Please tell me someone else remembers this….


https://www.space.com/john-gle...-60-year-anniversary

From NASA:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ar0y6tIx74

Yes. I was five (and a half). My Roman Catholic mother made me kneel down and pray while Walter Cronkite said, "Go baby, go!"

Here's the original TV broadcast. The technology of orbital launch is pretty similar. The technology of covering it is way better.

Original CBS broadcast with Walter Cronkite

I was 4 days old.

I was two-and-a-half months old.

I do remember some of the Gemini flights and all of the Apollo flights. I was an extreme space-nerd kid.

I was almost 7. I know I watched several Mercury launches, but I don't remember specifically which ones. And I watched most of the Gemini and Apollo launches. Especially memorable was the Christmas Eve broadcast from Apollo 8

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/hi...atures/apollo_8.html

I also have a vague recollection of going outside with my dad to try to see one of the Sputniks in the night sky....I have no idea if it was actually visible to the naked eye.

Remember the Sputnik beep?

https://soundcloud.com/nasa/sputnik-beep

Bill Anders spoke at a symposium I attended when I was 17. He showed his Apollo 8 photos and talked about the experience. I was starstruck. (No pun intended. Well, okay, maybe a little intended.)

I remember going outside in 1969 sometime before the landing and trying to see something. I think it was the thrusters being lit as they maneuvered into orbit or left the command module. We didn't see anything, and I've never heard anybody else say that they did this, so I don't know where my parents got the idea that we might be able to see something happen.

Glenn's launch was the first US manned orbital attempt, so it attracted huge media attention. That's why I remember it specifically ... and, well, mom making me pray kinda stands out. There were well-founded worries that it wouldn't work, and Glenn would die in a huge explosion.

Another reason for family interest, I also had relatives at the cape who worked for NASA.