Today in history.

At 9:32 Eastern Time on the morning of July 16 1969 Apollo 11 lifts off the launch pad, beginning its historic mission to the Moon with Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard the Columbia command module. Collins remains aboard Columbia in orbit 60 miles above the lunar surface when Armstrong and Aldrin set foot on the Moon. At that time the command module was out of communication with Mission Control in Houston and Collins didn't know the landing was a success until later.

The last Apollo mission was Apollo 17 in December 1972. 12 men set foot on the lunar surface during the Apollo program.

Neil Armstrong.
Buzz Aldrin.
Pete Conrad.
Alan Bean.
Alan Shepard.
Ed Mitchell.
David Scott.
James Irwin.
John Young.
Charles Duke.
Harrison Schmitt.
Gene Cernan.

Of those twelve four are still living.

Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11. Age 88.

David Scott, Apollo 15. Age 85.

Charles Duke, Apollo 16. Age 82.

Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17. Age 82.



Apollo 11 launch.

Bugman, you're list of living astronauts and their missions got me thinking and Wikipedia just confirmed it for me. Apollo 16 lasted from April 16th to 27th, 1972.


Aboard were commander John Young, Command module pilot Ken Mattingly II, and Lunar module pilot Charles Duke Jr. Interestingly enough, Charles Duke was backup for Apollo 13 which Ken Mattingly was scheduled to fly. It was because Charles Duke caught the measles and Mattingly never had them that Mattingly was scrubbed from Apollo 13 in favor of Jack Swigert.

Do you suppose Mattingly gave Duke grief during the entire Apollo 16 mission for the events of Apollo 13?

Barbershopman

A Great Moment in American History!

I think that we will be returning to The Moon after all this time.

Thanks for the reminder, Bugman.
After the success of the Apollo program in 1969, I naively presumed that we would have a colony on the moon by 1990 and one on Mars by 2020.
Nope

And to think that "general" space travel (as in "2001: A Space Odessy") was so close at hand... yet went so far away.