Sad news has come that Stan Lebar, developer of the lunar TV camera has passed away.  Stan was a guest of Conversations with Apollo in 2008, and as a tribute to him, we present a rerun of one of our most interesting interviews.

You can listen to it here.

RIP, Stan.  We couldn't have seen the moon without you.

To close out 2009, our guest is Retired Navy Captain Charles Smiley, XO of Helicopter Squadron 4 , tasked with fishing astronauts from Apollo 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13 out of the Pacific Ocean after Splashdown. Chuck was the pilot of the astronaut recovery helicopter  #66 for Apollo 10 and Apollo 13.

 

There's a great article here by one of the Motley Fools about how Apollo was a great investment outside of it's historical and Cold War implications. 

And though I completely agree with the author's premise, there's a few things he gets wrong. First, Apollo ended in 1975 with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Skylab, as part of the Apollo Applications program was part of the Apollo Budget and used leftover Apollo hardware from three cancelled moon missions (the last CM was used for Apollo Soyuz).

Additionally, there are economists that feel that the steps taken by Roosevelt actually prolonged the depression, suggesting that the steps taken with the Stimulus and Tarp Bills could do the same. Only time will tell and there seems to be come good news coming at the moment. Great article though.

Walter Cronkite has passed away at 92, after suffering from a long illness.  He was once known as "The Most Trusted Man in America."  He was NASA's number one fan.  He was Walter Cronkite.  And with his trusted sidekick's Eric Severeid and Mercury/Gemini/Apollo veteran Wally Schirra, Cronkite covered every mission and was THE news anchor that America turned to for news - especially when it came to landing on the moon.

Godspeed, Walter.  Thanks for the coverage.

Quick program note ... the Talkshoe Show ID has been changed to 57606.  Repeat.  57606.

Episode: Deep Geek Live - Apollo 11
Scheduled Time:

Date: Thu, July 16, 2009
Time: 07:00 PM PDT

How to participate:

Call in:

   1. Dial: (724) 444-7444
   2. Enter: 57606 # (Call ID)
   3. Enter: 1 # or your PIN

Join from your computer:

   1. Click here to join the call or just listen along -
http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/57606
   2. (Optional) Become a TalkShoe member

Facebook user? You can join this Call directly through the TalkShoe
Community Calling Facebook application.

http://cs86.clearspring.com/u/46dff17ccb8aec6c/4a5f671de9e65539

Episode: Deep Geek Live - Apollo 11
Join us as we remember that "One Small Step ..." on the 40th
anniversary of Apollo 11.
Call ID: 51511

Personal Message from the Host:
Hello Gang. Due to technical difficulties with Blog Talk Radio's
server today, I am creating a BACKUP for our show on TalkShoe.com. It
may actually be a blessing in disguise as TalkShoe allows far more
people to be online at once. So, 7pm PT tonight.

Scheduled Time:

Date: Thu, July 16, 2009
Time: 07:00 PM PDT

How to participate:

Call in:

   1. Dial: (724) 444-7444
   2. Enter: 51511 # (Call ID)
   3. Enter: 1 # or your PIN

Join from your computer:

   1. Click here to join the call or just listen along -
http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/51511
   2. (Optional) Become a TalkShoe member

Facebook user? You can join this Call directly through the TalkShoe
Community Calling Facebook application.

Apollo Talks asks you to send us your Apollo 11 Tributes for use in our upcoming Apollo 11 Deep Geek Live!

Season Two launches with "The Voice of Apollo," Jack King.

When born on July 20th, it's not really surprising to end up working for NASA during the Apollo Program.  Paul Haney, NASA's first news director died this week of cancer. Known for his "cool and detached voice," as Time Magazine put it, Haney served from Mercury to Apollo and was known as the "voice of Mission Control." 

Neil Armstrong Elementary in San Antonio, TX is celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Apollo with a great exhibit of school built moon projects (don't you just love the Jeep rover?) including a moon walk lab, and one of only 6 moon rock displays available for public use

Pretty cool school if you ask me.

Follow us on Friendfeed and get both our Apollo Talks channels!  They're all at http://friendfeed.com/apollotalks.

Monday, May 18th, 7pm PT we'll be breaking down the Apollo 10 mission on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/apollotalks. This month is the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 10, the mission that served as the dress rehearsal for the lunar landing on Apollo 11.

Join James DeRuvo, Mike Smithwick, Tim Callendar and a few
surprise guests, as we break down the mission and talk about it's impact.

Listeners will be able to call in, ask questions, and join us in on he
conversation! Our last episode, the premiere episode of Deep Geek Live: Apollo 9 is available now to listen to.


Call-in Number: (347) 215-7847

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Joseph J. Mazzochi, a longtime Huntington resident and electrical engineer who worked on Grumman Corp.'s Lunar Excursion Module, which carried astronauts to the moon's surface in 1969, died Saturday at his home with his wife, Carol, at his side He was 81.

During his career at Grumman, he worked on the communication systems for the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet as well as the lunar module, known as the LEM, which carried astronauts from the Apollo spacecraft to the moon. He retired in 1989.

"He was very proud of his work with the LEM," Carol Mazzochi said, adding that he was at NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston when the LEM descended to the moon's surface.

Episode 3 of THE DEEP GEEK goes live tonight at 8pm PT through BlogTalkRadio.com.  This is an experiment to see if we can take phone calls and open up the Geek to other Apollo fans.  Tonight, we'll be talking about Apollo 9 and taking calls at (347) 215-7847.

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Bear with us, this is an experiment.  But it should be fun!

See you then!

http://twitter.com/apollotalks

German rocket pioneer Konrad Dannenberg passed away on Monday at age 96. As one of the last surviving members of Wernher von Braun's team, Dannenberg participated in the design the Redstone, which ultimately launched the Alan Shepard and Gus Grisssom into their suborbital Mercury missionss. 

Dannenberg also served as NASA's deputy manager for the Saturn program.

We had hoped to interview Mr. Dannenberg, but sadly that opportunity has passed, but we are hopeful that his story will live on in the pantheon of Apollo lore.

R.I.P.

Historical Tweets are hysterical.


BTW you can follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/apollotalks

The audio for our second episode of The Deep Geek has been fixed.  Seems as I was outputting from GarageBand, I forgot to activate the voice track!  Won't make that mistake again.

Anyway, TDG Apollo 8 is up now for all to enjoy, along with the first episode on Apollo 7!

Our first episode of a new companion podcast called THE DEEP GEEK, where we break down each mission on it's 40th anniversary.  Joining me are Mike Smithwick, author of Distant Suns, and Tim Callendar of the Babylon Podcast.

One production note - audio on this is rough as I had a hot mic for the first episode.  So apologies in advance.  Future eps will be better.