2 posts tagged “apollo 11”
In addition to the return of the Apollo astronauts to earth on July 24, this week included a number of other returns:
In a 1954, for the first time ever, the sound of a human voice returned to earth after having been, transmitted beyond the ionosphere and bounced off the moon. The voice was that of James H. Trexler, an engineer in the Radio Countermeasures Branch at the Naval Research Laboratory’s Stump Neck radio antenna facility in Maryland. It took two and a half seconds for his words to return to him at Stump Neck, after traveling 500,000 miles via an Earth-Moon circuit.
In 1977 Deng Xiaoping, the disgraced deputy Prime Minister of China, returned to Chinese government.
In 1980 the first human re-entry was made into the Three Mile Island Unit-2 containment building since it was shut down following its partial melt-down on March 28, 1979.
And in 2005 Lance Armstrong closed out his cycling career with a seventh consecutive Tour de France victory.
And more in keeping with the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s line from the movie “The Shining,” here’s some news about someone who would NOT be back:
In 1979, a Miami jury convicted Ted Bundy of first-degree murder in the slayings of Florida State University sorority sisters Margaret Bowman and Lisa Levy.
I guess when we saw the occupants of the Apollo 11 land on the moon on July 20, 1969 we Boomers really believed we were almost there. We could discern that very first lightening of the dark night sky, the dawn of the golden age of peace, of love, of free room and board. The dawning of the Age of Aquarius!
Alas, it was not to be. But for that one moment – WOW!
You can watch the lunar landing again on YouTube
View images of the mission by going to: Apollo 11 image library
Listen to audio or read transcripts from the mission by going to: Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal
