Things You May Not Know About the Apollo 11 Mission
Randy Attwood, FRASC
Mississauga Centre
2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing. There was much coverage around the July 20th date, but perhaps there were some aspects of the mission that you may not have heard before
– what changes were made to the lunar module while it stood on the launch pad as a result of issues found during the Apollo
10 mission in May?
– why was there nearly no television from the Moon during the moonwalk?
– why was Armstrong chosen to take the first steps on the Moon
– why are there no good pictures of Armstrong standing on the lunar surface?
– what five problems did Armstrong and Aldrin face during the landing, each of which – if not resolved by the crew and Mission
Control – could have meant no lunar landing.
Bio:
J. Randy Attwood is a resident of Mississauga and has been looking up at the night sky for nearly 50 years.
He joined the RASC in 1970. He is the founder, Past-President and currently Honorary President of the Mississauga Centre, a Past-President of the Toronto Centre and a Past President of the Society. He was the Executive Director of the Society from 2014 – 2019.
In 2013 he was named as one of the first Fellows of the Society. In 2005 he was awarded the Society’s Service Award.
Randy has appeared on CTV, CBC, GLOBAL and the Discovery Channel to provide background information for space and astronomy related stories. He has covered 12 space shuttle launches and landings as a journalist and as a Canadian Space Agency photographer.
Between 1981 and 1994 he produced and hosted 63 astronomy cable television shows called Astronomy Toronto which are stored on the Society’s RASCANADA You Tube Channel.
He has traveled to various places around the world to observe and photograph 12 total eclipses of the sun. He has written High School Astronomy text book units on astronomy and presented planetarium programming at schools.
Randy Attwood is the President of The Earthshine Astronomy and Space Science Organization, a Mississauga based not for profit charity organization. Earthshine hopes to build and run a public astronomy facility in the Mississauga area.
In 2012, Asteroid 260235 was renamed Asteroid Attwood in his honour.
