It’ll soon be the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing. On that Sunday 500 million viewers worldwide tuned in, mostly on black and white TVs, to watch the Lunar parking. I missed it myself, only three at the time, and probably in jammies in bed. Now for the older, wiser (?) me the buzz words “over eyes” and “pull the wool” knit my brows. Was this a big hoodwink?
You could say I am an agnostic Moon Landing conspiracy theorist because I believe it could be 50% right. Firing a rocket with men in it to the moon seems possible. It’s the getting them back that puzzles me. The spaceship has shrank, there’s no scaffolding on the moon that can support/straighten Apollo’s back to earth trajectory and the computerised age of steering things is in its infancy. No drone technology here, only rotary dial phones. Cars in the 60s were basic beasts and prone to breakdown, what chance a ship going all those light years without any wear or tear? I mean, even the communication system was on the blink and the sound man missed an a on Armstrong’s rehearsed script.
I blame Concorde.
Earlier that year the supersonic turbojet made its maiden flight. This wonder of Anglo-French engineering stunned the Yankees. Already, embroiled in cold war and space race antics with the Soviets, they couldn’t believe the Old World was making a comeback and in partnership. Longinus! It was as if the Hundred Years War never happened. Ergo (es my first, my last, my everything) they had to gazump the rest of the world with an extraordinary extraterrestrial voyage employing stage managed stagecraft. And a lot of folks bought it.
One good by product of the moon farce was it generated an industry of dark sided jokes about the enterprise. There is probably more wisecracks about the adventure than there is stars in the universe. I’ve tried my hand at adding to the list.
Q: What was the first song Neil Armstrong punned when he landed on the moon?
A: Park at the Moon.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Haw, JW.
‘Shrank’ works for me but I worry that it might be a Jockish usage which will confuse others. I have this feeling that they are probably all shrunkers.
Anyhow and moving on. I was 15 years older than you when the boys Neil and Buzz took their small/giant step for mankind. Always felt sorry, by the way, for the other astronaut, Michael Collins. Stuck or stack up there orbiting the Moon and he still only ever got to No 2 (Michael Collins fame-wise). That must have stang or stung him.
It was spelt, or spelled, Concord on our side of the Channel, by the way!
Longinus? Well played.
And it is important to remember that the War did not last precisely 100 years and that we were on the right side. Go Joan!
Haw, Haw Admiral Mackie,
Delighted with the Longinus nod but disappointed that the wool/knit combination dropped a stich. As for the by product/farce/(Shatner)/enterprise tenuous connections, let’s not boldy go there.
And at this time of the morning we’ve both probably dranked ourselves sober. (hic). See you at the split.
Aye weel. The point, of course, is that I am browsing the Chariot whilst watching Scotland emphasising our dominance at Bowls, Commonwealth-Games wise. Or losing. One end to go and we have last bowl. Walk in park. Or not.
The split has came and, Jambo-wise, we are far behind but focused. Confidently expect to smack all five of youse-yins for a 15 point bonus.
Welsh bastards! At least we got a Silver.
I remember lots of vague arguments about the shadows being all wrong and various other bits and pieces. Have to say never could understand why they bothered then or now. Much better to have spent the money on this world rather than the next. Think of the amount of contraception they could have provided!!
JW and JM, an English glossary would be helpful. And what has Longinus got to do with it? Greek to me.
I watched it happen. Conspiracy my foot.
I can just hear John Wayne saying, “Truly this is one giant leap for mankind.”
G’day, JW and what happened to your life-changing moments thread? I was writing something for it when it disappeared.
Anyhoo, if you want a conspiracy, (or simply blatant bad form) look at the Septics response to Concorde with an ‘e’, with sympathy to Mr Mackie, but that is how it was spelled/spelt in yet another spineless sop to Les Grenouilles. If the Septics had developed supersonic travel first, then it would have been a world beater – New York to London, San Francisco to Perth, Las Vegas to Jeddah and all the major airline routes from Septiclandshire to parts of the globe to which 95% of Septics couldn’t even point an atlas conquered by Murcan technological superiority. But they didn’t. Their SST project was a Dodo even less successful than the Russian version, which at least got off the ground for a short time, so what did the Boeing lobby do on Capitol Hill? They got the elected
malleable fodderrepresentatives to ban supersonic flights over Septicland and got Singapore Airlines to cancel their order. The ragheads, at this point, were still lighting fires in the aisles of a C47 to brew their tea and wondering which way was East, so their input was not necessary at the timeSo that was the end of supersonic travel and we got back to travelling across the Pond in more than twice the time but in a Boeing product and so it will remain until the Septics finally come up with something that approximates the success of Concorde, whereupon supersonic travel will suddenly become the new dawn – again.
And don’t even get me started on Clement Attlee just postwar giving the Septics and the Russians working copies of our jet engines and the TSR2 fiasco of Harold Wilson’s capitulation to Septic pressure.
OZ
Hello OZ, long time no wolf.
Didn’t know about the Boeing conspiracy. Thanks for the info.
As for the other post, I wasn’t happy with the title or the subject matter (not my usual humorous fare) so it got bumped into space. I should have rewritten it better. However, if you’d like to narrate your life changing tale, by all means be my guest. And even if you don’t, consider yourself winner of this month’s competition. I look forward to you setting the theme and conditions for next month’s contest.
Howl.
Conspiracy to defraud the whole world?
Possibly – but there were a lot of people involved… and that’s why, on balance, I think it probably did happen. Far too many people would have had to be deceitful for it to have been a fraud…
… and so far no one ‘involved’ has said that it didn’t happen.
No way could such a ‘deceit’ have been kept secret for so long.
Boa, the same is true of other ‘conspiracies’. JFK’s assassination, 9/11. Nothing can be kept secret.