That's when I started wondering how old were the astronauts? A search online didn't turn up their ages at the time of the mission, but it did show the current ages for the two surviving crew members of Apollo 13. Lovell was 42 and Haise was 37...if I did my math right. :-) I used a calculator, but even then I've been known to make mistakes.
From the podcast, I'd learned that the average of mission control was 27 years old.
I always imagined that everyone involved in the space race was older, a grizzled veteran from the military pushing 50 if not already in their 50s. It was a little staggering to learn I had this wrong all this time.
My interest is really fueled now and I'm going to have to see if I can find some more podcasts or maybe some documentaries about NASA's Apollo program. The podcast had clips from the oral history museum, so maybe that would be a place to start. First hand accounts from the people who were directly involved would be fascinating.
It also gets me wondering why we haven't been back to the moon since the 1970s? I know it's expensive, but if did it with the technology from 50 years ago, surely we could do it again for less than what it cost then.
To the moon, NASA!
