PART II Live Broadcast
All this might seem involved and difficult and it is and was, but this was by far not all
that was involved in this miracle. The entire landing on the Moon was televised - LIVE -
from the landing craft - AND - get this - THE SURFACE OF THE MOON!! Come on - get
out of here. YES - this happened. The estimated TV audience for this event was half a
billion viewers - and that's a lot of soap to sell during the commercials!! You don't believe
this right? Well, I worked on this part!! Me - and the rest of the crew at RCA Astro in
Hightown, NJ as well as Westinghouse and General Electric technicians. Never - nothing
ever of this scope and significance had ever been done before - nowhere ever - get it? - a
first. How? - I ask you - how could this possibly have happened? Well - I'm not going to
reveal this - not quite yet. You are not ready, but I will tell you this. It really happened. In fact
right now you are probably reading this and looking at the pictures using the same basic
system which was rush rush rush manufactured and developed and fool proofed against
failure - (that was our part at RCA) - I mean seriously - could you see all these TV screens
going blank at the critical time? Can't happen - no - period!! Live Broadcast I give you!!
What - no way Jose!! Only - yes - it really happened - half a billion witnesses. Ha Ha Ha.
PART I WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY??
....I'm doing a full series on the Moon landing. I feel the time has come to explain what really happened.
..
My father told us that his physics teacher in high school had explained to the class, using the best math
he had at his disposal, that it was theoretically impossible for man to reach the Moon using rockets.
This was over a special Jello dessert mom had made for the fourth of July. It was red white and blue and
really good. His physics teacher was right, I learned later in engineering school, and his math was perfect
too...There was no question, but that we would be forced to use other worldly forces - after all my brother
Denny explained. "we were going to other worlds". Denny was extremely smart. I'm only sorry he's no
longer physically with us because, one. I'm in a fix again, and, two, he's missing the Jello. Denny's sense
of humor rose above all barriers.
Fantasy one: You could overcome the theoretical negativity about the need for a very large rocket by
breaking it up into sections and putting them together. This meant three stages to the rocket to get it into
orbit to begin with. Gulp!
Fantasy two: in addition to the first three launching stages, you'd have attached - a lunar landing
vehicle and a command vehicle which circled the Moon, and, of course, the return capsule which was
attached to the command vehicle. These sections were all part of the same rocket - the Saturn V - ha ha
ha...
Fantasy three; and here's the best part, landing on the moon and recovery of the lunar module and the
astronauts and return to earth. The logic itself made even our most calloused engineers spend double -
triple time in the men's room. Listen to this. after landing on the surface of the moon (never done before
of course), the astronauts would collect rocks and take pictures and then climb back into the lunar
module while the other astronaut circled around the Moon and waited for the landing craft to launch off
the surface of the moon, - rendezvous with them and carry everyone and the rocks all back to the earth.
Come on!! Seriously!! None of this had ever been tried before - well, except for a rendezvous or two. No
one had every launched the landing craft anywhere really - let alone to a circling space craft!!
So here's the catcher - do you really think this was possible - at all?? Come on - everyone comes back
with smiles and rocks?? Hey - only in Hollywood baby. Did it really happen? Yes, it did...How then? and
now maybe you'll really start believing again...
