Apollo anniversary TV

[vilakins]

To celebrate the anniversary of the moon landing, we've been watching a lot of Apollo-related TV. Apollo 13 was on here a couple of nights ago, but as we have it on TV, we decided we'd watch an ad-free version. Instead we saw two episodes of From the Earth to the Moon: Spider (one of my favourites, about the engineers who designed and built the lunar module) and of course Mare Tranquilitatis. If you've never seen this series and are interested in the subject, I recommend it highly; it's out on DVD. Each ep is directed by a different person in a different style, and every one is excellent.

We've also been watching an ITN series covering each day of the mission in 10-minute segments a day as if it's all happening right now, and last night we saw a Welsh program about several Apollo wives who have an annual reunion. They were fascinating, and though most were divorced or widowed, all spoke with wonder of the experience of watching a lift-off: how the ground shook, how they shook, how even the fish leapt in the lake, disturbed by the deep vibrations and sound. The last lift-off was at night, and it lit the sky like the sun. You could see the awe in their faces as they remembered. There was some bitterness too, that they were left in Houston while the astronauts lived it up with groupies in Florida, that the widow of Roger Chaffee (Apollo 1 fire) got just $2000 on his death and little else, and that they were all expected to be perfect wives, constantly on show, well groomed etc on the service pilot salaries of their husbands. For one formal ball, they all went to a Houston thrift shop and bought second-hand gowns. One of them who had a particularly nasty divorce right after her child died of leukaemia wrote a song as therapy and played it on the ukulele: "You can be macho, you can be spotless, you can be wonderful--on your own." They called the press the "death watch" and used to use the standard phrase "I'm thrilled, proud, and happy" when asked how they felt about a mission. There was even a self-mocking picture of three of them, back then in the 60s, holding up signs: THRILLED, PROUD, HAPPY. :-)

Oh yes, and we saw a fun James May doco in which he did some of the Right Stuff tests, went up in a U2 to the edge of space (a long-time ambition) and met two astronauts: Al Bean (a very good artist who tries to convey the feeling of being on the moon in his pictures) and scientist Harrison Schmitt (astrogeology). Shouldn't that be lunageology? :-)

Comments

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

I have been watching bits of the anniverssary programs but it doesn't seem to have the draw of the actual landing for me. I think I am disapointed that we aren't where every one was saying we would be back then. I know I shouldn't be as the impetus that got the USA to the Moon was the Cold War and since that was only minutes from becoming the Hot War at times it's ending and the slow down of the Space Race should be a thing to be happy about.

As for Astrogeology/Lunageology, perhaps it shouldn't be either, geo comes from the Greek word meaning earth or land. Using it for other worlds could be said to be wrong if you think of it a Earth Science rather than earth science. We could use Lunaology but Astrology is in use already. And that would be wrong as well since it is derived from the Latin Astra a star and we are talking about planets here. I give up,I'm no expert on linguistics and the more I think about it the more my head hurts. I am in a wierd mood today.%D.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't know if the moon has much to teach us initself, but it would have been so exciting to have a colony there, using its gravity for low-G experiments and perhaps manufacturing bigger spaceships to go further. Ah well. Maybe one day long after I'm gone.

You're right! It should be lunaology! I was mainly objecting to the "astro", but then we have astronauts and cosmonauts--just to orbit the planet and get to its satellite. :-)

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Selenology, I think. It's Greek, and the "geo" bit is Earth.

I keep catching bits of the Apollo wives documentary on BBC Four. I did like the song: "You can be right about the children - on your own!"

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yes! Of course selenology! [is slow] That sounds so much better, not mixing Latin and Greek.

I was trying to remember the lyrics, and the line abut the children was great! Tonight I've been watching interviews on the History channel with very old astronauts (some of them sweeties who loved their wives like Jim Lovell) and wondering which of the others were right bastards before they seemingly mellowed. But then I also suppose they were self-selecting, being tough adrenaline-addicted test pilot types with lots of cockiness and little imagination and sensitivity.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I think Latin does use aster, as a transliteration of the Greek, but its usual word for star is stella (clearly all three are cognates and apparently Sanskrit also uses str). As I've suggested below, "selenology" (drawing on the Greek selene for moon) would avoid a Latin-Greek hybrid.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

We saw just the standard retrospective, no one added anything new let alone about those hidden bitter background stories. It just...passed. Ah - but I liked when one of our astrophysicists began comparing Apollo´s journey to a "bullet" from J.Verne´s book From the Earth to the Moon. He showed nicely that the trajectory and its phases were almost identical and that the place of landing in the book was only 100m from the real one!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Yesterday The Observer had a very interesting feature on Michael Collins (who celebrated his Golden Wedding last year), and I'll post a link later. I'm a bit confused about whether the main anniversary is the 20th or the 21st - I think the landing and the walk may both have been the 20th for the US but different days in GMT. I remember my parents getting me up in the middle of the night, but not the precise time.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that sounds like an excellent way to remember the day! I wish I could do the same, but am not sure I'll get the chance.

I have a book of Alan Bean's Apollo-themed artwork, which is, indeed, quite good. And Harrison Schmidt is from my home state of New Mexico! I got to hear him give a talk once (to a very small audience), which was a thrill.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Now, Michael Collins was definitely a guy with imagination and sensitivity. I heartily recommend his books. (Well, Liftoff, anyway. I haven't read Carrying the Fire yet, but it's on the Pile.)

And the landing was on the 20th in the US. I'm not sure exactly what time, though. It's entirely possible the excursion straddled midnight in your zone.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

There's a timeline (http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_11i_Timeline.htm) here, which places the landing at 20.17 GMT and the first moonwalk at 02.56 next day.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'd appreciate a link; I'd really like to read that.

Here are the times:

Launch: July 16, 1969 at 13:32 GMT (9:32 a.m. local time).
Landing: July 20 at 20:17 GMT
Footfall: 02:56 GMT on 21 July (22:56 EDT on 20 July)

So yes, after your midnight, which makes the anniversary of that this morning for me.

Actually I have an aging, yellowing newspaper and poster (you know, those old newspaper ones advertising the headlines) from that day from my mother and should find it and photograph it. It wasn't shown live here (it couldn't be) so all people had was the radio and papers.

[Edit] I see you already found a good list of times!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Really! Wow, Verne must have worked it out well! The Apollo crew didn't have wallpaper, armchairs, and chickens to eat on the way though. :-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I might look for a newspaper from the day which my mother kept, plus one of those news posters, and photograph them today.

I liked the Bean painting with the footprints superimposed. I wish I'd got a better look at that. How amazing to have heard that talk! That's another favourite episode from The Earth to the Moon: the geology one.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

You might see if you can get hold of Alan Bean's book. It's called Apollo (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0867130504?ie=UTF8&tag=bettyraganshomep&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0867130504). Maybe your library might be able to find it for you? It's worth looking at.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'll look for that and Michael Collins' one! Greg may even have read the latter.

[crycraven.livejournal.com]

Those poor women. Thrilled, proud and happy, indeed.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

There were a few, like Marilyn Lovell and Al Bean's wife Leslie (and their seven dogs) who did well, but they weren't in that group. I suppose it was also the era; ever seen "Mad Men"? Women weren't expected to have brains and opinions.