Jan 7

Written by:
1/7/2011 1:50 AM 

Paul McLane is editor in chief of the U.S. edition of Radio World.

I can't help it, I'm a space geek. To me nothing has ever been cooler than watching Apollo rockets blast off, or watching Walter Cronkite or Wally Schirra explain mid-orbit maneuvers with little plastic models as I tried to imagine what was really going on out there in the deep quiet. Maybe it has something to do with the wonder of being 8 years old. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that space travel is, simply, wonder-worthy.

If you know what I'm talking about, if you remember being transfixed by that kind of stuff, you'll want to spend time with the Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal. Photos, press kits, flight plans, wonderful stuff ... nothing better though than reading the actual Journal and the moment-by-moment transcripts from the Apollo 11 mission, with extensive explanatory text. What a trove. "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

See it at http://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/