Fun
13 Minutes to the Moon
Dear Kay,
Look up.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to do this, down in my screens as I so often am.
Remember the August day in 2017 where everybody in North America watched the moon eclipse the sun?
There we were, all looking up—through our cereal boxes and paper plates and sunglasses that might possibly eternally burn out our retinas—and thinking about the moon.
It was no moon landing, to be sure, but it was something. A collective moment of wonder. Wow, we all thought.
We’re coming up on the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 on July 20—the mission that landed humans on the moon. I was very young, but I was allowed to stay up to see the blurry image of Neil Armstrong. I think. I was pretty sleepy.
Which is why the 50th anniversary of that event means so much to me. What happened? How did these scientists and engineers do it? I’m old enough now to be astonished.
The BBC production of 13 Minutes to the Moon is terrific—a juicy ten episodes of 40+ minutes each, tons of interviews, plenty of surprises.
For a drama where you know from the get-go exactly what happens, this is brilliant storytelling. The final 13 minutes before the landing? You won’t believe all the stuff going on.
Listening to this podcast, I find myself looking up.
Love,
Ann
Photo: Crescents from the eclipse as seen on my stadium chair at the Laguardo Recreation Area, Lebanon, Tennessee. August 21, 2017.
Excellent, always love a good podcast recommendation! Thanks !
Have also loved CHASING THE MOON on American Experience! Not a knitter at the time, I have vivid memories of watching the Gemini and Apollo programs in real time. ( In the days of no need to look down so much!) What I wasn’t ready for was seeing the world I grew up in….dropped a lot of stitches!
Yes, yes, yes to Chasing the Moon on PBS. I was a college freshman and this series brought back many memories of middle and high school. Brace, resourceful women and men got us to the moon!!
Yes it was a memorable moment. My father tells the story that he was listening in the car on the way to Washington DC. It was riveting but to his dismay he was approaching the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel just as Armstrong was about to take his step. Knowing he would lose transmission for the duration he put his foot on the accelerator and sped through as fast as he could. Why is this so memorable? He was one of the design engineers who worked on the design of the LEM and he was on the way to DC because the was to be some sort of ceremony to honor the many people involved. He worked on this for many years in the 60’s and I am very proud of his achievements.
I just subscribed, thanks so much for the recommendation.
Just listened to Episode 1. Fantastic!
I just subscribed, thanks for the tip. My cousins and aunt and uncle were staying with us, I remember all the kids and adults crowded around the TV. I met an elderly man in the airport last month who needed a little help with his iphone to make sure he could call his son when he landed. Turned out he was a a computer engineer for the Apollo program, and described the size of the computers they used backed then, and how he was in another state that night, supervising the equipment.
I was so excited when they came back from the moon. Oak Ridge was one of the few spots that got moon rocks, and they had them displayed at the Atomic Energy Museum. The Museum was only a 5 minute bike ride from my house. We stood in line for what I remember as an hour to see those rocks. I have never been so crushed by reality. When we finally got to the stands where the rocks were on display, we realized they looked like ROCKS. We could have collected some out of the back yard that looked the same. I have a friend who worked on the space shuttle missions at NASA in Huntsville. I was always impressed he had lunch with real astronauts all the time. He told me that my iPhone had a much more complex computer system than the one that sent the guys to the moon. I’m still the Gemini NASA generation and I am still in awe of the accomplishments of those individuals even if the rocks were not so amazing.
I agree – 13 minutes to the Moon is an absolutely fantastic program, highly recommended.
The moon landing was during the day here in Australia and I still remember clearly being allowed home from school so I could watch it on a tiny B&W TV. First time I’d ever been home alone – my parents were at work, I think.
I’m off on a solo driving trip this weekend and have downloaded this for entertainment along the way. I actually worked as a scientific programmer for Boeing for a short while while they were developing the Saturn V, so remember the moon launch very well. And the comment about the iPhone having more computing power than what got the moon shot done is true! The computers then took up whole rooms, printers were the size of small cars and everybody used the same computer, so runs were sent by runner to the computer and your printed results were brought back by runner.
Thanks for letting us know about this.
We have loved this podcast series. Really well done and we’ve learned so much. I was 13 at the time and loved watching the launches and the terrified wait for the command vehicle to return from the other side of the moon. This podcast gives a fabulous insight into the work of a handful of the people that actually managed to do this. Very very good podcast that had us talking about it afterwards – must be a good thing.