THE IBM 5051 PC IS RELEASED IN BOCA RATON, FLORIDA

IBM PC 5051

Today, The Grandma is preparing new courses for next season. She works with different computers and one of them is an IBM Personal Computer 5150, a model that was introduced on a day like today in 1981. She is an old-fashioned woman who still can enjoy with her IBM PC 5150.

The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version of the IBM PC compatible computer design.

It is IBM model number 5150 and was introduced on August 12, 1981. It was created by a team of engineers and designers directed by Don Estridge in Boca Raton, Florida.

The generic term personal computer (PC) was in use years before 1981, applied as early as 1972 to the Xerox PARC's Alto, but the term PC came to mean more specifically a desktop microcomputer compatible with IBM's Personal Computer branded products. The machine was based on open architecture, and third-party suppliers soon developed to provide peripheral devices, expansion cards, and software.

IBM had a substantial influence on the personal computer market in standardizing a design for personal computers, and IBM compatible became an important criterion for sales growth. Only the Apple Macintosh types of computer kept a significant share of the microcomputer market after the 1980s without compatibility with the IBM personal computer.

More information: IBM

International Business Machines (IBM) had a 62% share of the mainframe computer market during the early 1980s. Slow development of a minicomputer product of its own during the 1960s, however, let new rivals like Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and others earn billions of dollars of revenue.

Desktop sized programmable calculators by HP had evolved into the HP 9830 BASIC language computer by 1972. During 1972–1973 a team managed by Dr. Paul Friedl at the IBM Los Gatos Scientific Center developed a portable computer prototype known as SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable) based on the IBM PALM processor with a Philips compact cassette drive, small cathode ray tube, and full-function keyboard. SCAMP emulates the IBM 1130r to execute APL\1130.

In 1973 the APL programming language was generally available only for mainframe computers, and most desktop sized microcomputers such as the Wang 2200 or HP 9800 offered only BASIC. Because it was the first to emulate APL\1130 performance on a portable, single-user computer, PC Magazine in 1983 designated SCAMP a revolutionary concept and the world's first personal computer.

The Grandma works with an IBM PC 5150

The prototype is in the Smithsonian Institution. A non-working industrial design model was also created in 1973 by industrial designer Tom Hardy illustrating how the SCAMP engineering prototype could be transformed into a usable product design for the marketplace. 

This design model was requested by IBM executive William C. Lowe to complement the engineering prototype in his early efforts to demonstrate the viability of creating a single-user computer.

Successful demonstrations of the 1973 SCAMP prototype resulted in the IBM 5100 portable microcomputer in 1975. During the late 1960s such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and would have weighed about half a ton. The 5100 is a complete computer system programmable with BASIC or APL, with a small built-in CRT monitor, keyboard, and tape drive for data storage. It was also very expensive, as much as US$20,000; the computer was designed for professional and scientific customers, not business users or hobbyists.

BYTE in 1975 announced the 5100 with the headline Welcome, IBM, to personal computing, but PC Magazine in 1984 described 5100s as little mainframes and stated that as personal computers, these machines were dismal failures... the antithesis of user-friendly, with no IBM support for third-party software.

Despite news reports that the PC was the first IBM product without a model number, it was designated as the IBM 5150, putting it in the 5100 series though its architecture was not developed from the IBM 5100. The same naming system was applied to later models: For example, the IBM Portable Personal Computer, PC/XT, and PC AT were IBM machine types 5155, 5160, and 5170, respectively.

More information: Computer History

After SCAMP, the IBM Boca Raton, Florida Laboratory created several single-user computer design ideas to assist Lowe's ongoing effort to convince IBM there was a strategic opportunity in the personal computer business.

A selection of these early design ideas created by Hardy is featured in the book DELETE: A Design History of Computer Vapourware. One such concept in 1977, code-named Aquarius, is a working prototype utilizing advanced bubble memory cartridges. While this design is more powerful and smaller than the Apple II introduced the same year, the advanced bubble technology was deemed unstable and not ready for mass production.

IBM normally was integrated vertically, developing all important hardware and software internally with only what was available in internal catalogs of IBM components, and only purchasing parts like transformers and semiconductors. The company's purchase of Rolm during 1984 was its first acquisition in 18 years. IBM discouraged customers from purchasing compatible third-party products.

Before the PC, IBM began using some components from other companies to save money and time, and when designing it the company avoided vertical integration as much as possible; choosing, for example, to license Microsoft BASIC despite having a version of BASIC of its own for mainframes.

IBM PC 5051

Estridge said that unlike IBM's own version Microsoft BASIC had hundreds of thousands of users around the world. How are you going to argue with that?

Although the company denied doing so, many observers concluded that IBM intentionally emulated Apple when designing the PC. The many Apple II owners on the team influenced its decision to design the computer with an open architecture and publish technical information so others could create software and expansion slot peripherals.

After developing it in 12 months -faster than any other hardware product in company history- IBM announced the Personal Computer on August 12, 1981. Pricing started at US$1,565 (equivalent to $4,401 in 2019) for a configuration with 16K RAM, Color Graphics Adapter, and no disk drives.

The company intentionally set prices for it and other configurations that were comparable to those of Apple and other rivals; the Datamaster, announced two weeks earlier as the previous least-expensive IBM computer, cost $10,000. What Dan Bricklin described as pretty competitive pricing surprised him and other Software Arts employees. One analyst stated that IBM has taken the gloves off, while the company said we suggest the PC's price invites comparison.

BYTE described IBM as having the strongest marketing organization in the world, but the PC's marketing also differed from that of previous products. The company was aware of its strong corporate reputation among potential customers; an early advertisement began Presenting the IBM of Personal Computers.

Estridge recalled that The most important thing we learned was that how people reacted to a personal computer emotionally was almost more important than what they did with it.

Advertisements emphasized the novelty of an individual owning an IBM computer, describing a product you may have a personal interest in and asking readers to think of My own IBM computer. Imagine that... it's yours. For your business, your project, your department, your class, your family and, indeed, for yourself.

More information: Habr

Perhaps most unusual decision for IBM was to publish the PC's technical specifications, allowing outsiders to create products for it. We encourage third-party suppliers... we are delighted to have them, the company stated.

Although the team began dogfooding before the PC's debut by managing business operations on prototypes, and despite IBM's $5.3 billion R&D budget in 1982 -larger than the total revenue of many competitors- the company did not sell internally developed PC software until April 1984, instead relying on already established software companies. Microsoft, Personal Software, and Peachtree Software were among the developers of nine launch titles including EasyWriter and VisiCalc, all already available for other computers.

The PC was immediately successful. PC Magazine later wrote that IBM's biggest error was in underestimating the demand for the PC. BYTE reported a rumor that more than 40,000 were ordered on the day of the announcement; one dealer received 22 $1,000 deposits from customers although he could not promise a delivery date.

John Dvorak recalled that a dealer that day praised the computer as an incredible winner, and IBM knows how to treat us -none of the Apple arrogance. The company could have sold its entire projected first-year production to employees, and IBM customers that were reluctant to purchase Apples were glad to buy microcomputers from their traditional supplier. The computer began shipping during October, ahead of schedule; by then some referred to it simply as the PC.

One year after the PC's release, although IBM had sold fewer than 100,000 computers, PC World counted 753 software packages for the PC -more than four times the number available for the Apple Macintosh one year after its 1984 release- including 422 applications and almost 200 utilities and languages.

More information: Wired

What has always made IBM a fascinating and compelling

place for me is the passion of the company, and its people,

to apply technology and scientific thinking to major societal issues.

Ginni Rometty

JAMES D. MORRISON, 'NO ONE HERE GETS OUT ALIVE'

Jim Morrison

Today, The Grandma has been relaxing at home listening to some music.

It is December, 8 and on a day like today in 1980, at approximately 5:00 p.m. John Lennon autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for fan Mark David Chapman before leaving The Dakota with Yoko for a recording session at the Record Plant.

After the session, Lennon and Ono returned to their Manhattan apartment in a limousine at around 10:50 p.m. EST. They exited the vehicle and walked through the archway of the building when Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back at close range. Lennon was rushed in a police cruiser to the emergency room of Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:00 p.m.

John Lennon is an icon of world music that was killed the same day that Jim Morrison, another myth, could have celebrated his thirty seven anniversaries if he had not died by a heart failure ten years before.

The Grandma wants to remember Morrison, the American singer, songwriter and poet, who was the lead vocalist of the rock band the Doors. The end of his life became the beginning of the myth.

Before talking about Morrison, The Grandma has read a new chapter of Mary Stewart's This Rough Magic.

James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943-July 3, 1971) was an American singer, songwriter and poet, who served as the lead vocalist of the rock band the Doors.

Due to his poetic lyrics, distinctive baritone voice, wild personality, unpredictable and erratic performances, and the dramatic circumstances surrounding his life and early death, Morrison is regarded by music critics and fans as one of the most iconic and influential frontmen in rock history. Since his death, his fame has endured as one of popular culture's most rebellious and oft-displayed icons, representing the generation gap and youth counterculture.

Together with Ray Manzarek, Morrison co-founded the Doors during the summer of 1965 in Venice, California. The band spent two years in obscurity until shooting to prominence with their number-one single in the United States, Light My Fire, taken from their self-titled debut album.

More information: Jim Morrison & The Doors

Morrison wrote or co-wrote many of the Doors' songs, including Light My Fire, Break On Through (To the Other Side), The End, Moonlight Drive, People Are Strange, Hello, I Love You, Roadhouse Blues, L.A. Woman, and Riders on the Storm. He recorded a total of six studio albums with the Doors, all of which sold well and received critical acclaim. Though the Doors recorded two more albums after Morrison died, his death severely affected the band's fortunes, and they split up in 1973.

In 1993, Morrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Doors.

Jim Morrison & The Doors

Morrison was also well known for improvising spoken word poetry passages while the band played live.

Morrison was ranked number 47 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time, and number 22 on Classic Rock magazine's 50 Greatest Singers in Rock. Manzarek said Morrison embodied hippie counterculture rebellion.

Morrison developed an alcohol dependency during the 1960s, which at times affected his performances on stage. He died unexpectedly at the age of 27 in Paris. As no autopsy was performed, the cause of Morrison's death remains unknown.

James Douglas Morrison was born on December 8, 1943 in Melbourne, Florida, to Clara Virginia and Rear Admiral George Stephen Morrison, USN. His ancestors were Scottish, Irish, and English. Admiral Morrison commanded United States naval forces during the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which provided the pretext for the US involvement in the Vietnam War in 1965. Morrison had a younger sister, Anne Robin, who was born in 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a younger brother, Andrew Lee Morrison, who was born in 1948 in Los Altos, California.

A voracious reader from an early age, Morrison was particularly inspired by the writings of several philosophers and poets. He was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, whose views on aesthetics, morality, and the Apollonian and Dionysian duality would appear in his conversation, poetry and songs. Some of his formative influences were Plutarch's Parallel Lives and the works of the French Symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose style would later influence the form of Morrison's short prose poems.

He was also influenced by William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Louis Ferdinand Celine, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Charles Baudelaire, Molière, Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Honoré de Balzac and Jean Cocteau, along with most of the French existentialist philosophers.

More information: Rolling Stone

In January 1964, Morrison moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Shortly thereafter on August 2, 1964, Morrison's father, George Stephen Morrison, commanded a carrier division of the United States fleet during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

At UCLA, Morrison enrolled in Jack Hirschman's class on Antonin Artaud in the Comparative Literature program within the UCLA English Department. Artaud's brand of surrealist theatre had a profound impact on Morrison's dark poetic sensibility of cinematic theatricality. Morrison completed his undergraduate degree at UCLA's film school within the Theater Arts department of the College of Fine Arts in 1965.

At the time of the graduation ceremony, he went to Venice Beach, and the university mailed his diploma to his mother in Coronado, California. He made several short films while attending UCLA. First Love, the first of these films, made with Morrison's classmate and roommate Max Schwartz, was released to the public when it appeared in a documentary about the film Obscura.

Jim Morrison

During these years, while living in Venice Beach, he befriended writers at the Los Angeles Free Press, for which he advocated until his death in 1971.

He conducted a lengthy and in-depth interview with Bob Chorush and Andy Kent, both working for the Free Press at the time (approximately December 6–8, 1970), and was planning on visiting the headquarters of the busy newspaper shortly before leaving for Paris.

In the summer of 1965, after graduating with a bachelor's degree from the UCLA film school, Morrison led a bohemian lifestyle in Venice Beach. Living on the rooftop of a building inhabited by his old UCLA cinematography friend, Dennis Jacobs, he wrote the lyrics of many of the early songs the Doors would later perform live and record on albums, such as Moonlight Drive and Hello, I Love You.

According to Manzarek, he lived on canned beans and LSD for several months. Morrison and fellow UCLA student Ray Manzarek were the first two members of the Doors, forming the group during that summer. They had met months earlier as cinematography students. The story claims that Manzarek was lying on the beach at Venice one day, where he accidentally encountered Morrison. He was impressed with Morrison's poetic lyrics, claiming that they were rock group material.

Subsequently, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore joined. Krieger auditioned at Densmore's recommendation and was then added to the lineup. All three musicians shared a common interest in the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's meditation practices at the time, attending scheduled classes, but Morrison was not involved in these series of classes.

More information: Ultimate Classic Rock

The Doors took their name from the title of Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception (a reference to the unlocking of doors of perception through psychedelic drug use). Huxley's own title was a quotation from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, in which Blake wrote: If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.

Although Morrison was known as the lyricist of the group, Krieger also made significant lyrical contributions, writing or co-writing some of the group's biggest hits, including Light My Fire, Love Me Two Times, Love Her Madly and Touch Me.

On the other hand, Morrison, who did not write most songs using an instrument, would come up with vocal melodies for his own lyrics, with the other band members contributing chords and rhythm.

Jim Morrison

Morrison did not play an instrument live except for maracas and tambourine for most shows, and harmonica on a few occasions or in the studio excluding maracas, tambourine, handclaps, and whistling. However, he did play the grand piano on Orange County Suite and a Moog synthesizer on Strange Days.

By the release of their second album, Strange Days, the Doors had become one of the most popular rock bands in the United States. Their blend of blues and dark psychedelic rock included a number of original songs and distinctive cover versions, such as their rendition of Alabama Song, from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's opera, Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The band also performed a number of extended concept works, including the songs The End, When the Music's Over, and Celebration of the Lizard.

In 1968, the Doors released their third studio album, Waiting for the Sun.

Morrison began writing in earnest during his adolescence. At UCLA he studied the related fields of theater, film, and cinematography. He self-published two separate volumes of his poetry in 1969, titled The Lords/Notes on Vision and The New Creatures. The Lords consists primarily of brief descriptions of places, people, events and Morrison's thoughts on cinema. The New Creatures verses are more poetic in structure, feel and appearance. These two books were later combined into a single volume titled The Lords and The New Creatures. These were the only writings published during Morrison's lifetime.

Morrison befriended Beat poet Michael McClure, who wrote the afterword for Danny Sugerman's biography of Morrison, No One Here Gets Out Alive. McClure and Morrison reportedly collaborated on a number of unmade film projects, including a film version of McClure's infamous play The Beard, in which Morrison would have played Billy the Kid.

More information: All That's Interesting

After his death, a further two volumes of Morrison's poetry were published. The contents of the books were selected and arranged by Morrison's friend, photographer Frank Lisciandro, and girlfriend Pamela Courson's parents, who owned the rights to his poetry.

Morrison joined Pamela Courson in Paris in March 1971, at an apartment she had rented for him at 17-19, rue Beautreillis in Le Marais, 4th arrondissement, Paris. In letters, he described going for long walks through the city, alone. During this time, he shaved his beard and lost some of the weight he had gained in the previous months.

He died on July 3, 1971, at age 27. He was found by Courson in a bathtub at his apartment. The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, although no autopsy was performed, as it was not required by French law. His death was two years to the day after the death of the Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, and approximately nine months after the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

Morrison was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, one of the city's most visited tourist attractions, where Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, French cabaret singer Edith Piaf, and many other poets and artists are also buried. The grave had no official marker until French officials placed a shield over it, which was stolen in 1973. The grave was listed in the cemetery directory with Morrison's name incorrectly arranged as Douglas James Morrison.

In June 2013, a fossil analysis discovered a large lizard in Myanmar. The extinct reptile was given the moniker Barbaturex morrisoni in honor of Morrison. This is a king lizard, and he was the lizard king, so it just fit, said Jason Head, a paleontologist at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

More information: Discover Walks

Expose yourself to your deepest fear;

after that, fear has no power,

and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes.

You are free.

Jim Morrison

CAPE CANAVERAL: EXPLORING THE SPACE FROM FLORIDA

Natalia Bean at Kennedy Space Center

Today, The Beans have visited Cape Canaveral in Florida. After leaving Washington D.C., the family has travelled to the south to visit this important place, headquarter of the Kennedy Space Center.  

Natalia Bean, who is the astronaut of the family, has enjoyed this trip especially and she has been talking to her family about the importance of the occupational hazards in this difficult profession where they have to do some routines and activities to be ready to drive into space.

Download Glosary of Safety Terminology

Cape Canaveral, from the Spanish Cabo Cañaveral, is a cape in Brevard County, Florida, near the center of the state's Atlantic coast. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River. It was discovered by the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León in 1513.

It is part of a region known as the Space Coast, and is the site of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Since many U.S. spacecraft have been launched from both the station and the Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island, the two are sometimes conflated with each other. In homage to its spacefaring heritage, the Florida Public Service Commission allocated area code 321, as in a launch countdown, to the Cape Canaveral area.

Download Space Exploration by The Grandma

The Beans visit the Kennedy Space Center

Other features of the cape include the Cape Canaveral lighthouse and Port Canaveral, one of the busiest cruise ports in the world. 

The city of Cape Canaveral lies just south of the Port Canaveral District. 

Mosquito Lagoon, the Indian River, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore are also features of this area.

Cape Canaveral became the test site for missiles when the legislation for the Joint Long Range Proving Ground was passed by the 81st Congress and signed by President Harry Truman on May 11, 1949. Work began on May 9, 1950, under a contract with the Duval Engineering Company of Jacksonville, Florida, to build the Cape's first paved access road and its first permanent launch site.

More information: Kennedy Space Center

The first rocket launched at the Cape was a V-2 rocket named Bumper 8 from Launch Complex 3 on July 24, 1950. On February 6, 1959, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile was accomplished. NASA's Project Mercury and Gemini space flights were launched from Cape Canaveral, as were Apollo flights using the Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets.

Cape Canaveral was chosen for rocket launches to take advantage of the Earth's rotation. The linear velocity of the Earth's surface is greatest towards the equator; the relatively southerly location of the cape allows rockets to take advantage of this by launching eastward, in the same direction as the Earth's rotation.

More information: NASA

An astronaut in a space mission

It is also highly desirable to have the downrange area sparsely populated, in case of accidents; an ocean is ideal for this. The east coast of Florida has logistical advantages over potential competing sites. The Spaceport Florida Launch Complex 46 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is the easternmost near the tip of the cape.

From 1963 to 1973, the area had a different name when President Lyndon Johnson by executive order renamed the area Cape Kennedy after President John F. Kennedy, who had set the goal of landing on the moon. After Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, suggested to President Johnson that renaming the Cape Canaveral facility would be an appropriate memorial. Johnson recommended the renaming of the entire cape, announced in a televised address six days after the assassination, on Thanksgiving evening.

More information: Space Coast Launches

Accordingly, Cape Canaveral was officially renamed Cape Kennedy. Kennedy's last visit to the space facility was on November 16, six days before his death; the final Mercury mission had concluded six months earlier.

Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10. 

Neil Armstrong

NEIL ALDEN ARMSTRONG: A SUCCESSFUL LIFE IN SPACE

Neil Alden Armstrong

Joseph de Ca'th Lon is in Florida, where he's visiting the Kennedy Space Center in Titusville and Cape Canaveral. Joseph, who is a person very interested in science, wants to talk us about one of the most important astronauts around the world: Neil Armstrong, the man who  took the first step onto the Moon.

Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930-August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut, engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. 

Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War. After the war, he earned his bachelor's degree at Purdue University and served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, where he logged over 900 flights. He later completed graduate studies at the University of Southern California.

More information: NASA

A participant in the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs, Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962. He made his first space flight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. He performed the first docking of two spacecraft, with pilot David Scott. This mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his reentry control fuel to prevent a dangerous spin caused by a stuck thruster, in the first in-flight space emergency.

More information: Kennedy Space Center

Joseph de Ca'th Lon in Cape Canaveral

Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as commander of Apollo 11, the first manned Moon landing mission in July 1969. 

Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin descended to the lunar surface and spent two and a half hours outside the spacecraft, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Command/Service Module. 

Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon. President Jimmy Carter presented Armstrong the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978. Armstrong and his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009.

Armstrong died in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 25, 2012, at the age of 82, after complications from coronary artery bypass surgery.

Download Space Exploration by Joseph de Ca'th Lon

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand. 

Neil Armstrong

JULY, 21 1969: APOLLO 11, MAN WALKS ON THE MOON

Apollo 11 Command Module

Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two humans on the Moon. Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin, both American, landed the lunar module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC.  

Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface six hours later on July 21 at 02:56:15 UTC; Aldrin joined him about 20 minutes later. They spent about two and a quarter hours together outside the spacecraft, and collected 21.5 kg of lunar material to bring back to Earth. Michael Collins piloted the command module Columbia alone in lunar orbit while they were on the Moon's surface. Armstrong and Aldrin spent just under a day on the lunar surface before rendezvousing with Columbia in lunar orbit.

More information: NASA

Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16, and was the fifth manned mission of NASA's Apollo program. The Apollo spacecraft had three parts: a command module with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that landed back on Earth; a service module, which supported the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a lunar module that had two stages, a lower stage for landing on the Moon, and an upper stage to place the astronauts back into lunar orbit. 

More information: NASA

Aldrin bootprint on the Moon

After being sent toward the Moon by the Saturn V's upper stage, the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and traveled for three days until they entered into lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin then moved into the lunar module Eagle and landed in the Sea of Tranquility. 

They stayed a total of about 21.5 hours on the lunar surface. The astronauts used Eagle's upper stage to lift off from the lunar surface and rejoin Collins in the command module. 

They jettisoned Eagle before they performed the maneuvers that blasted them out of lunar orbit on a trajectory back to Earth. They returned to Earth and landed in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.

More information: NASA

Broadcast on live TV to a worldwide audience, Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and described the event as one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind. Apollo 11 effectively ended the Space Race and fulfilled a national goal proposed in 1961 by U.S. President John F. Kennedy: before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. 

July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind. 

Neil Armstrong

VOYAGER 1: THE INTERSTELLAR MISSION

Voyager 1

We wanted to believe. 

We wanted to call out.

On August 20th and September 5th, 1977, two spacecraft were launched from the Kennedy Space Flight Center, Florida. They were called Voyager.

Each one carries a message: I send greetings on behalf of the people of our planet. We step out of our solar system into the universe, seeking only peace, to teach...

A gold-plated record depicting images, music and sounds of our planet, arranged so that it may be understood if ever intercepted by a technologically mature extraterrestrial civilization.

Thirteen years after its launch, Voyager One passed the orbital plane of Neptune and essentially leaving our solar system. Within that time, there were no further messages sent. Nor are any planned.

More information: Voyager. The Interstellar Mission (NASA)

We wanted to listen.

On October 12th, 1992, NASA initiated the high-resolution microwave survey. 

A decade long-search by radio telescope, scanning ten million frequencies for any transmission by extraterrestrial intelligence.

Less than one year later, first-term Nevada Senator Richard Bryan successfully championed an amendment which terminated the project.

We are building our future in peace and harmony.

We won't wander alone through outer space.

 The Grandma

APOLLO 7: A CREW INTO SPACE FOR FIRST TIME

Apollo 7 Spacecraft

Apollo 7 was a 1968 human spaceflight mission carried out by the United States. It was the first mission in the United States' Apollo program to carry a crew into space. It was also the first U.S. spaceflight to carry astronauts since the flight of Gemini XII in November 1966. 

The AS-204 mission, also known as Apollo 1, was intended to be the first manned flight of the Apollo program. It was scheduled to launch in February 1967, but a fire in the cabin during a January 1967 test killed the crew. 

Manned flights were then suspended for 21 months, while the cause of the accident was investigated and improvements made to the spacecraft and safety procedures, and unmanned test flights of the Saturn V rocket and Apollo Lunar Module were made. Apollo 7 fulfilled Apollo 1's mission of testing the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) in low Earth orbit.

The Apollo 7 crew was commanded by Walter M. Schirra, with senior pilot/navigator Donn F. Eisele, and pilot/systems engineer R. Walter Cunningham. Their mission was Apollo's 'C' mission, an 11-day Earth-orbital test flight to check out the redesigned Block II CSM with a crew on board.

More information: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

First Crew of the Apollo 7

It was the first time a Saturn IB vehicle put a crew into space; Apollo 7 was the first three-person American space mission, and the first to include a live TV broadcast from an American spacecraft. It was launched on October 11, 1968, from what was then known as Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida.

Despite tension between the crew and ground controllers, the mission was a complete technical success, giving NASA the confidence to send Apollo 8 into orbit around the Moon two months later. 

The flight would prove to be the final space flight for all of its three crew members, and the only one for both Cunningham and Eisele, when it splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean on October 22, 1968. It was also the final manned launch from Cape Kennedy.

The Apollo program had its best success with the Apollo 11, which was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon.

Download Apollo 7 Mission Report

There are extraordinary men and women and extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals that what can be imagined can be achieved that you must dare to dream but that there's no substitute for perseverance and hard work and teamwork because no one gets there alone and that, while we commemorate the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we cannot forget the sacrifice of those who make these achievements and leaps possible. 

Dana Scully talks about Apollo 11, The X Files, Max