Forty years ago today

[pokerfan]

The launch of Apollo 11: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvWHnK2FiCk

The first mission to land a man on the moon. It was launched on a Saturn V rocket at at 9.32am local time (EDT) on July 16, 1969 from Pad 39-A from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA.

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. Rec'd. There's a reason to be proud to be American. nt

[zeemike]

2. I remember it well

I was so thrilled with the whole thing...thought that this was the beginning of the exploration of space and our solar system...boy was I wrong.

40 years and we are still piddling around with no plans to do anything as daring as the Apollo program. Like everything else it has become just a tit on the beast of government that the corporation can suck on, and the tax payer provides the milk.

[TheMadMonk]

3. I'm told I went out to dig a shadow.

I couldn't get my four year old head around the truly lightless shadows in some parts of the moon orbit and landing imagery. I wanted to know what was in the "holes", patially shaded craters/bites out of the lunar horizon. My grandfather very patiently with the use of bedlamp, various spheres and other visual aids explained the whole business to me.

Problem with that explanation was that I could still see INTO the shadows of my greandfather's demonstration. I guess I figured that if I just removed what I could see inside a shadow, I'd be able to make one just like the pictures in the moon landing footage, because after the explanation I went and collected my bucket and spade and headed outside to "dig a shadow".

[sakabatou]

4. We'll have something like that in the future

for future missions, right?

[Terry in Austin]

5. Google celebrates Moon landing anniversary

If you check out Google maps street view, the little guy that forms the cursor is dressed in a space suit.