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

Hi, - The other Doug,

Could this be what you remember?

"James Burke demonstrates the Luna EVA suit"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nYPm05cBvQ

Cheers

Brian

I never saw it, or I don't remember. It might be on the reel-to-reel audio tapes I recorded off TV during Apollo 11, but I was recording only 1 channel at that time <mono recorder> and usually but not always watched Walter on CBS.

Very impressive video...never saw it before!

Man, I knew those things had to be cumbersome, but my God...amazed that they were able to put them on unassisted!

Yep -- that's exactly what I remember! Except that this one is edited, it removes about two seconds of Burke walking into the shower.

So, I didn't dream it. Kewl!

-the other Doug

Wow, that is a really cool video; I'd never seen that before. Burke was one of my favorite science popularizers growing up.


--Emily

I realize that ending was a bit tongue in cheek, but it still was a little more of Prof. Burke than I was prepared to see....

Didn't see this either. I better understand now what parts they threw away from the LEM to save weight for launch.
Alos, I understand it has been edited. O Doug, do you remember if he was realy naked before the shower ?
I mean, did he remove his glasses ?

Ha! My memory is that we saw him walking away from the camera with the diapers in his hand, and he dropped them as he approached the shower stall. Then we cut to him stepping into the shower. This was the only shot from the film I recall that is missing from the piece available on YouTube.

-the other Doug

Had to watch it at a net cafe, but that is magnificent, I'll never look at 'The Day the Universe Changed' in quite the same way again.

Here's another clip of James Burke covering Apollo for the BBC. This time, it's the Apollo 13 splashdown, and Patrick Moore can also be seen in the studio:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DUP5IKyOiio

This clip captures the sheer anxiety and sudden relief of the re-entry better than any other footage I have seen (notice how Burke keeps his fingers crossed prior to signal acquisition).

Ian.

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