[X] My Assistant

[dvandorn]

During Apollo 11, I watched a little of ABC's and NBC's coverage, but I mostly stayed with CBS News and Walter Cronkite for my immersion in the first lunar landing. And there was a lot of coverage to wallow in -- CBS alone spent more than 32 consecutive hours covering the landing, surface operations, launch, rendezvous and docking phases of the mission.

Now, I know that the BBC spent an awful lot of air time on Apollo 11, as well, and I know from some videotapes I've seen that James Burke, the Beeb's science correspondent at the time, anchored that coverage in the UK.

At some point during one of the more quiet periods, Cronkite actually had a short interview with Burke, comparing notes on how the American and British publics were reacting to this historic event. But what I remember most clearly was a filmed feature segment that Burke had made and that Cronkite ran during this interview.

It started out with Burke fully decked out in a complete, working Apollo lunar surface EMU -- the whole shebang, complete with operating PLSS backpack, radio, visor assembly, overshoes... the works.

As the film progressed, Burke removed the suit, a piece at a time, illustrating what each piece did and how it attached to the suit. Of course, the film was edited -- it showed Burke removing the suit in about six minutes, when it really took him the better part of an hour.

At the end of the film, Burke stripped off the liquid-cooled undergarment, removed the diaper, and marched, stark naked, into the shower. The film ended as we heard the shower turn on and Burke began to sing as he showered. CBS must have run this thing at like 4 a.m., because it was the first time in my memory that American TV ever showed a man's naked bum as the guy walked away from the camera.

Now, I hold Burke almost in awe -- his Connections series are some of the best general science / anthropology works I've ever seen. But I will always remember him first and foremost for this one piece I saw, a single time, in July of 1969.

I know I've asked this before, probably on this very forum. But we have new members, and many of them are from the UK. So, here's the question -- does anyone else remember seeing this film of Burke's lunar spacesuit striptease? And further, does anyone remember Burke's Apollo 11 coverage? I wasn't able to watch it, of course, being stuck in the middle of Illinois at the time. But I'd be curious if any of you Brits who actually remember Apollo 11 could comment on your memories of his work at that time?

Mostly, though, I guess I just want to make sure I didn't dream that whole film that I recall so vividly...

-the other Doug

[Ian R]

If anyone's interested, here is some more BBC coverage of Apollo with James Burke, Patrick Moore and Sir Bernard Lovell. This time, it's 1968 and the flight of Apollo 8:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DWCYq7gE0wY