The lander as well as the flag, or rather the remaining flag pole, seen in the image above are exactly where they should be based on this shot by the Ascent Module "right after Apollo 17 lifted off the Moon":

Going a step further, the location can be compared to more recent images of the landing site and everything still jibes up. So, can we now finally quiet down with the moon landing conspiracies and focus on figuring out how to colonize the tubes up there? Pretty please? [SESE via Discover]

Very few Gizmodo readers were even born when Rockwell painted his last Saturday Evening Post cover, but we all know them. You hear that name and suddenly you can picture those overly detailed, cartoonishly dramatic but ultimately kinda corny depictions of American life. Well, Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera, written and compiled by Ron Schick, has given me immense newfound respect for the man, for the meticulous photography, the real people and the unintentionally hilarious DIY props and sets that he required to make his painted fantasies of Americana come true.

The book is not about painting. Rockwell's oil-on-canvas work feels like an afterthought for Schick, who mostly documents Rockwell's photography and art direction. Throughout the book, you see a painting, then you see the photographs he took to make that painting. In most cases, many shots comprise the different elements, and are joined together only in paint. It's almost sad: Vivid interactions between people, remembered jointly in the country's collective consciousness, may never have taken place. Even people facing each other at point blank range were photographed separately, and might never have even met.

The photos are as memorable as the paintings: There's a little boy whose feet are propped up on thick books, a walking still-life; there's a naked lady who ended up a mermaid in a lobster trap; there are men and women in various states of frustration, concentration and bliss, whose facial expressions defined Rockwell's style. These were mostly not agency models, but friends and neighbors who were pleased to help out, but not always thrilled by the finished product.

Since Rockwell was one of the most commercially successful artists of all time, you can imagine the rights to all of his images (paintings and photos) are carefully managed. The publisher was kind enough to let us show you the book cover plus two additional pairings, below. I encourage you to buy the book ($26.40 at Amazon)—what you see here is just a quick lick of the spoon:

Going and Coming, 1947
You'll notice the book jacket shows a painting of a family embarking on a summer vacation—Granny, Spot and all—coupled with a photo of a similar scene with far less action. There's a kid sticking out of the car in both, but many family members are missing. This is because they were photographed separately, in Rockwell's studio, and painted in where needed. (You'll also notice that the photo on the jacket is reversed—the car was pointed in the other direction but I suppose that wouldn't have looked as cool.)

Circus, 1955
What I liked about this picture is that you get to see how ridiculous Rockwell's sets could often be. He needed real faces, but he could fill in the rest. Hence piling chairs up on top of an old desk to simulate bleachers at the circus. Good thing nobody fell off the back and sued ole Rocky for millions—that twine used to hold the little girl's chair in place doesn't look OSHA certified. If the geeky looking fellow in the front looks familiar, it's because Rockwell himself served as a model for his paintings all the time.

The Final Impossibility: Man's Tracks on the Moon, 1969
Yep, here's proof that the moon landing was faked. At least, Rockwell's commemorative portrait of it was. NASA loved his work, so they loaned him spacesuits and helmets whenever he wanted, and for this, he got permission to photograph his models moonwalking around an Apollo Lunar Lander, with a black tarp doubling for infinity and beyond. Remember, this is when Apollo was new and the Cold War was in full swing, so getting access to the latest NASA toys took clout.

Behind the Camera covers many aspects of Rockwell that I had not known about previously. He was an outspoken civil rights activist, and many of his paintings dealt with race relations. There is a painting of two murdered men, one black and one white, accompanied by an almost absurd photo of two very alive guys lying side by side, eyes closed, on a carpet. There's another painting of a little black girl being walked to school by US Marshals, and the many different closeup shots Rockwell required to paint the extreme detail of the tense, potent—and fabricated—moment.

I wish I could run a gallery of 100 shots from this book, because each page startled me in a different way. Meeting the real people behind the paintings, and learning that every painting was composed of masterfully planned photographs—always black and white, since the artist let his imagination add the color—I will no longer take Norman Rockwell for granted. In fact, I'm gonna kinda worship him from now on. [Amazon sales page; Little, Brown product page]

A Spam and peanut butter (chunky) sandwich: That was what I had for lunch, forty years ago, just before watching along with the rest of the world as Eagle touched down on the surface of the Moon.

It was a hot summer day in Danville, California. My family lived in a nice house, in a nice neighborhood. Nevertheless our home, like many built in that era, didn't have air conditioning. So, my father moved the family TV set (19" black and white, rabbit ear antennae) out onto the partially shaded back patio. He sprayed water onto the concrete, which helped make it surprisingly cooler.

My friends, two brothers Mike and Russ, were visiting. We had been friends for a long time (two years was long time to an eight year old). So, they had become accustomed to being served odd concoctions at my house, invented by my Dad. Spam and peanut butter sandwiches was one of those. It was surprisingly, not too bad. I had experimented once with a plain Spam sandwich. I quickly went back to including the chunky peanut butter.

I can remember like it was yesterday, watching that grainy black and white TV and listening in as Eagle approached the surface of the Moon and landed. Even as a young boy, I knew that the world had just changed. I also knew that I wanted to be like those guys on the Moon. I wanted to be an astronaut!

Twenty years later, I found myself in Houston, interviewing at NASA to be a member of the thirteenth astronaut group. What a heady time—President Bush (41) had just announced the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), calling for a return to the Moon to stay, followed by a crewed mission to Mars. And, we had astronauts in key NASA management positions, including the Administrator himself.

SEI fell flat, soon after the President failed to win reelection. The $400 billion price tag quoted by NASA might also have had something to do with it. Fifteen years after the SEI announcement, I found myself standing with a small group of fellow astronauts at NASA Headquarters, as President Bush (43) announced the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) in the wake of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident. The Vision called for, among other things, a crewed return to the Moon by 2020, and a crewed mission to Mars, on an indefinite schedule.

The Constellation program, which grew out of the VSE, was described by then-NASA Administrator Mike Griffin as "Apollo on Steroids." Indeed, it called for the creation of a capsule spacecraft (albeit, much larger). Five years into Constellation, the nation stands at a crossroads. The program has had its share of challenges and controversy and the budget is universally agreed to be inadequate. Newly inaugurated President Obama has ordered a review and a report, outlining a set of options for NASA and the agency's new Administrator. (I am a member of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Committee.)

Today, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, our return to the Moon is tenuous, at best. Who, in 1969, could have imagined that we would not have regular travel to and from Moon bases by the 20th anniversary of Apollo 11? The announcement of the SEI in 1989 gave us hope that we would be back on the Moon to stay, within another twenty years. Those twenty years have now passed.

Tonight, I was an invited guest at the 40th Apollo anniversary celebration at the National Air and Space Museum. Everything was perfect: The Apollo 11 crew—Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were elegant and stately against the backdrop of historic air and spacecraft. Other Apollo-era astronauts, like my friend Walt Cunningham, were also shining honorees. They were all a part of it!

It was a reminder of old times, of the past grandeur and wonder of the Apollo era. The time when we, as a nation, felt like nothing was impossible! A time, when Spam and peanut butter (chunky), tasted better than almost anything.

Should we look back at the last forty years and be disappointed? I believe that would be a mistake. Skylab was a resounding success. Despite the challenges, the Space Shuttle and ISS are marvelous flying machines. We started down the road of international cooperation with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, and led the formation and maturation of the current, highly successful international partnership. We have not had the big home run since Apollo, but we have made steady progress.

Where will the next twenty years take us? Against all odds, Spam is still going strong. Let's keep moving forward too.

Leroy Chiao, Ph.D. served as a NASA astronaut from 1990-2005. During his 15-year career, he flew four missions into space, three times on Space Shuttles and once as the copilot of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station. On that flight, he served as the commander of Expedition 10, a six and a half month mission. Dr. Chiao has performed six spacewalks, in both US and Russian spacesuits, and has logged nearly 230 days in space.

Dr. Chiao is Gizmodo's official astronaut (and "astroblogger"). On occasion, he still eats Spam and peanut butter (chunky) sandwiches.

Clip art from Clip Art Guide

That Sunday, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins completed President Kennedy's plan to put a man on the Moon before the decade was over. 400,000 people and 20,000 companies and institutions worked in the project, putting together insanely great talent, knowledge, and ingenuity to achieve what most thought was impossible.

Today we celebrate three men's prodigious, almost miraculous trip across the void of space. We celebrate their courage and prowess, as well as the qualities of every single person who made it possible.

It was a small step for a man, but also for mankind. A giant leap, yes, but still a tiny step toward our destiny in the stars... if we could survive ourselves, that is. Here's hoping that we do. Here's hoping that we could make it again, and find our place in the Universe.

Or in the words of the Onion:

Critics believe that going back to the moon is, as Aldrin put it "a glorified rehash of what we did 40 years ago"—something that would waste time and money that we could be spending on a trip to Mars. NASA argues that going back to the moon and establishing a permanent base is an essential stepping stone to a successful Mars mission—a feat that would take at least 20 years to accomplish according to their estimates.

The issue here, it seems, is not that we should ever step foot on the moon again, it's that NASA and the Obama administration should grow a set of balls by prioritizing Mars and fully committing to a program right now. After all, we went from nearly zero to the moon in the sixties with primitive technology. What do you think? Should we skip the moon and head for Mars?

[CNN and Yahoo/ Image via Starts With a Bang]

[Events shown in reverse chronological order. Timestamps indicate expected time for landing—obviously in July 20 1969]

Well, the landing liveblog is over, people. Houston has given the stay signal, so everything is good. Buzz says it looks beautiful outside. I believe him. Head to We Choose the Moon to hear the chatter between Houston and Tranquility Base.

Three minutes on the surface
They are now in the stay/no stay control phase. Mission controllers are making sure all data is ok. Everything seems fine. Neil and Buzz will be taking off their helmets and gloves after they complete the stay/no stay. Houston says all looks perfect.

Seems like everything has worked out perfectly. Eagle is at Tranquility base now. All systems nominal. Neil has burned almost all the fuel reserved for the descent looking for a good landing spot. The one that the computer picked was full of huge boulders. The guy has saved the day, but people at control were freaking out just a minute ago.

Houston: Roger, Twank...Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue here. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot!

Neil: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

Touchdown

Neil: Out of detent.
Aldrin: Mode control - both auto. Descent engine command override off. Engine arm - off. 413 is in.

2 seconds
Buzz: Contact light! Okay, engine stop. ACA - out of detent.

13 seconds
160, 6 and half down.

49 seconds
1 and half down.

1m
This is it. Last minute people. All looking good, Neil on manual control looking for a good spot. Fuel going low fast. Holy fuck this guy.

2m
Everything looking good. 3200 feet. All go for landing.

4m
Eagle is flying good. Data is good down at Houston control.

5m
It's looking good now, but Neil is looking for a spot for landing. Feels better than the simulator, he says.

5m
33,000 feet now. They have land on their window.

6m
They got a data dropout but still looking good. How the hell you get data dropout and "still look good"?

7m
Everything seems ok. Capcom says is ok. They are go to continue powered descent.

10m
They have passed the mark. Their position is off.

11m
Ignition. 46,000 feet continuing descent. Holy frack that engine is loud.

12m
1 minute to ignition. High gain signal is clear.

13m
Buzz Aldrin is now reading the descent checklist to Neil.

15m
All system go for descent. 3 30 until ignition. OK, I'm not up there and I'm about to smash the keyboard out of pure nervousness.

16m
Five minutes from ignition and Houston keeps losing them on the high gain antenna. No time to send a repairman up there.

17m
There are problems now. Problems with the computer programs. Some errors popping up. This doesn't feel good at all. They have overridden the errors.

18m
10.7 nautical miles from ignition for final descent, says capcom. This is it, people. It's now or never.

19m
They are experience some communication problems now.

24m
Guidance says we are go for landing. All data is ok. We are off to a good start. Mission controllers are "keeping it cool" but you can tell everyone knows this the time to be heroes. No room for errors.

25m
Sound is great now. Neil is giving data on residuals.

26m
Lots of noise now. Houston is asking Columbia about LEM status, as they have lost signal right now. Switching to the big antenna.

27m
LEM signal acquisition. Waiting for Neil to say something. You Apollo 11 commander you!

28m
"Columbia reading loud and clear!" Capcom is asking how everything went. Collins says THE EAGLE IS OK! He says everything went on beautifully: "Babe, everything's going just swimmingly. Beautiful".

29m
We have acquisition of signal from the Command Module. Capcom is trying to communicate with Columbia right now.

31m
One minute and 31 seconds from Command Module signal acquisition. 2 minutes from LEM signal acquisition. Houston control is getting ready for final descent.

35m
Trusted sources inside the White House are telling us that President Nixon is walking nervously up and down the Oval Office, mumbling something about "that damn Kennedy." He has two speeches on his desk. One is only to be read in case of disaster:

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

"These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

"In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

"Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

"For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."

38m
Nothing yet from Columbia or Eagle.

44m
Hey, check out Buzz Aldrin in the LEM. He's happy.

49m
Capcom is babbling again about how many people are in the control room, watching the operation. John Glenn is there, by the way. So is Alan Shepard, who later landed on the Moon with Apollo 14. Pete Conrad—commander or Apollo 12—and Jim Lowell—commander of Apollo XIII—are there too.

50m
Did you know that one million people gathered in Florida to see the launch of the Apollo 11 mission? Neither did I. An estimated 500 million people watched the landing live.

54m
Did I say you can listen to all this live at We Choose the Moon?

55m
This is when Phil Schiller makes a joke about how everything worked fine at rehearsal. No signal re-acquisition yet.

59m
Less than one hour from landing and nothing from Columbia or Eagle yet. Are these guys partying with Pink Floyd up there or what?

1h02m
Static noise getting stronger. I guess they will reappear any time now. I'm sure the engine should be ok. Unless the Nazis shot them now. I'm sure people at capcom keep looking at their watches nervously.

1h04m
Time for some chocolate as we wait for the signal to come back. I'm actually getting nervous here.

1h06m
Columbia will come first inline. Hopefully LEM will also reappear in one piece.

1h07m
The ignition should be over now. We are two minutes from LEM signal acquisition.

1h09m
One minute from the LEM ignition for descent orbit insertion. This is happening on the dark side of the Moon, so capcom doesn't have a clue about what would happen. For all we know, the engine may explode right now.

1h14m
What would you do if you were on the dark side of the Moon, 1h14m from being the protagonist of the biggest event in the history of mankind? Go through the landing flight plan once again or check out some porn?

See, this is why I'll never be an astronaut.

1h15m
Signal is lost. Seven minutes for descent orbit insertion. Mission control says all system look good.

1h19m
Three minutes now for Eagle's loss of signal. And they said that things move slow in space.

1h20m
Twelve minutes to Eagle's engine ignition.

1h23m
Everything looks good according to capcom. Columbia going over the hill in seven minutes.

1h25m
Why do we bitch about cellphone reception here on Earth? It's a miracle these guys can understand each other. Columbia has to repeat everything as they move away from the clear communications signal.

1h29m
Eagle is now behind the Moon. No they are not. They are getting ready for loss of signal now.

1h30m
Houston capcom says they are a few minutes from losing signal from the spacecrafts. Control is going through all the data to give a go/no go on landing.

1h32m
No bald guys so far.

1h35m
I wonder how Neil and Buzz are doing on board Eagle. If I were in their boots, I would be pissing my astronaut diapers at the prospect of being the first guys to set foot in land outside planet Earth.

1h39m
Apparently NASA doesn't play Coldplay while waiting for the big events. Steve Jobs is not happy.

1h41m
Houston Capcom and Columbia are now exchanging a lot of technical jibba jabba. Something about turning off directional rotate power #2 and asking Collins to put his pants on before the other two guys land.

1h43m from landing
Eagle has undocked from the command module. Talking about Columbia, here's a nice view of the craters Sabine and Ritter from lunar orbit. Collins is not wasting his time up there:

These beautiful images show the Eagle maneuvering as it leaves Columbia's arms. Collins' words: "Fine looking flying machine there."

Indeed it is.

Remember, Apollo 11 lands later today, July 20, about three hours from now. Follow the real time transmission here. [Real time transmission]

The suits shown here are part of a collection of Apollo-era artifacts on display right now at the National Air and Space Museum.

The exhibit is part of a 40th anniversary celebration for the event that attention-seeking idiots say never happened so that they can get a few extra clicks and adSense dollars on their crock conspiracy theory web site. Tons more pics over at io9. Can we go back now, please? [io9]

They're planning to complete the whole thing this fall, but they're showing off some of the more iconic moments now, such as the first steps on the moon.

The restoration doesn't bring the quality up to HD or anything, but it's a definite improvement over the video we've been used to seeing for the last 40 years.

[Boing Boing Gadgets]

Almost 40 years ago, on July 16, 1969, a Saturn V rocket carrying Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. launched from Cape Canaveral. Only four days later—40 years next Tuesday— Armstrong and Aldrin set camp on the Sea of Tranquility, the first humans ever to walk on the surface of the Moon.

It's probably the most amazing and technologically challenging adventure ever accomplished, and a sweet victory not only for the United States, but for all of us. Standing on the shoulders of giants and thousands of years of civilization—with all its misery and mayhem, but also with the genius, love, and creativity of millions of people—humans made the impossible possible once again.

Many people fail to comprehend the breathtaking nature of this endeavour. Many of us weren't even born in 1969, when the world was on the brink of destruction. That's why this is my favorite site this week: We Choose the Moon, created by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. There you will be able to follow the first trip to the Moon in real time, starting right now.

From this site—and using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or desktop widgets—you will be able for follow the whole adventure like it happened in 1969, minute by minute. This time, however, you will enjoy a lot more details than the public did back them. There is audio—from mission control, the cockpit, and ambient sounds—tweets from the astronauts, photographies and videos, showing every aspect of the Apollo 11 mission.

The countdown is already in progress and all systems are getting ready for launch.

As for JFK's speech, they just don't make them like that anymore. His words at Rice University summarized perfectly why we had to go to the Moon and why we have to go even further, choosing challenges not because they are easy, but because they are hard. No wonder he got Marilyn in bed. [We Choose The Moon]

This is to be part of a bigger space plan, whose details will be decided in the next couple of years. It's no surprise that Japan is eager to put robots on the moon (they're eager to put robots anywhere), and it's also no surprise that they wish to follow up the robots-only mission with a manned mission, using robot helpers.

Whether or not the robot helpers will, at that point, slay their human overseers and commandeer the ship, perhaps to partake in piracy near the Shoulder of Orion, maybe check out the seabeams at the Tannheuser Gate, that's all up in the air for now. You think I'm joking, don't you? [AP]

The Jupiter design would require two separate launches to get to the moon (one with payload, one with astronauts), but both rockets would utilize the old shuttle fuel tank at the core. Its backers claim that it could save NASA $19 billion in development costs and another $16 billion in operating costs over two decades. However, NASA formally reviewed the plans last fall and determined that the design was not feasible—a claim that some are disputing. At least one engineer and former NASA contractor has come forward saying that he believes NASA is suppressing information that Jupiter would perform better than Ares. As a result, he is calling for an independent review—something that he is not likely to get when you consider how far along NASA is with the Ares project. [Space via DVICE]