Apollo 11 Visit - Kai and Kenny and me - Fifty years later


Page 3


Kai and Kenny return toward the entranceway to the Great Hall, beneath the first stage of the Saturn V, headed toward the Apollo Command/Service module, which can be seen partially, at floor-level, beneath the Apollo VII mission patch above, on the far left of this frame.
The Command/Service module is what brought them back from the moon, and the two parts, Command Module, and Service Module, remained attached until just prior to re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. Kai and Kenny stand before it, and Kai is looking at one of the reaction-control thrusters on the side of the Service Module, above and to the left of his head in this image.
Most people are used to seeing images of the Command Module on top of a complete Saturn V, or after splashdown, and neither set of views informs people that the Command Module is a shiny metallic object which reflects light in beautiful and even artistic ways. The CSM (Command/Service Module) at the Kennedy Space Center is one of the few places that does its external appearance justice.
The Command/Service Module (CSM) in profile, on display at the Kennedy Space Center.
The bottom end of a Saturn V is a thing that is difficult to come to terms with, even as you are staring directly at it. There are people in the very lower left corner of this image to give a sense of scale, but the human mind refuses to accept it. And the fearsome power of this machine is something that the human mind cannot even conceive of, let alone decide whether to accept it or not. It is beyond the ken of sensible understanding.
7.8 million pounds of thrust. 35 million newtons. The mind simply fails to register such things.

 

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