TEHRAN, Jul 17 -Just as millions around the globe watched the Apollo 11 moonshot 50 years ago, space enthusiasts young and old can watch the mission unfold in real time on a special NASA website, "Apollo 11 in Real Time, 50 Years Later."
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) -Starting with the launch at 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969, the audio/video feeds on the site follow the three astronauts in the spaceship as the rocket ascends, enters Earth orbit and then begins the trek to the moon.
And that's just in the first few hours. The website also carries simultaneous broadcasts of the Mission Control room in Houston, along with a running transcript of the recorded audio.
Viewers can either check in at any point in the eight day mission to see what was happening at the time, or skip around to the highlights.
According to NASA's own promotion of the rebroadcast, "Visitors can open this panel at any second of the mission and be able to hear such things as the flight surgeon threatening to quarantine the entire USS Hornet," the ship that recovered the capsule and astronauts in the ocean.
Software developer Ben Feist created the rebroadcast over two years. He synced all forms of media to mission time, which NASA said was a challenge given that sound recordings varied widely in speed.
The website includes 11,000 hours of Mission Control audio, 2,000 photographs, 240 hours of space to ground audio, and information on each of the lunar surface samples collected by Armstrong and Aldrin. A timeline at the top of the page keeps track of your place in the mission and highlights interesting moments.
NASA Live TV also rebroadcast the launch Tuesday morning, while Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins gave his perspective along with Kennedy Space Center Administrator Bob Cabana.
NASA Live TV also will broadcast more about the Apollo 11 anniversary at 1 p.m. EDT on Friday, which will include future plans to return to the moon and go forward to Mars. Then at 4 p.m. on Saturday, NASA Live TV will replay the original Apollo 11 footage of the first moonwalk.
Around the globe, it is estimated that 600 million people watched the mission, including 1 of every 4 people in the United States.
Speaking on the broadcast, Collins said he and astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin felt like "the nervous novice driving a wide vehicle down a narrow alley" as the rocket lifted off.
Source: upi
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