Break Points
Where were you on July 20, 1969?
Jack Ganssle
7/19/2009 4:10 PM EDT
Where were you on that fateful day?
Most Americans were not even gleams in their parents' eyes. According to the CIA World Factbook, the median age in the USA is currently 36.7 years. More than half of us weren't born. But I suspect that, in this country at least, the median age of engineers tends towards the gray side. Which is a darn shame, but that's a different topic.
I was 16 at the time, and remember watching the descent on our black and white TV. There wasn't much to see as no live TV came back from the moon till after the landing. But America's most trusted man conveyed the excitement felt by all. That hard-bitten newsman had tears in his eyes, as did many other fellow Earthlings. And now that we were truly a spacefaring race, "Earthlings" had a new and poignant meaning. Indeed, just a month later Joni Mitchell sang "we are stardust" at Woodstock. We are made of the ingredients of space and had returned to our origins.
For the first time in history, two men had landed on another planetoid. But we all felt like it was a joint accomplishment. The nation had landed; the astronauts really did make a giant leap "for mankind." (We were much less sensitive to gender biases in those days.)
Late that night (on the US East Coast) Armstrong and Aldrin waltzed out onto the lunar surface. Very grainy live video showed their descent down the ladder, a ladder that my uncle, a Grumman employee, had taken to his home many months before while on his way to a vendor.
My family had other ties to Apollo. In the late 50s, long before spaceflight was anything but the stuff of science fiction, my dad was busted for shoveling sand from Jones Beach into the back of his station wagon. He, too, worked at Grumman at the time, and the cop just didn't buy his wild story of collecting sand for "lunar landing studies."
Later he did initial design work on the lunar module and parts of the Saturn V. I had just secured a summer job as an electronics technician, and was working on Apollo ground support equipment for Goddard Space Flight Center, which comprised hundreds of RTL (resistor-transistor logic) ICs.
Those were indeed exiting times. For a short time Apollo unified a nation that was divided by war and generational hostility.
Do you remember Apollo 11's landing? What were you doing?
(I'm not normally a big fan of webinars, but check out the upcoming (July 27 at 1:00 ET) chance to hear from some early Apollo pioneers.)
(Editor's Note: The Embedded Poll this week is "What's your connection to Apollo 11?" To vote, go to the Embedded.com Home Page.)
Jack G. Ganssle is a lecturer and consultant on embedded development issues. He conducts seminars on embedded systems and helps companies with their embedded challenges. Contact him at jack@ganssle.com. His website is www.ganssle.com.
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Tom Maz
7/20/2009 11:39 AM EDT
Jack,
I watched it all from Neil Armstrongs' first step of the LM ladder until the crew went back inside hours later.
I was 12 years old and a confirmed space nut since I was 5 and watched John Glenn's Mercury launch.
Later, when I was in High School, I was lucky enough to have a science teahcer who was also heavy into space science. He put a group of like minded students together, and we made several trips to the Kennedy Space center. I was lucky enough to watch Apollo 16, 17, Skylab, ASTP launch from KSC. He also was able to get us special permission to tour the inside of the VAB, and out to within about 1/2 mile of the pad before the launch of Apollo 16.
Later on I moved down to the Cocoa Beach area, and watched the first Shuttle go, as well as a bunch of launches from the Canaveral AF station. I spent one evening flying over the Banana river waiting for a Delta launch, and chatting with Joe Kerwin, who was flying a T-38 for the same reason - just to watch the launch. We had a great view, as there was low clouds over the cape that evening. After about 10 seconds, we had the best view as the bird flew out over the Atlantic.
Today is both a happy and sad occasion for me - happy to remember those wonderful times, but sad because our current program is completely lost (IMHO). The program has no vision, and is more concerned with not appearing to fail, than in daring to do something great. I'm afraid that in our lawyer ruled society that the risk of exploration is just too great. The thought of Ad Astra per Aspera (A rocky road leads to the Stars) has been lost. This is the inscription on Pad 34, where Grissom, White and Chafee were killed in the Apollo 1 fire.
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CodeWarrior1241
7/20/2009 12:05 PM EDT
Hi Jack,
I was over a decade from being born in 1969... So no memories of the landing firsthand. Many engineers of my generation discount the age before microprocessors and ECAD tools as the "dark ages", and users of slide rules as "dinosaurs"...
I currently work as part of the Ares program, and I am stunned and more than a little dissapointed at how little has changed in the overall design of this generation's lunar spacecraft, and your generation's Apollo. While Ares is loaded with all sorts of sensors, advanced materials, and software (that I help write) that didn't exist in the Apollo days, it's still sad to see 40 years of aerospace research go down the drain. Ares is going with a design that was considered "safe" back when Apollo did it, but those guys were in a race with the USSR. That excuse can't hold up anymore.
The private launch guys, SpaceX amongst them, is the only silver lining in the US space program today.
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ADCxxxx
7/20/2009 12:12 PM EDT
I was 19 at the time (a college student in EE at WSU). I watched the 1st walk on the moon from a friend's house. After I graduated, I moved to Houston and worked on ground support equipment for the space program. I have some "thanks for your work on this Apollo Moon shot wall decorations". I also worked on the early shuddle program. I am one of the very few female engineers that worked on the Apollo Program. It was a great way to start a career.
Regards,
Marsha
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FrankCF
7/20/2009 1:28 PM EDT
Jack,
I bought my parents a color television when I got out of the service in 68 so we watched it on a color TV. I don't remember if the broadcast was in color.
Frank
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krwada
7/20/2009 5:46 PM EDT
Hello Jack;
you said:
so... you finally admit that there are fewer young ones getting into our profession eh?
Anyhow, I watched the lunar landing, and I was a mere lad of 11 years old. I watched it on a snowy black and white TV.
Also, I used a Kueffel and Esser slide rule all throughout my High School years. My Mom purchased one of those HP-21 pocket calculators in the summer before I headed off to UC Berkeley ... 1975 was the 1st year the UC allowed the use of pocket calculators to be used int mid-term exams and finals. The professors still used slide rules then too!
So ... did you use a slide rule???
Heh!
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NevadaDave
7/20/2009 6:39 PM EDT
Jack,
I was 17 years old & in my first week of USCG boot camp. Recruits weren't allowed to watch TV, not even history-making events such as landing on the moon. I recall being glad that we made it, but upset that some bureaucratic officer couldn't unbend just a bit to allow the watching one of the USA's greatest achievements by some young men training for military service. I think that our modern NASA is afflicted with the same attitude - CYA, follow the rules, allow no risk - but receive very little reward.
On another forum, I compared going to the moon or Mars as "aerobics for a civilization" we need the exercise to stay fit as a society. When we lack a hard target on which to focus our built-in exploratory nature, we tend to become introspective, sensual, and selfish. I really hope we decide to go back into space again!
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Ray Keefe
7/21/2009 12:00 AM EDT
Hi Jack,
I was 8 and in primary school. The whole school gathered in the hall to watch it live on the black and white TV. It cemented a love of space and technology in me and was probably a big influence in my decision to go into engineering.
I didn't know it then, but we watched the feed from Parkes and so got a better picture than the rest of the world for the first few minutes of it.
Ray Keefe
http://www.successful.com.au
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mac_droz
7/21/2009 4:40 AM EDT
I guess my parents met the next year.... I am an engineer at the moment (as my father). Yesterday Discovery Europe showed "Moonwalk One". Today I told at work that I watched it till 1am. The replay was: "Some Michael Jackson movie?" :)
People don't realize that there would be probably no cell phones and plasma screens if not Apollo program. We became so selfish and ignorant - turn on TV, all you see is "big brother" and even MTV do not play music any more.....
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