As I write this, it was 40 years ago, to the hour, that Apollo 11 lifted off on its voyage to land man on the moon.
I was watching the coverage on NBC, with Frank McGee hosting. On our first color TV. And, for the next several days, I was glued to the TV, watching the coverage of the moon shot. Well, except when they interrupted it to cover some silly Chappaquiddick thing where some drunk killed some woman.
The lunar coverage was fascinating. I had been watching Star Trek (also on NBC) on whatever night it came on from one week to the next. But this was REAL! We — Americans — were sending people to the moon!
It was an amazing and wonderful time. I turned 11 years old during the Apollo 11 mission, and was aware that, in my youth, we were landing on the moon. The future was unlimited.
That was 40 years ago.
And it’s been nearly 37 years since an American last walked on the moon.
Today, we’re supposed to be more technologically advanced than we were 40 years ago. And, we are. But we couldn’t land a man on the moon if we wanted to.
At least, if we were to, we’d have to throw bunches of money at it. And it’d take years to pull off.
Money and technology aren’t the solution. Attitude is. Those days, America — and particularly NASA and the astronaut program — had a “can-do” attitude. That can-do attitude is what landed us on the moon.
It generated the money and technology to make it happen.
That’s the problem today: we think money and technology are means to an end. They aren’t. They’re by-products of success. And attitude makes success possible.
Lot’s of people today don’t understand that. And worse, many don’t believe it.
I believe it. I lived through it. It’s real. Those of you that lived through it know what I’m talking about.
The good news is, some of you that weren’t around during that time also understand and believe it.
We need more of you.
Post of the year.
I remember THAT America! Here in Hampton Roads, Va folks thought it would be a good idea to build a bridge/tunnel from Virginia Beach to the Va Eastern Shore. In just under four years, the 23 mile bridge, with two tunnels a mile long, anchored on 4 man made islands, each over 5 acres, was completed. It was designated one the 7 architectural wonders of the modern world.
It cost 200 million dollars, or about the same amount of money the congress has spent every 12 minutes since Obama took office!
That America didn’t believe that anything was impossible; I wonder what ever happened to them?
Man, that was the most amazing things humans ever did. Doesn’t seem fair I wasn’t alive to see it.
Great post, Basil.
Great post. The days of when men were men, cars were cars, hard work and your word ment something. Hero’s were John Wayne, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, John Glenn, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantel, Johnny Unitas, and not some rapper thug, junky rocker, or some spoiled rotten reailty star whore. I god I miss those days.
i was 11 and my grandparents (who lived in Houston at the time) were visiting (i lived in california)…my mom took a picture of all of us watching the moment they took off…we were very proud to be Americans…
thanks for the post…it brought back memories!
There is no thing that will endure to show what mankind was that can come CLOSE to that achievement. All the petty bickering (including wars, from the perspective of that future observer) will not even be remembered. The first Affirmative Action president will not be remembered. “LEAVING THE PLANET is what mankind achieved. Then they died.” That’s the whole history of ‘people’.
I was not around to see it…I was born in ’90…but I DO believe in that America. Sadly, though, the majority have become lazy degenerates who want things handed to them. You want to achieve a goal? You work your butt off to get to it!
I confess I was 10. My dad thought it so important, he allowed me to stay up way past bedtime to watch that giant leap for mankind. I still see it in my mind’s eye and feel the awe and pride – and the feeling that we’d just begun to seek out the mysteries of life. Now THAT was hope and change.
I remember watching too. It was a wonderful day.
But I guess the fact that we got that far and then haven’t gone back just goes to show what happens when you leave the government in charge. Who opened up the vast majority of the U.S. territories after Lewis and Clark made the first foray into the wilderness? It sure as heck wasn’t the government. It was families going out in covered wagons and trappers out making a living.
Sure there are technological problems that need to be solved in moon exploration, but if the American people could see a way of making money there and not have to deal with regulations and lawsuits, we’d be there by now. I say that we need to leave it up to industry and not let the government be the only game in town.
Traveling across the American wilderness was plenty dangerous and many people died in the attempt, but you didn’t see them lawyering up. The same should be true for space exploration.
I had just turned 5 that July and remember watching the Apollo 11 liftoff and landing – at that impressionable age I learned what it really meant to be heroic – guys like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins put their butts on the line to achieve something monumental. Other guys like Gene Kranz and John Aaron (in mission control) bet the proverbial farm on this adventure and IMHO are just as heroic – maybe they weren’t in jeopardy of life and limb, but their lives could have been ruined by failure nonetheless. It took brass ‘nads to be involved in any part of it.
I remember the night of the landing, Dad and I went out in the front yard and looked up at the waxing moon – at 5 years old, I wondered, ‘Would it look any different…?’ – and I said, “Dad, there are people walking around up there!” Dad replied, “Son, there are AMERICANS walking around up there.”
Gene Krantz, American Hero. And, as you mentioned, John Aaron, who saved the Apollo 12 mission with “try SCE to ‘Aux,’” was another one of the heroes of the early days of space flight. We need more heroes like that today. – B
I concur with Marko. Wish I had been alive to see it, but I’m one of those younger ones you mentioned who still appreciate the underlying principles.
Seeing the state of this nation today, through my own eyes, and seeing the state of the nation in those days, through your eyes, nearly makes me weep. Weep in thankfulness that I live in a nation that has given so much to the world with our unique spirit, and weep at the loss of that amazing spirit.
Thankfully, there still exists a small spark of that America. And as anyone in the Southwest in the midst of a drought can tell you, its that a tiny spark can start a mighty fire.
Pray for the fanning of those flames again.
Thanks for sharing this with us, Basil.
I was 4 in 1969 so really my only recollection of the moon landing would come a couple of years later from the conspiracy nuts who (still) claim that the televised “moon” was only someone’s desert backyard here on Earth. *eyeroll*
However, my first Presidential election in 1984 I voted proudly for the Gipper (even volunteered too), so it all balances out. Twenty years after that (five years ago), I watched every minute of his state funeral. I miss Ronnie. [/OT]
Buzz had a good method for dealing with the Kool-Aid guzzlers.
I highly recommend it.
I was 10, living near Dallas, and the very best thing to due other than melt into an amino acid goo was to watch the moon landings. It was teh kewl.
I have never understood why Democrats in general and this”best science President evah” don’t go in more for pissing away our money on the space program. I mean, if their gonna piss away our money anyway, let’s do it on something that will at least make a decent movie. Who want’s to watch “Welfare Queen vs. the Food Stamp Monster”?
“Welfare Queen vs. the Food Stamp Monster”?
That is waht went wrong. I remember Ted the Swimmer argueing against any spending for more moon landings, Mars, or the shuttle. De po folks came first. We sacrificed our best and brightest, and a shining future, for the welfare queens. I was 11 ,and living in So Fla when the launch happened. There were protesters outside NASA whining that the money should have gone to them. Ted the Swimmer led the fight on that one.
I was 7 and glued to the TV set. I am still proud to be an American, I am just ashamed that 52.7% of us have become stupid uninformed zombie brainless bastards. kinda like those in canada, europe (urp) and that othe homosexually dominated country cooba.
Yeah, it was a great moment, but hardly the first. It’s sad how few Americans remember that it was a poor ($62 a week) but ambitious bus driver from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn who was able to land the first person – a woman – on the moon in 1955.
[I remember. Where do you think I stole the title? – B]
I was 11 then too but I had to listen to it on a radio. We didn’t have a TV while vacationing in upstate NY.
Bunker
I didn’t know that the Presidents’ dad drove a bus in Bensonhurst. One would have thought the media would have mentioned it.
bunkerboy and Basil thanks to reruns and TV Land I know it was Jackie Gleason who played bus driver Ralph Kramden who said “to the moon Alice”.
[What be these “reruns” and “TVLand” of which thou speakest? – B]
IH8
I still think you’re wrong. Why I remember it like it was yesterdaaaay….[fade out]
[fade in to pictures of Commando Cody’s spaceship streaking toward the moon]
(Big Announcer voice guy)
NINETEN FIFTY FIVE..A poor colored Bensonhurst bus driver succeeds in putting a woman on the moon. His yet to be born son says “…umm….er…” (announcer chuckle) That boy will be President some day. Goodnight Mr &Mrs America and all the shi…
[fade out]
Why gosh Uncle Charlie, that’s just how I remember it.
Don’t remember 11, but I do recall 14-17. My dad was one of the few people still watching the Apollo mission coverage on TV. It amazes me how people could ever get tired of something so friggin’ cool. But by then most of America was bored with moon landings.
Small wonder we’re where we are now.
[Like your dad, I watched them all. Every bit of coverage I could. That was Teh Awesome! – B]
Now, 40 years later, we know the moon is useless, except to show our enemies we mean business. NUKE THE MOON.
PaleoMedic said:
I wish that I could say America had gotten bored with moon landings because they wanted to move on to the next phase.
But, as you said, look where we’re at now.
I’m so glad that at 5 years old, I was old enough to remember it. Sure, I got bored after a while and went off to the local Jack in the Box burger joint with my teenage uncle, but I saw it, and now I appreciate what I saw. What a privilege.
Metaphorically speaking, what goes up must come down. Unfortunately, we are on the down side of America today when compared to that day forty years ago.
[Voyager 1 and 2 went up, and aren’t coming down. – B]
I was 12.
We’d gone on a family trip to Lake Agassi, MN, to the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
(It’s about 10 feet wide at that point).
My brother (mayherestinpeace) and I were wading in the stream when we spotted a red and black bloodsucker drifting by on the current and killed it with a stick.
On the way home that night I listened to the moon-landing coverage on the car radio with my head pressed against the car window staring at the moon, trying to get my mind around the concept that there were People up there.
The sense of accomplishment I felt when we killed the bloodsucker was different from the sense of accomplishment I felt when I listened to the radio that night.
But perhaps they have the same root?
“Get it! Get it! Where is it? There it is! Don’t let it get away! Get it! Pin it! Finish it! Yeah!”.
Focus, Purpose, Striving, Success – killing bloodsuckers or landing on the moon, that’s where it starts!
“Hey Mom! Look what we did!” “Oh, yuck! Get rid of that nasty thing and wash your hands!”
– and that’s where it ends.
The future belongs to those who don’t listen to their moms!
I was a kid too. Watched it on our ginormous Zenith, the kind that had legs & a picture tube. “One small step for man . . .”
It’s true, it was a different attitude.
…and just like everything else that is good and the product of hard work and ingenuity, today there are liberals that claim the moon landing never happened, and that it was all part of a vast government conspiracy filmed in a television studio. People accomplishing amazing things is just too foreign a concept to most liberals for them to understand.
The last event in my baby book, my first birthday, is the return of Apollo 11. The first Apollo I remember is Apollo-Soyuz, and I still remember peppering my dad with questions. It converted me at age seven from dinosaurs to spaceships. I was passionate about it until I peaked at 12 and it lingered in the background until six years ago, when I met Bob Zubrin unexpectedly. I’ve since won two competitions for Mars mission design and come in second for an idea for the Mars Society’s next big project. I’m still pursuing my idea with a small team of engineers. I’m not actually an engineer, but I know my … stuff, when it comes to these things.
My father went from plowing fields with horses as a very poor farm kid to production test pilot on six-engine B-47 jets in less than 10 years.
In 1938, Armour Research (a research charity arm of the Armour meat packing family) built a massive vehicle called the Antarctic Snow Cruiser to cross the continent and claim it for the US. I drove from Chicago to Boston for loading, but got stuck in the snow fairly quickly when it reached its destination. It was part of a massive government research project (partially also to prevent Germany from laying claims there for sub bases prior to WWII). It was still used as a base.
In the late 1950’s, Thule Air Base was built in Greenland. It was a project as large and as challenging as the Panama Canal, and it was done in secret. As a spin off research project, they built several small bases under the ice cap. the largest was Camp Century, and from 1960 to 1967, it was a 200 man, nuclear reactor powered base under the ice. The base was shut down and the reactor removed.
It wasn’t just Apollo, or World War Two – the Greatest Generation did a LOT of things that were nearly impossible and did them in such a way that people would barely believe them now.
I look forward to the day America once again has leadership who knows what it is to be an American, but until that day, I won’t forget. I may mourn, I may have to live under a bridge or in the woods, I may loose many battles including whatever is my last one, but I WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT I AM AND WHERE I AM FROM. And by the grace of God where I am going.
I wrote this last year, but it seems appropriate here.
“I want to take you back
I want to take you forward
I want to cut a section of land before life itself, so permanently bonded to this dewdrop world, grew for the first moments in its soft sunlight
I want to take you forward to a land no human hands have touched nor foot trod
Grace this red world, or profane it, but go
Stretch what it is to be you, your soul and continence, across eons past and future
Life grew here in these lands and seas once for the first time.
Do it again yourself
Life washed up from these seas and flew these skies
Do it again in a new world
Pick up the pen left silent by older hands and claws
Write a new Genesis and a new Origin of Species
Write this new blank tabula rosa with pixel and optical disc pit,
Write it longhand with a quill and paint it in Kanji with a brush on cloth
Write it with your finger in the dunes of Meridini
Express light and thought and emotion here
Log your accomplishments in precision spreadsheet and abstract monument
Celebrate in report and ritual and symphony
Deploy the solar arrays and let every volt metered be a psalm of praise
And love
Tend and shepherd those in your care, be they metal or mentor
Adore the land and one another and the way each frames the other.
As the land shapes the mind of your lover into with its alien fonts and muses
and your lover forever puts words and notes to this world, the words you will never forget.
If every cell has a soul, and all souls are eternal, you will be able to go someday to the very very first soul of Earth and say, “I too have done this”. “I too have taken the first step, seen the first sunset, drifted to the first shore, taken wing in the first sky, contemplated the moonrise, and moved forward. Ever forward.”
And all souls borne between the billions of years will wonder.
“Ever forward”, repeats the bacillus.
“Ever forward”, repeats the fish.
“Ever forward”, echoes the scorpion, the dragonfly, the amphibian, the reptile, the bird, the mammal. The humans who broke free from the tropics, The explorers lost to history or dominating its pages. The echoes grow in volume across the heavens and eons.
Last to speak, and now first, you touch this wave of every vocalization ever made across the millions of years of terrestrial life, and speak into the silence of this new red land.
“Ever forward”, you say to the silence before you. And the silence, once again, is broken for a beloved world waiting as you have for this moment. And silence ends forever.
Amen, so be it. Ever Forward.
Bless this world, or profane it. You will do plenty of both, once again, because you are human, but go. It is what you do. It is what your flesh and your spirit are for. Your soul is greater still. It is that which is not limited by time, or space, yet is your deepest identity. It brought you here – it reminded you that there are no limits. And now you have returned the favor. It will not let you rest, nor your children, nor theirs. And as you look in their eyes, and theirs look to the next worlds beyond, that chorus echoes silently, or in song, or in pen, brushstroke, monument, or cells or machine – “ever forward”. Ever forward. Ever, ever, forward.”
NASA will have to be completely defunded to allow minimum social security checks to be paid in the future.
Gene Krantz, American Hero. And, as you mentioned, John Aaron, who saved the Apollo 12 mission with “try SCE to ‘Aux,’” was another one of the heroes of the early days of space flight. We need more heroes like that today. – B
Thanks Basil! John Aaron also was central to the Apollo 13 rescue – it was him who figured out how to come up with enough electrical power to get Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert home. The Apollo 13 film does a good job showing what John Aaron did.
Steely-eyed missile man, indeed.
I once read that after saying his famous “one step for a man” speech Armstrong said something like”Good luck MR. Gorski”. NASA was puzzled and asked Neil what that was about . For the next 25 years or so they could only speculate, i.e. was it to a Russian cosmonaut he had met,anyway Mr. Armstrong reveiled that a Mr. Gorski hag passed and he told the following. As a kid he chased a ball that stopped under the bedroom window of his neighbors the Gorski’s he heard Mrs Gorski respond to her husbands request to make love and she stated”I’ll make love with you the day the kid next door(Niel Armstrong) walks on the moon!”
[The old urban legend is that Mrs. Gorsky would perform oral sex for Mr. Gorsky when the kid next door (Neil Armstrong) “walked on the moon.” And, the legend is false. – B]
“We need more of you.”
Reporting for duty, SIR!
Thanks, Basil, for a great post. I was 14 and I had gotten interested in the space program several years before, in the 4th grade, when my teacher encouraged us all to find out what our real interests were. I remember watching the moon landing and feeling so proud to be an American.
Years later when I saw the IMAX film “Hail Columbia” I got tears in my eyes. What a great country … we were… and still could be.