Watch it live, sorta
December 13, 2015 6:32 PM   Subscribe

If you hurry, you may be able to catch Apollo 17 taking off from the Moon.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (30 comments total) 51 users marked this as a favorite
 
Beautiful; Caught this just in time for 1-minute before launch.
posted by mystyk at 6:42 PM on December 13, 2015


Ooh, this is that time one of those times they flew a GM car to the moon and drove it around there, isn't it??
posted by Juffo-Wup at 6:46 PM on December 13, 2015


I jumped ahead to the "realtime", where they're already driving around on the lunar surface, and it's kind of hilarious. The two guys and mission control talking over each other, bickering about where to drive, where to park etc. On the frickin moon.
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:47 PM on December 13, 2015 [5 favorites]


I watched this live in 1972. My eight year old self would have been devastated to know that it's now 43 three years later and we've never been back since.
posted by octothorpe at 6:48 PM on December 13, 2015 [19 favorites]


"How about scuffing your feet and seeing if it looks orange underneath?"
I've been doing the science all wrong.
posted by quinndexter at 6:49 PM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


When I was a kid, I thought it at least as likely that I would become an astronaut "when I grew up" as it was that I would become a sysadmin of a supercomputer. Not that I knew what a supercomputer was, at the time. Anyway, the latter happened to me and quite a few others. The former...?
posted by Juffo-Wup at 6:50 PM on December 13, 2015


Cernan: “Oh, man. Look at that rock out there.”

-04 14 23 28.

Apollo 18 is slated for that, gene.

Watched it, dreamed it, loved it.
posted by clavdivs at 6:52 PM on December 13, 2015


If you hurry, you may be able to catch Apollo 17 taking off from the Moon.

Also if you don't hurry.

"Real time" is more interesting anyway.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:53 PM on December 13, 2015


Ha. Rescind the above of mine. The foolish part of me thought I clicked the "Now" link when I actually clicked the "T-1" one. Still wonderful stuff.
posted by mystyk at 6:55 PM on December 13, 2015


Out of this world.
posted by unliteral at 7:23 PM on December 13, 2015


Man, they're clumsy. Just now they spilt a regolith sample, dropped a slide out of a camera and then "Oh - Jiminy Christmas - I can't even pick up that big bag to close the gate."
Fascinating to watch though. Good post.
posted by unliteral at 7:35 PM on December 13, 2015


This is excellent. Thanks, Brandon.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:45 PM on December 13, 2015


This is sooooo addictive. The web interface is super smooth and well implemented.

unliteral, you'd probably be clumsy too if you were working from inside an inflated bag in reduced gravity with super harsh lighting that makes anything in shadow completely invisible.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:53 PM on December 13, 2015 [2 favorites]


Wish I hadn't seen this right when I'm supposed to be going to sleep. I'll have to check it out more tomorrow as I've already stayed up later than I was supposed to. Great post!
posted by A Bad Catholic at 8:07 PM on December 13, 2015


unliteral, you'd probably be clumsy too
True that, I'm clumsier than them here on earth. I was just a little surprised at the amount of errors in such a short time. Luckily, none of them critical.
posted by unliteral at 8:12 PM on December 13, 2015


Cernan: Boy, I tell you, I ain't going to do much more dusting after I leave here. Ever ...
posted by figurant at 9:09 PM on December 13, 2015


I was just a little surprised at the amount of errors in such a short time.

In 1/6th gravity, wearing what is substantially a sleeping bag, our species best and brightest are pretty close to newborn fauns.
posted by figurant at 9:19 PM on December 13, 2015


Oh wow. "Let me throw the hammer" wasn't some kind of jargon from Schmitt.
posted by figurant at 9:26 PM on December 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh man, check out the highlights timeline in the top right of the page! Roll your cursor along it, and it shows highlights like "Cernan sings" and "searching for scissors" at the point in the recording where those things happen. Sweeeet - this is a really nice way to do that.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:40 PM on December 13, 2015


Thank you.
posted by hank at 9:58 PM on December 13, 2015


Contact
posted by Mr. Pokeylope at 10:18 PM on December 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


My parents and I flew to Florida to see the Apollo 17 launch in person. I figured folks would be commuting back and forth from there by now.
posted by quartzcity at 11:52 PM on December 13, 2015


I was eight years old then, too, octothorpe. But my mother had some very old-fashioned ideas about bedtime on a school night, never mind that it was a night launch of a crew to the moon and that I totally lived and breathed anything NASA.

And following that disappointment, we abandoned the moon. I haven't understood anything about this nation since that decision.

Great post, Brandon Blatcher.
posted by bryon at 12:13 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


In the "real time", they sound like they're on a drunken camping trip. Love it.
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:30 AM on December 14, 2015


Okay, this just won my "Year of the Internet" prize that I just created to give to this website.
posted by DigDoug at 7:07 AM on December 14, 2015


This is one of the best things I have ever seen. Whoever put this together should be sainted.
posted by blurker at 10:23 AM on December 14, 2015


The project to put this all together is documented on Ben Feist's blog. It's pretty amazing.
posted by blurker at 11:31 AM on December 14, 2015 [1 favorite]


Sorta apropos: In Another Giant Leap, Apollo 11 Command Module Is 3D Digitized for Humankind. Nearly 50 years after Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins journeyed to the moon, their spaceship finds a new digital life.
posted by Capt. Renault at 3:38 PM on December 14, 2015


“The Real Story Of Apollo 17... And Why We Never Went Back To The Moon,” Andrew Liptak, io9, 12 December 2015
posted by ob1quixote at 7:09 PM on December 15, 2015


The incredible amount of work that went into this site is simply mind-blowing. Ben should definitely be lauded. What an amazing example of the Extraordinary that can be produced by one human's passion and dogged perseverance! Ben's blog linked above is a great look into what it took to put it all together.
posted by lock sock and barrel at 11:00 AM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


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