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Anniversary of Apollo 11
Today is the 45th Anniversary of Apollo 11.
I was working at the NASA Apollo Tracking station on Ascension Island. I worked in PCM Telemetry (processor). We were involved in tracking them to moon orbit. When the Eagle made the descent and landed on the moon, the Ascension Island tracking station and the NASA tracking station in Spain were the two stations that tracked the Eagle to the moon landing.
I have a commemorative coin that was struck using metal from the Eagle that was brought back to earth. Considering there were probably 1000 coins struck the percentage of the Eagle part in the coin is probably very small. The coin was part of a recognition "Award" that was given to me as part of the "Apollo Support Team" (I worked for Bendix Field Engineering, who had the Manned Space tracking station staffing and support Engineering staff stationed at Goddard Space Flight Center). I was involved with the entire Apollo program, from the ill fated Apollo 1 until the end of the project.
Subsequent Apollo missions, I worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. I was classified as a "Telemetry Engineer" and my job was as Programmer on the PCM Telemetry Processors.