Apollo 11 - you can be there

[Neroon]

Beginning this Thurs. Jul 16, a web site developed by the Kennedy Space Center will go live to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission.

According to the article at here the actual website itself, "WeChooseTheMoon.org, goes live at 8:02 a.m. Thursday, 90 minutes before the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It will track the capsule’s route from Earth to the moon, ending with the moon landing and Armstrong’s walk — in real time, but 40 years later. "

I cannot even begin to express how giddy this makes me feel. The first manned lunar landing is THE iconic moment for me in my lifetime. Beyond Kennedy's assassination, the Challenger explosion and even 9/11.

 

[Messianni]

Awesome, I'll have to have a browser window open for it those days! That's a really cool idea.

 

[Neroon]

That's what I thought. Even if it's only vicariously, how cool will it be to relive those days again?

 

[Messianni]

Or in my case, for the first time! Wish I could have seen it for myself, though.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

As someone who was 10 years too late for the party, it sounds like fun.

 

[Neroon]

Or in my case, for the first time! Wish I could have seen it for myself, though.

As someone who was 10 years too late for the party, it sounds like fun.

Very true... which makes the idea all the more creative and excellent

 

[DarkHorse]

Thanks for the reminder. I'll check it out throughout the weekend.

 

[Candlelight]

I posted this in Misc. It's a pretty cool site. Will def tune in for Monday.

 

[S. Gomez]

Landing tomorrow!

 

[Neroon]

Landing tomorrow!

That would be around 4:15pm (EDT) wouldn't it?

 

[Zulu Romeo]

They've reached lunar orbit.

 

[S. Gomez]

Landing tomorrow!

That would be around 4:15pm (EDT) wouldn't it?

I'm not sure, to be honest. I'm in the Pacific time zone. The mission clock at this moment is counting down from 23 hours, 57 minutes. Just a day to go...

EDIT: According to Wikipedia, Armstrong got out at 10:56pm EDT.

 

[Neroon]

Right, I had recalled the rough time of Armstrong's egress, but what I couldn't recall was how long they spent in the Eagle before egress

 

[S. Gomez]

20:17 UTC was apparently the landing time, again according to Wikipedia. I've got no clue what that is in EDT and I'm too tired to figure it out. (I say this generally, Neroon, I'm sure you've already looked this up!)

I'd like to say a word about the desktop widget the website is offering: atrocious. It isn't synced up at all with the clock on the website itself and it's been showing the ship on the far side of the moon ever since Thursday. Bleh. Still keeping it around to remind myself to check the site.

I've also written a little tribute essay for the anniversary, but I don't know how to share it with the BBS; so far it's only a Facebook note (and a pretty lengthy one at that, so I don't know about posting it here).

 

[Neroon]

You could easily post it in Science & Technology. Then again this is an event that crosses a multitude of boundaries, so this and the Misc forum would also be apropos. Check in with the moderators of each and see what they say.

I wondered about "UTC" as well but checked it out on Wiki. It essentially seems to replace Greenwich Mean Time as the standard reference point, because it's based upon atomic measurements of time and periodically compensates for the Earth's rotational deceleration. The thing is I can't seem to find a precise conversion between it and standard time, so I'm guessing it'd be the same as with GMT.

 

[T'Bonz]

Stage 7 didn't have much to offer with pictures/videos. But we're 20 minutes away from stage 8 (of 11.)

 

[Messianni]

Stage 8 now!

 

[S. Gomez]

Seeing Stage 8 was both exciting and a slight let-down for me. It was the first transition between stages I got to see "live", but then not a ton happened.

 

[S. Gomez]

Here we go..........

 

[Messianni]

The Eagle has landed.