Sie sind auf Seite 1von 2

Sunday, July 19, 2009 •••

PAGE 13A

ILL WIND BLOWS CHARLOTTE’S MAYORAL


IN TURBINE DEBATE
Eyesores or clean machines?
Environmentalists are split,
columnist Jack Betts says. 19A
TheBigPicture RACE SHAPING UP
And the gloves are already
coming off, Editorial Page Editor
Taylor Batten says. 19A
charlotteobserver.com

Alliances
in health
debate THE GIANT LEAP
splinter WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP?
As Democrats’ House
bill advances, various
interest groups rally to
help it pass or fail.
By Dan Eggen
and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Months of rel-
ative cooperation among dis-
parate interest groups in the
heath care reform debate ap-
pear to be coming to an end, as
the major political parties and
their surrogates unleash duel-
ing TV advertisements, e-mail
campaigns and grass-roots
protests.
Friendly alliances among
medical and business groups
have begun to splinter in reac-
tion to concrete legislation
from House Democrats, which
cleared two important com-
mittee hurdles Friday.
The House bill aims to cover
97 percent of Americans by
2015, in part through a sliding
surtax on household incomes
exceeding $350,000. The pro-
posal also includes a public in-
surance option, which is
strongly opposed by Republi-
cans and major insurers and
faces difficult prospects in the
Senate.
In one sign of the changing
political climate, the Demo-
cratic National Committee last
week began running cable TV
ads targeting many of the par-
ty’s wavering senators. The
DNC, acting through its Orga-
nizing for America grass-roots
project, also has ramped up a
nationwide schedule of meet-
ings and rallies drawing on
President Obama’s 13 million-
name campaign e-mail list.
Another leading liberal
group, Health Care for Ameri-
ca Now, announced an
$800,000 ad campaign Friday
with the American Federation
of State, Federal and Municipal NASA PHOTO
Employees that is targeting Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (above) walked on the moon in July 1969 while a spellbound audience of millions watched on television. But the
centrist lawmakers in nine last of six moon landings was in 1972, and the prophesied future of moon bases and journeys to Mars, Jupiter and beyond is still science fiction.
states. The group is running a
telephone campaign that has
SEE HEALTH, 14A

NASA seeks new vision


to focus dreams of space
By Nelson Hernandez The astronauts who made the first moon
Washington Post landing are still alive, and so are many of the
For fans of space exploration, the 40th anni- more than 500 million people who watched the
versary of Apollo 11’s mission to the moon is a ghostly images of Neil Armstrong and Edwin
celebration mingled with melancholy. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr.’s first bounding steps on the
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO For all the promised “giant leap for mankind” dusty lunar surface on July 20, 1969. The video
Walter Cronkite, in 1980, the mission foretold, the prophesied future of got less grainy Thursday, as NASA unveiled the
reporting on the presidential moon bases and journeys to Mars, Jupiter and beginnings of a restored version. But the gener-
election. beyond is still science fiction. The last of six ations born since then have other interests: A
moon landings, bringing two men each time to YouTube clip of the first moon walk has 2 mil-
NASA PHOTO

Nightly Buzz Aldrin’s boot and leg make sharp


shadows in this close-up shot of the moon’s
the lunar surface, was in 1972.
Since then, no one has left low Earth orbit,
much less ventured to Mars. For many advo-
lion views; Michael Jackson moonwalking to
“Billie Jean” has 20 million.
John Olson, who oversees NASA’s plans as its

news isn’t surface, with a 2-inch rock and a distinct


footprint in the ancient dust.
cates, there is a consensus that NASA is suffer-
ing from what President Obama this March
called “a sense of drift.”
director of the Exploration Systems integration
office, points out the agency’s successes since
SEE NASA, 16A

comfort it
used to be His years of grueling work landed in history
Our nation has gone Charlotte retiree recalls major manufacturers that built the
from the single, solid running tests on the Eagle craft that traveled the 250,000 miles to
the lunar surface.
voice of Cronkite to a lander, the 12-hour days and “It felt like: ‘Touchdown!’ ” Eschert
free-for-all cacophony. an 80-member team’s glee. said. “It was a celebration, different
from how blasé people are about it to-
By Ted Anthony By Cameron Steele day.”
Associated Press cameronsteele@charlotteobserver.com An estimated 528 million TV view-
“And that’s the way it is,” Forty years ago Monday, Ray Eschert ers also tuned in, watching Neil Arm-
he’d say. and his anxious co-workers stood shoul- strong dodge boulders as he settled the
It wasn’t, but we wanted that der to shoulder in a factory conference Lunar Excursion Module, nicknamed
reassurance. The idea that room as they fixated on a little black- “Eagle,” on the Sea of Tranquillity on
someone could wrangle the and-white TV. July 20, 1969.
world each night and boil it As Apollo 11 touched down on the Eschert watched the first moonwalk
down to a sensible, digestible moon, the group of 80 engineers a few hours later, at 10:56 p.m., sitting
half-hour was so comforting. cheered, clapped, cried and smoked beside his wife, Elaine, in their tiny
Barely a generation has their pipes with pride, the Charlotte re- apartment living room in Long Island,
passed since Walter Cronkite tiree recalled. N.Y. YALONDA M. JAMES – yjames@charlotteobserver.com
disappeared from our eve- They had a lot at stake. They worked For almost three years, Eschert had “It was a celebration, different from how blasé people are
nings. But the notion of one for Grumman Aerospace, one of three SEE ESCHERT, 17A about it today,” says Ray Eschert of July 20, 1969.
man – a single, authoritative,
empathetic man, morally reas-
suring and mild of temper – APOLLO 11 ONLINE MORE COVERAGE
wrapping up the world after • See photos and videos from the mission. • Graphic: The Apollo 11 mission, by • Astronaut and Charlotte native
dinner for America seems in- • Take a 360-degree tour of the Sea of Tranquillity. the numbers. 16A remembers his time on the moon. 21A
calculably quaint in the tech- • Share your memories of the lunar landing. • Charlotte-area residents share their • Smoke and mirrors? A vocal minority
nological coliseum that is charlotteobserver.com/special memories of the lunar landing. 17A still insists landing was a hoax. 22A
21st-century communications.
SEE CACOPHONY, 14A
The Charlotte Observer • charlotteobserver.com THE BIG PICTURE • Sunday, July 19, 2009 17A

THE GIANT LEAP

11:24 p.m.: A plaque affixed to “HERE MEN FROM 11:41 p.m.: Astronauts plant a 4:25 a.m.: Astronauts sleep with command module.
the leg of the landing vehicle THE PLANET EARTH 3-by-5-foot nylon U.S. flag. after finishing work and an- 5:35 p.m.: Docks with com-
is unveiled and Armstrong FIRST SET FOOT Material for the flag was wo- swering questions about mand module.
reads the inscription. The UPON THE MOON ven at a plant in Rhodhiss. moon’s geology. 7:41 p.m.: Crew jettisons land- Pacific about 812 nautical
plaque, signed by President JULY 1969 A.D. 11:48 p.m.: Astronauts receive 11:13 a.m.: Astronauts wake er and prepares for return to miles southwest of Hawaii
Nixon, Armstrong, Collins and WE CAME IN PEACE a message of congratulations and prepare for return to Earth. and only 12 nautical miles
Aldrin, bears a map of the FOR ALL MANKIND” from President Nixon. command module. JULY 24 from the recovery ship USS
Earth and this inscription: The plaque resides on the JULY 21 1:54 p.m.: Descent stage of 12:50 p.m.: The command Hornet.
moon still. 1:11 a.m.: Astronauts re-enter the lander is used as launch module splashes down in the — SOURCE: NASA, SMITHSONIAN
pad to lift off for redocking NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM
landing module.

ESCHERT cords. North American Rock-


well International and Boeing
• from 13A built all the other major com- Where were you?
ponents. At its peak, the Apollo We asked Observer
logged 12-hour days for $125 a program employed more than readers to tell us their
week testing the thinner-than- 400,000 people. memories of the Apollo
aluminum-foil metal of the lu- The entire program – from 11 moon landing:
nar module, sometimes sleep- contractor costs to scientist
ing on a couch at the Bethpage, salaries to rocket production – Neill Lee, 79, Lumberton:
N.Y., plant. cost more than $25 billion, NA- I was watching it with my
Those long hours of work SA records show. wife in our family room in
were sometimes more real to “It was a tremendous pro- Lumberton. Our children
him than his wife and gram with astonishing conse- were already in bed when
1-year-old son at home. quences,” Cecil said. “It re- it happened. It was really
Eschert, then 23, was one of mains the most pre-eminent just beyond belief to see a
600 engineers who ran tests on technological accomplishment man on the moon, leaping
both parts – or “stages” – of the of our civilization to date.” like a rabbit. The skill and
lander. YALONDA JAMES – STAFF PHOTO daring of those men was PHOTO COURTESY OF KATHARINE MONK
The astronauts operated Ray Eschert holds his old
Plans for a Monday toast fascinating. I had followed Katharine Monk holds the banner in front of her Myers
and occupied the top part of work badges. Eschert worked on all of the the space program from Park High School classmates. They watched the first moon
the lunar module, the ascent lunar modules following the its beginning, and I walk on a field trip in Switzerland.
stage. The descent stage, the “We were always excited; we Apollo 11 mission before staff watched with great in-
unmanned bottom portion, were always worried,” said reductions in 1978 forced him terest. Jim Webb, an N.C. bureaucrat whom the ’60s, I wanted to be an
helped the craft land safely and Goldmacher, now 83 and re- to leave Grumman and take an Kennedy chose to organize the program, was a astronaut. Losing part of my
also relaunch from the moon. tired in Florida. “Everyone was administrative job with AT&T really wise man and did a wonderful job. hearing to disease killed that
Eschert supervised a six- working close to 16-hour days, in Charlotte. Katharine Monk, 57, Charlotte: The principal dream, but the success of the
person team that attached ex- but sometimes we sat back and He keeps a space scrapbook of Myers Park High School, Dr. Laird Lewis, early space program definitely
ternal side panels, assembled thought ‘Are we crazy?’ ” – full of pictures, astronaut au- took a group of students to Europe each sum- cemented a lifelong interest in
engine compartments and in- Eschert got the job because tographs and small, triangular mer, and I was fortunate enough to go. We Howard science and space.
stalled generators for the stag- his dad, a plant manager at an- spacecraft logos – a touchstone were in Zermatt, Switzerland, during the land- Michael Foley, 58, Charlotte: I
es. As a supervisor, he spent his other Long Island manufactur- that takes him back to a time ing. We gathered in the lobby of one hotel that grew up in Washington, D.C., as my dad was a
time hopping back and forth er, had a friend who worked for when space travel was new and had a TV. I remember feeling so patriotic and political newspaperman. We went to Ocean
from the assembly line, the en- Grumman. Eschert said a year- exciting. so proud to be an American! City, Md., and we were at our oceanfront rental
gineer offices and the pressur- long stint in the military and a Now retired, he spends most Paul Gilbert, Statesville: I went to Florida to house. The night was very clear, and we were
ized rooms where the space- good background check of his time doing work around see the launch of Apollo 11 with my family. My watching TV, and also the moon at the same
craft was tested, adjusting cali- helped him land an engineer’s the house, going to club meet- brother-in-law was on the launch team and time over the ocean. When the landing oc-
bration screws and scheduling paycheck. ings at the Ballantyne Resort told us where to go see the launch. We were curred we saw it on TV and the moon reflect-
diagnostic tests. Grumman Aerospace had and hanging out with his wife, about 11 miles away on a bridge when a heli- ing over the ocean at the same time outside
one of the most important jobs their two sons and three grand- copter hovered behind us. The launch oc- the porch! My dad was crying, and I asked him
Never a typical day in the Apollo program, said kids. curred, and the noise of the helicopter was why. He said, “You don’t realize what just
Jerome Goldmacher was the Gerard Cecil, an astrophysics Eschert plans to go outside louder than the rocket motors until second happened.”
deputy spacecraft manager professor at UNC Chapel Hill. Monday night to toast the staging occurred, and only then did we hear Joane Fiore, 72, Charlotte: We lived in upstate
who oversaw all of the Apollo For $388 million, 2,400 moon with a Rolling Rock. the rocket motors. We stayed in Florida for the New York and were so looking forward to this
11 construction and one of Grumman engineers designed, “I’ll think about how Ameri- rest of the week and returned to Statesville epic journey. I had just turned 32 on the 17th,
Eschert’s bosses. He and Esch- assembled and tested 13 lunar ca’s the only country that’s put just in time to watch the landing on the moon. and we had four children. The astronauts were
ert agree there was no such modules at the footprints on it.” Ken Kapps, 64, Charlotte: I remember being my heroes and bigger than life. We lived in a
thing as a typical day on the job 6,000-square-foot Bethpage — STAFF RESEARCHER MARION PAYNTER in Bien Hoa, Republic of Vietnam, and when house, high on a hill, and we had two large
working on the Eagle. plant, according to NASA re- CONTRIBUTED. the news came out on the moon landing, I picture windows looking down into the valley.
showed it to the 40 or so Vietnamese men and Looking into the sky and picturing someone
women I worked with, and none of them be- actually walking on that moon I was looking at,
lieved it. These were not illiterate peasants but seemed insane. My husband decided to go to a
people who had at least high school educa- neighbor’s and watch it on color TV (they were
tions and some had higher education opportu- scarce then), and I was pretty disappointed
nities. I think over a period of months, some of that I couldn’t see it in color, too. However, he
them came to believe it – but most did not. As set his 35 mm camera to appropriate settings
that “leap for mankind” helped us gain a tech- and set up the tape recorder. I ended up taking
nological edge, we should remember to contin- remarkably good pictures from the TV and
ue the search for knowledge and share the also recorded all the audio on tape. The words
results accordingly. were captured on my tape –
Jack Howard, 60, Charlotte: When the Apollo “That’s one small step for
11 Lunar Excursion Module landed on the sur- man, one giant leap for man-
face, I was in Mexico City with a church group, kind.” I was so completely
mostly high school students, visiting Presbyte- overwhelmed with disbelief I
rian churches and missionaries in Mexico. This had a hard time really grasp-
hotel only had one TV on the whole building ... ing the situation. I really be-
in the bar. Since this was such an historical Fiore lieve we’ll make it to Mars, but
occasion, however, we were all invited into the maybe not in my lifetime. I
bar to watch the landing on that single TV set. wonder if they’ll get excited then or will they
YALONDA M. JAMES – yjames@charlotteobserver.com
(I was 20 years old at the time, still underage just wonder if they can “text” or “Twitter” up
Ray Eschert shows a printed poster with signatures of individuals who helped man land on the for Mexico City.) During the entire decade of there. How sad.
moon. Eschert’s job was to test the thinner-than-aluminum-foil metal of the lunar module.

NOTICE OF A CITIZENS INFORMATIONAL WORKSHOP FOR THE PIEDMONT GOLD EXCHANGE


INSTANT CASH 4 GOLD PAYING
PROPOSED CLOSURE OF THE SR 1102 (LANGTREE ROAD),
SR 1170 (CROSSRAIL ROAD), WALNUT STREET, CATAWBA PAYING
AVENUE, AND NORMAN DRIVE / DOSTER ROAD AT-GRADE,
NORFOLK SOUTHERN (NS) RAIL/HIGHWAY CROSSINGS
IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE EAST-WEST CONNECTOR
PROJECT IN MOORESVILLE Come see why thousands of comparison
TIP Y-4812S & T
County
Iredell shoppers choose Piedmont Gold over major
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and the
Town of Mooresville will hold a Citizens Informational Workshop for the
area Jewelers & Gold Buyers!
above-mentioned railroad project on Thursday, August 20, 2009,
beginning at 5:00 p.m. and ending at 8:00 p.m. at the Charles Mack SILVER, DIAMONDS, WATCHES, DENTAL GOLD, STERLING,
Citizens Center (Merchant Room), located at 215 N. Main Street,
Mooresville, 28115. ESTATE JEWELRY, GOLD COINS, SILVER FLATWARE
NCDOT and Town of Mooresville representatives will be available in an Notice: As areas only Gold Refiner, you can and will be paid the absolute most for your gold & silver!
informal setting to answer questions and receive comments about the FT. MILL LOCATION: 856 GOLD HILL RD. CHARLOTTE LOCATION: CAROLINA
proposed project. The opportunity to submit written comments and/or (TAKE 77 TO EXIT 88 GO WEST PLACE MALL PINEVILLE NC
questions will also be provided and are encouraged. Interested citizens 1/8 MILE, 4TH BLDG ON RT) (NEXT TO BELKS DOWNSTAIRS)
KO6361441

may attend at any time during the above mentioned hours. Please note:
there will be no formal presentation. 803-230-6333 704-587-3820
NCDOT proposes to close the existing at-grade NS railroad crossings
at two state roads: SR 1102 (Langtree Road) and SR 1170 (Crossrail ALL TYPES OF ROOFS POWER
Road). The Town of Mooresville proposes to close the existing at-grade VENTS
NS railroad crossings at three municipal streets: Walnut Street, Catawba PIPE CHIMNEYS
Avenue, and Norman Drive / Doster Road. These existing railroad BOOTS
crossings are to be closed as part of an effort to reduce the number of
redundant and/or unsafe rail-highway at-grade crossings statewide, and
also in conjunction with construction of a new at-grade rail/highway
HVAC
PIPES ROOF
LEAK
crossing for the East-West Connector project in Mooresville.
Anyone desiring additional information regarding the East-West

REPAIRS
Connector project may contact the consultant for the Town of
Mooresville, Brian Dehler, WSP- Sells (704) 662-0100, or Neil Burke,

49
Transportation Planner, Town of Mooresville (704) 663-2891. Anyone

$ 95
desiring additional information regarding the NC state roads / railroad
crossing closures may contact Jahmal Pullen, NCDOT Rail Division (919)
715-8748 or the NCDOT consultant, Robert Pressley, Gannett-Fleming
Engineers (704) 375-2438.
The NCDOT and the Town of Mooresville will provide auxiliary aids and
services under the Americans with Disabilities Act for disabled persons SAVE THOUSANDS COMPARED TO A NEW ROOF
who wish to participate in this workshop. Anyone requiring special ROOF ALL COMPANY • 704-521-5021
JS6365943

services should contact either Mr. Pullen or Mr. Burke as early as possible
so that arrangements can be made. RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL
HA6366414
MONDAY - SATURDAY 7AM - 7PM

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen