“That’s one small step for man;
one giant leap for
mankind.”
At approximately 8:30 am, July 16, 1969 I was sitting in a desk
in a hot summer school classroom at Barrett Elementary as I watched Apollo 11 lift off. An
entire nation held its breath as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins rode the largest,
most powerful rocket every built
into space.
Having a dad that worked for 9 years
between Birmingham, Redstone and the Cape as a senior engineer for a NASA
contractor, (Hayes Aircraft) I had been waiting for this moment all of my
life, or at least the part I could remember.
I had built many model rockets and even
flown a few by that time and having watched everything related to Apollo on TV,
read every book and newspaper article that remotely spoke about the mission, I
knew every phase from launch to touchdown and for the next few days I would not
get much sleep or get more than 5 feet from a TV.
In our family den, on top of our color TV
sat an expensive but well built and finished set of Revell and Monogram models
of the Saturn V, the Command Module/Service Module and Lunar Module, complete
with moonscape including 2 to scale astronauts. All of the models could be separated
and reassembled to demonstrate their operation; even the legs of the LEM
articulated. They later
sat on my dresser for years. The sad thing is, I have no idea what happened to them.
Until they splashed down I was in front
of the TV waiting for video or reports of what they were doing on the moon and
for the most part the first landing was brief. Less than 24 hours after they
touched down in the Sea of Tranquility the Ascent stage lifted off.
To this day I still marvel over how well
the mission went. So many parts, so much volatility, so many things that could
have gone wrong but didn’t, and the U.S. had won the Space Race.
Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz
Aldrin.
I hope at some point this month you will
take a few moments to reflect on the entire Apollo Program and as you do, consider
how far our technology has advanced since July of 1969. I recently read the
computer that landed Apollo 11 on the moon had 1,300 times LESS processing
power than an iphone5s.
Amazing! It was, and still is, amazing!
Looking for something entertaining and fun to read?
If you'd like something entertaining and fun to read, get your copies of the entire Rocket Babe series, paperback or Kindle.
Here's how...
Get The Entire Series On Kindle!
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Rocket Babe: Reflection
Prefer Paperback? No Problem!
Signed / personalized paperback copies of Rocket Babe - Dust Storm, Rocket Babe - Fallen Angel, Rocket Babe - Ant Men and
Rocket Babe - Reflection are all available directly from the author!
Books are great gifts for any occasion! Holidays,
birthdays or just because!
Dust Storm $10.00
Fallen Angel $12.00
Ant Men $13.00
Reflection $13.00
Standard
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Above you see a rare photo of Dave Miller, appropriately dressed in black as owner of the clandestine black ops organization
known as Sirius Rocketry! What does he do in his spare time? He reads Rocket Babe, what else?
That's a nice looking Cestris Fighter he's holding too! Get yours from https://www.siriusrocketry.com
Verna Starr Cestris Fighter!
This is our favorite Sirius kit, the Cestris.
The kit is intended to fly on a single engine but it was easily modified to a 3 engine cluster complete with Verna Starr fighter
decals, also available from Sirius.
Randy
Just click the BLUE link below the banner!
Of
all of humanity that ever lived, these 12 brave Americans are the only people
who have ever stepped foot on the moon.
Neil Armstrong
Buzz
Aldrin
Pete
Conrad
Alan
Bean
Alan
Shepard
Edgar
Mitchell
David
Scott
James
Irwin
John
Young
Charles
Duke
Gene
Cernan
Harrison Schmitt
Still living:
Aldrin, 88
David
Scott, 85
Charles Duke, 82
Harrison Schmitt, 82
Randy
She'll go with you anywhere! Kevin, owner and moderator at the Alien Soup sci-fi
forum, enjoys Rocket Babe - Dust Storm between innings at a recent ballgame!
Bones says...
"Moon walkers? That's funny, I don't see Michael Jackson's name listed."
Verna & Randy's Rockets is proud to have been featured by:
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