Week 209 7/20/19
We have been anticipating this day for a long time - the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon. The moon landing was today and the first walk on the 21st, which was my 16th birthday that year. Of course we watched on TV, our first color model and purchased for the occasion, although all the video seemed to be in shades of gray. Dad was the project manager for Apollo at the MIT Instrumentation Lab (later Draper Laboratories and then just Draper). This meant his team was in charge of the guidance, navigation and control systems for the command module and the lunar module, including the software and hardware.
There were many celebrations going on in Boston, Cambridge and elsewhere, but we decided to go to two that I was able to get us in as special guests.
First the MIT Museum. We called my brother Pete who lives nearby and he joined us at the museum, then we had lunch together in Central Square at the Middle East. For some reason I forgot to take his picture.
They were able to get a lunar sample on loan. It was guarded.
This is a demo of an actual original Apollo guidance computer and software. A man near Houston found the computer in some salvage junk and contacted NASA. Some engineers were able to get it working again with lots of time and even more innovation.
The other event we attended was a private Draper celebration. They spared no expense on 60s furnishings, authentic food, character actors, games and amusements, technology to make old radios and TVs show Apollo footage, many actual magazines and newspapers from July 1969 (where did they get these?!).
This room was supposed to represent Woodstock which took place in the same summer. I get the idea but it seems to be an idealized view of the concept or mood -- or maybe the view of someone who was tripping and wasn't really there. No mud. Swings? I guess those were for photo ops.
Flowered headbands were given to anyone who wanted one, also granny glasses, peace medallions etc.
Paul points to where he was sitting at Woodstock on a huge mural. It was about 30 feet long.
There was a huge battleship game and a huge Light Bright board.
Astronaut character - he had bubbles ejecting from his pack. I didn't get a photo of the character "hippie."
This is a cake.
I ran into several friends of my dad and was able to talk with them quite a bit.
I don't know what these guys were doing, but they were in costume with the white shirts, skinny ties and pocket protectors.
In the middle is Margaret Hamilton who was the main programmer in charge of the team who developed the Apollo software. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama. The two women with flowers are programmers, I believe, and the woman with glasses on her head is the granddaughter of Doctor Charles Stark Draper. I have been writing to her and she gave me this photo.
The huge moon was lit up at the end of the evening.
