Wednesday, July 22, 2009
40 years are go!
I have a memory from when I was very young of being dragged out of my bed in the middle of the night by my parents and being sat in front of the telly. The telly was showing grainy pictures of a man in a space suit climbing down a ladder onto what looked like the Moon.
Anyway, in honour of the first Moon landing here is some trivia on the subject:
"Apollo" has got 11 in it separated by two moons.
Apollo 11 was carried aloft by a Saturn V rocket. Saturn is a planet in our Solar system.
13 is considered unlucky because the Apollo 13 mission is the one that went wrong.
The Sea of Tranquility is not an actual sea. But it is tranquil which is why Apollo Eleven landed there.
Apollo Eleven is an anagram of "elven ale pool". Scientists think that the Sea of Tranquility was once an elven ale pool - probably a light bitter.
Neil Armstrong inspired the character Neil in the Archers.
The heaviest item of equipment on the LEM was the refrigerator designed for carrying the cheese samples back to Earth. Later missions omitted the fridge to save weight following disappointing taste tests by Armstrong and Aldrin.
The later mission to the Moon by Wallace and Grommit was, in fact, a hoax. It was filmed in a studio in Bristol.
The Apollo 11 heat shield was made out of compressed oven gloves.
The LEM was named Eagle because Apollo 11 landed on the Moon two missions before schedule.
Michael Collins was nearly rejected as an astronaut because of his part in the Easter Uprising.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin played scissor, paper stones to decide who would be first to set foot on the Moon. Buzz won.
Aldrin also had a prepared speech for setting foot on the Moon. It was "To infinity and beyond".
Apollo 11 was originally going to be named Legs 11.
Nigel Kennedy paid $5,000,000 dollars to sponsor the NASA space centre in Florida
The Apollo 11 crew went on a caravan holiday after the successful splashdown.
The S1-C first stage of the Saturn V burnt over 2,000 tonnes of coal in 263 seconds.
There were no toilets in the command module. Instead, Astronauts were trained to control their bowels so as not to need them for up to three weeks.
The Vehicle Assembly Building would fit into the Grand Canyon.
Apollo astronauts ate nothing but toothpaste (bovril flavoured).
The Eiffel Tower is a monument to the Apollo programme, which is why it is in the shape of a giant "A".
Michael Collins' mother starred in TV show "Dynasty"
The command module was named Columbia because Michael Collins was a fan of Little Nell.
The part of Tom Hanks was played by Gene Kranz
Duke Ellington was made capcom because he shared a love of jazz with Armstrong.
The patio doors on the Command Module got stuck in the open position and nearly caused the launch to be aborted.
The dark side of the Moon is so called because it is made of plain chocolate.
Anyway, in honour of the first Moon landing here is some trivia on the subject:
"Apollo" has got 11 in it separated by two moons.
Apollo 11 was carried aloft by a Saturn V rocket. Saturn is a planet in our Solar system.
13 is considered unlucky because the Apollo 13 mission is the one that went wrong.
The Sea of Tranquility is not an actual sea. But it is tranquil which is why Apollo Eleven landed there.
Apollo Eleven is an anagram of "elven ale pool". Scientists think that the Sea of Tranquility was once an elven ale pool - probably a light bitter.
Neil Armstrong inspired the character Neil in the Archers.
The heaviest item of equipment on the LEM was the refrigerator designed for carrying the cheese samples back to Earth. Later missions omitted the fridge to save weight following disappointing taste tests by Armstrong and Aldrin.
The later mission to the Moon by Wallace and Grommit was, in fact, a hoax. It was filmed in a studio in Bristol.
The Apollo 11 heat shield was made out of compressed oven gloves.
The LEM was named Eagle because Apollo 11 landed on the Moon two missions before schedule.
Michael Collins was nearly rejected as an astronaut because of his part in the Easter Uprising.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin played scissor, paper stones to decide who would be first to set foot on the Moon. Buzz won.
Aldrin also had a prepared speech for setting foot on the Moon. It was "To infinity and beyond".
Apollo 11 was originally going to be named Legs 11.
Nigel Kennedy paid $5,000,000 dollars to sponsor the NASA space centre in Florida
The Apollo 11 crew went on a caravan holiday after the successful splashdown.
The S1-C first stage of the Saturn V burnt over 2,000 tonnes of coal in 263 seconds.
There were no toilets in the command module. Instead, Astronauts were trained to control their bowels so as not to need them for up to three weeks.
The Vehicle Assembly Building would fit into the Grand Canyon.
Apollo astronauts ate nothing but toothpaste (bovril flavoured).
The Eiffel Tower is a monument to the Apollo programme, which is why it is in the shape of a giant "A".
Michael Collins' mother starred in TV show "Dynasty"
The command module was named Columbia because Michael Collins was a fan of Little Nell.
The part of Tom Hanks was played by Gene Kranz
Duke Ellington was made capcom because he shared a love of jazz with Armstrong.
The patio doors on the Command Module got stuck in the open position and nearly caused the launch to be aborted.
The dark side of the Moon is so called because it is made of plain chocolate.
# posted by JeremyP : 10:50 pm
