It was my 2nd day in the Army.

I was experiencing the Terrible 2's.

quote:

Originally posted by papaac:
That was a month before I started work at Texas Instruments. We made a lot of circuits for the space program.

I worked on Shuttle in the 1980's, and spent a lot of time at the TI Midland factory. Working on space programs was fun until the Challenger crash, which changed NASA into a terrible customer to work with.

I watched with my Great Grandmother who was in her early 90s. She was sitting there and was amazed that she remembered the Wright Brothers and now this. She had a glass of wine to celebrate.

I've been told that I was sucking on a tit at the time... alas I was only two months old. No wonder I'm fascinated by science and other shapely things.

My wife and I had gotten married that June, moved to Washington DC. Watched it on our little 19 inch B&W TV in our hot, cockroach-infested apartment with no AC.

BTW we now have a third grandchild, our first grandson, born on this day. Nice birthday to remember!

Congrats SJ

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
It was supposed to happen on my birthday, tomorrow, forever making that day a historical date.
Somehow it was one of the few government projects to get ahead of schedule. I was so disappointed.

Happy birthday!

quote:

Congrats SJ

Thank you, my friend!
I tell our friends with 12 grandkids we're catching up on them...well, no. This is the end of the line, but the last is not least! Specifically, a grandson will mean that our patrilineage will continue, represented by one very small little T.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/nas...oon-giant-new-rocket

On Wednesday, the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, NASA announced that it's targeting the end of August for the launch of its giant, new moon rocket.

NASA will attempt the more than month-long lunar test flight with three mannequins but no astronauts as early as Aug. 29. There are also two launch dates on Sept. 2 or Sept. 5.

A successful mission will poise the agency to fly astronauts around the moon in 2023 and attempt a lunar landing as soon as 2025.

quote:

Originally posted by Redhookbklyn:

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
It was supposed to happen on my birthday, tomorrow, forever making that day a historical date.
Somehow it was one of the few government projects to get ahead of schedule. I was so disappointed.

Happy birthday!

Thanks. I got over the disappointment pretty quickly.
The first steps were a confirmation that we had succeeded in accomplishing a dream. We fulfilled a promise, we beat the Russians (it ended up being no real contest) and made it back without any problems.
That was an amazing accomplishment that showed what can be done with determination and effort. I watched it, listening to Walter Cronkite describe the events as he did for several events during that era.

Richard Linklater's Apollo 10 1/2 on Netflix does an excellent job of capturing that time period based on his childhood in the summer of '69. The nostalgia is super thick.