Man, I’m getting old. I recall with great vividness watching Apollo 11 land on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Not quite eight years old, I watched the black and white images of Apollo 11′s lunar landing, with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard the Eagle while Mike Collins orbited the moon.
“The Eagle has landed,” said Armstrong.
In 1969, we didn’t have cable and the in depth coverage such an event would warrant today was non-existent.
But we did have Walter Cronkite, the man more people tuned in to watch than any other during that time.
Watching the relief on Cronkite’s face as the lunar module landed was an emotion felt by all Americans.
When Armstrong jumped off the last rung of the ladder on to the moon’s surface, uttering the words “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” he set into motion the tag line of the original television series Star Trek.
Space: The final frontier.
The fact a man was walking on the moon culminated an eight-year process first set in motion by former President John F. Kennedy.
In 1960, Kennedy made a space mission to the moon a national priority and Apollo 11 successfully completed that mission less than six years after his assassination.
From that day forward, space exploration was changed forever. Missions once thought to be impossible now seemed to be within grasp.
Since that day 40 years ago, the space shuttle missions, the space station and explorations to Mars and other planets were a direct result of the Apollo program.
Watch this video of Apollo 11′s dissent to the moon’s surface and listen to the audio of Armstrong, Aldrin and Mission Control in Houston.
