Moon Landing: T-Plus 45 Years

Forty-five years ago today I sat in my living room with my family and witnessed an incredible event take place on live television.  Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on another world by climbing down the ladder of the Lunar Excursion Module and placing their boots on the dusty surface of the moon.  Goosebumps rose on my fourteen-year-old arm as I realized I was seeing something that people had dreamed of for thousands of years.

 

The vision and vow of our late beloved President Kennedy, "to send a man to the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of this decade" was being fulfilled.  It was a moment of wonder and also of pride.  America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration had done this.  We beat the Russians to the moon, and in those frightening Cold War days that seemed of the greatest importance.  Our scientists, manufacturers, workers and pilots had proved they were the best.

Today, the meaning is a bit different.  Over 300,000 Americans had a hand in this astounding feat.  It called forth cooperation and teamwork on a monumental scale.  It showed we were still pioneers at heart, and ready to contribute and work together to accomplish great things, seemingly impossible things.  We were a confident and optimistic people, heedless of any limitations.  Oh, to be that people again!       

The Day the President Died

Fifty years ago today, also on a Friday, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas.  For people around my age, it was our Pearl Harbor, our nine eleven.  I was in school that day at Arbolita Elementary in Mr. Membrez's room.  The principal, Mr. Van Pelt, came into our fourth grade class and told us the news. Some cried; the rest of us sat in stunned silence. That weekend our family watched everything on TV. Particularly etched in my memory are John John's salute, Jackie kissing the casket in the Capitol rotunda, and the riderless horse in the funeral procession. We saw Oswald get shot on live TV. It was a total national nightmare.  We've never really recovered what was lost.  I still sometimes choke up when discussing that day in my History classes. 

July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap

Forty-one years ago my family and I sat transfixed before our television set and watched history being made. On July 20, 1969 we saw Neil Armstrong, garbed in a bulky protective suit, descend a short ladder and become the first human to set foot on an alien world. "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind," he memorably stated.

Goose bumps caused the hair on my fourteen-year-old arms to stand on end. Even at that age I was clearly aware I was witnessing an event of epochal importance. People had dreamed of such a moment since the dawn of human consciousness. It was potentially every bit as significant as Columbus making landfall in the West Indies.

President Kennedy had electrified and mobilized the nation in 1962 by setting a moon landing as a national goal. "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win." See Kennedy's entire speech here.

Three quarters of a million Americans were involved in the space program at its height. We were inspired because we are adventurers and explorers at heart. Our more distant forebears explored and settled these continents; our more recent ones gave up kin and country to strike out on their own in search of new opportunity. We were inspired because we love a challenge, and the tougher the better. We were inspired because we love competition. The rival superpower, the Soviet Union, had beaten us off the mark into space and we were not to be outdone, not by anyone, and especially not by them. In those days, with triumph over the Great Depression and victory in World War II still fresh in the memories of all Americans over 30 and that can-do attitude imbued into us, their offspring, there was no doubt in anyone's mind we could accomplish anything we set out to do.

America embraced NASA and the space program for a number of reasons: national pride, scientific curiosity, Cold War one-upsmanship and pioneer spirit among them. It made little difference that a prime unnamed reason was to develop heavy-thrust intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear Armageddon on Soviet Russia should that prove necessary.

As a spinoff dividend, the scientific advances needed to reach the moon buttressed America's economy and defense technology and kept them foremost in the world for decades to come. These included the computer revolution and major breakthroughs in communications, avionics, metallurgy, plastics, miniaturization, nutrition, optics, electronics and physics, just to name a few.

Besides being a thrilling human adventure, putting Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon stood also as a supreme national achievement. It showed the kind of relentlessly awesome competence of which a resolute, motivated and unified United States of America is capable. I will remember it with pride for the rest of my life.