Introduction
I consider myself lucky to have grown up in the 1960's. What better perspective
to have had than that of a twelve-year-old, old enough to be awestruck by the
distant views of Earth beamed down from the capsule of Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve
of 1968, but too young to fully comprehend or overly concern myself with the
violence and unrest that concurrently plagued a troubled America.
© Chesley Bonestell Estate |
The era of the "space race" was an exciting period in which to live, and even as a child,
one could not help but be aware of the fierce competition that was underway with the
Russians, who had taken an early lead by placing the first human (Yuri Gagarin) in Earth orbit.
Accompanying the early days of the space-frenzy from a young boy's perspective were toy rockets
and models, lunchboxes featuring the space-art of Chesley Bonestell, space-oriented comics,
Weekly Reader articles, and television fare such as |
"I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade
is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space
project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the
long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
The Apollo project was dealt a major setback in early 1967 with the tragic
Apollo 1 fire and death of its crewmen during training, and it wasn't until
October of 1968 (23 months after the final Gemini flight) that manned
missions resumed with the launch of earth orbital mission Apollo 7. In the
meantime, I and several other friends had developed a strong
interest in a new NBC television program: Star Trek. This mix of interests
in NASA and Star Trek was natural for me, and the two converged when, at the
end of the Star Trek's second season, a time-travel episode was centered on
Cape Kennedy and a Saturn V launch (and included footage of the launch of
the first Saturn V in the unmanned Apollo 4 mission)
Apollo 8 audio segment |
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Visit the Project Apollo Archive for Apollo 8 multimedia clips.
To the left is the TV view of the lunar surface beamed to Earth as the Apollo 8 astronauts read from the Bible on Christmas Eve, 1968 |
Also be sure to visit the Project Apollo Image Gallery
for more high-quality Early Apollo images |
Apollo 11 audio segments | |
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Visit the Project Apollo Archive for Apollo 11 multimedia clips. |
A few weeks after Apollo 11 returned to Earth, readers of Life magazine were stunned
by the clarity of the first published photographs from the Moon. In stark constrast to the
fuzzy black & white video broadcast during the moonwalk, the astronauts' photographs
revealed the "magnificent desolation" that astronaut Buzz Aldrin had described when he
stepped onto the surface.
More Apollo 11 Photographs | ||||
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Apollo 11 spacecraft atop Saturn V on launchpad |
The Lunar Module "Eagle" as photographed from "Columbia" |
Man on the Moon (specifically Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin) |
Aldrin unloads the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package |
Neil Armstrong works at the LM (this is the only Apollo 11 photo which includes Armstrong) |
Also visit the Project Apollo Image Gallery
for more high-quality Apollo 11 images |
Apollo/Saturn Models | ||
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Revell 1/96th-scale Saturn V model photographed 1969 for Junior High science project |
Revell Apollo Lunar Spacecraft 1/48th-scale model |
Centuri's 1/100th-scale Saturn V working model rocket. |
See this website's Project Apollo Archive
for more Apollo-related models |
Apollo Memorabilia | ||||
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Life Magazine (September 25, 1964) Robert McCall gatefold cover |
Newsweek (October 14, 1968) |
Gulf Oil Co. Lunar Module Kit (click here for instruction sheet) |
National Geographic (December 1969) |
Decca Moon Landing LP (1969) |
See this website's Project Apollo Archive
for even more Apollo memorabilia, including additional magazine covers |
Apollo 12 audio segment |
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Visit the Project Apollo Archive for Apollo 12 multimedia clips. |
Also visit the Project Apollo Image Gallery
for more high-quality Apollo 12 images |
Original NASA Apollo Timetable The Apollo 13 near-disaster put the brakes on NASA's Apollo timeline, an ambitious plan that included a trip to the Moon approximately every four to six months in 1970 through 1972. |
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APOLLO 13. March, 1970. Land in Fra Mauro formation of flat highlands, stay about 22 hours. Collect soil and rock from an old area relatively untouched by what many believed were ancient floods or volcanoes. |
APOLLO 14. July, 1970. Land in Censorinus crater area for a stay of about 22 hours. Investigate craters, possibly carved in moon's surface by meteors. |
APOLLO 15. November, 1970. Land in Littrow area of volcano-like projections, remain about 22 hours. Attempt a pinpoint landing on an exact, pre-selected target. |
APOLLO 16. March, 1971. Descend to crater Copernicus, remaining for about 70 hours. Extract from crater and high-rising column within formation rocks believed to be from far below the lunar surface. |
APOLLO 17. Late in 1971. Land near rugged highland crater Tycho for stay of about 70 hours. Test first moon "rover" vehicle. |
APOLLO 18. Early 1972. Land in Marius Hills, remain about 70 hours. Collect soil and rock samples from volcanic-like domes and valleys between. |
APOLLO 19. Middle or late 1972. Land deep in Schroeter's Valley, with about 70 hours on the surface. Attempt a descent into a deep crater to determine cause of mysterious "red flashes" seen there by astronomers. |
APOLLO 20. Late 1972 or early 1973. Land near the Hyginus Rill, a long, major canyon, for stay of about 70 hours. Investigate canyon for possible lunar core material. |
This timeline had been altered slightly even before the Apollo 13 mission, when in January, 1970, Apollo 20 was cancelled in order to reserve the last production Saturn V for use in launching the planned Skylab orbiting laboratory a few years later. This change shifted the planned Apollo 18 and 19 lunar missions to 1974 to follow Skylab, but further budget-cutting in late 1970 also resulted in the cancellation of Apollo 18 and 19. |
More Kennedy Space Center Photographs | |||
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Vehicle Assembly Building and Mobile Launch Towers |
Apollo Saturn Facilities Test Vehicle AS-500F |
Rollout of AS-501 (Apollo 4) |
Launch Pad 39A and Crawlerway to VAB |
See this website's Project Apollo Archive
for more Kennedy Space Center photographs and memorabilia |
Apollo 14 audio segments | |
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Visit the Project Apollo Archive for Apollo 14 multimedia clips. | |
Also visit the Project Apollo Image Gallery
for more high-quality Apollo 14 images |
The day prior to the launch of Apollo 15, we had toured the Kennedy Space Center once again,
and had viewed the launch vehicle from close proximity (as close as visitors were allowed,
that is...see the movie clip below). At one point during the tourbus ride, we had caught sight
of a trio of Corvettes, one red, one blue and one yellow, parked outside the small
beachhouse retreat for the crewmen.
In a few days, our vacation took us to Florida's west coast and Sanibel Island, and
I found myself facing a serious dilemna. There was sunshine, sand and the ocean just
outside our beachfront cottage, but at the same time, two of Apollo 15's astronauts were
not just walking, but also driving around on the moon! Actually for me, the choice
was quite simple, and despite my father's displeasure, I watched every minute of
TV coverage of the moonwalk. I didn't mind. After all, there was no such thing as
a home VCR back then, and I wasn't about to miss history in the making.
Apollo 15 Photographs | |||
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Detailed view of Apollo 15 launch |
Astronaut Dave Scott and Rover at Hadley Rille |
Apollo 15 CSM in lunar orbit |
Apollo 15 splashdown with fouled main chute |
Also visit the Project Apollo Image Gallery
for more high-quality Apollo 15 images |
Apollo 15 audio segments | |
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Visit the Project Apollo Archive for Apollo 15 multimedia clips. |
Apollo 16 continued the lunar "J" mission series in April of 1972, landing in the
Moon's Descartes region. The J-Missions (Apollo 15, 16 and 17) differed
from the previous Apollo flights in that, in addition to carrying a LRV,
they each used more advanced versions of the Apollo Lunar Module and Command
and Service Modules. Also, on each of these missions, while the Commander and Lunar Module
Pilot explored the moon's surface, the Command Module Pilot was busy in orbit
using the spacecraft's SIM (Scientific Instrument Module) to photographically
map the Moon and to perform a variety of sensing experiments.
Apollo 16 audio segments | |
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Visit the Project Apollo Archive for Apollo 16 multimedia clips. | |
Also visit the Project Apollo Image Gallery
for more high-quality Apollo 16 images |
It was Apollo itself that had introduced me to the concept of computer programming,
specifically by way of the detailed
descriptions of the onboard computer systems provided by John Noble Wilford in his
book "We Reach The Moon." I found Apollo's
"DSKY" (Display Keyboard) interface, and its
simple but powerful NOUN/VERB, data/action command and programming system detailed in
the book particularly fascinating. So, it was only natural that I took quickly to the Honeywell "time-sharing"
system to which I discovered I had access through my high school's klunky and noisy teletype.
Not only was I able to play and work with an honest-to-God computer, but among its many programs
was a text-based lunar landing simulator!
For this website, I have incorporated elements of the original 1970's lunar lander program into a JavaScript version which you can play from your browser. Click on the lander display to the right to load the simulator from http://www.retroweb.com/lander.html. Land safely to see a special message and photograph from man's last mission to the Moon. |
APOLLO LUNAR LANDER SIMULATOR
requires JavaScript1.1-capable browsers such as Netscape Navigator v3.x and Microsoft Internet Explorer v4.x |
With December of 1972 arrived the end of the manned lunar expeditions
as Apollo 17 journeyed to the Moon's Taurus-Littrow region. The final
mission, which commenced with the first night launch of a Saturn V, was
the only Apollo mission to include an astronaut-scientist, Harrison H.
"Jack" Schmitt, who held a Ph.D. in geology. Apollo 17 set records for
total duration of lunar EVA's (22 hours), distance driven with the LRV
(36 km.) and lunar samples collected (254 lbs.), and brought the manned
lunar landing missions to conclusion in grand fashion with a spectacular
televised lunar liftoff.
Apollo 17 audio segments | |
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Visit the Project Apollo Archive for Apollo 17 multimedia clips. | |
Also visit the Project Apollo Image Gallery
for more high-quality Apollo 17 images |
On July 20, 1984, Apollo came full circle for me when I attended an
anniversary event at the National Air and Space Museum in DC. On hand
for the panel discussion and Lunar Landing Party that evening were three
moonwalkers, Alan Bean (Apollo 12), Jack Schmitt (Apollo 17) and
Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11). It was a memorable birthday for me as we
watched a replay of the Apollo 11 ladder descent and first steps, timed
to the minute with the actual event that same day in 1969. I am not an
autograph collector, but on that day, I not only got an
autograph, but
also a handshake, from a man who precisely fifteen years prior to that
moment had been standing on the surface of the Moon.
(Note: My Apollo anniversary experiences would not end here. See below the
Apollo 11 30th Anniversary addendum to this retrospective)
But, it had been worth every penny.
More than simply a means of unravelling the mysteries of the Moon, and despite its roots in cold war oneupmanship, the Apollo program provided a generation with a technical challenge and unifying source of inspiration unlike anything in recent human history, and will most likely remain unmatched in this regard for the foreseeable future. Many like myself owe their choice of technical, scientific and engineering careers at least partly to the inspiration of Apollo. More importantly, with Apollo, our 300,000-year-old species at long last broke the bonds of the Earth and took its first "giant leap" into the Universe.
For those of you who were there in 1969, I hope you enjoyed this nostalgic look back at Project Apollo. For those not around or too young to recall, I hope "Contact Light" has given you some sense of what you missed, and here is hoping that we will all again be witness in our lifetimes to an achievement as grand, as glorious and as significant.
Kipp Teague
September, 1998
Apollo 11 30th Anniversary Addendum July 24, 1999 |
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When I began work on "Contact Light" a year ago, I never envisioned
that on July 16, 1999, I would be standing in a re-created Apollo firing
room at Kennedy Space Center, face to face with four Apollo astronauts, thirty years
from the day on which two of those same astronauts lifted off for the Moon from a
launch pad just three miles away. But there I was, and there they were:
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan and Walter Cunningham,
seated in front of the firing room consoles
at the Not far away, at the Launch Complex 39 press site, the U.S. flag flew at half-mast for the astronauts' fallen comrade, Pete Conrad, who had died earlier in the month from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident (and whose death reminds us that the number of human beings who have visited the Moon will for the foreseeable future continue to dwindle rather than increase).
Thirty years after Apollo 11, the legacy of Apollo remains pervasive at Kennedy Space Center:
the
Although the shuttle Columbia did not launch on |
Visit this web site's Project Apollo Archive
for further information on the Apollo program, including a mission chronology,
a list of Apollo crews, diagrams and maps, multimedia clips, a list of available
books and videos, links, a mailing list signup form and an extensive |
This RetroWeb page Copyright ©
Kipp Teague
(This page debuted on June 8, 1998)
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