sister's attic, there's a dusty cardboard box with AMT's Saturn V, CSM and LEM models), had posters, followed the TV coverage. And 40 years ago this week, I was glued to the TV following Apollo XI's trip to the Moon.
This week, I'm glued to the computer. To commemorate the anniversary, NASA is replaying -- in real time -- the audio of the mission communications and commentary. It's at The Apollo 11 Radiocast but it's a bit buggy. There are also separate pages at NASA with mission history, as well as the newly-released restored video of the moon walk.
Even better is We Choose the Moon, from the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, a highly interactive site with not only audio, but also mission details, timers, and Twitter feeds of Capcom, Columbia and Eagle.
Jason Kottle's blog has a huge post detailing the anniversary coverage in various media. Of note are specials on the History Channel, starting at 8:30 (EDT) Monday with an "As It Happened" presentation of the CBS coverage of the mission and landing, especially poignant with Walter Cronkite's passing, followed by "Moonshot," a new 2-hour documentary on the mission.
I grew up with Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. Built the model kits (somewhere in my sister's attic, there's a dusty cardboard box with AMT's Saturn V, CSM and LEM models), had posters, followed the TV coverage. And 40 years ago this week, I was glued to the TV following Apollo XI's trip to the Moon.
This week, I'm glued to the computer. To commemorate the anniversary, NASA is replaying -- in real time -- the audio of the mission communications and commentary. It's at The Apollo 11 Radiocast but it's a bit buggy. There are also separate pages at NASA with mission history, as well as the newly-released restored video of the moon walk.
Even better is We Choose the Moon, from the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, a highly interactive site with not only audio, but also mission details, timers, and Twitter feeds of Capcom, Columbia and Eagle.
Jason Kottle's blog has a huge post detailing the anniversary coverage in various media. Of note are specials on the History Channel, starting at 8:30 (EDT) Monday with an "As It Happened" presentation of the CBS coverage of the mission and landing, especially poignant with Walter Cronkite's passing, followed by "Moonshot," a new 2-hour documentary on the mission.
