The Incredible Story of Sending Man to the Moon (A Deep Dive)

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Can we just appreciate the fact that even though the Soviets and Americans were in the middle of a cold war and directly competing to get to the moon first, they still left a memorial for the Soviet cosmonauts that came before them.

It was daytime on a school day here in Oz. My mother could not get a guarantee from our elementary school that we would be able to view Apollo 11's landing, on the one tiny B&W TV the school possessed - so my mother kept my sister and me home for the day, to ensure we got to watch the telecast. As the landing TV feed was sent first to Australian radio telescopes, it meant the moon was visible when I walked outside after watching the broadcast of the landing. I looked up at the moon in awe and wonder, thinking "gosh, there are two men walking around on that Moon, right now" It was a life-shaping moment, for sure.

When listing the side-benefits, you missed arguably the two most significant ... the giant leap in materials science, and the hyper acceleration of semiconductor development ... bringing to us the very medium by which we watch your videos.

"Because they are hard" stuck with me as a kiddo. I loved taking the more difficult path for the challenge itself, not the destination.

1:19 a space race comeback 3:56 end of sponsorship 9:30 to perform the impossible 17:09 the spacecraft the astronauts 25:34 the missions 40:39 ending Apollo 47:30 return to the moon

Buzz Aldrin is much more noted for work on rendezvous rather than EVA. He was called "Dr. Rendezvous" because that was the subject of his doctoral dissertation at MIT.

Despite having moved to Houston, I somehow haven't been to Johnson Space Center. My BIL took my niece and nephew there for the Artemis splashdown. That being said, seeing a rocket launched at Cape Canaveral when I was 11 is still the most awe-inspiring thing I've ever experienced. We were at the observation tower, and a couple seconds after the boosters kicked on, the sound wave rattled the tower and almost knocked me to my feet. I'll never forget that. We showed up and didn't know why half the space center was closed until we overheard a few people talking about a rocket launch. My dad and I BEGGED my mom to stay long enough for that and I'm so glad we did. If anyone ever has a chance to witness something like that, I highly recommend it. That was 25 years ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

My grandpa worked on the design of the lunar module and helped during Apollo 13, I love this type of content

I vividly remember being a young boy watching the moon landing and Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon on my family's black and white television. The Apollo clips still take my breath away 50+ years later.

Was looking for something educational to watch with my kids tonight, thank you Simon.

The fact that 60 years later, landing people on the moon is still a monumental challenge shows just how breath-takingly incredible an achievement the Apollo landings were.

In 1972, when I was 6, my mum sat me on her knee and pointed to our Black and white TV. Those men there, pointing to the suited Astronauts, are on the moon. She pointed outside and upwards. From that day forwards I've been fascinated by space flight, and the moon.

LOL at the incredibly confused mice. Also my favorite Apollo contribution to lay out for this stuff is the cordless drill. Apollo's contributions to modern computing can't possibly be understated either- the Apollo program is directly responsible for the dominance of the American tech industry. It revolutionized both hardware and software.

“That’s one small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind.” According to Armstrong, he said, “…a man”, but the radio transmission dropped out for a split second. Either way, it’s still a powerful quote.

One massive regret in my life is that I never got to see a shuttle launch in person... I know I can go see Artemis II launch, but I have a soft spot in my heart for the shuttles.

I believe that this is my favorite of all of the videos from the Whistlerverse. It is such a well done deep dive that had me at the edge of my seat the whole time.

My dad worked at NASA from Apollo 8 through the Challenger accident. Back when it was free we visited NASA's visitor center about once every other month. Dad once told me that the command capsule "computer" was barely more sophisticated than a bunch of magnets on a string. I think if you could see what technology they had to work with your toes would curl.

Amy Shira Teitel's "Breaking the Chains of Gravity" is an excellent piece on the creation of NASA.

Dear Editor(s), Could we nix the TV edit please; across all of Simon's channels? Not only is it annoying, but it's harder to hear and understand what Simon is saying during it. It's a neat idea, but fails in execution