On This Day-The Right Stuff Day 2
It's 17 July 1969, day 2 of Apollo 11's mission to the Moon. The capsule command module or Columbia has docked with the LeM or Eagle as the long flight to the moon begins. Armstrong and Aldrin will be the men to land and walk on the Moon, as Mike Collins will remain in Columbia as over watch and to recover the Eagle when it returns from the Moon.
Buzz Aldrin took this amazing image of Earth out of the port window.
https://youtu.be/keZZ5444sK0
All the communications and control took place in at mission control in Houston, Tx. All the astronauts were even monitored for their vitals, keeping an eye on heart rate, blood pressure and any stress that any of the astronauts may encounter during the mission.
An important part of the team that was present in mission control was JoAnn Morgan, the only woman that was involved with the launch. But there were also other women involved behind the scenes will have details on them later. Morgan was hired by NASA in 1958 as an aerospace engineer. Brilliant in helping to design some of the launch vehicles throughout the program. She was the only female engineer for NASA for quite awhile.
As the mission continues on. Will visit day 3. Columbia out.
This gets better and better - I showed my year 7s the post 'my friend from America' made - they loved it. I see them again on Friday, Chuck - guess what we will be doing! They have a wide variety of 'special needs' - I don't think I have seen them more excited! Asking a million questions and completely wrapped up in the mission! I asked them to guess how long it took to get to the moon - we had guesses from hours to months. I asked them to find out for homework, and told them 'Chuck will let us know as the story unfolds'!
Beautiful posts!
Geez Paul that's quite an honor. It seems that space exploration has become very important again. Ever since the last shuttle mission, it has been rather blah for lack of a better term. The International space station is up there but you just don't hear much about it. But hopefully that will change as the Apollo 11 anniversary approaches, interest haven't been this high in quite awhile.
Another stellar On This Day!
Love the pics. Especially the Earth shot.
It's like I'm 6 years old again...Keep em coming, Chuck.
Thanks Gary, appreciate that. I feel the same way but with a bit more wisdom now.
Great work, Chuck. Keep it up!
Amen to that David...thank you.
Nice!
Thanks Robert
Just fabulous. Loving it, Chuck.
‘Liked’
Thanks for posting these photos and doing a day by day account of arguably mankinds greatest achievement of the 20th Century. A mere 66 years after the Wright brother's epic flight. Imagine a 10 year old child witnessing the Wright Flyer in 1903 taking to the air and at age 76 watching the Moon landing on television!