Hurrah for Apollo 9: It has been 50 years since 'nauts first took a Lunar Module out for a spin It has been 50 years since NASA first shoved astronauts into a spacecraft that could not return to Earth: say hello to Spider. At 16:00 UTC on 3 March 1969, NASA sent the second crewed Saturn V into orbit following the success of Apollo 8's Christmas jaunt around the Moon. While this crew would not be travelling quite so far, …
If I were to ever lead a team and wanted to demonstrate what teamwork is all about, I would tell HR to fuck off with their bomb-defusing away days, and show "Apollo 13" in glorious 4K instead.
Even now - nearly 50 years on - I cannot think of a better example. Bearing in mind it was completely outside the bounds of anything that had been anticipated.
That's the America we could do with seeing "made great" again.
this sort of scenario happens more often than not, especially in small startup companies where 'crunch time' actually means what it says on the tin...
It's the semi-bloated mid-level company trying to be what they used to be when they were small that have the useless 'team building' exercises on the advice of overpaid consultants and newly hired HR managers.
The REALLY good thing about really small companies: They rarely have a budget for an HR department. If they're not using an HR service to process payroll and benefits, so much the better!!! If they hire contractors (even through an agency) to avoid all that, BEST OF ALL!
And now that you have a small team of highly qualified individuals, and some kind of crisis to overcome, you'll generally get "that kind" of teamwork.
(because, at a large company, you can afford to hire people who would mostly be 'dead weight' in a small one)
Oh, and a nice thumbs up for the rest.
I'd give "The Right Stuff" a miss and read the book if I was you. I really enjoyed that the first time round and, years later, its still good value. OTOH I was really disappointed by the film: I saw it on first release and never want to see it again - far too artsy and not nearly enough Right Stuff for my taste.
Read the book and then follow it up with Michael Collins's "Carrying The Fire".
The book is very different to the film - although some bits have been lifted straight from it. Like the astronaut selection scenes in the weird clinic in the middle of nowhere. But I love both the book and the film. Haven't read Michael Collins' book though, so I'll give that a go.
The film does seem to divide opinion though. I've rarely heard a bad word about Apollo 13, but many people don't seem to like The Right Stuff. I suspect First Man is going to be quite a divisive film too.
From the Earth to the Moon as recommended in the article is good. It was made by Tom Hanks after he'd made Apollo 13, and fits nicely with it (13 is the only mission that there's not an episode on because you're supposed to just watch the film). It's a mixture of docu-drama and interviews.
Yes, there has been enormous progress in computing and robotics, vehicles have roamed around Mars, there have been landings on asteroids, we now know something about the geology of Pluto, which 50 years ago didn't even have a definite diameter, we know about the geological activity of the giant planet moons, the atmosphere of Venus and even quite a lot about Mercury.
None of which we would have known had all the money been spent on manned spaceflight, because the cost of getting people out to those destinations, let alone the lack of suitable technology, would have prohibited it.
I'm not knocking the early Lunar landings, just pointing out that there's an awful lot more to space science than that.
the opposite of progress is:
a) stagnation
b) regression
c) socialism
d) all of the above
I swear there are people in positions of power DELIBERATELY HOLDING BACK PROGRESS for their own egotistical reasons... "for our own good" naturally
icon, because, snark all over that
ack on the LEM - docking one space ship with another had never been tried before, but it's a necessary step for any serious activities in space, even if it's just a scheduled delivery from a 'space truck' at the ISS.
On a semi-related note... why don't we already have space stations like the one in '2001 a Space Oddessy'? Politics, that's why. Buy rockets instead, and create jobs/technology! [that's Keynsian but I don't care, it works].
I've heard several people, whose opinion on space stuff I respect highly, say that it's a magnificent movie and not to be missed.
Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near civilization (i.e. I live in Orlando) so there's no nearby IMAX theatres showing it. I guess it's time for a road trip.
I don't know if it's available on the other side of the pond. I hope so.
I'm told the Apollo 11 film is great. It's being released this month in da USA - the adverts say "soon" for us rightpondians. I'm guessing they'll release it in July, for all the free anniversary publicity?
I've never seen a film in IMAX. I suppose I ought to try it at some point.
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Read and enjoyed the book. Did not like the movie. Neil Armstrong was portrayed as an overly serious, melancholy man, haunted by the death of his young daughter. Yes, the death of his daughter hit him hard, and yes, he was serious when it came to engineering and safety, but in general, from reading First Man and other biographies, he was not melancholy and enjoyed a good joke like the rest of us. Without trying to spoil the movie, there is a contemplative scene portrayed on the moon that was never described in the book and in my belief never happened, but was added for dramatic effect. In reality, their schedule was so full for the short time they had on the Moon that there would never have been time for this moment.
If you do want to see the movie, read the book first. The movie cuts from event to event with very little explanation and if I hadn't read the book first, there would have been very little understanding of some of the scenes.
I do highly recommend "Apollo 13" and the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon". I'm very excited and looking forward to seeing the new documentary, "Apollo 11".
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