When we were six

The 20th is a national holiday in Japan in honor of the sea. Also of course the anniversary of the first moon landing. I have looked at several of the news items related to this day and find the most interesting part to be the abscence of Mr Armstrong. It seems like the decision not to partake of the lime light was taken a long time ago and thanks to that, on this 40 year anniversary it has shone on some of the 400,000 others involved with the mission, which would probably be pleasing for Mr A. Watching one of the software designers speak on the BBC was one of the most interesting interviews. There were a few points I had not known about, like the hand woven nature of the matix that formed the computer and the various little problems that arose during the mission. Including Mr Armstrong having to bodge up a repair for the broken take off button so that they could leave. I already knew about the low fuel at landing thanks to the movie The Dish, which I heartily recommend.

Today I saw the end of Apollo 13 during my lunch and thanks to the recent plethera of lunar programming I noticed that the naval captain welcoming Jim lovell (Tom Hanks)back to earth bore a striking resemblance to Jim Lovell himself. A quick trip to Wikiland resolved the mystery, it was him playing a cameo role, nice that he had a tiny part on the set as well as behind the scenes.

Anyway I wanted to hear something from Neil and a brief search found this interview, which went some way toward filling the gaps, but I would still like to know how he repaired the switch.

It is sad that the race against Russia seems to be percieved as the most important factor behind the public support for the project. I had forgotten all about that side of it.