Today is the anniversary of mankind landing on the Moon. I'm a bit of a space buff and the gargantuan effort which went into the moon landing never ceases to amaze me.

At the start of project Mercury NASA were pretty much clueless as to how to get a rocket to launch (let alone the distant dream of a moon landing!). The intellectual effort to realise how the project could be achieved and the resources involved in achieving is, in itself, a massive feat of project management.

I doff my cap to all that were involved. Respect.

Here is a great resource dedicated to the mission by Nasa. 

p.s.

My boy Geno is named after legendary Apollo Flight Director Gene Kranz.

I'm a bit of a space nut (esp the Apollo era stuff and before) so when In the Shadow or the Moon came out I was always going to watch it.

it's a great documentary (really really good in fact) but what I wanted to mention was the soundtrack - it's superb. In particular the score for the launch sequence which is very interesting (hopefully this is embedded or linked below)

I like this sequence particularly because of the way the music is scored - it's not your epic James Horner/Apollo 13 fanfare (as good as that is) but it starts off very quietly and delicately (with a sole glockenspiel) and it slowly builds with some strings etc. It never really "takes off" (if you pardon the pun) and doesn't hit the orchestral scale which would be demanded of Hollywood but I think it works really, really well. It conveys the mechanical rhythm and countless hidden components and systems of a Saturn V rocket launching - you can almost hear the systems integrating and working together. Great stuff!

On the DVD is some bonus material where the composer Philip Sheppard explains his approach to the composing this music and his deliberate choice to avoid the "epic" launch sequence stereotype. He does a grand job there and I think his music provides the perfect backdrop and counterbalance to the superb footage of a Moon rocket taking off.