Miscellaneous

Confession: I?m a sucker for space travel. I was too young to remember the exploits of Alan Shepard and the other original seven Mercury astronauts. But I do remember the Gemini program and the tragedy of Apollo 1. Why talk about this now? Because 40 years ago today (actually 40 years ago from when this blog post went on line: 9:32 a.m. EDT on July 16, 1969), Apollo 11 lifted off, destination: the moon?specifically the Sea of Tranquility. I was 11 years old then.

Here?s something I didn?t understand then, but I understand now. A rocket launch is a controlled explosion. The bigger the rocket, the greater the risk that the explosion will get out of control. The Saturn V booster was the biggest rocket in history?for all I know, it still is. So keep that thought in mind as you watch this piece of history.