July 16th 1969, forty-four years ago today.

[Jeff Bird]

I remember watching this live.

[Gojira]

I wish I could have watched this live.

[Mr Shifty]

Truly incredible. Thanks for posting; maybe continue a real-time+44yr live journal over the next week or so?

[Albert VDS]

Truly incredible. Thanks for posting; maybe continue a real-time+44yr live journal over the next week or so?

That's an awesome idea.

[Jeff Bird]

Some of Uncle Walter's coverage of the launch. Couple of good chuckles in these videos.

[Mr Shifty]

Here's an Orbiter simulation of the TLI and LM extraction -- pretty good show -- with audio from the Apollo 11 mission.

During the mission in 1969, TLI occured about 3 hours after launch, and the LM extraction was about 30 minutes after that.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Mr Shifty

[Mr Shifty]

And here is the live TV broadcast from the command module from 44 years ago today, July 17 1969 at about 7:30pm EST, 130,000 miles from Earth:

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQvXe0mqqIU

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXb9LpdZ2sc

(The flashlight stuff at about 2:56 in the second video is pretty cool.)

Edited July 17, 2013 by Mr Shifty

[PakledHostage]

I remember watching this live.

It happened before my time, but for those of you who witnessed it, what was it like? Was it "stare at the TV in silent awe", or was it "shouting at the TV in excitement"? Judging from pictures of people watching from the beach, it was a mix of emotions. But do any of you care to share your own memories? Even watching the replays sends shivers down my spine...

[softweir]

I don't know about other people (I was only seven at the time) but it caused me to feel an intense, silent excitement. I didn't talk about it that I remember, but I did watch avidly.

[dharak1]

I was 31 years late to the party

[Flymetothemun]

Some of Uncle Walter's coverage of the launch. Couple of good chuckles in these videos.

I liked Uncle Walt. Way too young to have ever seen him live on CBS, but I still like him.

[Mr Shifty]

The live+44yr journal continues. Here is the broadcast the astronauts made at GET 55:19 (about 5pm EST on July 18th) 177,000 miles from Earth. Transcript is available here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLttJ3CADp4&list=PL6FDE76879211BF27

You can watch the astronauts remove the docking probe assembly, then enter and inspect the LM.

[The Jedi Master]

I worked very hard to find this quote, I think it is very appropriate.

"Now, come on. A bit of history for you. Aren't you proud, 'cause you helped. Now. Do you know how many people are watching this live on the telly? Half a billion. And that's nothing, because the human race will spread out among the starsâ€â€you just watch them fly. Billions and billions of them, for billions and billions of years. And every single one of them at some point in their lives will look back at this man taking that very first step and they will never ever forget it. "

--The Doctor, Doctor Who, Day of the Moon

[The Destroyer]

Might as well post this here.

[Jeff Bird]

ABC coverage talking about Luna 15, Yuri Gagarin and how the Soviets were planning to go to the moon in 1961.

Edited July 19, 2013 by Jeff Bird

[Mr Shifty]

So here's all I could find from July 19. There were actually about 34 minutes of footage shot by the astronauts giving a tour of the moon's surface and talking about how they would accomplish the Powered Descent. But this 40 second clip of Mike Collins describing some of the lunar features -- which starts about 10 minutes into the broadcast -- is all I could find of it. Here is the transcript, starts at about GET 78:34:23.

It is about 4pm EST on July 19. The astronauts are orbiting the moon, currently at an altitude of 110 miles, having completed their first lunar insertion burn about 3 hours previously. Their current orbit has an apoapsis of 170.2 miles and a periapsis of 61.3 miles, so they will do a second burn to circularize their orbit in about 1.5 hours.

[Mr Shifty]

Today, July 20th, 44 years ago.

LM undocking and separation:

http://youtu.be/lK2Al3kPHTM

The moon landing:

First steps:

[Albert VDS]

This post is a bit late for the actual anniversary, but heres Melodysheeps' tribute to Apollo 11