> The first seismometer was placed on the moon’s surface very shortly after the astronauts landed, and seismologists including Toksöz started seeing the data right away — including every footstep the astronauts took on the surface. Even when the astronauts returned to the lander to sleep before the morning takeoff, the team could see that Buzz Aldrin ScD ’63 and Neil Armstrong were having a sleepless night, with every toss and turn dutifully recorded on the seismic traces.
Five of the apollo astronauts who walked on the moon were MIT graduates, including Aldrin.*
Tech Square was built for the space program but after the Kennedy assassination when the nexus was moved to Houston, MIT put project MAC (later LCS and the AI lab) there; Honeywell had a chunk for Multics, etc. It was just office space though; I don't think the CIA office in 545 was related.
* (Only two Eagle Scouts did; Charles Duke was both.)
Remarkably, the I-Lab was briefly under siege during this time, by blockading demonstrators. And at the same time, MIRV, the fundamental US offensive system, was being finished there. Dr. Draper, then in his mid-60s, was basically hated during this period.
> The first seismometer was placed on the moon’s surface very shortly after the astronauts landed, and seismologists including Toksöz started seeing the data right away — including every footstep the astronauts took on the surface. Even when the astronauts returned to the lander to sleep before the morning takeoff, the team could see that Buzz Aldrin ScD ’63 and Neil Armstrong were having a sleepless night, with every toss and turn dutifully recorded on the seismic traces.