moon landing 47 years ago

[Whofan]

I was 19 at the time and home from University, and my father and I stayed up that night to watch it. Absolutely gripping stuff, and every subsequent mission was just as exciting for me.

And somewhere in the house I have some terribly poor photo's I took off the TVs of the broadcast of a lunar module launch from the moon. You know, I can't remember if it was the first or a subsequent mission.

[Eric Mc]

No live TV images of the Lunar Module taking off were possible until the last three missions, 15,16 and 17. The TV camera used on these last missions was attached to a mount on the front of the Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV). The camera could be panned and tilted by remote control by an operator in Houston.

The astronauts parked the rover a few hundred feet from the Lunar Module after the final EVA. This was to ensure it was clear of any blast from the Lunar Module ascent engine when it was fired for lift off. The camera operator had to predict the exact moment of lift off and send the instruction to tilt the camera up to follow the Lunar Module about 1 second ahead of the actual lift off itself - because of the round trip time delay in the signal. He didn't really get it right until Apollo 17.

All the Lunar Modules were fitted with an 8mm movie camera which was mounted on a bracket aimed out the Lunar Module pilots. The on board footage you see of the lift off comes from these cameras. Obviously, nobody saw that footage until well after the astronauts had come home because the film needed to be developed first. But there isn't even that footage from Apollo 11 because Buzz forgot to switch the camera on

[Liney]

I was 16, a first year engineering apprentice at RAF Halton. We stayed up to watch it in the TV room and then walked outside to look up at the moon - such an incredible achievement for human beings.

[Tzulscha]

I remember clutching my paper model LEM and touching down on Moms ironing board the same time they landed.

I think I was 10. Then went out and looked at the moon...

Gulf gas stations were handing out diecut paper models of the LEM and i must have built twenty of those things...

I wish I still had one.

[Eric Mc]

I built my own cardboard Lunar Module by cutting up a Kellogg's Corn Flakes box. Any similarity between the end product and the actual Lunar Module was purely coincidental.

A few months later, I was bought the Airfix Lunar Module which I built badly (I was only 11) but it was a better effort than my cardboard version.

[Flankerman]

I can remember buying bars of Bournville dark chocolate (which I hated) - just for the gold foil to use on my Airfix LEM.

Ah! - happy days.

Ken

[TallBlondJohn]

4 weeks old and having my midnight feed, apparently I did look at the TV at some point. And I did grow up in a world were men went to the moon all the time. One of my earliest memories is sitting on the doorstep at night trying to spot the rockets going up. Still looking.

[Kallisti]

I think I can honestly say that this event changed my life. I was 8 years old at the time and I do remember being allowed to stay up to watch it. After that, I became fascinated by Astronomy and decided I wanted to get to University to study Astronomy.. .10 years later I achieved my goal and started at uni in 1979, studying Astrophysics. I never got a job as an Astrophysicist 9there aren't any really), but it dead teach me FORTRAN programming which lead to a career in the IT industry ever since...

[Eric Mc]

I became an accountant. What went wrong?