I just found this on YouTube. Apollo 11: "As it happened LIVE on ABC" . I was only 4 when this happened and barely remember it really. Im still amazed to this day of the technological accomplishment this was. With the tech at hand in 1969 WE did this, Simply incredible.... pt.1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT2sN7Oe7JA pt.2- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I792XUcLsdI pt.3- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZgTel-Tf5M
Remember very little of it myself. Was only two years older than you. Always loved watching those Saturn Vs blastoff.
I always underestimated the capability of older tech until I started reading about military aircraft like the U2 spy plane and the SR-71.....those are very old projects......of course, less ambitious (hard to imagine) than the moon landing and the Saturn V project, but there were definitely some really smart people working on all of those things. I think the Saturn V is still the biggest rocket ever designed. Very brave undertakings. Hell, I still can't believe that Kittinger guy was willing to jump out of that balloon in 1960 for the free fall testing....or that they actually found someone willing to pilot the North American X-15 in the early 1960s and fly it at 4000mph. Obviously we don't hear about current cutting edge stuff, so who knows what they are able to do now.
Difference in the 60's is that there was 'an unlimited' (within reason) budget, and lower expectations regarding safety. To put a man on the moon now, they have to have it seeming '100 percent' guarantee of achieving it, whereas in the 60's they gave any moonshot a 50 percent chance of success. Of course, now that the next moon mission will likely be at least 50 years after man landed on the moon, there will be even more pressure to have the mission be a success without any issues. The Chinese Wu-14 hypersonic glider in testing has got the US and other countries a bit worried at the moment. It can carry nuclear weapons and travel at Mach 10+.
