Apollo 11

[Orionid]

50 Years Ago: Apollo 12 One Month from Launch
Oct. 16, 2019

(...) Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, accompanied by their wives Janet, Patricia, and Joan, respectively, continued their Presidential Giantstep goodwill world tour. Kicking off the tour in Mexico City on Sept. 29, by mid-October they had visited three other countries in Latin America, took a two-day rest break in the Canary Islands, and continued on to see 10 European nations. Then they were off to the African and Asian part of the tour. At each stop, heads of state and other dignitaries greeted the astronauts and cheering crowds welcomed them as they rode through the streets in motorcades. A Presidential jet ferried them and their NASA and State Department entourage from city to city.


Apollo 11 astronauts (left to right) Collins, Aldrin, and Armstrong wearing sombreros during the parade in Mexico City.


Apollo 11 astronauts accompanied by their wives during an audience with Pope Paul VI in Vatican City – (left to right) the Collinses, the Pope, the Armstrongs, and the Aldrins.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-apollo-12-one-month-from-launch

50 Years Ago: Apollo 12 Three Weeks Until Launch
Oct. 24, 2019


In Kinshasa, DRC, President Mobutu presents the Apollo 11 astronauts’ wives (left to right) Joan Aldrin, Patricia Collins, and Janet Armstrong with the Order of Zaire medals.


Dancers perform for the Apollo 11 astronauts and their wives in Bangkok, Thailand.

(...) Meanwhile, halfway around the world, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, accompanied by their wives Janet, Patricia, and Joan, respectively, continued their Presidential Giantstep goodwill world tour. By the latter part of October, they had visited four Latin American countries and wrapped up the European portion of the tour in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Next followed stops in Ankara, Turkey; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); Tehran, Iran; Bombay (now Mumbai), India; Dacca, East Pakistan (now Dhaka, Bangladesh); and Bangkok, Thailand. From there, they were off to Australia, Guam, and east Asia, before finally returning to the United States.  At each stop, heads of state and other dignitaries greeted the astronauts while cheering crowds welcomed them as they rode through the streets in motorcades. A Presidential jet ferried them and their NASA and State Department entourage from city to city.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-apollo-12-three-weeks-until-launch

50 Years Ago: Two Weeks to go Until Apollo 12
Oct. 31, 2019

(...) A fragment of a Moon rock returned by the Apollo 11 astronauts went on public display outside the MSC auditorium on Oct. 29, only the second such sample accessible to the public after the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., unveiled the first one in September. The 31-gram fine-grained crystalline fragment measuring 1.25 by 1 by 0.75 inches contained a large number of vesicles lined with highly reflective crystals.


Apollo 11 astronauts and their wives arriving at the Sydney, Australia, airport.


Apollo 11 astronauts and their wives arriving in Agana, Guam.

Halfway around the world, Apollo 11 astronauts and their wives Neil and Janet Armstrong, Michael and Patricia Collins, and Buzz and Joan Aldrin, accompanied by their NASA and State Department entourage, neared the end of their Presidential Giantstep goodwill world tour. Leaving Bangkok, Thailand, they stopped briefly in Perth, Australia, to refuel their Presidential jet before continuing on to Sydney. From there they continued to Agana (now Hagåtña), Guam; Seoul, Republic of Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and finally returned back to the United States. At each stop, heads of state and other dignitaries greeted the astronauts while cheering crowds welcomed them as they rode through the streets in motorcades.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-two-weeks-to-go-until-apollo-12

[Orionid]

50 lat temu zakończyła się podróż astronautów przez 6 kontynentów

50 Years Ago: Apollo 11 Astronauts Return from Around the World Goodwill Tour
Nov. 5, 2019

What do you do for an encore when you’ve just completed the first human Moon landing mission? You go on a 38-day around the world goodwill tour, visiting 29 cities in 24 countries, at the request of the President of the United States, who lends you one of his jets for the journey. Other returning space crews had undertaken goodwill tours after their missions, but fitting with the historical significance of their mission the Apollo 11 astronauts, accompanied by their wives and an entourage of NASA and State Department officials, embarked on the Giantstep goodwill world tour at the personal request of President Richard M. Nixon. For President Nixon, the tour represented the interest of the United States in maintaining space exploration as a peaceful project to benefit all nations. For Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, the tour provided an opportunity to demonstrate goodwill to all people around the world and to stress that the Moon landing was done for the benefit of all humanity. After their return, they commented that everywhere they went, people acknowledged that the Moon landing was done for humanity, not just for Americans.


Map showing the itinerary of the Giantstep Apollo 11 Presidential Goodwill Tour.

On the morning of Sept. 29, 1969, a blue-and-white Boeing VC-137B touched down at Ellington Air Force Base (AFB) near the Manned Spacecraft Center, now the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Neil and Janet Armstrong, Michael and Patricia Collins, and Buzz and Joan Aldrin waved good-bye to well-wishers who had gathered to see them off and stepped aboard the presidential plane. For the next seven weeks, they traveled to six continents, crossed the Equator six times, met with Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings and Queens, and ambassadors, received numerous medals, accolades, and gifts, rode in countless motorcades, and gave 22 press conferences. It is estimated that more than 100 million people saw them in the various motorcades and other venues and they shook hands with an estimated 25 thousand people. Geneva B. Barnes, a secretary from NASA Headquarters who participated in the goodwill tour, provided many interesting insights in an oral history interview with the JSC History Office.


Left: The motorcade rolls down the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Right: Meeting the President of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro. Credits: Mike Collins.


Left: Motorcade through the streets of Oslo, Norway.
Right: Relaxing at the country cottage of the Norwegian Defense Minister. Credits: Mike Collins.


Left: The motorcade rolls down the streets of West Berlin.
Right: Overlooking the Berlin Wall. Photos courtesy of Mike Collins.


Left: A large crowd welcomes the astronauts at the airport in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Right: Motorcade rolling through the streets of Ankara, Turkey. Credits: Mike Collins.


Left: Very large crowd greets the astronauts at the airport in Dacca, East Pakistan (now Dhaka, Bangladesh).
Right: Climbing on a mockup of the Lunar Module in Bombay (now Mumbai), India; an estimated 1.5 million people greeted the astronauts in Bombay, the largest crowd of any city on the tour. Credits: Mike Collins.

(...)
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-apollo-11-astronauts-return-from-around-the-world-goodwill-tour

[Orionid]

30 wrz 2019
Liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha) cultures in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. The top row of plants were given a tiny amount of lunar dust from Apollo 11 samples seven weeks ago, and notable size and color differences exist between the two rows.
https://twitter.com/apollo_50th/status/1178788632242483200

30 wrz 2019
Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis) growing in a dish. The dense circle of plants (foreground) was exposed to lunar material from Apollo 11 fifty days ago and is germinating faster than the plants surrounding them which are not in contact with lunar material.
https://twitter.com/apollo_50th/status/1178797684167069697

8 paź 2019
Spaceflight Biotechnology Branch botanist Dr. Charles H. Walkinshaw, Jr., is examining plants growing in lunar soil samples collected by Apollo 11 in the Plant Laboratory of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL). The plants are sorghum and tobacco.
https://twitter.com/apollo_50th/status/1181619992048963586

[Orionid]

Apollo 50th@apollo_50th
5 lis 2019

The Apollo 11 astronauts with President Nixon on the lawn of the White House today at the end of the Giantstep world tour. Left to right: Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) , Jr., Michael Collins (@AstroMCollins), Neil Armstrong, and President Richard Nixon.
https://twitter.com/apollo_50th/status/1191804892341358592

[ktos]

Jestem świeżo po seansie tegorocznego filmu/dokumentu Apollo 11. Niezły kawałek dokumentu z dobrym jakościowo materiałem. Jakby ktoś chciał to mogę gdzieś wrzucić na jakiś serwer  (~10Gb).