#AtoZ 1968 – “A” is for Apollo 6

2018 A to Z 1 Minute

“You’re going to get a concept that maybe this really is one world and why the hell can’t we learn to live together like decent people.” ~ Astronaut Frank Borman, on seeing the entire earth from outer space as he and the crew of the Apollo 8 returned from orbiting the moon.

390px-Apollo_6_launch
photo from Wikipedia

The second mission of the US Apollo space program, Apollo 6, launched on April 4, 1968, as an unmanned test of the Saturn V launch vehicle. The Saturn V burned more fuel in one second than Lindbergh used to cross the Atlantic.

The objective of the launch was to indicate that a flight to the Moon was a possibility; in fact, the Apollo 11 mission landed two men on the Moon in 1969.

There was little press coverage of the launch. On the same day, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee.

A to Z badge 2

BONUS MUSIC!

This song ended up at #98 on Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 1968

“Bend Me, Shape Me” by The American Breed

Published by Martha Reynolds

I am the bestselling author of nine novels, including the Swiss Chocolate trilogy and VILLA DEL SOL, which won the 2018 Book Award in Literary Fiction from the Independent Publishers of New England. My newest series includes the books A JINGLE VALLEY WEDDING, APRIL IN GALWAY, and ALL’S WELL IN JINGLE VALLEY. Find my books online at Amazon, locally at Stillwater Books (Pawtucket, Rhode Island) and Ink Fish Books (Warren, Rhode Island).

Published

25 thoughts on “#AtoZ 1968 – “A” is for Apollo 6”

  1. Pingback: The 2022 A to Z Challenge is Coming! – Martha Reynolds Writes
  2. Pingback: The 2019 A to Z Challenge THEME REVEAL – Martha Reynolds Writes

  3. This was really interesting, I didn’t know Apollo 6 launches on the same day Martin Luther King Jnr was shot. I love the Bend Me, Shape Me song. Always associate it with cheese strings because of a popular advert in the 90s in the UK.

    Like

    Reply

  6. Martha,

    Apollo 6 launched on my mother’s 23rd birthday. I wasn’t even 7 at the time. Cool bit of trivia. I do remember “Bend Me, Shape Me”. Thanks for popping in to check out my first post in the A2Z Challenge. Happy A2Zing, my friend!

    Direct post for the letter “A” Curious as a Cathy

    Like

    Reply

  7. I remembered Martin Luther King getting shot, but just vaguely. Same with the rocket launch. I think I was nine. The 1960’s is a cool time to revisit. I’ll be remembering along with you Mz. Martha 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Hi Martha – totally endorse Boorman’s quote – so appropriate today. I hadn’t realised about that first mission Apollo 6 … but realise Martin Luther King’s shooting would mostly obliterate other news. Cheers Hilary

    Like

    Reply

  11. I had forgotten that Apollo 6 and Dr. King’s assassination happened the same day. (I had just turned 12 the week before, by the way.) The American Breed was a Chicago band that became Rufus (I know you knew that). As you can probably guess, “Bend Me Shape Me” did a whole lot better there…

    Like

    Reply

  12. Martha, Great start for the A-Z! I love the Frank Borman quote as well. Very Good song; those first music videos crack me up so much. It’s a 3-way tie for what is the funniest; the electric guitars not plugged into anything, or the teenage girls screaming every 30 seconds on cue, or, and I think this is my favorite…… the drummer not actually playing the drums is now actually not playing the trumpet! Awesome! Bring on 1968!

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s