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Manned spaceflight is back baybee.
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
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Science Memes
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To quote some youtuber I recently watched:
"We aren't late now, we were just really early back then."
That they had been able to successfully pull of a moon landing with 60s technology just a couple of years after the first person in space is pretty insane!
Also, only 66 years after the first manned flight!
That's maybe way less impressive than it sounds but just how new tech establishes itself in a burst of progress over the first couple of decades.
E.g. we are currently just 68 years after the invention of the first integrated circuit and 55 years after the first microprocessor...
Not to veer off topic, but I always found this timeline fascinating: First straight line no frills flight was 1903. The first dogfight (with pistols) was 1913. The first [officially recognized] dogfight with machine guns was 1914. By 1915, forward-firing machine guns became standard, allowing for aggressive aerial duels.
If only science and discovery was our species’ true priority :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMwE0zDGKNU
Its amazing that since then we haven’t had much success in even landing anything unmanned on the moon, let alone manned. The fact that they weren’t ripped to shreds like most other things weve ever tried to land, using that era’s technology, is absolutely fucking bonkers
E: Im assuming someone downvoted this bc they think Im saying this as in “the moon landing was fake” or something, which is not the case. Its just incredibly difficult to land something on the moon successfully, even with all the modern technology that we have. Resilience (2025), Hakuto-R (2023), Luna 25 (2023), and Beresheet (2019) all crashed in attempts to land on the moon using modern sensors and flight equipment that have infinitely more capability than what the US used to put men on the moon. The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) used a 1.024 MHz processor, 2 KB of RAM, and 72 KB of read-only memory. You would need 4,000,000 times more RAM to simply play kerbal space program.
I dont believe the moon landing was faked whatsoever. Russia was watching every step of the way and would have happily pointed out if it had never happened. This was the height of the cold war. But instead they congratulated the US on its achievements. That said, its fucking insane that we were able to do it. Modern equipment has a less than 50% chance of landing safely, the odds of them being successful back then were infinitesimally smaller
That's mostly irrelevant because Apollo didn't have computers landing the ships. They were humans. Astronauts trained hard to achieve that. Computers only flew the initial takeoff and ascent. An IBM computer that stayed behind with the rocket. But Armstrong landed that bird on the moon by hand.
Also, while the on board computer allowed them to consolidate sensor input, and calculate and execute burn maneuvers (relatively easy tasks), everything was double and triple checked by mission control back on earth. With way more powerful, faster and capable computers. Anything that required reflexes or finesse was done by a human hand on a joystick.
This is why all those attempts are impressive even if ultimately failed some way or the other. Because they are autonomous landers. A technology that didn't exist until the turn of the millennium.
Hank Green?
Yes! :-)
Couldn't remember the name, but now found the video watched (recommended btw):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaXRREHVkHo
America flew nine manned lunar orbit missions in the 60's and 70's. Apollo 8 didn't carry a Lunar Module, CM only. 10 did a low pass in their lunar module, 11 and 12 landed, 13 had to abort, 14-17 landed. We gave the rest of the world a 50 year chance to come in tenth and nobody did so here we go again.
Canada gets to umm actually for the rest of time because there was a Canuck on Artemis 2, the rest of you are now jockeying for 11th place.
While it is a good idea to stress that this is a largely US undertaking to show that this country is not all just shit in a barrel yet, the bland nationalism in your comment unfortunately somewhat negates that impression again.
Instead of focusing on becoming 10th, we just gave ourselves healthcare. It is a wondrous achievement going around the moon though.
Maybe fix your problems here on earth first but who am I
it says right there on the card Photonic
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the Moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey's on the Moon)
I can't pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey's on the Moon)
Ten years from now I'll be paying still
(while Whitey's on the Moon)