The Launch of Apollo 11

Today is the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the mission that brought Buzz Aldrin, Neal Armstrong and Michael Collins to the moon.

(Last month I posted about this anniversary here and in first ever entry on this blog I espoused my admiration for the Saturn V rocket here .)

In addition to many other commemorations, today NASA released a sneak preview of digitally restored Apollo 11 video footage. The tapes were scanned and cleaned using state-of-the-art digital techniques, and clearly show visible improvement.

The remainder of the available footage will be cleaned up and released in several months but here is a montage of some of the footage released today.



(Thanks as always to Phil Plait at the Bad Astronomy Blog for uploading and sharing the video…)


I have also raved in the past about the Boston Globe’s Big Picture Blog which has some great shots of the planning, training and mission of Apollo 11. Click on these images to see bigger, mind blowing versions...


The Saturn V rocket. Primal.


"Earthrise" over the moon


Neil Armstrong back inside after the first historic space walk



Technology is so integrated into our lives that its easy to forget how insanely ambitious it was to put men on the moon. These images and this footage are chilling reminders.

Super, super cool.