In article ,
"William Sommerwerck" wrote:

"Dave Moorman" wrote in message
]...

This is a little off topic, but I've been watching Rocketship X-M, a
1950 movie about traveling to the moon. The base communication
equipment is an SX-42 and a pair of HT-9s.

The movie is something of a hoot. The astronauts are dressed for
a safari, and talk to the press until it's T minus 10, when they say,
"Time is running short, we'd better get going." Then they're driven
to the ship in a woodie wagon. It goes on in this vein -- nary a
space suit is visible, etc.

Lloyd Bridges, Noah Beery Jr, Hugh O'Brian. They wind up going to Mars, and
everyone dies.

Awww. Now you spoiled it for me, Bill.

Another amusing thing about the movie is that when they jettison the
lift-off stage of the rocket, they leave its engines running and it
almost crashes into the crew cabin. Ooops!

Do we like computers? After a problem arises with the fuel mixture,
decision need to be made on the basis of new calculations. There are
two possible ways to proceed in making them, but one must be chosen
because it will take 6 1/2 hours (or so) to do the calculating with
pencil and paper, and the isn't time to do it both ways.