Just watched "the Right Stuff"

[question everything]

which, with Apollo 13 provides a great story of the space program. With all the glitches and uncertainty that I was not even aware from the early 60s. And yet, we trust the technology and we continue to send space crafts and people into space and on occasions manage to repair the Hubble Telescope to provide us with priceless information.

[Gabi Hayes]

1. If you liked that, get the book. it fills everything in quite nicely, and

is probably my favorite book by Tom Wolfe

he wrote quite a few very good ones, back in the day

recently....not so much

but Right Stuff is as entertaining, inspiring, fascinating as you could ever ask for

especially the way he deals with the concept of 'the right stuff'. that was one of the weak points of the movie, along with some of the corny-ass humor attempts

[givemebackmycountry]

2. No computers (at least not as we know them)

They did it with slide rules and smarts.

Now we have the birthers, and creationists who think Dinosaurs came with a saddle.

Yet another reason I have a gag reflex when I hear the word "Jesus".

[question everything]

3. That's right! One has to wonder how they did accomplish all that

to calculate the trajectory of coming back in.

And, as I was watching the shuttle launch last week, I was thinking that off the coast of Florida there are probably hundreds of booster rockets..

Two weeks ago we visited the Field Museum in Chicago and it has a great exhibit called "Life" that shows the development of our solar system, including several mass extinction and, like you we were nodding our heads in disbelief to think that... all the Republican presidential candidates said they did not believe in evolution.

[bananas]

7. slide rules and log tables. nt

[WolverineDG]

11. That's my favorite scene in Apollo 13

"Okay, here's the problem" & everyone whips out a pencil, paper, & a slide rule. :)

dg

[zbdent]

8. brings the meaning of "rocket scientist" to light, eh?

especially when you think of how they had to know the weight of everything so that they could calculate how much fuel they'd have to expend to keep from slamming into the Moon/Earth, or floating off target ...

[Frank Cannon]

9. Buzz Aldrin did a lot of the complex orbital calculations in his head...

in real time without the slide rule. It was a talent that got him all the way to the moon.

Just goes to show that when you match incredible brains, boundless courage, and cold, hard science, there really is nothing you can't do.

[oldtime dfl_er]

4. And this is probably the most courageous astronaut ever

Astronaut Bruce McCandless II, mission specialist, participates in a extra-vehicular activity (EVA), a few meters away from the cabin of the shuttle Challenger. He is using a nitrogen-propelled hand-controlled manned maneuvering unit (MMU). He is performing this EVA without being tethered to the shuttle.

[givemebackmycountry]

5. Holy shit...

He is performing this EVA without being tethered to the shuttle.

Now THAT takes balls.

[question everything]

6. Wow! What a breath taking photo

and of the Challenger..

[WolverineDG]

10. Even more amazing

the computers used in the Apollo program aren't strong enough to power one of our modern-day calculators. :scared: Imagine what we could do with the computer power we have now!

dg

[question everything]

12. What I don't understand, is why there are a few minutes

when there is no communication with the capsule.

In both the Right Stuff - when Glenn had to enter earlier than planned - and in Apollo 13, there are a few minutes when the staff really did no know where they were, if at all, since they could not communicate with them.

I think that in Apollo 13 that lack of sound was a real 3 or 4 minutes and, even though I knew how it ended, these were really tense moments. Just as, some years back we visited Cape Canaveral and we were listening to the countdown of the Apollo 11 launch and I felt the excitement and anticipation as if this was what was happening.