:d:d:d:d:d
The U.S. Mint is now offering curved commemorative coins: Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Coin Program | U.S. Mint
I’m not sure why people think that the general public would have insisted on recovering the bodies.
If it were me or a loved one, I would rather insist on the body being left on the moon. A “moon burial” is perfectly appropriate for astronauts, honorable, unique, beats bringing back bodies in whatever condition just so that they can rot in a random cemetery, and instead of going to the grave to think (*) of the deceased, you just have to look up at night. I think the general public would have been perfectly fine with leaving the bodies there.
(*) Totally unrelated : there’s no English verb for what you do when you go to a grave to think of the deceased/pray/stand in silence (“se recueillir” in French)? Couldn’t find any translation that seems correct (found : meditate, recollect, commune with yourself, none of which seems right).
Reflection? Contemplation?
Mourn? Grieve?
Pay one’s respects?
I wouldn’t go to a graveyard to meditate (which involves thinking of nothing, in particular not the deceased), but who knows what people do.
I saw that a couple of months ago. I wanted to buy one, but that is one ugly ass coin!
Apollo 11 liftoff from the moon
Sorry for the Hijack, but I just got back from Huntsville, AL on a business trip, and thought I’d chime in.
I had never been to Huntsville before, and knew nothing about the city. I was staying in a downtown hotel. As I was driving west on Interstate 565 I saw an incredible sight along the highway: a full-size replica of a Saturn V rocket. That thing is huge.
Yesterday afternoon the conference ended early, so I stopped by the museum on my way back to the hotel. Inside one of the buildings is the Saturn V Dynamic Test Vehicle. It is horizontal, and you can walk under it. It’s awe-inspiring. I was so impressed that I want to take my family there for vacation.
AHA HA HA HA!
Check out how phoney this is…
Just to mention, we saw the new documentary Apollo 11 yesterday. Not in Imax like it was intended, as the only Imax in Hawaii, located in an inconvenient place anyway, was showing Captain Marvel instead. But still great. Recommended.
When we first lived in Honolulu in the early 1990s, there was an Imax and five regular movie screens here in Waikiki. Those are all gone now.
FYI, you can sit and drink beer under this Saturn-V on Thursday nights (March through October).
We saw that yesterday too, and I am still amazed at how it was a series of miracles that got pulled all together. Every major step of the way, I caught myself asking the same question as the OP.
That is a really good movie, and I recommend it to anyone… For a story that you already know the ending to, it really is a tense, spellbinding documentary.
Tripler
Good times.
We especially liked watching it so soon after watching First Man.
I watched the moon landing live back in the day but did not remember Buzz Aldrin joking about not accidentally locking the two of them outside the LEM. How embarrassing if that had happened.
The one at the Johnson Space Center in Houston is the real deal- it’s the only one on display composed entirely of flight-ready components made for Apollo 18, 19 and 20.
Bumped.
Anyone who saw the recent Apollo 11 documentary probably noticed this NASA staffer: First woman in launch control helps put a man on the moon | CNN
There was really very little to do in terms of “piloting” the capsule. He would have had to fire a precise burn to exit orbit and head for earth. Then, outside of routine systems checks, he could have slept for hours on end. He would then have to tweak the approach in order to have the capsule enter the atmosphere at the precise time and angle.
I saw the documentary and didn’t really notice her! No doubt the fact that in my career women have always been peers has something to do about that.
Thanks for the article.
It’s not so much that you would immediately notice her, more that one could hardly fail to take one look around that control room and not be struck by a certain lack of diversity. I have had similar experiences in real life.
If you can access it, the ongoing BBC World Service podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon can be highly recommended. Even when you are familiar with the story as usually told, a great blend of that layered with deep archive research and new interviews. Surely hardly the final word on what happened, but still one of those major intermediate drafts very much worth hearing.