Apollo 4 & 6: First Saturn V Test Flights - Historical Footage, 1967, A-type missions, CSM, NASA

Note: The date in the title and the date given in the video, do not match. I'll go with the year 1968 as given in the video.

Historical video of the Apollo Era launches and results. This occurred in 1968. There were two more launches in 1968 besides the ones shown here. Apollo 7 went into Earth orbit with a manned crew. The two launches here were unmanned. Of course, Apollo 8 went to the moon, but did not land. Three astronauts circled the moon and came back for a safe splashdown into the Pacific Ocean.

My recollection of this at the time was of surprise. It was early in 1967 that Apollo 1 had the disastrous fire onboard, which killed the three astronauts, while testing on the ground. It seemed at the time that the goal of landing on the moon and returning safely to Earth was not likely to be achieved before the decade was out, as Kennedy had set. But the spectacular success of Apollo 8 brought the goal within reach as the last year of the decade was to begin.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Holiday Classic Takes On New Meaning As Jimmy Stewart’s Post-War Struggles Bleed Into Film

Maybe it's the way it's being mentioned in the tweet below, or just maybe Jimmy Stewart was a great actor.

Holiday Classic Takes On New Meaning As Jimmy Stewart’s Post-War Struggles Bleed Into Film https://t.co/bEal3OLIRG via @dailycaller

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 26, 2023

Starship update, 12/25/23

The title is somewhat misleading once again. How does anyone know if it was a "major issue" or not? Missing tiles on a static fire is not that big of a deal. That isn't a realistic flight condition. The static fire is testing the engine, not the tiles.

As for the anomalous de-tanking of the booster, the reason given on the video may not be major issue either. If it has more to do with shaking out the glitches after testing new equipment, then this isn't necessarily a major issue. Still, there was useful information here, so I'm including it on an embed. It's the most recently uploaded update as of this writing.

Merry Christmas

12/25/23: Update to post of 12/16/23:

There was yet another version of "A Christmas Carol", this time starring none other than Sir Patrick Stewart. Of Star Trek fame? Yes, the very one. Somehow, I couldn't get over picturing him on the Holodeck of the Enterprise and giving this performance as none other than Capt Picard. An actor playing an actor playing a fictional character playing a fictional character. Layer upon layer of "humbug", as Scrooge might say.

Not to knock the performance. It was okay, I guess. Actors tend to get type cast into certain types of roles. This wasn't one of those roles. Perhaps it is a tribute to Stewart that it wasn't.

It was a morality play for a deeply immoral world. But that wouldn't be the popular thing to say here.

It is better to be alive than dead, as old Scrooge found out. I was thinking that old Scrooge really wasn't all that bad. If you want really tough customers, just look at the real world. Scrooge was a softie compared to the real people out there. One can go overboard with all the moralizing.

Right now, I'm thinking of the Vietnam War movie called "Full Metal Jacket". There was a scene where a Colonel spots Joker wearing a peace sign that didn't go with what he wrote on his helmet. The Colonel asks Joker whose side he was on and Joker said "our side". Then the Colonel responds with how the world really is, and I don't think Joker "got it". The phrase that stood out for me was "it's a hard boiled world, son". That's what I'm thinking now. Old Scrooge knew it too. He toughened himself against it, and soldiered on. But if there was a theme to the movie, it is perhaps this: you cannot always be a soldier. Scrooge got the message, and changed his tune.

There is a time for war and a time for peace. You have to know what time it is. Merry Christmas, ya'll.

end update:

12/16/23: Update to post of 12/24/16

There are more versions of "A Christmas Carol" than you can shake a stick at. There was one on Amazon Prime that I watched last night. It was something like a musical. It also looks like it was made for TV, as was about an hour long, and allowed for commercials in order to make it an even hour.

The striking thing about this version is that the singing was first rate. Basil Rathbone was in this version, and he played the role of Jacob Marley's ghost.

It thought it was pretty good, and worth watching.











Original post resumes below: Where's my Christmas present?

Bipartisan House Coalition Urges AP to Change Stylebook Rule Advising Against Terrorist Term for Hamas

Bipartisan House Coalition Urges AP to Change Stylebook Rule Advising Against Terrorist Term for Hamas

The title is confusing. It should be re-worded for clarity. Muddled thinking leads to muddled writing.

The title should be re-written as: "House demands that AP properly label Hamas as terrorists".

If beheading babies isn't terrorism, then what the hell is?

RFK Jr. still being denied Secret Service Protection

Thuggish regime. What else can you call it? This regime will try to justify on legal grounds, but if Brandon ran a fair and honest campaign against a challenger within the party, he'd be in trouble. He knows that, and that is why he forced RFK Jr. to run an independent campaign. Brandon is a thug, as is his base.

His base is truly thuggish too, because they support this thuggish behavior. If the base wasn't thuggish, they'd force Brandon to be fair and honest. That's what crooked people are--- they play it the "Chicago way"==the way of gangsters.

SCOOP: @RobertKennedyJr’s third request for Secret Service protection was denied Friday night, according to a letter obtained by @Deseret https://t.co/pmEWOWw2zz

— Samuel Benson (@sambbenson) December 23, 2023

Starship update, 12.24.23

SpaceX Community channel

from description:

SpaceX is steadfastly advancing towards the scheduled Starship Flight 3, anticipated to take place in the first quarter of 2024.

This one is the most recent update I could find. Christmas is around the corner now, and next week will be a holiday too. Of course this means no more launches in 2023. I suppose that was all but certain anyway. The "first quarter" sounds a bit ominous as well. SpaceX is moving fast relatively speaking, but it still seems to take a lot of time. Or is that a reasonable observation?