Two classic moon landing-related videos.

First, of course, is this. This is the important one. This is the one you should watch.

You don’t have to click on the full page for the second one… Continue reading Two classic moon landing-related videos.

Because of your patronage, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos now has…

…Apollo 11 rocket engines:

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos rescued sunken treasure in the Atlantic this year: components of two F-1 rocket engines. Now he says he has verified that they are engines from Apollo 11, the first mission that took U.S. astronauts to the moon.

The timing, as Bezos is aware, is appropriate. Saturday is the anniversary of the 1969 moon landing.

“44 years ago tomorrow Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, and now we have recovered a critical technological marvel that made it all possible,” Bezos wrote on his blog.

[pause]

I can’t say that I’m upset about that, honestly. Just remember, Jeff: those belong in a museum.

RIP, Neil Armstrong.

For those few people who do not know, Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon*: a procedure that involved putting him and two other men in a metal can, putting the can on top of a mound of explosives, then setting off the mound.  That got them on their way: the can landed (a couple of hundred thousand miles later) via the setting off of more explosives – after, oh yeah, breaking in half.  Deliberately.  One on the ground – the airless, boiling hot/freezing cold ground, since space is one of those places where a single mistake can kill you** – Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked around for a bit, put up the flag, and were generally “Hey. The moon.”  Then they went back up on yet another mound of explosives, met up again with Michael Collins, and went home. In short: not exactly a job for the timid.

And why did we do it? Because we’re the United States of America, and we damn well felt like it.

Moe Lane Continue reading RIP, Neil Armstrong.