Results tagged “moon”

In hopes of seeing whether there's water or ice on the moon, NASA is crashing two spacecraft onto the moon's surface. The AP explains, "The crashing spaceship was launched in June along with an orbiter that's now mapping the lunar surface. LCROSS -- short for Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and pronounced L-Cross -- is on a collision course with the moon, attached to an empty 2.2-ton rocket that helped get the probe off the ground."

The folks at Inside the Apple remind us that today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 ticker tape parade (following the moon landing on July 20th, 1969). The parade was for for Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins, and "at the time, many claimed it was the largest ticker tape parade New York had ever seen. Though they note this claim is impossible to verify, there were around 4 million in attendance.

Yesterday we got to watch in "real time" the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon, down to the second it was aired when covered by Walter Cronkite. Today the NY Times has included a four page insert in the paper, featuring the big headline of July 21st, 1969, just as it was printed 40 years ago. Wanna save some trees? Read the original story here; it's still probably one of the most exciting ledes of all time: "Men have landed and walked on the moon."

In tribute to both the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the passing of Walter Cronkite, blogger Jason Kottke has set up a page on his site where you can view the original Cronkite-anchored CBS newscast "40 years to the second after it originally happened." Coverage for the lunar landing begins at 4:10 p.m. followed by the first moonwalk (no, not that one) at 10:10 p.m. Kottke credits the real-time replays on other sites like WeChooseTheMoon.org and the ApolloPlus40 Twitterfeed for the inspiration, adding: "I hope that with the old time TV display and poor YouTube quality, you get a small sense of how someone 40 years ago might have experienced it."

       

Forty years ago today, NASA's Apollo crew went to the moon, with astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong setting down on the moon's surface while Michael Collins orbited above. NASA has various features on its website, like a real-time replay of the mission. The space agency has also released a montage of the mission (below) and enhanced footage (after the jump):

While accepting the best supporting actor prize from the New York Film Critics Circle on Monday night for his riveting performance in Milk, Josh Brolin lashed out at the Times's chief theater critic Ben Brantley, who negatively reviewed Brolin in True West on Broadway. Sure, that was over eight years ago, but Jo Bro does not forget a slight: "As much as actors like to say they don't read reviews, I do. Ben Brantley—honestly I hate that motherfucker! And I don't think he's a good writer." (We do.) Then Brolin turned to his Milk co-star: "Quite an actor Sean Penn...Amazing. Not an asshole like Russell Crowe."

Tonight is the last chance until December 2010 to witness a total lunar eclipse. This is the third such eclipse in the past year. With any luck the weather will cooperate. It looks like there will be breaks in the clouds over the city, which should make for dramatic views. Break out the tripods and cameras!