The Eagle has landed

[lulu57]

Kenedy Space Center is a must see... went there 2 days running ... Awesome...

Do they allow gnomes in?

[Psychobilly]

Yes provided you have sufficient funds to pay and your not Gnomeless... (he was a little HDR test target... and thought he'd make a nice change)

[Psychobilly]

The SKy at Night Special from BBC4 last night has just been put up on Iplayer...

[Tim]

Dont forget that in about 3 months time we should start to see images coming through from a new lunar orbiter, which will include the apollo sites, finally shut the conspiracists up ( unless of course they see little green men joy-riding in the moon buggies)

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Lift off for Nasa's lunar probes

Be sooooo cool to see the probes slam into the moon, and they do say that it can be done with a "small telescope". Bring back my dob!!!!

[Psychobilly]

Yeah but are those orbiters really up there.... or is all the data just CGI

The Sky at night Special is awesome by the way...

[Wedge]

The landing was 24 years before I was born but all of the coverage still seems to special to me, and I know a lot of the communications by heart now, having watched it so many times

I eagerly await the 'new' Moon Landings in the next decade or so, and hopefully will witness a man on Mars - I really hope that these have the same effect on the population and are as special as Apollo 11.

[ottoman]

What a excellent programme that was last night. It makes you realise about how insugnificant we all really are ,and how petty and vein we can be.

I would give anything to go into space or even to just go into that u2.

[Astro_Baby]

Ashenlight - the Russians will take you to the edge of space in a souped up Mig31 - last time I checked they wanted about £5,000 for it - take a look here Fly to the Edge of Space in the MiG-31 Foxhound

Just after the wall came down they were doing it for around £1800 - wich I had gone then.

I remember the moon landings very vividly and dad telling me 'just imagine Mel - from the Wright brothers to landing on the moon in a single lifetime - I wish I could see what you will see in your lifetime' sadly we seem to have lost the thrill. I remember having a book on space flight when I was about 12 and they reckoned we'd get to go to Pluto in a nuclear powered spaceship by about now.

I wanted to be an astronaut back then - I thought if the Russians could put Valentina Tereshkova into space then why not me - for a moment there Barbie got dumped in favour of a toy space helmet

[Aza]

Thanks for the link!

I am already saving for this now

[brianb]

Is it the extra few thousand feet that require all that extra safety?

No. But the U2 is engineered a lot closer to the tolerances than Concorde was ... quite apart from the fact that military aircraft are operated as though someone is likely to take a pot shot at them. Anyway a pressure suit wouldn't have done you any good on Concorde, if the fuselage ruptured the mach 2 airflow would have pulled it & you to pieces long before you could suffocate or have your blood boil away.

Anyone here do the 65,000 feet on concorde?

Not personally but I know someone who'se been to 90,000 feet in a MiG-25 - the Russians were running these flights commercially a few years ago, but appear to have given up as they no longer need the money; the MiG-25 was designed to intercept the SR-71 "Blackbird" which flew at 90-100,000 feet at Mach 3+; the fact that it's been withdrawn means that the USA has another "black project" surveillance aircraft with even greater performance, one which is probably responsible for a proportion of the "unexplained" UFO sightings.

The U2 (50s technology) is still in service because it's relatively cheap to operate & perfectly adequate for use in conflicts where the enemy doesn't have much in the way of anti-aircraft defences e.g. Iraq, Afghanistan.

[Talitha]

I went to the Kennedy Space Centre in 1995 or 96.

There was a bloke giving a talk in this open hall, and he was just finishing as we walked through. People wandered off and I was looking at a display and the bloke who had been speaking sauntered over in our direction. I turned round and asked him some question about the display (can't remember what) and he was dead friendly and answered a few of my questions, then he sauntered off.

My (then) partner was suspiciously quiet, and I commented on the fact.

He said, "Do you know who that was?"

I didn't.

Apparently it was Jim Lovell (it had said so on his name badge, although I hadn't noticed).

By sheer coincidence, the Apollo 13 film had come out that year and I said "Do you mean Tom Hanks?!". If I hadn't seen the film, the name would not have meant anything to me.

How cool is that?

He seemed like a really friendly, unpretentious guy too.

OMG that's awesome, Lulu! If you have the Tom Hanks movie, take a look at the very end where they're aboard the aircraft carrier.. Jim Lovell made a cameo appearance and (from what i understand) asked that his name be left out of the credits. He's the Gent in the dress whites who shakes all their hands in the receiving line.

[lulu57]

OMG that's awesome, Lulu! If you have the Tom Hanks movie, take a look at the very end where they're aboard the aircraft carrier.. Jim Lovell made a cameo appearance and (from what i understand) asked that his name be left out of the credits. He's the Gent in the dress whites who shakes all their hands in the receiving line.

I must get hold of a copy of the film and look out for him!

I wish I'd realised who he was at the time - then I would have made an effort to remember what he said!

[albedo0.39]

That was a brilliant program and so evocative. James May is a great down to earth presenter and when he says "I am finding it hard to put into words how I feel" you can honestly see that he means it.

I loved the flashbacks to the era - and was five at the time of the Moon Landing so for me, this entered into my memory as a very powerful influencer. I recall it all. The BBC coverage, the excitement of watching it live... the endless analysis on the (black and white) TV, the models of the Lunar Lander, The big Saturn 5 Airfix Kit (which I couldn't afford)...

It was all there - the magic of a Real trip to moon.

Also as an aviation enthusiast I was also pleased to see a trip in the Lockheed U2 / Tr1A / U2R. These aircraft were stationed over at RAF Alconbury just a few miles from where I used to live so, I've seen their impressive take off many times.

Finally, you just have not experienced the real majesty of the whole achieivement until you've had a trip to the Kennedy Space Centre. Compared to other attractions over in that neck of the woods, this is on another level and there is almost too much to take in. When you look at the Saturn 5 in the flesh, up close and personal, it looks deeply impressive even now. Cast your mind back to it's creation over 4o years ago, and you then get an idea of the huge leap in technology this was.

A bit like Concorde... only more so !