Black History, Into Space: Guion 'Guy' Bluford, Jr., Ronald Erwin McNair and Frederick Gregory

GUION "GUY" BLUFORD, JR. (1942-present)

A retired United States Air Force colonel.  he was the first black astronaut into space as a member of the Challenger Space Shuttle crew in 1983.

He took part in four space shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992.

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RONALD ERWIN McNAIR  (1950-1986)

Ronald Erwin McNair was the second black person into space and sadly, was on the ill-fated  Space Shuttle Challenger and met his death January 28, 1986.

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FREDERICK D. GREGORY (1941-present)

A veteran of 3 space shuttle missions.

Top Ten Navy Sailors of All Time-- Part 2: SEALs, Armstrong and Kennedy

6.  Michael Monsoor  Navy SEAL Medal of Honor recipient.  Dived on top of a grenade and saved comrades.  Iraq

7.  Richard Marcinko  Founder of the famous SEAL Team 6.

8.  Neil Armstrong  Well, you know what he did.

9.  Dr. Jonny Kim    Medic and sniper for SEAL Team 3.  Went to Harvard Medical School.  Now a candidate for astronaut.

10.  John F. Kennedy  PT-109

11.  Roy Boehm  Fought off sharks when his ship, the USS Duncan, sank  in WW II and founded the Navy SEALs.

Okay, 11, Not 10.

Eleven Fascinating Numbers About Apollo 11-- Part 2: 48

30--  When the Eagle, Apollo 11's lunar module landed, it had less than 30 seconds of fuel left.  Any less than that and the mission would have been aborted.

21:13--  Number of hours and minutes Armstrong and Aldrin spent altogether on the Moon.

151--  The number of minutes spend walking on the surface.

73--  In addition to the lunar module, American flag and a plaque, a one and a half-inch silicon disc was left with goodwill messages from 73 countries.

48--  Pounds of Moon rocks brought back.

21--  For fear of lunar bacteria, the three had to spend  21 days in quarantine.

1,096,348--  How far Apollo 11 traveled from liftoff to landing.  That's 224 round trips between New York and Los Angeles.

Figures In My Eyes.  --Cooter

Eleven Fascinating Numbers About Apollo 11-- Part 1: 363

From CBS 19 by Arthur Pittman.

Here are some obscure and not so obscure numbers about the mission.

Obviously 7-20-69.

2,978--  Before a joint  session of  Congress, Pres. John F. Kennedy made a declaration on May  25, 1961, to get a man on the Moon.  It happened this many days later.

400,000--  The estimated number of men and women involved in getting this to happen.

1--  Just one movie, "Hidden Figures," that showed the role of women, especially black women, in getting it done.

363--  The Saturn V rocket that carried them off Earth stood this tall in feet.  There is a Saturn 1B rocket at the Alabama border on I-65 if you want to get an idea of how big of a rocket it is.  It is huge.

6,200,000--  Number of pounds it weighed fully fueled.

More to Come.  --Cooter

Man on the Moon, 11 Things-- Part 4: Flag From Sears

10.  President Nixon had a speech prepared in case of mission failure.  Nixon speechwriter William Safire had written a failure speech two days before the landing in case of the deaths of Aldrin and Armstrong.

The speech focused on their being marooned on the Moon.  Part of it went like this:   "Those courageous men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know there's no hope for his survival.  However, they know there's hope for mankind in their sacrifice."

This speech is in the National Archives.

11.  The flag planted by Aldrin and Armstrong is the only one planted by all the missions which is not standing.

They had had trouble planting the flag in the hard lunar soil.  Aldrin said that he had seen the flag topple from the lunar module's exhaust.

All of the Apollo flags were purchased at Sears by NASA secretaries on their lunch hour.

So, Now You Know.  --CootFlag

Man On the Moon, 11 Things-- Part 3: A Felt-Tip Pen to the Rescue

7.  A felt-tip pen rescued the astronauts.  Within the cramped confines of the lunar module, Neil Armstrong's backpack smashed into the  ascent engine arming transfer.  He broke it.  Not a good thing.  But Buzz Aldrin pulled a felt-tip pen out of the pocket of his spacesuit.

It worked and they got off the Moon.

8.  Armstrong and Aldrin left their pee and poop on the moon along with pieces of items associated with seismic testing,  and the silicon "Memorial Disc."

9.  NASA quarantined the astronauts for three weeks after their return for fear of Moon plague.  First they were on the USS Hornet and then at Pearl Harbor.

--CootMoon

Man on the Moon-- Part 1: 11 Things You Might Not Know

From the Latest Breaking News "11 Things You Never Knew About Apollo 11."

1.  Did Neil Armstrong put his dead daughter's bracelet on the Moon?  He was out of sight and communication for three minutes while on the moon.

2.  President Kennedy didn't really care that much about the Moon.  In the public he was all gung-ho about it, but wanted to get there before the Soviet Union.

3.  The Apollo 11 team had to sell their autographs to secure insurance for the mission.  Sitting on a flaming rocket propelling into space was not a safe insurance for providers.  To cover insurance, they signed a lot of envelopes and would have their buddies postmark them for July 20, 1969.

These envelopes have sold for as much as $28,500.

--Cooter

Dead Page: Moon Man

NEIL ARMSTRONG, August 25th.

This man would have been notable even without the famous trip.  He was a pilot flying missions during the Korean War and in both the Gemini and Apollo space programs.

July 20, 1969, I was in Goldsboro, North Carolina, watching the grainy black and white images at friend Ronnie's house and thinking this is nothing short of amazing. I remember walking outside and looking at the Moon and thinking, "Wow, there is a man getting ready to step onto it."

Everyone in the house was watching.

Then, we heard "Houston, Tranquility Base here.  The Eagle has landed."  WOW!!

Then, "I'm going to step off the LEM now."  That would be the lunar module.  DOUBLE WOW!!

At 2:56 UTC (?), it was around 9 PM in Goldsboro, those even more famous words, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind."  WOWWWW!!  Couldn't have said it better myself, even if there is some question of whether there was an "a" before man.

Either way, we know what you were saying.

And, then, talk about your man who always tried to aoid the spotlight.

Whenever I look at the Moon, I will think about you.

Thanks.