Author Topic: “All of you on the good earth”  (Read 6274 times)

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
“All of you on the good earth”
« on: 24 December, 2018, 09:06:19 am »
50 years ago today, and the three of them are still alive.
It is simpler than it looks.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #1 on: 24 December, 2018, 11:14:54 am »
I’m sure everyone gets it is Apollo 8!
It is simpler than it looks.

ian

Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #2 on: 24 December, 2018, 11:34:04 am »
I did. I always wanted to be an astronaut until I discovered to be colour blind. Deeply traumatic, of course. That and the fact we don't really have a space programme.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #3 on: 24 December, 2018, 03:48:12 pm »
Well we did, once upon a time.  It starred Andrew Faulds and Alfie Bass, and the narrator was David Jacobs.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

JennyB

  • Old enough to know better
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #4 on: 24 December, 2018, 06:24:37 pm »
I copied Jaded's original to an alternate history forum I post on, an got this reply:

Quote
I had the opportunity to meet Frank Borman, the commander of Apollo 8, a couple weeks ago at the opening of his new museum exhibit in my hometown. I was kind of geeking out when I met him. He signed my copy of Jeffrey Kluger's Apollo 8 book, although he told me he didn't think the book was well-researched, so he recommended Rocket Men by Robert Kurson to me. That evening, I attended a banquet where Borman spoke about his military and astronaut careers, including the Apollo 8 mission. It was a wonderful event. Borman has a fascinating life story, and he's pretty humble and down-to-earth. He's 90 years old, but he doesn't act or look that age. And he's still an active pilot to this day!
Jennifer - Walker of hills

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #5 on: 24 December, 2018, 06:43:43 pm »
There was a nice Radio prog about this mission, and the bible readings they performed mid-flight, at the weekend https://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/mediacentre/proginfo/2018/52/between-the-ears
Mostly interviews with the 'nauts.

"On Christmas Eve in 1968, as the crew of Apollo 8 orbited the Moon, astronauts read extracts from Genesis live on television to tens of millions of people watching around the world. Later, they would also capture – by accident – a photograph of the Earth rising above the lunar landscape which came to be known as Earthrise. Both events would have a profound and influential effect that continues to this day.

In Message from the Moon, listeners will have the chance to follow the Apollo 8 mission from launch to landing - including the readings from Genesis - and hear from astronauts giving their unique perspective on creation, faith and God.

"

and I just found this on R5: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001qn1
"Christmas on the far side of the moon"
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #6 on: 24 December, 2018, 07:39:39 pm »
I think it was Borman who said that seeing the Earth from space made him realise that religion is a load of bollocks.

Torslanda

  • Professional Gobshite
  • Just a tart for retro kit . . .
    • John's Bikes
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #7 on: 24 December, 2018, 08:33:23 pm »
Quote
"On Christmas Eve in 1968, as the crew of Apollo 8 orbited the Moon, astronauts read extracts from Genesis live on television to tens of millions of people watching around the world."

That's a shame, some of Peter Gabriel's later lyrics were quite profound...
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #8 on: 24 December, 2018, 10:30:00 pm »
I copied Jaded's original to an alternate history forum I post on, an got this reply:

Quote
I had the opportunity to meet Frank Borman, the commander of Apollo 8, a couple weeks ago at the opening of his new museum exhibit in my hometown. I was kind of geeking out when I met him. He signed my copy of Jeffrey Kluger's Apollo 8 book, although he told me he didn't think the book was well-researched, so he recommended Rocket Men by Robert Kurson to me. That evening, I attended a banquet where Borman spoke about his military and astronaut careers, including the Apollo 8 mission. It was a wonderful event. Borman has a fascinating life story, and he's pretty humble and down-to-earth. He's 90 years old, but he doesn't act or look that age. And he's still an active pilot to this day!

Brilliant, thanks.

I was asking the family where they were 50 years ago today. they didn't guess.
I can also remember where I was when it splashed down.
It is simpler than it looks.

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #9 on: 26 December, 2018, 06:07:52 pm »
I think it was Borman who said that seeing the Earth from space made him realise that religion is a load of bollocks.
Can't remember which, but one of them said something about reaching the far side and getting a stupendous spiritual feeling.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #10 on: 27 December, 2018, 09:23:12 am »
Did a quick google on Frank Borman quotes:

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frank_Borman
"
Countdown: An Autobiography (1988)
Co-written with Robert J. Serling
There was one more impression we wanted to transmit: our feeling of closeness to the Creator of all things. This was Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, and I handed Jim and Bill their lines from the Holy Scriptures.
p. 214
This must be what God sees. I was absolutely awestruck, not so much at what we had accomplished but at what made the accomplishment possible. A machine produced by more than three hundred thousand Americans was circling the moon with three human beings aboard for the first time in history.
p. 454

"
[my bold]


(I couldn't find any anti-religious comments.)
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #11 on: 27 December, 2018, 09:41:39 am »
I guess from up there God is immune to the destruction of earth’s ecosystem by humans.

He’s probably a bit pissed off by the trashing of all his work. All creatures great and small apart from the ones we’ve made extinct.
It is simpler than it looks.

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #12 on: 27 December, 2018, 09:46:00 am »
I guess from up there God is immune to the destruction of earth’s ecosystem by humans.

He’s probably a bit pissed off by the trashing of all his work. All creatures great and small apart from the ones we’ve made extinct.
Do you anticipate some smiting? :(
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #13 on: 27 December, 2018, 03:25:37 pm »
There was a nice Radio prog about this mission, and the bible readings they performed mid-flight, at the weekend https://www.bbc.co.uk/corporate2/mediacentre/proginfo/2018/52/between-the-ears

Very nice it was too. After listening to that at the time, I subsequently spent a whole day on You Tube [as you do] watching all the Doc Programs about the Apollo missions and particularly the engineering that went into the making of the Saturn 5 rocket. Way too young at the time to really appreciate what was going on, it was fascinating to catch up again with all that. Those F1 engines were just utter monsters! It's an incredible story - dodgy German rocket scientists in on the act, a race fueled by political insecurities, JFK never to live to see the dream materialize, and the use of surfers using insulation to keep the ultra cooled rocket fuel cool in the Florida sun! And that iconic photo of the earth taken from behind the moon.

And then there was Apollo 13. What a tale that was.
Garry Broad

andytheflyer

  • Andytheex-flyer.....
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #14 on: 28 December, 2018, 09:04:09 am »
Those F1 engines were just utter monsters!

If you haven't been, go.  To the Cape Canaveral Space Museum. It's a bit Disney (or was), but worth it. You walk into one of the halls through a sliding door, and inside there are all sorts of bits of space kit on show.  Then, somehow, you look up, to realise that you've just walked under a Saturn V, laid on its side.  It's bloody enormous.  That was a real jaw-dropper for me. 

Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #15 on: 28 December, 2018, 09:20:10 am »
When I was about eleven or twelve I was given a book about the moon race. Just about the only thing I remember from it was an illustration of how powerful the Saturn V first stage was. How long a traffic jam would you need to replicate the horsepower of that first stage? (We're talking late-sixties or early-seventies American cars).

















From New York to Los Angeles  :o
"No matter how slow you go, you're still lapping everybody on the couch."

fuzzy

Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #16 on: 15 January, 2019, 11:55:07 pm »
Those F1 engines were just utter monsters!

If you haven't been, go.  To the Cape Canaveral Space Museum. It's a bit Disney (or was), but worth it. You walk into one of the halls through a sliding door, and inside there are all sorts of bits of space kit on show.  Then, somehow, you look up, to realise that you've just walked under a Saturn V, laid on its side.  It's bloody enormous.  That was a real jaw-dropper for me.

The Kennedy Space Centre is a must for space geeks, especially thos of a certain age (like wot I am). Seeing in th flesh, the beasts that put my hero's into space was gob smacking. As Von Broad says, the scale of the Saturn V has to be seen to be believed. To have been there when one was launched..........

Zipperhead

  • The cyclist formerly known as Big Helga
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #17 on: 16 January, 2019, 08:34:05 pm »
I've been taking the tube to work this week rather than cycling (because injury), so I've been able to catch up on my reading backlog.

I'm enjoying this book - Go Flight, The unsung heroes of mission control - I keep nearly missing my stop.

Yesterday was Apollo 8, and it seems a number of people thought it was a bigger achievement that Apollo 11.

When I got of the train this evening the Eagle had just landed, but it details how the means of handling the go/no go decision on the 1201 (or was it 2) had come about almost by accident in the simulator.

Oh, and some of the "hacks" to get Apollo 13 home had been worked out long before in response to what-if's.
Won't somebody think of the hamsters!

Zipperhead

  • The cyclist formerly known as Big Helga
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #18 on: 29 January, 2019, 11:48:23 pm »
Won't somebody think of the hamsters!

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #19 on: 30 January, 2019, 08:31:07 am »
Can’t wait!
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #20 on: 30 January, 2019, 08:52:01 pm »
Wow. That's def on my 'will see' list. Thank you.
Rust never sleeps

Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #21 on: 30 January, 2019, 09:05:48 pm »
Looks awesome.
I'll be there.
Thanks Z.

ETA - Imax *fingers crossed*

fuzzy

Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #22 on: 30 January, 2019, 09:16:09 pm »
Most assuredly on the list of films to watch!

Zipperhead

  • The cyclist formerly known as Big Helga
Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #23 on: 30 January, 2019, 11:56:05 pm »
ETA - Imax *fingers crossed*

I hope so! Maybe even the Science Museum Imax.
Won't somebody think of the hamsters!

Re: “All of you on the good earth”
« Reply #24 on: 31 January, 2019, 08:05:26 am »
Thank you.  Brilliant start to the morning watching that