[meteorite-list] Eugene Shoemaker Responsible for TV Coverage of Apollo 11 Moon Walk

[almitt2 at localnet.com]

Greetings Paul and all,

Couldn't read the whole article as there were ads popping up and
keeping me from doing so but read a bit of the info there before I
gave up.

Might have been present in the article but Eugene Shoemaker helped
train the Apollo Astronauts at Meteor Crater so they would have
knowledge of what too look for on the lunar surface. He was a
candidate for the Apollo Program to be a geologist that would travel
to the moon. Due to an aliment he was disqualified. I'm sure everyone
knows that he was the first to finally get the attention of human kind
that an impact on Earth could be devastating after he and his wife
along with David Levy discovered Shoemaker/Levy 9 which impacted
Jupiter. I spent just a little time with him at the Texas Star Party
when I went some years back and before his death.

The televising of the first Apollo Moon landing was a great thing. I
was a teenager and enjoying watching anything about it I could. The TV
images weren't crystal clear but were enough for us see what was going
on, watching the astronauts climbing down the ladder to the lunar
surface. Many people viewed this as a stunt which it was not. It was a
highly calculated scientific endeavor with good odds. The fact it was
repeated successfully 6 times and almost 7 times with the help of many
talent individuals on the ground supporting the astronauts, showed it
was not a stunt. I made it down to the Apollo 17 launch (which was a
night launch) and was able to see the last Apollo Moon mission off
before returning to school. Hard to believe that the Apollo 11 landing
has almost been 50 years now. After the trip, NASA took some of the
Moon samples and encased them in a plastic for display for viewing by
people all over the Earth. I went to see a display shortly after the
trip in South Bend, Indiana. Still have the picture of the specimen.
It was a great era!
Best to all!

--AL Mitterling