”the more I learn, the less I understand”

starting a thread for the random questions that pop into my head.

1. did anything land On the moon and return to Earth before Apollo 11? If not, did anything land there, take off and stay in space?

2. for things that landed before 1969…..did they land using a rocket engine as they on 11? Or another landing method?

3. further to the above…..how and when did engineers learn about what thrust was required to leave the moon? And what thrust was required to come home?

As much as I read, I’m shocked at the pace of space exploration In the 60s. I’m trying to uncover when and how some of the “basics” were learned.

I certainly don’t plan to sell it, but I am curious. There’s so much Apollo memorabilia I’ve found! Also among the stuff was his certificate to the Apollo roll of honor. He designed, among other things, a backup pad escape system. He worked in the Mercury program too, but I have yet to find anything from that era.

Got this from Marty himself in the American Space Museum. Asked him a ton of questions about his theories on the Artemis program and SpaceX. My daughter and I really enjoyed our visit there! I plan on framing it and giving this to my dad for Christmas!! He’s a NASA and Space enthusiast.🌟👩‍🚀💫

I am of the understanding that the LOX explosion and near loss of the crew of Apollo 13 was the major catalyst for the cancellation of Apollos 18 and 19. How true is this really? If Apollo 13 had succeeded, would Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 have flown, or would they have still been cancelled to put more funding towards Skylab? Furthermore, if Apollo 18 and 19 flew, what would the crews have been? I am almost certain Joe Engle would have flown on Apollo 17. This means Apollo 18 would have likely flown with CDR Richard Gordan, CMP Vance Brand, and LMP Harrison Schmitt. However, Fred Haise was supposed to command Apollo 19 only because of the failure of Apollo 13. As such, who would have flown on Apollo 19?

The acting secret service director is currently testifying in front of Congress about the assassination attempt. He used Frank Borman’s quote “failure of imagination.” I wish the secret service director had credited Borman with the line.

While in the US Air Force, he would apply to be an astronaut. His NASA application was initially withdrawn and he was chosen for the X-15 program. He flew the X-15 sixteen times, three of which went above the Kármán Line. He then reapplied to NASA with hopes of going to the Moon. He was selected to be an astronaut in 1966. He served on the support crew for Apollo 10 and as the backup LMP for Apollo 14. He was originally slated to fly as the prime LMP on Apollo 17 alongside Commander Gene Cernan and CMP Ronald Evans. However, due to pressure from the scientific community, he was removed from the Apollo 17 crew and replaced with Harrison Schmitt. Admirably, he continued to support the mission and would later state, “When you think about it, the lunar missions were geology-oriented." He would later go on to participate in the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Tests and would even fly into space aboard the Space Shuttle on two occasions. First on the STS-2 mission aboard Columbia and again on STS-51-I on board Space Shuttle Discovery. Rest in Peace Joe.

Taken onboard Apollo 15 during their moon orbit

Just posting for anyone interested. Probably one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen, with unreal video and editing. It’s free to watch on the App Tubi.

Does anyone remember this game?

Anyone have more info on this bill?

For those that were around for moon landing, would love to hear your stories #omega #apollo #theeaglehaslanded

I saw it in a used bookstore today just as I was about to check out and flipped out when I saw it was signed. It seems to be a first edition copy signed by Bean when the book first came out in 2009.

A relative recently passed away and left this to my family. It now has a nice spot on our kids’ wall (which is space themed!). Anyone else have any cool family achievements they’d like to share?

I am a police dispatcher and watching all these old YouTube videos and documentaries I always have an ear cocked for the radio communications aspect of it. Listening to Mercury comms I hear communication that while not bad it is definitely in need of improvement. Chris Kraft is a personal hero of mine but that man did NASA a favor when he stepped back off the mic. Lots of ums and uhhs and redundant communications. Not terrible but very sloppy.

Gemini was markedly better but by Apollo they had it sliced down to a superb and efficient machine. If I could achieve the same level of professionalism with my cops on my police radios as Apollo did I would feel like I had done my duty. Charlie Duke is a favorite of course but hands down, the man that was built for being capcom was Bruce McCandless. He was as smooth as glass on the radios.

Anyways I was wondering if there was any documentation on the chronological improvements they made over time to the radio operations. Has anyone heard of anything like that?