PROMETHEAN ANTAGONIST

I've always loved space travel. Rockets are cool too (as a means of reaching space, obviously). I was fortunate enough as a child to have seen three launches from the Kennedy Space center; Apollo 16, Apollo 17, and the Apollo/Soyuz joint mission. Seeing Apollo 17's night launch from the space center grounds (about 4 miles away) was, without question, one of the most impressive things I've seen in my life. The "sound" is nothing like one hears on TV or in video clips. It literally sounds like popcorn being made and magnified to the intensity of an earthquake -- a very visceral multi-sensory experience.

Before witnessing these launches, I was able to tour an area fairly close to the launch pad the day before. It definitely gave me the impression that thier goal was not to simply "stage a fake event" as some in the conspiracy crowd like to imagine. There are many who now insist that America's moon missions were just another conspiratorial con-game akin to an imaginary "Bush inspired 9/11 scam." What utter idiots.

Of course, if Russia had been first to reach the moon during the "space race" I'm sure many a leftist would be okay with that, minus the "faked"/conspiracy charge. God, aint' it awful when America does something cool. What's a resentful leftist to do?

I was quite the fan of the entire process of space flight when younger and become fairly learned in the methods, materials, and procedures used to accomplish such goals. With what I know and have seen, I'm reasonably convinced that when Americans walked on the moon...they actually walked on the moon. Who knew what the great socialist "experiment" (Soviet Russia) was doing at the time since you never heard about it till two weeks after it occured -- if it was successful. Common Soviet citizens certainly weren't watching launches from four miles away or attending tours of the buliding where space vehicles were assembled.

Check these You Tube video clips of some launches. A Saturn Five Rocket with it's payload was 36 stories tall and 33 feet wide at its base. The closeups you see in the video offer a hint as to the incredible power of the thing. Pieces of ice, some the size of futons, can be seen falling off the surface of the vehicle. Beneath it, unseen, is a wedge that is 4 stories high and covered in a layer of concrete and millions of pounds of water (to deflect the heat and thrust) -- both the water and concrete are boiled away during the launch sequence.

Enjoy:

The Base of a Saturn Five Rocket during launch.

Apollo 11 launch.

Apollo 16.

Apollo 17 -- night launch.

Impressive stuff...I think.

# posted by Promethean Antagonist @ 12:36 PM