Thread: Moon Shot; 1969

Way off topic here,

I have a good friend that is older 72-3 he used to build funny cars. He gas welded with hydrogen all the aluminum tanks, oil, fuel etc. He had a Heliarc welder too, said at least back in the early 70's gas welded aluminum was the standard for liquid tanks, no pin holes. Even the early aluminum oil pans were gas welded.

I think Newman and everyone else who traveled the west valley remember the F1 engine out front of Rocketdyne on Victory and Canoga. Sad to say the engine is gone along with all traces of the plant. The Santa Susana site is a disaster with both ground water contamination and radiation from a small breader that went critical. One thing we kinda forget about the space race and cold war was the untold environmental impact. I remember as a kid getting car parts cad plated at a dozen different plating shop in just the west valley. There were plating shops everywhere like gas stations.

Steve

I remember back mid 60's when I was in grade school in chatsworth we could see and hear the engine tests from the playground. Having grown up a few miles from a huge nuclear disaster does help explain a few things though.

I'm from the midwest, the ground is not suppose to shake.
Tasked to Simi Valley .... WTF is going on, is this the big one?
My co-workers,.... that's just Rocketdyne, no worries.
One got the same sort of feel on a launch watching close in Florida but you knew it was coming.
What is so not so straight in you head on a launch is the very slow at first and the faster move that follows.
It's just not like what you will ever see in videos or TV. Those just can not do justice.
I'm a math and science guy, rockets and such since the early 60's yet launches are a sort of magic.
Now I guess they are just ho-hum.

The go to the moon was something the country hailed as a achievement and a high point both left and right.
Is there another rallying cry?
All nice to look back on what we have done but did we peak with this?
Will history show this as the top the USA did as an empire?
Bob

I watched it on TV, and was suitably impressed.
But I cant think of it without also thinking of this song by the late great Gil Scott Heron.

YouTube

Originally Posted by Ries

I watched it on TV, and was suitably impressed.

How old where you?
Wondering if the riots in Detroit and all the wrongs even come to view with your song. It sure does to me.
Are we any better to the have nots now?
Was this white supremacy? As a blue-eyed blond nordic I surely hope not.
Bob

Originally Posted by Steve in SoCal

Sad to say the engine is gone along with all traces of the plant.

The engine isn’t gone, they moved it over in front of the De Soto plant, which is still there at least it was a year ago. I have a home a few blocks from the old plant at Victory and Fallbrook. We should get together some time.


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Originally Posted by CarbideBob

How old where you?
Wondering if the riots in Detroit and all the wrongs even come to view with your song. It sure does to me.
Are we any better to the have nots now?
Was this white supremacy? As a blue-eyed blond nordic I surely hope not.
Bob

I was born in 1955. I was living in Seattle, but we had our own protests and minor riots in those days as well.
Gil Scott-Heron was a poet. His songs and poems raise questions, he didnt pretend to have all the answers.

Originally Posted by adh2000

The engine isn’t gone, they moved it over in front of the De Soto plant, which is still there at least it was a year ago. I have a home a few blocks from the old plant at Victory and Fallbrook. We should get together some time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good to hear the F1 is still in the valley, there is one here in Hutchinson at the Cosmosphere.

I will be at my house just west of Valley Circle and Victory end of the month through July.

Steve

Originally Posted by Steve in SoCal

Good to hear the F1 is still in the valley, there is one here in Hutchinson at the Cosmosphere.

I will be at my house just west of Valley Circle and Victory end of the month through July.

Steve

So I assume you're familiar with the little green jug. Haven't been over that way in years.

Originally Posted by Larry Dickman

So I assume you're familiar with the little green jug. Haven't been over that way in years.

I used to buy all my booze there, my sister said the old man sold out beginning of the year.

Steve

Originally Posted by CarbideBob

Wondering if the riots in Detroit and all the wrongs even come to view with your song. It sure does to me.

Was this other song by him about watts or detroit riots ?
YouTube

Originally Posted by Rob F.

Was this other song by him about watts or detroit riots ?
YouTube

Watts (1965)

In the 90's we had a conservation project (Getty) on the Watts towers (while the 1992 riots / Rodney King thing was fresh in people's minds.).

I understand that there were painful aspects of this period, but don't take away from the achievement that Apollo 11 achieved.

Originally Posted by otrlt

I understand that there were painful aspects of this period, but don't take away from the achievement that Apollo 11 achieved.

Agreed, this is about the Apollo project not some song or period of time.

Originally Posted by otrlt

I understand that there were painful aspects of this period, but don't take away from the achievement that Apollo 11 achieved.

I agree, for all the turmoil of the 1960's NASA and the space program seemed to unify the country. As Bob in the middle put it both the left and the right saw value in it. There are few things today that can pull folks from both ends of the spectrum. Disasters and horrific events get people riled up but, a grand noble cause is relate-able to nearly everyone. Perhaps the only thing that could unite us is the flying spaghetti monster?

We as a country and the larger world saw that event as a milestone in history right up there with the most significant deeds in human history. There is only a first once, we left the planet and stepped foot on another celestial body in the mid 20th century. It could be a long time before some other great event. The historical significance will forever be there.

Steve

Originally Posted by Steve in SoCal

I agree, for all the turmoil of the 1960's NASA and the space program seemed to unify the country. As Bob in the middle put it both the left and the right saw value in it. There are few things today that can pull folks from both ends of the spectrum. Disasters and horrific events get people riled up but, a grand noble cause is relate-able to nearly everyone. Perhaps the only thing that could unite us is the flying spaghetti monster?

We as a country and the larger world saw that event as a milestone in history right up there with the most significant deeds in human history. There is only a first once, we left the planet and stepped foot on another celestial body in the mid 20th century. It could be a long time before some other great event. The historical significance will forever be there.

Steve

There will probably never be another project with the significance and scope of Apollo for centuries...if ever

what didn't every one have the Rokcetdyne rocket motor tests and F101 voodoos
going supper sonic from Oxnard airforce base, when they were kids?

Mercury launches I don't remember but the Gemini launches the old man got us up
to watch every one of them, it was always dark outside here on the west coast when they launched.

you could get a wall poster from the government printing office that had the Apollo mission
fight path illustrate. Still got that around here someplace.

when they canceled the Apollo project it hurt the local aero space economy.

dose being old enough to have watched the Apollo 13 thing as it happened, and knowing how the movie eneded
with out watching it ,
and watching the first moon walk live make one old?

Originally Posted by 72bwhite

what didn't every one have the Rokcetdyne rocket motor tests and F101 voodoos
going supper sonic from Oxnard airforce base, when they were kids?

Mercury launches I don't remember but the Gemini launches the old man got us up
to watch every one of them, it was always dark outside here on the west coast when they launched.

you could get a wall poster from the government printing office that had the Apollo mission
fight path illustrate. Still got that around here someplace.

when they canceled the Apollo project it hurt the local aero space economy.

dose being old enough to have watched the Apollo 13 thing as it happened, and knowing how the movie eneded
with out watching it ,
and watching the first moon walk live make one old?

I don't remember the Voodoos I do remember the Delta Darts sexy airplane. Camarillo was such a sleepy place back then, remember Jungle Land? As I mentioned, we who grew up in the L.A. area just took for granted what was happening around us. My dad and a friend ran cows around what is now Sherwood just after WWII, remember driving out there on the old two lane before the freeway was extended, I think it stopped at Topanga?

Being old is a state of mind, until your body tells you you're not a kid anymore. The 20th century will go down in history as one of the most progressive and creative in spite of the horrors of war. We entered the century with horses and buggies and closed it with man made objects in deep space. For all the technology we are developing it will be hard to top the 20th for life changing innovation and scientific achievement.

Steve

Originally Posted by Steve in SoCal

Being old is a state of mind, until your body tells you you're not a kid anymore. The 20th century will go down in history as one of the most progressive and creative in spite of the horrors of war. We entered the century with horses and buggies and closed it with man made objects in deep space. For all the technology we are developing it will be hard to top the 20th for life changing innovation and scientific achievement.

Steve

Steve,
You have described the foundation of this subject, thank you.

Originally Posted by Steve in SoCal

Good to hear the F1 is still in the valley, there is one here in Hutchinson at the Cosmosphere.

I will be at my house just west of Valley Circle and Victory end of the month through July.

Steve

Ha, I lived in Canoga Park (now West Hills) at two different houses between 1966 and 1977. It was a nice area and the Valley was very cozy and convenient. Brings back memories.