NASA: July 1969. It’s a little over eight years since the flights of Gagarin and Shepard, followed quickly by President Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon before the decade is out.
It is only seven months since NASA’s made a bold decision to send Apollo 8 all the way to the moon on the first manned flight of the massive Saturn V rocket.
Now, on the morning of July 16, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins sit atop another Saturn V at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The three-stage 363-foot rocket will use its 7.5 million pounds of thrust to propel them into space and into history. More details HERE
I remember. . . . . . (sigh)
I remember thinking how cool it would be if they landed on the Moon, on my 9th birthday. Alas, they landed earlier than I hoped. Still, it’s one of the most singular achievements of western civilization.
I remember it well.
Was in Marine Boot Camp, hell on earth at the time, no freedom, no amenities, no luxury items for about 12 weeks. On the rifle range for qualifying with the M-14.
Had no idea about NASA flight. The DIs brought in portable television set so we could watch the landing. My God, a TV! The only caveat, we had to watch the landing on our elbows and toes.
Historic time, I was appreciative to have seen it.
In my opinion one of the greatest days in American history. And look at us now, since the first Black man stepped in the White House.
I was a radioman stationed at the Naval Air Station at Agana Guam. The NASA tracking station at Dandan ran their microwave relay through our communications center. The microwave went down (damned klystron tubes) and I was the one tasked to switch over the microwave relay station to landline, thus ensuring Apollo 11 had uninterrupted communication from the tracking station through our station, on to the Naval Communications Station Guam, and then on to NASA in the US. The best thing about this, because we now had the Apollo transmissions going through our comm center, is that we could listen to the entire communications to and from the crew, as long as the Dandan tracking station was the primary comms. It was exciting.
I was 5 (well in 9 days).
Everyone was around the TV.
Very interesting, isn’t it, that Kennedy called forth the American spirit of pride and can-do which bloomed at just the right moment as a balm and a tonic in response to 1968’s fractured spirit of protests, rage, hopelessness and turmoil. I’m encouraged by how quickly everything can change.
I was 8. Watched on a crappy old b&w with a coat-hanger antenna!
“Houston……… Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.”
Houston: first on the moon, baaaaby!
Whatever your feelings about JFK, the one thing you can say is that he didn’t hate the USA. He wanted to make America great again. Hmm. Where have I heard that before?
Man, those great guys did something extraordinary and I feel we let them all down by not following through.
And NASA, What is all this crap about Mars, anyway?
Going to Mars, Bah!
We should have a city on the Moon by now
The Moon is where I want to retire.
1/6 gravity, Pops can move around again.
Six feet of dirt will block out all the radiation
I bet I could hit a golf ball for miles.
This is the only site I’ve seen any mention of the Apollo 11 landing. Sadly, this nation is forgetting its greatest accomplishment and heros. Thanks to those of you who posted your remembrances and involvement. It keeps the story alive.
@Mr. Mxyzptlk, that’s a great story! Adds depth to this article too.
🙂
Thanks, Unruly (if I may use your first name)
The only bad thing about it was we couldn’t watch it. There was only one TV station on Guam and they only showed taped reruns of Sesame Street. Of course they had no mainland feed, so that was about their limit. I did, however learn my alphabet and a lot of my numbers.
Hey, Cato, I was in boot camp then too! MCRD San Diego Platoon 1106…no tv for us though.
Small world!
Perspective, sorry for the thumbs down! I tried to correct it with a thumbs up…but giant BFH head(much like the Wizard of Oz) came screaming “You’ve already voted” and I ran like the cowardly lion, down My hallway and dove through a glass window….anyways…My Neighbors are trying to have Me committed…Anyways.. I was six..and tried to see them on the Moon…I’m 53 and can still see it in My mind as clear as a Photograph (staring at the Moon)
My 12-year-old self was very excited about the moon landing/walk. It was a point of pride for me that I shared a birthday and home county (January 20, Essex County, New Jersey) with Edward “Buzz” Aldrin, the second man in history to walk on the moon.
I remember getting up early the next morning, grabbing some coins from a little dish in the kitchen where my mother kept change for the bus, and walking to the newsstand in my neighborhood. Even though I was only twelve, I was so sure that this would be the most important historical event of my lifetime–surely nothing could possibly surpass it, ever–that I wanted to buy all the newspapers with coverage of the event. I bought the Newark Evening News (defunct since 1972), the Newark Star-Ledger, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, and the New York Times. Still have ’em, too.
I thought of that day 32 years later, when on September 12, 2001, I walked again to my neighborhood newstand (now in Brooklyn) on the same mission. The terrorist attacks, to my everlasting regret, dwarfed the Apollo 11 mission in its impact.
Ah, childhood. The world is on a downward spiral.
I remember it. I was 8 and mother mother took pictures of us kids holding the newspaper the next day with the banner headlines. Those were exciting times.
Thank you for your sevice cato & mr. Mx.
There are two kinds of countries in this world. Those that use the metric system and those that put men on the moon.
bcattin
s’alright 🙂 Just watch your neighbors and stay out of the funny farm lol