Apollo 11 - congratulations America!

[Rough Edge racing]

 The rocket engines were more or less at least designed by Von Werner, but the event was all American....A giant rocket buring 5000 gallons of fuel per second, flames, smoke,noise, and a crowd of spectators,  with three men riding this contraption to 18,000 mph to get into orbit and 24,000 mph to escape the Earth's gravity...

[Darren Williams]

From what I have seen, India is a big diverse country. I read where they are the 5th largest economy and growing quite fast. And I have met and worked with many engineers that came to the US from India. I worked daily with an Indian immigrant engineer for over a decade (he was my boss for about a year of that time). It looks to me that India has a lot of good engineering resources (people) and showcasing them with a space program, coupled with the benefits of developing the technology that comes with it is a no brainer for them. Putting those resources to work in a positive way is like a rising tide.

Finding water on the Moon, the focus of their latest exploration, could prove to be very important to the human race in the future. I believe their space program will be beneficial to them and the rest of the world. I applaud their efforts and wish them much success.

[Lannis]

From what I have seen, India is a big diverse country. I read where they are the 5th largest economy and growing quite fast. And I have met and worked with many engineers that came to the US from India. I worked daily with an Indian immigrant engineer for over a decade (he was my boss for about a year of that time). It looks to me that India has a lot of good engineering resources (people) and showcasing them with a space program, coupled with the benefits of developing the technology that comes with it is a no brainer for them. Putting those resources to work in a positive way is like a rising tide.

Finding water on the Moon, the focus of their latest exploration, could prove to be very important to the human race in the future. I believe their space program will be beneficial to them and the rest of the world. I applaud their efforts and wish them much success.

I agree with all of that, especially about the quality of Indian engineers working on projects around the world.   And since this thread is about the Moon, it's appropriate to talk about finding water on the Moon and what that might mean in future, although our own planet is 4/5 water.    I think some of the previous comments are more related to the fact that a large number of Indians, maybe a majority (hundreds of millions), do not have access to clean water in their daily lives, something that is not true about the USA except in places like Flint MI.   The question is, why are the Indian smarts and resources being applied to finding water on the Moon and not right there at home?

Our own Joji Kurian of this list is a trained water treatment systems engineer from India, now working in the middle east.   Although he probably has the civility to stay out of a discussion like this, he could tell you why this dichotomy exists.

For the purposes of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, that doesn't matter much anyhow.

Lannis

[canuck750]

Getting back to the origin of my post, my point is to applaud the amazing efforts of the 1960's when computing power was in its infancy, previously non-existent engineering and manufacturing skills were developed for the space program and hundreds of thousands of individuals working in diverse locations on separate projects came together to achieve the impossible.

Trying to compare the Apollo accomplishments to current engineering capabilities, regardless of where in this world the knowledge and capacity currently exists is irrelevant. In 1969 only one nation / organization had the overall capacity and capability to accomplish this and I think it is appropriate to remember and recognize how amazing the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury missions were.

[Tusayan]

Next up...  GPS 

[Darren Williams]

Getting back to the origin of my post, my point is to applaud the amazing efforts of the 1960's when computing power was in its infancy, previously non-existent engineering and manufacturing skills were developed for the space program and hundreds of thousands of individuals working in diverse locations on separate projects came together to achieve the impossible.

Trying to compare the Apollo accomplishments to current engineering capabilities, regardless of where in this world the knowledge and capacity currently exists is irrelevant. In 1969 only one nation / organization had the overall capacity and capability to accomplish this and I think it is appropriate to remember and recognize how amazing the Apollo, Gemini and Mercury missions were.

The president stood up in front of the world, while addressing our nation, and challenged his team to accomplish something that seemed impossible at the time. After many successes and a few terrible failures, they went accomplished something that was quite astounding. The technological leaps they ushered in touched the lives of the world in many great ways.

[Griso8V]

I’m bloody glad we were on your side during the war..
We’da’ been rooted otherwise.

Yes, so am I, the Australians have always been great friends.

[tetarabra]

No , seriously ...   

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9WoM2bHfr48

[Huzo]

No , seriously ...   

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9WoM2bHfr48

Get that garbage off..!

[tazio]

     <sigh>

[ScepticalScotty]

The USSR were in the race, but made a few wrong steps, one of the biggest being the botched routine operation on Korolev that killed him. He was a great engineer and organisational genius, and they were lost for a while without him. The fact that Glushko had been forced to denounce him, never helped thier working relationship much.....