Apollo’s ‘giant leap’ required giant machines

It was 40 years ago this morning that Apollo 11 lifted off from what we then called Cape Kennedy for the first manned landing on the moon.

If the goal weren’t lofty enough in itself, the entire Apollo program was a time for dreaming big and building bigger. That became clear in the photographs of big things built in big buildings and moved on huge highways to large launchpads.

The pictures of Cape Kennedy were awe-inspiring. Even before launch, the rockets seemed in the clouds. Most of us had black and white TV sets in those days, but we were fortunate then to have a full-size LIFE magazine, giving us jumbo pictures of these mega-machines in glorious color.

The ‘crawler.’ In particular, I remember the photos of the mammoth “crawler” that carried the 6.7-million-pound Saturn V at 2 miles per hour the 4 miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A. The treads were enormous.

It was all so colossal.

Frank Warner

* * *

Comments

[George]

Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

[Frank Warner]

That's a good Top 10.

An 11th would be that Aldrin forgot to take pictures of Armstrong walking on the moon. He might have taken one, but check out the photographs. If I recall correctly, the only image of Armstrong on the moon is the reflection of Armstrong on Aldrin's visor. Armstrong took that picture.

We pretty much only have the video, and possibly a cabin movie camera, showing Armstrong walking on the moon. The regular still photos show only Aldrin, because Armstrong was snapping pictures right and left.

That ever happen to you on an expensive vacation to an exotic place? You come back and discover no one took a picture of you?

[jj mollo]

Great link George. The space program was an awesome accomplishment in general. Apollo was an impossible dream-come-true for thousands of people. But we should remember that it didn't even begin to compare to D-Day. Kids today are prone to conspiracy theories about Apollo because they have no concept of the power, wealth and innovation that the American people can muster when united behind a cause. And they have no understanding of the kind of willpower that can be exerted by serious people. History remains terra incognita to the video game generation.