Apollo 11: The inside story of the glorious technical mastery, the risks, the leap

For those who want to immerse themselves in the engineering masterpiece of the Apollo 11 mission, Burt Rutan recommends this documentary series. A whole fascinating hour each. Burt Rutan is an aerospace engineer who has designed 46 aircraft, received six honorary doctoral degrees and hundreds of awards. If these documentaries can keep him interested …

Hail the brilliant technical minds that triumphed and the brave men who got there.

Only 12 men have walked on the moon and three out of four still alive are skeptics. Buzz Aldrin is an outspoken skeptic, as are other astronauts Harrison Schmidt, and Charles Duke. So is Australian born Phil Chapman (support crew, Apollo 14) and Walter Cunningham (Apollo 7).  Burt Rutan too, of course. 

Remember a time when NASA could achieve great things…

Part I: We choose to go to the moon: Hosted by Bill Whittle

Part II: The clock is running


….

Burt Rutan says Part 3 and 4 are on the way.

The URLs:   https://youtu.be/k9BmufbVf2E               https://youtu.be/2lmPWkd2Kx0

Rutan warns that Google or Youtube searches may not find the series. Apparently Bill Whittle is too politically incorrect for them.  At this point the Google search works with “Apollo 11: What we saw”. But “Apollo 11 youtube” is a fail — five screens of nothing. Spread the word.

There is information here you won’t hear on the Lamestream.

This post is for Jim Simpson and the OTC team at Paddington who helped transmit the moon-landing. They are organizing events in Australia for the Apollo 11 Anniversary, especially for the veteran Engineers, Technicians and Managers.

10 out of 10 based on 53 ratings

154 comments to Apollo 11: The inside story of the glorious technical mastery, the risks, the leap

  • #

    I am surprised at you Jo!

    You forgot to mention that it was a large dish in Australia that transmitted the images of Armstrong setting his feet on the moon and utter the famous statement.

    A Wind Storm in Australia Nearly Interrupted the Moon Landing Broadcast

    Fifty years ago this month, 650 million people—one-fifth of the world’s population at the time—gathered in front of their televisions to watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. Though celebrated as an American achievement, those TV images would never have reached the world’s living rooms without the help of a crack team of Australian scientists and engineers, working in the bush a few hundred miles west of Sydney.

    =============================

    The Dish a great movie starring Sam Neill, worth watching showing the Parkes radio telescope as the focus point of the story.

    211

    • #

      Sunsettommy, I just wanted to hear an American say that… thank you!

      [PS: Though, a bit unfairly for you Tommy I’ve been live-editing this post, and added in the link to Jim Simpson at the end. Many Australian skeptics will know Jim, but not realize he was involved with the “overseas telecoms” from Sydney for Apollo 11! ]

      250

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Hi Jo, while driving the other day I listened to a great outline of the Parkes role in the Moon Mission.

        The NASA controllers could be heard praising the quality of the Australian pickup from the Moon.

        170

        • #
          sophocles

          Apollo 11 landed at 20:18 UTC (also known, incorrectly by then, as Greenwich Mean Time) on Sunday 20th July, which was 08:18 21 July NZST. Being first over the date line every day gave us a bit of a head start … 😛

          I remember school didn’t do much that day. We were all huddled around radios in every classroom, listening.
          Yep, it was “as seen on radio!” for us. The NZBC was just relaying the Voice of America live broadcast.

          Sort of appropriately, the class during which Armstrong delivered his famous line was Applied Maths.

          I don’t remember much else of that day other than it was cold. Well, it was the middle of winter…. so that’s no surprise.

          KK: When you see the size of the Parkes dish, it’s no wonder the reception was so good. Those little radio waves from the moon had to jump to attention and salute as they hit that dish.

          140

          • #
            Kinky Keith

            We were at work at the moment of the Moon walk and all moved to the lunch room to follow the event.

            Something so technically brilliant, so daring, so dangerous and so inspiring.

            And now we have moved on Fifty years to another world so full of blame and nitpicking and faux social justice.

            Progress!!!!

            ????

            150

            • #

              It’s funny how I always get questioning looks when I say that we were gathered around the TV after lunch on the 21st and watching it all live on TV. We were at RAAF Wagga and undergoing Electrical Trade Training, and our Instructor had set up the TV in our classroom, and we were gathered around watching Neil Armstrong take that step.

              The responses are nearly always that I must have been watching a delayed broadcast, and I have to explain the time difference thing. (There’s a sidelight to this. If people have trouble wrapping their head around time difference, how do they expect to understand ‘Climate Science’, I think to myself, as they blindly accept what they are told, or read on the Internet without understanding that either)

              It was a similar thing with the Kennedy thing in Dallas, when I tell them that, as a 12 year old, I was at Saturday morning Junior tennis when it happened, because everyone ‘knows’ it happened on the Friday just after noon.

              The Internet gives the actual time of things as they happen, and people ‘build’ their actions around that.

              Tony.

              151

              • #
                sophocles

                Expanding your thought a bit, Tony: how many people would know and understand what UTC is and be able to convert to and from it to local time?
                I’m thinking not many if you are right about incoherence about time zones!

                80

              • #
                Ross

                Last night Alan Jones interviewed a guy who has recently written a book on the Australian involvement in the Apollo landing. Very interesting and worth looking up a replay.

                70

              • #
                John PAK

                I find it interesting that most older folk might not know what they were doing in say, 1990, but we all remember from half a century ago where we were and what we were doing on that day.
                At boarding school TV was strictly a week-ends only affair but the John Cleese-like headmaster had the good sense to put a TV up on a dinning-room table and made us all watch the landing because he knew just how significant it was.

                80

              • #
                GD

                When Armstrong walked on the moon, I was twelve years old, in the first year of high school. The day before, Sunday 20th July, I had my confirmation into the Anglican church at the local cathedral. My family weren’t particularly religious but respected tradition and sent us kids to Sunday School etc.

                I hardly remember the confirmation ceremony apart for the fact that the bishop talked about the men in space who were about to walk on the moon. He was most enthusiastic about it, saying today’s young boys and girls being confirmed would always have a milestone to remember their confirmation to the church.

                On Monday the 21st, I was kept home sick. It must have been all that communion wine the day before 🙂

                Around lunchtime, I was ‘recuperating’ on the living room sofa, waiting for the broadcast of the moon landing, and sure enough, there in black and white, and full glory were those first views from Honeysuckle Creek, and later Parkes.

                I was awestruck. I later wrote a poem about it and won a prize for it at the end of the school year presentations.

                Fifty years later, I am more awestruck and emotional, understanding that these men risked their lives, with full knowledge that they may never return to Earth. They trusted their lives to the most primitive of computing technology armed with nothing but manual calculations to bring them home.

                30

              • #
                Ted O'Brien.

                For me it was a glorified motor car that took them to the moon. Amazingly glorified for sure, but the thing that really amazed me about it all was that we could sit in our lounge rooms by the TV and watch them doing it in real time.

                20

          • #
            Greg in NZ

            Sophocles, like many NZ families in 1969, my parents bought their first (black-and-white) television set to watch this momentous occasion. However, on the morning of the big day out, my mum received a phone call to say her mother had just passed away in Christchurch, so while she packed a bag and headed for the airport, Dad and us kids (wrapped in blankets and with the fire going) sat around the goggle-box to watch history take a giant leap into the future for mankind.

            My first 7 years of life television-free had just ended: from growing up with encyclopaedia and dictionaries and atlases and Nat Geo magazines and library books, I suddenly discovered animated cartoons and British comedians and Hawaii-50… Postscript: I have now been television-free (again) for the past fifteen years…

            60

        • #
          beowulf

          You should have been watching Bolt last night where he interviewed the author of the new book Honeysuckle Creek who knew the chief engineer at that dish. The movie The Dish is wildly factually incorrect. Parkes did not give the world the pictures of the moon walk — it took over transmission later on. A technician at Goldstone dish in California stuffed up and so they had to rely on Honeysuckle Creek as the prime receiver, yet it’s role has been written out of history and further buried by the movie’s copious errors.

          130

          • #
            Graeme#4

            Only the first 15 mins? Then Parkes took over?

            50

            • #
              beowulf

              The crucial first 8 1/2 minutes were from Honeysuckle Ck, then Parkes for 2 hrs 12 min.

              Far from being an Australian stuff-up as the movie portrays it where they lost track of Apollo because an Aussie didn’t prime the generator, it was actually a Californian stuff-up. A Goldstone technician forgot to correct the inverted picture then messed it up even further at the crucial time, so mission control switched feed to Honeysuckle and Parkes and cut their own dish out of proceedings for the main event. Chuckle.

              60

          • #
            beowulf

            My own experience of the moon landing was less than spectacular. At our high school, kids who lived in town were given the afternoon off to go home early to watch the moon walk. Those of us who lived out of town were just tossed out into the playground for the afternoon to amuse ourselves. While the momentous achievement of man walking on the moon for the very first time was taking place, we hung around being bored and feeling quite let down. Transistor radios were strictly forbidden so we couldn’t even listen to the broadcast while the teachers huddled around a TV inside to watch it.

            I was extremely disappointed to miss out on seeing the walk and erroneously believed I had missed the whole event. How wrong I was.

            I raced home and turned on the TV and luckily there it was on replay at 4.15 pm YIPPEE!!! . . . and 5pm . . . and 5.15pm . . . and 5.30pm etc etc. in a solid, never-ending loop of video. Then it headlined the 6 o’clock news, and if you missed the start of the news it was repeated at the close. By 7pm I was heartily sick of the moon landing. Seeing one giant leap for mankind for the 27th time had become rather tedious for a 12 year old.

            I don’t know how it felt for adults, but the initial sense of wonderment I felt 2 weeks after my 12th birthday was pretty overwhelming — a belated birthday present. My ecstatic reaction to watching those first grainy black and white images where you had to squint and use a bit of imagination to understand what you were looking at as Armstrong came down the steps, was tempered by over-repetition.

            For all their technological marvel, subsequent moon landings were more tedious as the novelty wore off like watching replays of the same football game for the umpteenth time — just another moon landing was my attitude, an achievement that hasn’t been repeated for almost 47 years now.

            I also marvel at the US in its prime when it was so powerful and wealthy that it could conduct a space-race employing 400,000 people (NASA and contractors) to land men on the moon whilst simultaneously conducting a major war. Not even The Donald will make America that great again.

            90

            • #
              GD

              Not even The Donald will make America that great again.

              He’s kicking from a long way behind. The Democrats weren’t as toxic as they are now.

              Give the Donald three terms in office and what miracles we would see.

              10

    • #
      Gee aye

      …and it is all wrong.

      Vitally, the first 8 minutes, 51 seconds of TV coverage came not from Parkes but Honeysuckle Creek. Due to Parkes’ elevation constraint – 29° 38’ above the horizon – the Moon was still too low. HSK suffered a low signal-to-noise ratio but the engineers were able to adjust brightness and contrast. Within 20 seconds, they also flipped their inverter switch so that the images appeared the right way up.

      https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/how-earth-saw-apollo-11-first-steps/

      The documentary Jo quotes and the one on SBS last night show the inverted reception with some bemused looking staff at Houston.

      which can be backed up from official records.

      I like the fact that Australia sw it first about 6 seconds before the US.

      161

    • #
      Brian Wilshire

      When the movie, “The Dish”, was released, it was pointed out that the Parkes Radio telescope was not actually the device which picked up the signals from the Moon. That was the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station near Canberra.

      30

      • #
        Gee aye

        almost but not quite. You somehow missed two posts from about 5 hours before yours. Look up

        21

        • #
          Peter C

          I was under the same apprehension/ or misapprehension as Brian. I watched “The Dish” and at the time I also thought that the moon video had come via Tidbinbilla.

          Now there is a whole new story, which I was not previously aware of. The Truth is Out There somewhere.

          20

          • #
            Peter C

            I read the Sky and Telescope reference. Thanks Gee aye.
            I think that explains a lot.

            One thing you should note:
            “Editorial note: This piece originally referenced a 6-second delay in the American version of the Apollo 11 broadcast. There was no delay in the Apollo 11 broadcast, but there was a 6-second delay inserted in the Apollo 16 and 17 telecasts, due to an additional procedure that removed noise from the TV picture.”

            20

    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      “The Dish” was certainly part of the play, but from memory served as a backup function. It also served a more critical function for Apollo 13.

      The primary receiver was somewhere near Canberra, whence the signal went by PMG (Postmaster General. i.e. government monopoly, and a good one) facilities to Paddington in Sydney, thence to Moree where the satellite facility was. From there it went to the satellite, (was it Telstar or had Telstar already been superseded?), back to jamestown in California, thence overland to Houston, Texas, where NASA vetted it before publication to the world, then back by the same route to Paddington for publication in Australia.

      At Moree they had two black and white CRT screens, one for the primary signal and one for the return signal. There was about a half second delay for the time it took for the signal to go to the satellite and back twice. Which leaves us wondering when we see news casts with a several second delay as they switch to another location.

      About the PMG. It showed visible inefficiences, but gave us the world’s best telephone service under one of the world’s more difficult sets of conditions. The application of National Competition Policy to our communications has ensured that the full benefits of modern technology can not be achieved.

      20

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    An excellent choice for a thread topic Jo.

    Amongst all the confusion and focus on false idols this event could help us refocus on the truth of life.

    In a world the seems so lost, confused and demented the story of the Moon Exploration stands out as an example of something that was done Right.

    Part of the motivation for the Moon Mission was to show humanity that we could be bigger than we had been in the previous half century, that real science was capable of dealing with amazing dreams and that some had great courage.

    The moon story can teach us so much about ourselves and perhaps lead us to adopt a more realistic, positive way of life.

    The story may even inspire us to struggle, to see the truth of where we are now and work for something better.

    We Must face the fact that we are enslaved, that modern politics has a basis of deceit and misrepresentation that is so well done that, for most, it’s invisible.

    Our next great mission is not to the Moon but to a dysfunctional Parliament close bye.

    Blast off has occurred: Trumpit, Brexit, Yellow Vests.

    Now we need to close down the EEU and U.N. and all who sail under false flags crying for “equality” while stuffing their pockets with our cash and enslaving us.

    Arise, remember the Moon Mission.

    KK

    230

    • #
      sophocles

      KK:
      I think the EU will disintegrate in the not too far away future but the UN is a definite enemy.

      210

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Yes, the EEU has shown Europe’s workers that they are prepared to sacrifice them on the altar of false compassion.

        Workers aren’t stupid and the revolt has begun.

        The U.N. has a different composition and it’s harder for those contributing cash to feel the effect and become resentful.

        I know that every Australian household contributes one thousand dollars a year in excess electricity fees but I’d really like to know how much we send to the ungrateful, ever hungry United Bloody Nations?

        When Australians begin to see that they are being “had” big time we will be much better off.

        KK

        180

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          If you want to see the UN using its lackies in govt for its own ends, have a read of a lot of legislation that is as Bill submitted to parliament that has “adheres to UN treaty xyz” etc in its notes.

          The end game, is basically getting all Oz legislation to conform to and be moulded around the Communist UN, to make it the ( currently ) defacto and ( eventually ) the highest law making body on the planet.

          Something evil this way comes…..

          100

  • #
    MrGrimNasty

    None of the coverage in the UK has mentioned Buzz Aldrin’s statements on climate change, odd that!

    220

    • #
      tom0mason

      MrGrimNasty,

      “None of the coverage in the UK has mentioned Buzz Aldrin’s statements on climate change…”

      I’m sure that’s because the BBC considers him ‘unqualified’ to speak on the subject.

      170

      • #
        tom0mason

        Oops! that should be the BBC and all UK MSM considers him ‘unqualified’ to speak on the subject.

        130

      • #
        Annie

        There was a live interview of him on the Beeb a few years ago. He was asked by the interviewer about ‘fragile earth’ and straightaway responded that earth is not fragile, it is very robust. Red faces at the Beeb I guess. Is that interview expunged from their records?

        160

  • #
    tom0mason

    Great videos I hope they get wider air-time and for all people ‘offended’ by the pro-religion, anti-communism that Mr. Wittle voices all I can say is shut the fudge-up and grow-up. Communism is a failed idea get over it.

    I echo these comments from YouTube channel —

    I had no idea Madalyn Murray O’Hair had sued NASA! I forget these anti-Christian bullies/bigots have been around forever, trying to silence any mention of God that may enter their oh-so-sensitive ears. What a truly evil woman she was.
    ~~~~~~~~
    She also ended up in a shallow grave in West Texas, and nobody bothered to question why she never returned for the out of town trip she said she was going on or what her murder said.

    I too had no idea that NASA was sued by a communist nutjob who was so anti-religious that the merely hearing some religious words relayed from the moon by a sincere believer, fired up her over-active demented mind to the point she had to sue for all the ‘hurt’ it had caused her.

    Anti-religious communists types that I’ve happened to meet, or those I’ve heard about over the years have all been like that. At heart they are in a spoiled child mentality but with dangerously nasty overtones. They are the ones who run quickly to being ‘oh so offended’. IMO, people should tell these self-important nobodies to grow up. Law courts should never pander to their ‘I’m offended’ BS.

    Thank-you Joanne for showing these videos.
    P.S.
    Does anyone know when and where the next parts to these videos will become available?

    130

    • #
      RicDre

      I agree, the videos are excellent! Bill Whittle is an excellent host and I love his understated humor (in one of the commercials in part two [at the 12:27 mark] he says the needs for the production were small, a monthly budget for Tang and Space Food sticks, dry cleaning for his suit and a formaldehyde drip for the host…). I look forward to watching parts 3 & 4.

      100

    • #
      sophocles

      Gee.

      I rather prefer Dave Allen’s (remember him?) end of show signing off:

      May your God go with you.

      (lower case `g’ may be more appropriate but sometimes I do mind my manners! <grin>)

      80

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    And don’t forget the benefits to humanity from space travel …

    High-tech rockets, expensive propellants and billions of dollars in research aren’t the only things that have advanced space exploration.

    Plastic materials have played a vital role throughout the history of spaceflight, allowing astronauts to view their surroundings, breathe oxygen and travel comfortably in orbit around the earth, or on the way to the moon.

    Without plastics, space exploration would not be where it is today.

    – Stronger Helmets & Visors

    – Softer Spacecraft Seating

    – Better Radiation Protection

    – Stronger Lenses

    – Lighter Spacecraft:

    “Plastics are often lighter than other materials that would otherwise be used to make spacecraft.

    The use of lighter materials makes getting rockets and spacecraft off the ground more cost-effective and efficient.

    Plastic seals, flooring, seating and instrumentation panels are among the plastic components that have made spacecraft lighter and more nimble.”

    https://www.craftechind.com/plastic-materials-advanced-space-exploration/

    Thank you fossil fuels.

    140

    • #
      Another Ian

      Corning ware

      50

    • #
      tom0mason

      Yes and all in an era when there was :

      1. No personal computers.

      2. No mobile (cell)phones.

      3. No internet.

      4. Many properties were not connected to mains electricity.

      5. Printed newspapers and the radio were the main source of news.

      6. Color TV was new, novel, and expensive. It ran on valves (vacuum tubes) and was fairly unreliable. Video monitors were unknown (could the Apollo astronauts even view the video coming out of their video camera?).

      7. Fast food was new, novel, and inexpensive. Most people rarely ‘ate out’; home cooked meals, served at set times, and made from raw ingredients was usual.

      8. For many people refrigeration, if they had it at all, involved a big, usually noisy, inefficient, expensive to purchase and run machine.

      9. For many people heating their property involved burning wood, coal or gas. In cooler parts of the country most domestic dwellings had chimneys.

      10. ‘Make-do-and-mend’, buying secondhand, and maintenance was the ethos of the day. Most people could rarely afford to buy replacements for major domestic items.

      Life was analog, not digital!!
      ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

      An age when there was a real divide between them with money and those without, and it was often harshly enforced by the social norms.
      There was NO political correctness.

      ¯
      Up until the late 1970 recycling and repurposing was often done.
      Household rubbish was orders of magnitude less than today! Often glass bottles were recycled, old vehicle engines repurposed as pumps or generators, or reduced to ‘spare parts’.
      Today’s ‘sustainability’ ideas look weak compared to what the went before.

      90

      • #
        Another Ian

        “8. For many people refrigeration, if they had it at all, involved a big, usually noisy, inefficient, expensive to purchase and run machine.”

        Or still kero, with all the black arts required

        50

      • #
        Ross Stacey

        With all our advancements it is unbelievable to hear from the head of NASA that they have lost the technology they had ist that time. It is so difficult to recreate the technology we had back then.

        00

  • #
    Another Ian


    foobert
    July 16, 2019 at 1:38 pm

    I wonder if fifty years from now, people will look back in awe at the way we fought ‘climate change’.

    The Appollo and Manhattan projects of our time.

    /sarc (in case you need it)”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2019/07/16/your-moral-and-intellectual-superiors-116/#comment-1223206

    110

  • #
    el gordo

    If we accept the intelligence and heroics of the astronauts, then we are not alone.

    https://www.syti.net/UFOSightings.html

    Apologies to anyone who maybe offended.

    92

    • #
      el gordo

      Before the word police to come into the office, that should read ‘heroism’ and not ‘heroics’.

      50

    • #
    • #
      Kinky Keith

      I’m sure that you’ve personally checked all of that out and spoken with all the eye witnesses.

      Very scientific.

      50

      • #
        el gordo

        ‘Very scientific.’

        Observation is important, I once saw a fleet of UFO flying in V shape formation at fantastic speed and I was not alone.

        Many years ago an Eora man was standing on South Head when saw a large white bird skimming along the water from south to north, and there were ghosts on it.

        He excitedly told the rest of the clan what he had seen and for years it became a useful mimic around the campfire at night. A couple of decades later the fleet arrived in Port Jackson.

        50

        • #
          theRealUniverse

          If you were capable as some biological entity of travelling through interstellar space and had figured out how not to ‘age’ the thousands of years required even for short distances, why would you keep yourself a secret?

          50

          • #
            el gordo

            Don’t know, but I hazard a guess that our nuclear invention caught their attention.

            We have come a long way from gracile apes to spacemen, but perhaps not quite ready to become part of the Galactic Alliance.

            30

          • #
            Another Ian

            One look at Earth would probably explain it – wouldn’t want to import that back home

            30

        • #
          Kinky Keith

          That’s nothing.

          Seventy years ago my family was at the beach late one afternoon just after sunset. Everybody else had left.

          There was a strange cloud sitting over the channel fifty yards from shore but it seemed to have a solid core into which a column of water was being lifted.

          The channel was always full of fish.

          At the other end of the cloud a stream of water was being pumped out that included some seaweed and a large fish.

          The cloud then rose rapidly and vanished leaving churned water below and the single stunned fish struggling on the surface.

          It made its way to the shore and I went down to have a look. It was a mullet and he was stunned.

          I was curious about why he was spat out of the cloud and found that he could speak English.
          Apparently this had happened before and the cloud was actually a spacecraft but the occupants only wanted flathead from the channel, mullet were seen as second rate food.

          Since then I’ve always admired mullet for their toughness.

          KK

          60

          • #
            el gordo

            That is a tall fish story, I accept the virgin birth and ascension because they are plausible.

            40

            • #
              Kinky Keith

              I accept that people may have seen unusual things and jumped to the thing they feel explains the situation, alien space craft, but I can’t see any way it could come about.

              As to virgin birth and ascension my take is that two thousand years ago it was hard to find words to explain how to think better and live together in harmony , so a story was invented to get the message across.

              The world’s a complicated place, especially the inner world, just ask AOC.

              10

              • #
                el gordo

                ‘I can’t see any way it could come about.’

                What I saw was also seen by thousands of Australians and the authorities had no answer. The reality is that they are here and considering how life abounds throughout the universe, its mathematically impossible to be alone.

                20

            • #
              Gee aye

              Two plausibe things can be completely contradictory and impossible to both exist. You set a low bar for the beliefs you jump over.

              00

    • #
      Dennis

      A difficult subject that tends to attract criticism when mentioned, yet there are many published and unpublished accounts of sightings of unidentified flying objects including WW2 “foo fighters” as the allies called them which were reported by airmen from both sides of WW2. A former Canadian Airforce officer told me about occasional sightings that were reported by him when flying surveillance aircraft monitoring USSR maritime movements.

      During the 1990s a former ADF officer (retired) who spent considerable time in Indonesia told a group of people including myself that on one flight to Indonesia aboard a RAAF C-130 Hercules he was standing on the flight deck when a large grey cylindrical object was sighted ahead and above the flight path of the C-130, about the dimensions of a Boeing 747 but with without wings, tail or windows. A couple of years later he met the flight crew again and attempted to discuss the sighting but they were not willing to participate indicating that they were not permitted to discuss the matter.

      My personal experience took place in Queensland on the Fraser Coast one evening, a small group of people were enjoying an evening meal on a Queenslander house verandah when a neighbour called out for us to look into the night sky and observe 4 red “dots” passing overhead at considerable speed, no noise, no trail and the red lights not flashing. They were in a 1-2-1 formation and heading north. A couple of hours later another 4 passed heading north.

      Whatever these objects were, it would be interesting to know.

      70

      • #
        sophocles

        Dennis:

        What time of the year did your Queensland event occur?
        Just curious …

        40

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Ive done some reading and am reasonably convinced they are advanced tech, terrestrial in origin and part of anti-gravity reasearch. If you think of how we went from manully emptied loos via the Night Man to atomic boms in the 1940s, other significant leaps in technology are cretainly feasible…..

        50

  • #
    Another Ian

    Around this area

    Find yourself a copy of Flying July 1989 and read “Moonstruck” by Gordon Baxter, who worked as a reporter assigned to NASA at the time of the launch.

    Punch line is that when he rang Johnson Space Centre to enquire of Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins they were unrecognised by the public relations department (page 42)

    50

  • #
    Dennis

    The background and potential future of Helium-3 is interesting, an abundance in Moon soil, China refers to it as the perfect fuel, major powers have been working towards a mining venture on the Moon.

    40

  • #
    Ruairi

    The whole world should praise the brave crew,
    Of Apollo 11 who flew,
    With such skill and command,
    Their mission to land,
    On the moon,from Earth,the first two.

    150

  • #
    Ross

    Completely off topic but Stuff (the online newspaper for Fairfax or whatever it’s new name is now) has this major graphic/interactive up today on why we have a “climate emergency”. Absolutely appalling alarmism. I hope Australia does not get hammered with it or an equivalent version.

    https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/07/407-and-rising/

    61

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Stuffed stuff !

      60

    • #
      el gordo

      Hadn’t heard of them, it seems to be a cross between the Daily Mail and Guardian.

      ‘Stuff Limited, is a news media company operating in New Zealand, and is a subsidiary of Australia’s Nine Entertainment. Stuff operates nine daily newspapers throughout New Zealand, as well as one weekly paper, the Sunday Star-Times. Magazines published include TV Guide, New Zealand’s top-selling weekly magazine.’

      50

      • #
        Another Ian

        Sounds more like Stuff Unlimited

        40

      • #
        Ross

        el gordo

        The main newspaper in their “stable” is the Dominion Post which is the daily for Wellington and it’s surroundings. So it one of the top 3 papers in NZ but in recent years has “gone to the dogs” more than most MSM papers. The new owners want to sell off the NZ arm and I do not blame them. Better do it quickly because it will not be worth much soon.

        40

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      stuff nz are the greatest alarmist supporters of all. Sickening rubbish they publish.

      70

      • #
        Greg in NZ

        That’s why I link to them here – on the very odd occasion – because they’re so far out and twisted in the Alarmist World Of Lunacy (there’s that AWOL thing again). And yes, they’re yours, as in a branch of “Australia’s Nine Entertainment”. Hang on, you guys own our banks too. I think I’ve just figured sumpthink out…

        30

        • #
          sophocles

          and one of our two chocolate manufacturers … Cadbury.

          They recently shut down the Dunedin factory and moved production to West Island. I promptly lost my appetite for Cadbury’s Chocolate and now only … umm … heh … consume Whittakers — a far and away superior chocolate.

          10

    • #
      sophocles

      Yeah saw that. We debate with lunatics

      … and it’s a full moon tonight.

      Hear them bay!

      Whatever you do, Ross, don’t panic. It’s going to get worse, not better. (the MSM, not CO2 …as Prof Happer says: we’re in a CO2 “drought”/dearth/shortage!). We’ll see PS (Peak Stupid) over September.

      NZ has 0.06% of the world’s population, and 0.0003% of the global land area. Yet Stuff’s stupid (that’s stupid as in unintelligent/unthinking) web page implies NZ has to save the planet all on it’s own. The planet has survived for over 4 billion years and it was doing just fine until all the lunatics with the red ink/paint/dye managed to wrest control of the asylum ….

      0.06% of the population is insignificant …
      0.0003% of the global land area is even more insignificant
      4 molecules of CO2 per 10,000 molecules of atmosphere is even more insignificant — that’s less significant.

      Stuff claims 407 molecules of CO2 per million molecules of atmosphere. It sounds far scarier, and more significant because most people can’t quite get their heads round a million ….

      (Yes, I know argon is a “noble” gas and is comprised of `individual’ atoms and not molecules….)

      Yet it’s so very very important to Stuff.
      In a word, their concern about the insignificances of life is utterly and comprehensively stupid

      They’re all mad.

      Maybe it is the full moon tonight 🙂

      10

  • #
    Gee aye

    Remember a time when NASA could achieve great things…

    is so disingenuous to the people who have worked at NASA’s space program since the moon landings ended. You can easily read the history yourself of the funding cuts, the efforts to get projects running and the projects that actually eventuated and are still running. Find for yourself the scientific output of these.

    The moon landings were without argument a great achievement but they were also of their time. As well as being a scientific, engineering and technological high in human history were also motivated by a political and social conflict and were supported financially to achieve much more than to get on the moon. Since then the political motivation has been lacking.

    here are lists that contain many ho hum/meh space missions that are not very great

    https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/?order=launch_date+desc&per_page=50&page=0&search=&fs=&fc=&ft=&dp=&category=
    https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/?type=current

    41

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Not the funding cuts, oh no!
      Isn’t this an example of the current victimhood approach to life.

      The main point I’ve taken from the post is that the Moon mission drew us out of ourselves and gave hope for a better future, where did I go wrong.

      Must I really acknowledge constant cries of victimhood from people at University consuming funding that would support ten or more families in outback Africa?

      Can’t.
      Really.
      Accept that.
      Proposition.

      KK

      70

      • #
        Peter C

        Is Gee aye at a University then?

        40

      • #
        Another Ian

        A friend was involved with NASA and Pioneer/Mariner.

        He realised that once the landings had been achieved the money would run out and moved on.

        50

        • #
          Gee aye

          as did many and successfully so. The outcome was not long term unemployment for people who would have hit he labour market with a great skill set and experience.

          41

      • #
        Gee aye

        KK… funding was cut as it was not needed any more to get to the moon. Money got them there and lack of money stopped them going further. It is not a victimhood if you cared to see what they did with what remained

        32

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      I remember when Kiwi Pickering, head of JPL ran the whole show.

      30

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      A big hairy adacious goal is the mother of all great achievements.

      The current media and PC losers are the ones who try and suppress mankind’s inate drive to better himself. PC and the Great Weenie Leftist Victimhood are all about trying to suppress humanity. It cant last…something has to give…either the weenies get steamrolled, or they slaughter mankind….its the only way it will end.

      Alea Iacta Est.

      50

    • #
      sophocles

      Considering NASA’s funding dearth/shortage/drought, they still do more than OK on the bones they’re tossed.

      Their New Horizons probe to the Pluto/Charon system (primary mission) and a bit of exploration of some other Kuiper Belt Objects (secondary mission) says they can still do good stuff.

      The Cassini-Huygens probe to Saturn with a lander onto Saturn’s moon Titan, even though it was a collaborative effort with the Italians and the EU, and not a purely NASA mission, was exciting and impressive stuff.

      Given their fiscal hands being cuffed to their fiscal feet, NASA can still do good stuff.

      (NB: NASA GISS is explicity excluded from that praise …)

      30

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        NASA GISS is explicity excluded from that praise …)

        NASA GISS is explicity excluded from that praise …)

        🙂 🙂

        10

  • #
    Terry

    https://billwhittle.com/shows-by-date/

    Don’t need to rely on Google/Youtube. Just go straight to the source.

    60

  • #
  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    It was JFK who insisted on the moon missions being crewed by astronauts, as the scientists and engineers were of the view that more would be gained by sending instruments, particularly as the life support functions took up almost all the payload. JFK stated that without a human component, no one would be interested, and history proves that he was right. As Gee Aye says, unmanned missions are very ho hum, but do yield more data than the manned missions did.

    41

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    ‘It was JFK who insisted on the’ No it was actually LBJ who pushed the Apollo expeditions to upset the Russians in the cold war.It was all about cold war brinkmanship.
    “Few people today realize or remember, but a single man, Lyndon Baines Johnson, ‘LBJ’, is primarily responsible for both starting and ending ‘The Space Race’”.

    30

    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      So the Famous JFK speech is fake then?

      12

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        I suspect that the JFK speech was what the LBJ push used for authority.
        I’d never really thought much about the fact that JFK died in ’63 and the Moon landing was ’69.
        Kennedy wasn’t there to push it.
        Was it really LBJ?

        20

  • #
    theRealUniverse

    I often wonder how they got through the Van Allen belts. Then theres this statement.
    “NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration calls for a return to the Moon as preparation for even longer journeys to Mars and beyond. But there’s a potential showstopper: radiation. Space beyond low-Earth orbit is awash with intense radiation from the Sun and from deep galactic sources such as supernovas. […] the most common way to deal with radiation is simply to physically block it, as the thick concrete around a nuclear reactor does. But making spaceships from concrete is not an option”
    Still wonders happen.

    80

  • #
    el gordo

    A moon story with a difference, measuring the cosmic ray bombardment during solar minimum.

    https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2019/07/16/cosmic-ray-update-new-results-from-the-moon/

    40

    • #
      el gordo

      Chang’e 4 on the far side is having ‘issues’ with cosmic rays.

      40

      • #
        Greg in NZ

        Tis worser then thay thunked! It’s now Climate Cosmic Change!! Saint Greta slave us from the CO₂ space rays!!!

        [all spelling mistakes are intentional, not international]

        40

  • #
    Chad

    Many of youwill be aware,..the SBS channel have been running a 66 part doco on the Nasa moon programme called. “Chasing the Moon”.
    A lot of untold background and interviews with astronaughts , engineers, family etc..even a parallel commentary by the son of Kruchchoff relaying some insight on the Russian efforts.
    Much unseen video.(film) footage and the true stories behind key moments. ( Apollo 11 was not actually expected to land on the moon !!) .
    Some stunning visuals .

    60

    • #
      RicDre

      In the US, PBS is also running a 3-part program called “Chasing the Moon” as part of their “American Experience” series; I wonder if this the same program. I think it probably is as each part in the PBS program is 2 hours long so it could also be broadcast as 6 one hour long programs.

      60

  • #
    Chad

    Oops !.. that is a SIX part doco ….

    60

  • #
    Bulldust

    Somewhat related is this story at the ABC today:

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-17/moon-us-plans-cold-war-russia-sputnik/11220340

    The plans to nuke the moon during the cold war. Interesting to see young Mr Carl Sagan on the project team. I loved Cosmos growing up … used to put the rest of the family to sleep (not the reason I loved the show per se…)

    20

    • #
      RicDre

      I also loved the COSMOS series by Carl Sagan. When they released the series on DVD, I bought it and occasionally watch my favorite episodes.

      Sadly, the remake by Neil Degrasse Tyson was not nearly as well done as the original series

      50

      • #
        Bulldust

        The NdG version was appalling by comparison and full of CAGW nonsense. Just like Brian Cox, Attenborough and Kaku, NdG has to follow the mainstream climate narrative or be banned from all polite circles and funding. Who knows what they truly believe?

        10

  • #
    Bulldust

    Bill Whittle is conservatively minded but does appear on YouTube a fair bit. From memory he lives near to Dave Rubin and did a show with him at least once. Here we go:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4OKCmCJpgI

    But then Rubin would be labelled alt right these days, cos reasons…

    30

  • #
    Robber

    I interrupt this fascinating discussion of a great scientific achievement because the ‘climate scientists’ on the City of Melbourne Council have declared we are facing a climate emergency.
    Stand by for announcements of windmills to be placed atop all city buildings, all cars to be banned from the city, all city workers to work only 3 days per week to reduce congestion and energy usage, lighting, heating and cooling all to be slashed by 50% immediately, no more nighttime sporting events, no more fireworks. And for all citizens: become a citizen forester, purchase 100% green power, love your leftovers, only travel “sustainably”.
    “We invite you to join us in our commitment to urgent, transformational action, with clear benefits for all who live and work in our city.”

    90

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Shall we just put a ring fence around Victoriastand and let it degenerate into filth and disease like LA & California has?

      Compare and contrast –

      Two different opinions –

      (1) Evidence based ( Left creates 3rd world conditions through its inate lack of any form of management ability )

      https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2019/06/25/bubonic-plague-in-los-angeles-is-california-on-the-verge-of-becoming-our-first-thirdworld-state-n2548969

      “Tucker Carlson had historian Victor Davis Hanson on last week, where the latter said that California is on the verge of becoming the nation’s first Third World state. From trash being illegally dumped to city hall becoming a rat-infested den in the city of LA, it all points to the decay suffered when Democrats run things. Even police stations in the city are loaded with rats; one was fined $5,000 over its conditions that left one officer stricken with typhoid fever. It’s to the point where there is a possibility that bubonic plague—yes, the black death—may be present in the city. This isn’t new. Typhus outbreaks were being reported in February (via NBC Los Angeles):

      “Oh, yeah, and bubonic plague could be roaming the streets (via Daily Wire):

      “We have a complete breakdown of the basic needs of civilization in Los Angeles right now,” Pinsky told Fox New host Laura Ingraham. “We have the three prongs of airborne disease, tuberculosis is exploding, rodent-borne. We are one of the only cities in the country that doesn’t have a rodent control program, and sanitation has broken down.”
      Pinsky said bubonic plague — also known as the “Black Death,” a pandemic that killed off millions in the 14th century — is “likely” already present in Los Angeles. The plague is spread by infected fleas and exposure to bodily fluids from a dead plague-infected animal, with the bacteria entering through the skin and traveling to lymph nodes.
      […]
      “This is unbelievable. I can’t believe I live in a city where this is not Third World. This is medieval,” Pinsky said, according to Fox News. “Third World countries are insulted if they are accused of being like this. No city on Earth tolerates this. The entire population is at risk.”

      (2) Leftist fairy story stuff about climate change ( ignoring leftist management failure and amping up the hysteria ) – blame steam ships…add that to the list….

      https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-randall-plague-climate-change-rats-20190516-story.html

      “The steamship caused the last global outbreak of bubonic plague. Climate change could cause the next one.

      “Longer, hotter weather patterns are extending the breeding season of rats and rodents, leading to a steep increase in their numbers in places like Los Angeles, New York and Houston. Over the last decade, urban rat populations are up by 15% to 20% worldwide, thanks to a combination of climate changes and a greater preference among humans for urban living, increasing the amount of trash available for scavengers, according to estimates from Bobby Corrigan, a rodent control consultant and one of the nation’s leading rat experts.

      As the Leftist states in the US continue to collapse, North Korea style, the Leftists will be slowly eradicated by the morass they have engineered.

      Leftism, it turns out, is self limiting, by killing itself.

      Whiter go thou, Victoriastan?

      70

      • #

        We know leftism = Marxism = satanism = lost soul forever

        51

        • #
          el gordo

          Do you have any empirical evidence to support your hypothesis?

          20

          • #
            Gee aye

            the link is in his username 😉

            21

            • #
              sophocles

              No GA: Staal in low German or Dutch means steel.

              For pre-unification times, it suggests family origins in or from Brandenburg-Prussia …

              You know what is traditionally made of steel, so try to be nice …

              10

          • #

            EG: “Do you have any empirical evidence to support your hypothesis?”. How many human beings have suffered and died under Marxism? 160 million? Not evil? How many are suffering under Cultural Marxism today(political correctness)?
            In order to understand political correctness, a prior understanding of its origins is essential. Once the true goals and objectives of CM are understood and internalized, then at any point when political correctness appears on the landscape, one can simply reflect on how it is supporting the true, hidden goals and objectives of Cultural Marxism.
            Note that in all of the above, there is scripture which establishes the exact context for CM and its child, political correctness:

            “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

            If you suspect that I am equating CM with the demonic – that is, “spiritual wickedness in high places” – you would be correct. If its primary objective is to destroy Christianity (and western civilization), how can it be otherwise?

            40

            • #
              OriginalSteve

              The current climate malaise ( along with the clised mindedness of people ) is IMHO, a spritual one…..people have overwhelmingly rejected God ( look at the public vote SSM last year for example).

              God said he would give people over to a seared conscience and a reprobate mind if they rejected him, so i think this is what we are now seing now.

              A planet cant go collectively mad all by itself…..just doesnt happen in the natural…

              20

              • #
                Kinky Keith

                I agree Steve.

                People seem to have dismissed the idea of personal responsibility for their actions and the world is much worse off.

                Without any personal effort or analysis people look at their neighbour and adopt the views and behaviours of what is basically a headless mob.

                KK

                10

    • #
  • #
    Kevin Anderson

    I don’t know how anyone still believes in the Moon landings in this day of age?
    All you have to do is speed the film up and you get Earth gravity motion.
    There is no video showing 1/6 Earth gravity, if you’re on the moon where are the videos of 1/6 Earth gravity?
    The moon buggy is a great example of dust flowing in Earths gravity.
    Speed up the film of the moon buggy and you get Earths gravity and Earths particle effects, it’s that easy!

    46

    • #
      Crakar24

      KA,

      I think we would all acknowledge the moon footage….. In fact most NASA footage is fake but ask yourself this. If Apollo 11 never landed on the moon who put the laser reflectors on the surface?

      81

    • #
      John PAK

      Granted, -many of the pieces of film display studio construction but it may be that the actual film was of such poor quality that they felt obliged to re-create it for popular consumption. The Moon has some special characteristics that make photography difficult. One side of the camera is very hot while the other is freezing cold. The light to shadow contrast is extreme. The incoming cosmic radiation creates white flashes on the film. Movie cameras were heavy so I doubt they could afford to carry many. In the windless low gravity of the Moon, dust would have been spread far and wide by the landing module’s engine yet we see little evidence of that in the footage so I’d say many of the shots are re-created to maintain popular support for an extremely expensive program.

      32

      • #
        beowulf

        Don’t forget the moon walk was not for 6 hours after the module landed. Enough time for dust to disperse?

        30

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        Movie cameras in 1969 used big power, esp TV cameras which they HAD to have. Many watts. How did they power them?

        10

      • #
        sophocles

        In the windless low gravity of the Moon, dust would have been spread far and wide by the landing module’s engine yet we see little evidence of that in the footage

        Maybe that’s because you are looking but not seeing …

        20

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Maybe the best footage will be found on the three reels being auctioned at Sotheby’s? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/arts/moon-landing-tapes-auction.html

      Or will you just speed them up and claim its footage of really fast rockets and people on speed……..jackass.

      60

    • #
      Chad

      KA,.. try telling Buzz Aldrin that !
      As the argument goes…
      I can see why they may have faked it once,.. but why bother to fake it multiple times ?
      And… considering how many people were involved..400,000 total , and the potential huge rewards for a “wistleblower”. How come there has never been a certified leak of any evidence in the 50 years since the event ?

      80

    • #
      Ian Hill

      A work colleague who happened to be born just before the Apollo 11 journey came up to me in 1993 and announced that the Moon landing was faked. I was stunned and immediately said “do you think the Russians would be party to a hoax?” She immediately said “no”. I never heard another word about it.

      20

  • #
    John PAK

    Tho’ I disapprove of having heros Burt Rutan has to be a contender.
    As a young man I’d always thought that NASA needed to get rid of some of the weight of the Space Shuttle (e.g.ceramic tiles) and launch it off the back of a high-flying Jumbo during a shallow dive and then have a fibreglass mega parachute for vertical re-entry. My father, an aero-engineer, said unequivocally that the Shuttle was too heavy for a 747 and as usual, poured ridicule upon my ideas.
    Rutan is a “blue-sky-thinker” and made a super light launch vehicle and a super-light rocket with wings that could sort of parachute back in and then flip to being a glider and land like a plane. Absolutely brilliant.
    Rutan is bold enough to be creative, clever enough to do the maths but still a gentleman and a human being. They are few and far between. Definitely hero material.

    40

  • #
    Zane

    AOC is another space cadet.

    40

  • #
    Kevin Anderson

    How do you keep space suits cool on the moon when the surface temp is about 160 degrees?
    How do you extract body heat from the suits when you’re in a vacuum on the moon surface of 160 degrees?

    LRV On The Moon Apollo 16 Stabilized HD
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dVX16sBV0s
    Dust particles from the moon buggy wheels move just like there on Earth?
    Dust particles in a vacuum form a perfect parabola, there are no videos of moon dust moving at 1/6 Earth gravity and forming a perfect parabola because of no atmosphere?

    54

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Are you serious or just trolling?

      81

    • #
      Crakar24

      KA,

      What is the air temperature in a vacuum……careful with your answer.

      As I said above most footage is fake, you can watch an astronaught working on the space station and air bubbles float from bottom to top.

      But again I ask you who put the laser reflectors on the moons surface, Russians, Chinese, aliens?

      63

  • #
    Zane

    I am guessing moon-life should suit the greenies very well, it being a mostly carbon-free environment…).

    30

  • #
    Kevin Anderson

    Have not looked into the reflectors. ( Russian Bots)?
    At the Moon’s surface, the beam is about 6.5 kilometers (4.0 mi) wide[9][i] and scientists liken the task of aiming the beam to using a rifle to hit a moving dime 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) away. The reflected light is too weak to see with the human eye. Out of 1017 photons aimed at the reflector, only one is received back on Earth, even under good conditions

    The ongoing Lunar Laser Ranging experiment or Apollo landing mirror measures the distance between surfaces of Earth and the Moon using laser ranging. Lasers at observatories on Earth are aimed at retroreflectors planted on the Moon during the Apollo program (11, 14, and 15), and the two Lunokhod missions.[1] Laser light pulses are transmitted and reflected back to Earth, and the round-trip duration is measured. The lunar distance is calculated from this value.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment#Principle

    “At the Moon’s surface, the beam is about 6.5 kilometers (4.0 mi) wide”? You would think something would reflect in a 6.5 k zone?
    “Out of 1017 photons aimed at the reflector, only one is received back on Earth, even under good conditions”

    40

    • #
      Crakar24

      Ok ka so we have established there are reflectors on the surface, next question if not human who put them there?

      Any thoughts on the temp of space yet……remembering its as you said a vacuum.

      40

      • #
        sophocles

        remembering its as you said a vacuum.

        Not quite. It’s bathed in the Solar Wind.

        20

      • #
        Lars P.

        “Ok ka so we have established there are reflectors on the surface, next question” …… “who put them there?”

        Answer: The russians.
        No, really they did it: Luhokhod (1 and 2) brought also own reflectors 🙂

        10

  • #
    Kevin Anderson

    The same scientists that say we landed on the moon say every year it’s the hottest on record, totally ignoring the dust bowls of the 1930s?

    July on course to be the hottest month ever, say climate scientists.
    “Michael Mann” how was this guy not arrested for the hockey stick!
    In response to the new numbers, Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, tweeted: “This is significant. But stay tuned for July numbers.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/16/july-on-course-to-be-hottest-month-ever-say-climate-scientists

    Is Michael Mann in charge of the Moon reflector data?

    10