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APOLLO 11: NASA engineers remember ‘unforgettable' launch 50 years later

By Irene Sans, WFTV.com
By Irene Sans, WFTV.com
This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. landing on the moon. At the time, there was an ongoing race for world leadership between the U.S. and Soviet Union, which motivated the U.S. to be first to put men on the moon.
Imagine how many adults are in the world now who were glued to the TV then, watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the moon, while Michael Collins orbited above. Without a doubt, many adults know about Cape Canaveral, even if they are thousands of miles away. That’s where the astronauts lifted off to the moon in July 1969.
Behind the historic accomplishment were many men and women working to make the flight and moon landing flawless.
Channel 9 anchor Greg Warmoth recently interviewed retired NASA engineers who were part of the Apollo mission five decades ago. They worked together as part of the thrilling mission that would give them the ultimate career accomplishment, a mission that had not been completed by any other space group.

ORLANDO, Fla. — For a moment, imagine being part of something totally new, historic and life-changing, not only for you, but for humanity. Brevard County was the place to be 50 years ago. For these scientists, this was the high point in their career.

The former vice president of Rockwell International, Lee Solid, said, "There is no doubt about it, the high point of my career is being on the launch crew that put men on the moon. To me that was the only place to be, to have lived and to have been part of the Apollo program, " said Charlie Mars, retired NASA engineer.

Jim Ogle, who was an Apollo engineer and also worked in the shuttle missions, said, "It was a team effort. Your adrenaline was, 'We have to beat the Russians.' The race was on. And you had three people that was riding up in the tip of that thing, that depended on what you were doing, depending on what all of us were doing, to make sure that rocket was safe."
It was an incredible mission for its time, but there were also incredible infrastructure, tools and instruments that had to be created to accomplish the ultimate mission. Many of the same instruments and tools will also be used on the next U.S. mission to the moon, also lifting off from Brevard County soon.

This time, many more people will be watching closely, not only from their TV sets -- not in black and white like 50 years ago, but this time from mobile screens from pretty much anywhere in the world, live and high definition.
We will have special coverage all this week on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo mission. Tune in at 4 p.m. to Eyewitness News and at 8 p.m. Saturday for our one-hour special about the mission.

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