Comments:
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win."
I hope you enjoyed this little trip into space, and that you'll go watch Apollo 13 again. I will!
Cazalea This message has been edited by cazalea on 2015-04-07 19:08:50
45 years later, a Recap of Apollo 13 from the men who were there
I was fortunate to be able to attend a special recognition ceremony for the Apollo 13 crew, held a few weeks ago at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Astronauts (and their wives) from Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects attended, along with many of the engineering managers, control team and others who made the space program possible.
It was really fun to listen to these guys talk, and to eat a meal with lots of other enthusiasts underneath some Navy Jets.
Here are the wives
and a few of the esteemed gentlemen. I will try to get a complete list of the names and insert them here.
What a thrill it was to sit, wander and converse for hours. No one wanted to go home, but as one guy said from the podium, "I'm 83 and it's way past my bedtime!"
I tried to get some exclusive wrist shots, but it wasn't easy, either in person or on the monitors. This is FRED HAISE (lunar module pilot on Apollo 13 who has logged 142 hours and 54 minutes in space). He's now president of a division of Northrup Grumman:
Although some of the guys have mellowed with time, you can see by the firm jaws and crewcuts that some of them still could kick your a** if necessary. A couple quotes from the astronauts that night:Flight above and around the earth is a constant theme around San Diego, with the Army, Navy, Marines, commercial and general aviation all keeping the skies busy and our citizens employed. The Air & Space Museum makes sure we don't forget the pioneers and current aviators.
My dad was a naval aviator, so of course, me being the son, I had a keen interest in flying.
And by some quirk of fate I bought a couple house which are within a long arm's reach of the airport flight path. The essential elements of my San Diego neighborhood are sunshine, blue skies, palm trees and aircraft.
For folks like me who grew up in the 1940's and 1950's "Space" was dynamite stuff, and I recall getting up in the dark to watch launches from Cape Canaveral (Kennedy) and landings in various wet locations. As we snuck into the living room to turn on the television, we made do with moonlight so as not to waken my mother and sister.
Recent posts on the Purists, such as the Breitling 809 Cosmonaute motivated me to dig up the Apollo photos and a couple videos of the event, which I am happy to share here.
GENE KRANTZ, NASA Flight Director, remembers how it started:
JIM LOVELL (the 1st man to fly in space 4 times; 1 of 24 men to fly to the Moon; 1st of 3 to fly to the Moon twice; the only one to fly to the moon twice without landing) gives his insider perspective. Note that there is a WATCH reference about 9 minutes into this 12 minute video:
Here are the wives
and a few of the esteemed gentlemen. I will try to get a complete list of the names and insert them here.
What a thrill it was to sit, wander and converse for hours. No one wanted to go home, but as one guy said from the podium, "I'm 83 and it's way past my bedtime!"
I tried to get some exclusive wrist shots, but it wasn't easy, either in person or on the monitors. This is FRED HAISE (lunar module pilot on Apollo 13 who has logged 142 hours and 54 minutes in space). He's now president of a division of Northrup Grumman:
"We were all fighter pilots and we would rather die than screw up"
"This was important for our country and we were willing to take the risk"
And finally,
And finally,
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win."
John F Kennedy
Here's the best "moon shot" I've ever been able to take with my Sony digital camera.I hope you enjoyed this little trip into space, and that you'll go watch Apollo 13 again. I will!
Cazalea
Thanks for taking us with you.
I love the line about fighter pilots - "Rather die than screw up" such cowboys with no fear.
Boy Jim Lovell was a busy guy.
Thanks
Bill
PS love your moon shot.
Boy Jim Lovell was a busy guy.
Thanks
Bill
PS love your moon shot.
Thanks Bill
I have been "sitting on" this post, with need to clean up photos, upload videos, etc.
The Breitling article and our dinner last night finally motivated me to put it all together and get it "off the ground"
Cheers,
Mike
It was great seeing you.
We need to get the together with wives and have a nice dinner.
You shot above is cool the way the exhaust fumes create an image that looks like a watercolor.
Thanks
Bill
You shot above is cool the way the exhaust fumes create an image that looks like a watercolor.
Thanks
Bill
sounds like a fun event!
Appreciate you sharing the pics and vid. Nice capture of the moon, did you stay up for the Lunar Eclipse over the weekend?
-MW
Thanks Cazlea
Must have been something! Great moment 
They were always focussed, and they still seems to be. These guys have their footprints deep in the path of history.
This message has been edited by cisco on 2015-04-08 00:12:06
re: Thanks
Hello and welcome cisco to this section of the forum, congrats on your first TimeOut post!
-MW
cool event, I was just at KSC last week
Thanks Cazalea for sharing the pics of your event.
I did a tour of Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral and it was a great experience. Lots of things to see and discover the history of our space program including Apollo 13.
Regards,
ED-209
wow..fantastic...
love this type of stuff...real living heroes that did stuff...
how cool is that!
Thanks for sharing...
Great event !
Eugene certainly looks fit i must say, i read his book 'Last man on the moon' and i must say it's hard to believe what these guys accomplished.
Certainly the greatest adventurers of the past century !
Bim