At about 1:30 we see footage of the crew section of the LEM blasting off from the moon. This was Apollo 17; the last time that man was on the moon, which was on December 14, 1972. This is a remarkable shot, as the camera was being controlled remotely from Houston, and powered by the lunar rover and with the transmission being beamed from the rover's antenna. As it takes approximately one and a half seconds for a radio signal to travel from the earth to the moon and another second and a half for the return signal, the camera operator had to start the camera moving a second and a half before the actual blast off. He then used the joystick to tilt the camera upwards at the same rate as the ascent of the spacecraft, but anticipate its location from moment to moment and do it one and a half seconds early. Thanks to his precise timing, he was able to capture the shot while keeping the spacecraft in the frame the entire time.
The decade that saw the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs was a full decade before the advent of personal computers. As a proper computer was far too large to fit into a narrow console (much less two or three computers), what appears to be computer monitors at each station are actually televisions that are displaying video images. Each of the screens was linked to a closed circuit system that used an early version of a video camera pointing at a computer screen in another part of the building. The first personal computer did not hit the market until 1975, in the form of the MITS Altair 8800, which was purchased as a kit and had to be assembled by the customer.
The second program in the manned space missions was named Gemini, after the constellation of the same name, which is in the shape of a pair of twins, reflecting the size of the crew complement. While the proper pronunciation of the constellation ends with a hard "i", the pronunciation at NASA was with a soft "i", sounding similar to the name "Jiminy Cricket" in the children's book and later Disney film, The Adventures of Pinocchio. Regardless of the constellation, "Jimini" is the correct pronunciation of the NASA two-man space program.
As can be heard from the radio transmission when the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module undocked, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins joked that the LEM (the "Eagle") was flying upside down.
This is a direct reference to a song from the 1930s that refers to a kids' club for building model airplanes what was called "The Junior Birdmen." Military aviators would tease rookie pilots by giving them the name "Junior Birdman" and kidding them that they got their wings by saving the tops from cereal boxes along with a dime, then sending them in for a cheap set of wings made of tin and a Junior Birdman ID card.
Subsequently, a song appeared with the following lyrics. When singing, they would make "okay" signs with their hands, turn their hands over and put them to their faces so that it looked like they were wearing goggles and flight helmets. Then they would sing, "Up in the air Junior Birdman, Up in the air upside down, Up in the air Junior Birdman, Get your feet up off the ground. And when you hear the postman's whistle, And you get your wings of tin, Then you will know that Junior Birdman, Has sent his box tops in!"
This is a direct reference to a song from the 1930s that refers to a kids' club for building model airplanes what was called "The Junior Birdmen." Military aviators would tease rookie pilots by giving them the name "Junior Birdman" and kidding them that they got their wings by saving the tops from cereal boxes along with a dime, then sending them in for a cheap set of wings made of tin and a Junior Birdman ID card.
Subsequently, a song appeared with the following lyrics. When singing, they would make "okay" signs with their hands, turn their hands over and put them to their faces so that it looked like they were wearing goggles and flight helmets. Then they would sing, "Up in the air Junior Birdman, Up in the air upside down, Up in the air Junior Birdman, Get your feet up off the ground. And when you hear the postman's whistle, And you get your wings of tin, Then you will know that Junior Birdman, Has sent his box tops in!"