From the NASA web site:
Forty years ago, men from Earth began for the first time to leave our home planet and journey to the moon.
From 1968 to 1972, NASA’s Apollo astronauts tested out new spacecraft and journeyed to uncharted destinations.
It all started on May 25, 1961, when President John F. Kennedy announced the goal of sending astronauts to the moon before the end of the decade. Coming just three weeks after Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space, Kennedy’s bold challenge set the nation on a journey unlike any before in human history.
Eight years of hard work by thousands of Americans came to fruition on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong stepped out of the lunar module and took “one small step” in the Sea of Tranquility, calling it “a giant leap for mankind.”
Six of the missions – Apollos 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 – went on to land on the moon, studying soil mechanics, meteoroids, seismic, heat flow, lunar ranging, magnetic fields and solar wind. Apollos 7 and 9 tested spacecraft in Earth orbit; Apollo 10 orbited the moon as the dress rehearsal for the first landing. An oxygen tank explosion forced Apollo 13 to scrub its landing, but the “can-do” problem solving of the crew and mission control turned the mission into a “successful failure.”
Unless you have been living under a rock, you are aware that today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. Those of us that were alive at the time each have our own memories of where we were and how we witnessed the event. For those that were not yet born, you have never known a time when “reaching for the moon” truly was beyond our grasp.
For me, July 20, 1969 was the day that about 30 of us all crammed into the basement of the one person we knew that worked for NASA, and surrounded the TV. Every kid in the neighborhood brought their Revell plastic models of the Apollo spacecraft, and followed along as Walter Cronkite narrated the story of what was happening. We didn’t know what an “alarm 1202” was, but when we heard Armstrong ask if it was important, it suddenly seemed like the most critical item anywhere. When Eagle touched down after what seemed like an eternity (with Armstrong’s famous call “Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed”) and Charles Duke responded “You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot.” all of us staring at the TV realized that we had been holding our breath too, and we let out a huge collective “whoosh” all at once. As Armstrong and Aldrin stepped on to the surface of the Moon a few hours later, we all squinted at the ghostly figures on the TV, desperately trying to make out details of the scene. Twisting our plastic models of the LEM around, we tried to match the grainy pictures with where we thought the cameras were mounted, to better understand what we were seeing. But then none of that mattered when, as a 10-year-old, my friends and I all were invited to have our first-ever glass of celebratory champagne. No, we should not have been drinking at that age. But that one time, for that one very special occasion, my mom and dad figured it was worth it.
500 years from now, no one will remember Watergate, the Boeing 727, the Rosenberg spy trial, the Great Depression, the Cleveland Browns, the TV show “Dallas,” Woodstock, or the Edsel. But the one thing that will be remembered about the 20th century is that it was the time when we first dared to leave Earth, and find our way to somewhere else. As surely as we today know of Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, in 500 years they will know of Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, of Columbia and Eagle. And that is a legacy of which the entire country, and the entire planet, can all be proud.
-dave
Apollo 11 audio, being replayed as it happened 40 years ago.
.
