Best book on the Apollo project up to Apollo 11: Apollo Race to the Moon by Charles Murray (yeah, THAT Charles Murray). Get the Audible, it's worth the listen.

Best Movie: APOLLO 11 - Best movie I've ever seen on an Imax. Uses cleaned up original footage from news and NASA. Incredible.

"Astronauts" for rockets today are like "pilots" today: mostly systems managers and going the way of the dodo. "Stop!". "Go!". "Expand your team!". "Hey, I "flew" for almost 5 minutes on my 9 hour flight!".

These men were incredible. (So were their Soviet counterparts - Soviet Space Race. Ho. Lee. Cripe. Also women, in their case. Soviet astronaughts tradiotionally ****ed on their rockets before liftoff. LOL.)

I remember these missions as they happened. Apollo 4 through 17.

The discussion was about the boosters. The Saturn 5 was as far as I can find 12 for 12. Super Heavy is now 0 for 2.

Never seen it. I engage it during the takeoff roll and close my eyes. I open them when the first passenger say "thanks," and start waving "buh-bye."

It always works. We're in a jet. What could go wrong?

Depends. Elon said in advance that he expected them to fail, and given that it was his project, his company, and his money, that would make both outcomes a rousing success, achieving the stated goals.

In all fairness, however, in the bigger picture of what they have done, a rocket than land itself vertically on a platform on land or in the water is pretty damn impressive. Plus, they've managed to introduce new sparkles in the night sky that cause some conspiracy-minded first officers to launch on rants at night about UFO's and government coverups. One just can't buy that kind of stupidity.

At Atlas? :-)

What makes you think I work at Atlas?

No biggie. I'd read several books on the subject and had listened to a great podcast from BBC '13 Minutes to the Moon' and didn't recall the details. So I looked it up.

Niece asked me for pictures from my military time. I said I think the only ones I have are from over Panama. But I remembered the flight lead had been based in Panama and we went sight-seeing to view the Japanese mini-sub that had beached itself vs attacking cargo ships waiting to transit the Panama Canal. I had the picture and went on the internet to find an article about the 'Japanese mini-sub.'. Oh, the sub is there...but it was one of the first subs ever built and had sunk around 1870. So much for the 'Japanese mini-sub.' Flight lead buddy had flown there in the late 1970's/early 1980's and the real story, even then, had morphed into a WWII urban legend.

The 1 million miles I commuted in first class were really not that bad

Ahhh the good old days of the real PAN AM, TWA and EAL (pre March 1989) to name a few... It got to the point, when commuting East or West... to decide... do I want the Crab Cakes or Sachertorte?

Amen. Those were the days.

Carved prime rib.