For us Old Farts who remember these events from childhood. NASA's Artemis II Live Mission Coverage (Official Broadcast

[LiberalArkie]

Have to wait and see if this is any good since Roy Neal is not there any more..

[wcmagumba]

1. Thanks for posting this...I'm definitely an "Old Fart", I remember watching the 1969 moon landing live on B&W TV...

I was in 6th or 7th grade I think...

[LiberalArkie]

4. Back when I was in elementary school in the late 50's, I used to get color photos in the mail of all the rockets

blasting off, the Redstones and Atlas's I remember. Many others. Many dreams at night , back then of being on missions in space. Way before the Star Trek.

If only Reagan had not come along.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. US proved we could do "the impossible" by working together.

A Democratic President set the goal for the nation and We the People figured out how to do it.

Imagine what we could do if we took that approach to solve today’s problems?

[Tommy Carcetti]

3. I missed out on the old Space Race rocket launches of the 60s and 70s.

And I always felt a little bit jealous of the people who did get to experience that excitement. One of my favorite movies of all time still is The Right Stuff, and the part featuring John Glenn's launch always thrilled me and I was sad I couldn't have been there to see it.

I have seen multiple rocket launches since then, including the Space Shuttle in its day. I even saw the Challenger disaster in person.

But all that singular attention that surrounded the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches was something else.

Then, in 1998, I actually got to see the shuttle launch where John Glenn returned to space. And seeing it happen live gave me just a sliver of that feeling I think I would have felt during his first trip back in 1962.

I have to admit, I am a complete sucker for space stuff.

[wcmagumba]

5. "The Right Stuff" is a great movie, I still feel a little sad that Chuck Yeager missed out on going to space.

I never saw any launches in person but did see a live test of the space shuttle engines while visiting Huntsville, AL back in the day...it didn't leave the ground but was still impressive. I remember listening to the Challenger disaster on the radio while I was at work. That was terrible for all of us. I have seen one of the Mercury space capsules on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere Museum in Hutchinson Kansas (of all places). If you are ever in the area it is a very worthwhile museum (and planetarium) to check out.

[hatrack]

6. Confirming my Old Fart status, we lived in Huntsville in the early 60s when I was a little kid . . .

Chrysler was a contractor for the Saturn 1B program and Dad worked for them in QC/engineering. They'd do test burns on the engines and you'd hear this impressively deep roar all over the city.

[cab67]

10. I feel equally bad for Scott Crossfield.

Several X-15 pilots earned astronaut pins for passing 60 miles in altitude, but not Crossfield, who flew several missions.

[House of Roberts]

7. I'll give you something else to be jealous about.

When I was in elementary school, NASA would fire up a rocket engine for a Saturn 1B on the test stand out at Marshall Space Flight Center here on Redstone Arsenal. We'd be in class not that far away, and the ground would shake and windows would rattle during the firing. We still are having rocket engine tests now, and some of them last a lot longer than the ones I remember from my youth.

[cab67]

9. I watched a rocket engine test in California about 25 years ago.

I was doing some research at the Rocketdyne facility near Los Angeles (long story), and they lit off a rocket engine. I think it was a Delta engine - not as big as the first-stage engines of a Saturn V, but it was still impressive.

[cab67]

8. I'm a scientist in part because of the Apollo missions.

My parents told me I watched Apollo 11 on TV, but I was a month away from turning 2 at the time, so I don't remember.

I do, however, remember the later missions. Mom would plunk me down in front of a TV, and I'd watch the men in puffy white suits bouncing on the moon or driving the moon buggy.

It was a huge inspiration. To this day, I feel nothing but reverence for the astronauts who flew those missions. I even had the privilege of meeting one of them - Harrison Schmitt (lunar module pilot, Apollo 17).

(Yes, I know Schmitt served in the Senate as a Republican and that he publicly denies the reality of climate change. But he walked on the moon. That's way cooler than anything I'll ever do.)

This is why I have such mixed feelings about manned spaceflight. There are very few things an astronaut can do that a robotic probe cannot. Unmanned missions are cheaper and safer. We really should be pushing for more of that. But I became a scientist because I watched astronauts walk on the moon, and I can't forget that.