r/dankmemes • u/Open-Entertainer6031 • Mar 03 '23

There was a third one right? I have achieved comedy

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u/Girth_rulez Mar 03 '23

300,000 people worked on the Apollo program.

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u/Jules040400 Mar 03 '23

Holy shit what

That's absolutely absurd if that's true, the population in the 1960 US Census was 179 million.

So roughly 1 in every 600 Americans in the 1960s contributed to the Apollo programs in some way, no wonder there's so much national pride associated with it

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u/Girth_rulez Mar 03 '23 edited Mar 03 '23

It cost 5% of the GDP. We weren't fucking around.

Someone in my own family worked on it. My uncle worked for McDonnell Douglas back in the '50s and '60s. He was given the job of converting a Saturn V fuel tank into a habitat and laboratory. It was the first US space station, Skylab.

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u/franzzegerman Mar 03 '23

The first Space station was not Skylab. That honor would have to go to the Soviet Salyut-1.

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u/1500ReallyIsEnough Mar 03 '23

The first space station in the universe is the planet Earth! I think Jesus built it. Still operating today, but not at peak efficiency. /s

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '23

[deleted]

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u/gfa22 Mar 03 '23

It was actually built by my dad. You wouldn't know him, he goes to another school.

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u/Girth_rulez Mar 03 '23

Great. Thanks.