Posted by Ray Katz in NASA, history, moon
An Apollo 11 story that I can’t match
CNN has the perfect Apollo 11 story.
I, like so many boys in 1969, was riveted by the first moonlanding. Of course, I would have done anything to take part in that history-making event.
One 10 year old boy did.
On July 23, 1969, as Apollo 11 was racing back to earth, a problem developed with a communications antenna in Guam. A bearing failed and there was no time to repair it. The antenna would be needed for the final communications with Apollo 11 prior to spashdown.
Not a life and death situation, but an important one.
The director of the tracking station in Guam, Charles Force, had an idea. Could someone just smear some grease on the bearing, and get it working well enough to work for now? Good idea…but nobody had a thin enough arm to reach into the small opening leading to the bearing.
Charles brought in Greg, his 10 year old son, Greg reached into the hole, put grease on the bearing…and it worked. The rest is history.
