To the Moon: How we built the technologies

[happymlxd]

The historic Apollo 11 mission in July of 1969 culminated in the first
manned moon landing. While many of the proud Americans who were
involved in that project are no longer with us 40 years later, the
technologies they built still live on, will be further refined, and
will return us to that lonely world and beyond.
Our commitment to space exploration began with a wake up call over
five decades ago with a beeping sound.
Not with a clock radio, but with a transponder signal that could be
tuned in by any ham radio enthusiast — the launching and ever present
chirping of the Soviet Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957, the first
artificial satellite. Shortly after, the Soviets followed with aboard
Sputnik 2 and several follow on Sputniks, and then a man, Cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin, aboard Vostok 1 in 1961.
Each of these important milestones in space exploration was
accompanied by the Soviets proclaiming their technical and moral
superiority over the capitalist and imperialist United States, which
was fumbling with it’s own space program and could barely get it’s own
satellite and manned rocket off the ground. Provocation from the
Communists was all we needed to get our collective act in gear, and
our President was ready to meet the challenge, even though our country
wasn’t at the time.
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this
decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because
they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure
the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one
that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and
one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
John F. Kennedy’s historic 1962 speech at Rice University re-affirming
our nation’s commitment to space exploration and thumbing our noses at
the “Reds” which provoked and stiffened our resolve rings as true and
as moving today as the day he uttered it.
July 20th, 2009 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon
landing, a historic event that was the realization of over two decades
of dedicated contributions from hundreds of companies. The engineering
of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space vehicles and supporting
systems involved not just large companies, but thousands of smaller
subcontractors and hundreds of thousands of technology and aerospace
workers who worked tireless all-nighter hours to solve tremendously
complicated engineering problems for what many Americans felt was an
insurmountable task which needed to be accomplished in less than a
decade from when President Kennedy made his historic speech.
Also See: Kennedy Space Center (Gallery)
40 years after Apollo 11, Many of the larger companies that built the
support systems and actual space technology no longer exist, or have
been absorbed into others. Most of the key people who led the projects
have passed on, or are entering their later years in life. But
remarkably, some of the important firms which gave some of the most
significant contributions still remain, and many of the technologies
they built are still in use and will continue to be used as we enter
the next era of space exploration.
Over the next several weeks up to and after the 40th anniversary, I am
going to profile the key companies and the projects which made Apollo
11 a reality — from the firms that performed the systems integration,
built and designed the avionics components, engineered and
manufactured the powerful rocket engines which hurtled the mighty
Saturn V into space, and created the legendary spacecraft which made
history. It should be a heck of a ride.
Which companies and individuals do you think made the most significant
contributions to the Apollo program? Who needs to be remembered? Talk
Back and Let Me Know.

http://www.51orders.com/