*quality restoration

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by newtboy.

How amazing and beautiful is that?

Not just on a surface level, although the sheer spectacle is still wondrous to behold.

But the *engineering behind it, the ambition, the unbelievable cajones on the three guys sitting atop a giant missile, the co-operation of basically an entire nation working to build something to advance the frontiers of humanity.... damn, I get teary-eyed just watching it.

Even if the motivations were ultimately political (beating those pesky reds!), sometimes we can still do the right thing for the wrong reasons.

*doublepromote one of mankind's finest hours.

Double-Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, January 21st, 2018 1:13pm PST - doublepromote requested by ChaosEngine.

Adding video to channels (Engineering) - requested by ChaosEngine.

Pssst... My dad blew up one of these things.

How so?

Need a story now, lets have it!

@ChaosEngine @Buck

My dad was in the Air Force. He was chosen for a particular program -- to be a Range Safety Officer on launches.

Once he got his Masters in Engineering at MIT on the government's dime, he was stationed at Cape Canaveral.

His job was to have his hand on the key that would blow up a missile when it went off course. The course was set so that if it went bad, the pieces would fall safely into the ocean. If it started to veer off course, you had to blow it up quick.

He was stationed at Cape Canaveral from something like 1958 to 1966. About that time frame. Early days, when they didn't know quite how to do a successful launch -- and he blew up a lot.

More than any other person -- and no one will catch up with his record, because it is no longer early days.

He got a Saturn. He blew up a Titan. He blew up a lot of Missilemen missiles.

He mostly worked on the unmanned launches. Only one launch (that I know of) was manned -- and he almost had to blow it up. He was sweating that one -- because of the stakes of blowing early or blowing late and no good result if you make the wrong choice. There was a wobble ... and he waited ... and it corrected.

But yeah. A Saturn.

After Cape Canaveral, he was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base, NW of Santa Barbara. The west coast equivalent of the Cape.

PM me your email, and I'll send you a SERIOUSLY cool cartoon that was a gift when he left the Cape. Sitting astride a rocket that has obviously been launched from Florida, with silhouettes of all the missiles he blew up -- with HASHMARKS for how many of each.

It is seriously cool.

That is officially Goddamn Awesome.

@Buck @ChaosEngine

Oops. It wasn't my dad who worked that manned flight.

It was his boss.

Dad did unmanned only.

@bareboards2 That is so friggin amazing, what an experience! Thanks for sharing it. I love hearing about the people who made this stuff happen. Many Canadians who worked on the Avro Arrow joined NASA after the plane development was shut down. Love hearing about this stuff.