I went to Johnson Space Center a decade or so back. They have the Apollo rocket laying on its side in sections. The 2 things that got me where the utter enormity of it and the absolutely agricultural looking plumbing smothering the area above the engine nozzles.
One of the most interesting YouTube videos I've ever seen...
If you have a sense of how risky it was for the astronauts on NASA's space programme, you MUST read Beyond by Stephen Walker and get some insight into Gagarin's flight. Excellent book, makes Apollo 11 look incredibly over-engineered and risk-free - I remember reading that their hard-bitten flight director was in tears the night before he chose who was flying, because he was convinced he was sending them to their doom.
Love the NASA woven memory!
It was absolutely audacious that they thought there was the slightest chance of getting men to the moon and back
But did they? Makes you think.
If we're talking about fake pics, I'm suspicious about that first subwoofer photo above. Firstly the size of the cone looks much bigger than the pics of it in the case. The cone is meant to be 160cm (5'3") diameter. Secondly that thing weighs well north of 400kg and they're just rolling it down those steps like a piece of furniture. Eh, who knows, maybe they're really short men and it doesn't have the coil attached?
https://audio-database.com/MITSUBISHI-DIATONE/diatonesp/d-160-e.html
Anyway, I want one 🙂
going back to the Chicgo San Francisco picture- the majority of the damage was due to fires rather than the quake as house owners couldn't insure against quake damage. As a result they set the houses alight. Some were even stated by the fire department (!) to create fire breaks
The guy on the right is Andre the Giant.
Link between Andre the Giant and Barack Obama?
Andre the Giant has a posse was a street art campaign by Shepard Fairey - https://www.deodato.art/en/blog/post/a-closer-look-andre-the-giant-by-shepard-fairey-1989 - who years later repurposed the style into the HOPE campaign propelling Obama into the White House.
JFK had a “we’ve ****ed it” speech pre-written.
Wasn't there a quote from one astronaut who complained that they were essentially sitting on top a mass of components made by thousands of different manufacturers all working to lowest-bid contracts.
There was a thread on here 10 or more years ago with a photo of lion as a passenger on the Wall-of Death. So many questions!
Have a moving picture
Would you really trust this to go to the moon in?
There was also a British Wall of Death Lion called 'Briton' who rode in a sidecar with 'Tornado Smith'
Would you really trust this to go to the moon in?
It didn't, that's a Mercury capsule I think.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see some of this stuff first-hand at KSC and a couple of museums, the one overriding take-away I took away was just how astonishing it was that none of the astronauts took one look at it and went “**** that.”
You've got to remember, though, that at the time that all looked massively hi-tech and futuristic. We have the same disconnect when we look at a Spitfire (for example) - it's a vintage plane, beautiful but old-fashioned. But back in 1940 it was cutting-edge technology, and the pilots of the day would have had a very different opinion of it.
Think I've found the original for the Lightning crash picture:-
https://resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/p8942234_i_h10_aa.jp g" alt="" width="1100" height="618" />
The bear made Corporal in the Army during WW2
The bear made Corporal in the Army during WW2
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-34748795
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/soldier-bear-statue
That's insane. Lived on until 1963.
The bear made Corporal in the Army during WW2
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-34748795https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/soldier-bear-statue
That’s insane. Lived on until 1963.
What a wonderful story.
The bear made Corporal in the Army during WW2
Following a sustained misinformation campaign mounted by allied intelligence services to convince the German military that cats were allergic to pollen this member of Kitten Commando Corp was able to infiltrate enemy lines, overcome their floral defences and deliver a hand grenade, taking out 3 SS solders during their crossword break.
It didn’t, that’s a Mercury capsule I think.
Indeed it is. My Action Man had one.
The bear made Corporal in the Army during WW2
Ticks all the boxes for a mortar crew to be fair to him
Looking at that moon rocket stuff makes me think I might try one once I have finished the car. What could possibly go wrong?
Looking at that moon rocket stuff makes me think I might try one once I have finished the car. What could possibly go wrong?
You have amazing energy and an ability to get stuff done. I'm sure at least part of you will make it into space.
It didn’t, that’s a Mercury capsule I think.
I'll bet that made all the difference as they rattled around the upper atmosphere at a few thousand miles and hour in something that looks like it was made of Meccano in someone's shed.
that quote is from Armageddon I think, Steve Buscemi said it ?
That being the case, whilst I genuinely enjoy Armageddon, it's a front runner for the "worst science ever in a Hollywood movie" award and there's stiff competition.
Indeed it is. My Action Man had one.
I wasn't sure whether it was Mercury or Gemini (hence "I think"), they're very similar. But the lettering gives it away, Mercury had "United States" on the side, Gemini read "U.S. Air Force."
In the flesh it would be obvious, Gemini is considerably larger (because it was a 2-man tent rather than a 1-man) but that's difficult to gauge from a photo. Needs a banana for scale. (-:
Seeing the pile of code, I was thinking how lucky they were that I was not on the team. I used to mung up Sperry 494 code regularly in a past life. It was fun having manuals dated 1959 and being very creative with using minute quantities of memory.
If you're a fan of the Apollo 11 stuff, I can absolutely recommend "13 Minutes to the Moon", a BBC series on BBC Sounds:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2
Series 1 is about Apollo 11 and its conception and development, explaining bit by bit the recording of the radio transmissions between the Eagle lander, the orbiter and Mission Control. It's spine-tingling, amazing listening.
Series 2 is about Apollo 13 and the exceptional problem, and problem-solving, involved in the mission and how incredible it was to get the astronauts safely back to earth.
Assuming any of it is real, of course... 😉
It looked incredibly shonky.
I did some Ariane 4 and 5 component level stuff in the 90's, it was still shonky as hell then. (Ditto for a lot of the DoD stuff!)
so thats how they stopped the Daleks,! tipped them on their side!
I had to double-check there that your username wasn't Adric.
phillipe petit tightrope walking between the twin towers.
Another shot
If you do want to know more I can recommend both the documentary Man on Wire (2008) and movie The Walk (2015) by Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis that never got the exposure it deserved - it's like a heist flick but without a robbery, great fun.
Agreed, Man on Wire is excellent.
Surprised he made it wearing flares that wide
I remember looking at the lunar lander and moon buggy at KSC.
It didn't seem believable that they could do the job.
Surprised he made it wearing flares that wide
We used to climb in those back in the early 70s. A quick flick of the leg to see your foot before placing it.
I remember looking at the lunar lander and moon buggy at KSC.
It didn’t seem believable that they could do the job.
I did exactly the same, and thought "well, that model's a bit shit, they could have made a better job of it." It looks like one Blue Peter made earlier, it's all cellophane and tinfoil.
Turns out of course, it's real, the module at KSC is LM-9. (The "tinfoil" is actually Kapton and Mylar). It was intended for Apollo 15 but shelved when the LM needed a redesign to carry the moon buggy.
It looked incredibly shonky.
The ISS looks pretty shonky when you see pics inside it. Lots of exposed wiring. The explanation given on a science YouTube video was that they'd thought about making it all neat and tidy with panels covering stuff but that just meant that every time you had to access the wiring, you needed to remove panels and that was generally pretty inefficient!
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Never mind the aesthetics, surely they'd be bumping into things and pulling wires they shouldn't be?
It's basically a floating comms room.
