Apollo launch, 50 years ago today. 
Happy Golden Anniversary
Happy Moon Landing Day! A genuinely great achievement. About time we went to Mars, mind.
Yes.All it needed was outstanding skill and courage,though.
Quote: chipolata @ 16th July 2019, 4:17 PMHappy Moon Landing Day!
That's not until Saturday - it took them over 4 days to get there.
Quote: john tregorran @ 16th July 2019, 9:12 PMYes.All it needed was outstanding skill and courage,though.
Yes, and it didn't look it then (solid state calculators? What are they?) that the technology was crude, BUT NOW, well it is amazing that not only they made it there and landed, but got back too. Mind boggling.
I see on the various media platforms that as soon as someone expresses awe or amazement at such a feat, the naysayers come out in droves. 'it never happened' 'a 50 year lie' 'proven beyond doubt it was fake' etc
They usually weren't even born when it happened.
A man I knew used to go into great depths with me pointing out the flaws in the lie. He even pitied me for believing the guff.
Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 17th July 2019, 8:20 AMI see on the various media platforms that as soon as someone expresses awe or amazement at such a feat, the naysayers come out in droves. 'it never happened' 'a 50 year lie' 'proven beyond doubt it was fake' etc
"Capricorn One" didn't help (very good film) and I have since wondered if that was made/funded by the conspiracy theorists.
Did you know that 9/11 didn't happen either? That was all fake news - the Twin Towers were blown up of course, but when it appeared on the news they added animated planes crashing into them.
...and, to think, it all hapoened only two years after the original Paul McCartney was killed in that car crash.
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 17th July 2019, 9:40 AM"Capricorn One" didn't help (very good film) and I have since wondered if that was made/funded by the conspiracy theorists.
Did you know that 9/11 didn't happen either? That was all fake news - the Twin Towers were blown up of course, but when it appeared on the news they added animated planes crashing into them.
I think it's Alan Moore that says people believe in conspiracy theories because it's more comforting than the reality that nobody is in control.
Although believing the moon landing one is bizarre, as it would be more difficult to fake the landing and fool the whole world than actually go to the moon.
I used to work for a company that was founded by the third man to walk on the Moon. When people would ask him about faking the Moon landing he'd get a very serious look on his face and say, "Man, if they faked it they sure did a good job. I remember getting in the capsule, lifting off, watching the Moon grow larger, then getting out and walking around. They must have done a great job, because I still think that I walked on the Moon."
There were other Apollo astronauts wandering the halls and they were unique people. Fearless, driven, and fantastic engineers.
And the fact that NO ONE who was at this so called mock-up of the Apollo 11 mission has come forward to say "Yes, I was in the studio when it was all faked". There must be thousands upon thousands of people involved in that moon shot and you would have thought that in those 50 years someone would have said "Yes, but........". And no one has.
Same with 9/11 in a way, inasmuch as we assume then if the conspiracy theorists are correct, all those hundreds of people standing there witnessing this disaster with the horrifying spectacle of people leaping to their deaths as the only option left open to them, were all actors and again not one of them has come forward in all those years to say "I was paid to stand there and look horrified".
Yes, I've dug out the fat envelope ('not you, Lynn') of contemporary newspaper articles and colour supplements that my Dad put aside so I could have a genuine record of the occasion when I was a) alive and b) able to read. I've always been extremely grateful for this.
I once had an argument with someone who wanted me to explain why there aren't stars in the photographs from the lunar surface and why the shadows are cast in multiple directions. I had a go at explaining photographic exposures and lighting to him but he wouldn't budge and, as far as I know, believe to this day that Kubrick done it down Borehamwood way so as to trick Them Russkies.
Of course it happened.I can get really steamed up about forum "experts" who know otherwise.It took a lot of courage and skill and their efforts being denigrated by some know it all behind a keyboard gets me a bit annoyed.
The difference between 1969 and 2019 is that 50 years ago hardly anybody would have believed the US government (or any other first world government) would even have considered perpetrating such a colossal deception on mankind.
Nowadays, almost everybody accepts that no government in the world would hesitate for a single moment to perpetrate any kind of deception upon mankind if it served their purposes and they thought they could get away with it.
Did those guys really walk on the moon? I don't know, and I have no strong feelings in either direction.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they didn't.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 17th July 2019, 11:36 PMDid those guys really walk on the moon? I don't know, and I have no strong feelings in either direction.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they didn't.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has photographed all of the Apollo landing sites and you can see the flags, footpaths, etc. Yes, it's another NASA program, but it won't be long before other nations do the same thing and the evidence will be undeniable. Sooner or later someone will land near one of the landing sites and bring back some relics.
Full disclosure: I worked with LRO for several years. Perhaps I'm one of the conspirators?!
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html
Also interesting: an amateur radio operator received signals directly from the moon during the Apollo 11 mission:
This is very interesting,by the courtesy of the Australian ABC.
Voices of the crew and control just before landing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-18/the-tension-of-nasas-apollo-11-moon-landing/11279636