It was not to be a summer like any other. Not for a 10 year old boy, who dreamed of space, and who was unabashedly a NASA nerd. Nothing had ever captured my attention like the space program, nothing. And to think that summer, the holidays between grades IV and V would actually see men walk on the moon, well…
I collected all things I could to do with the Space Program, I had built models of the complete vehicle: The Saturn V rocket, the LEM, the Command module, escape rocket and capsule. That alone stood over 3 feet high. More detailed models of the LEM and the Command Module were built. Every newspaper and magazine article on the program was clipped, and saved. Every mission that was televised was watched, provided, of course, it wasn't past my bed time.
The Christmas before humankind accomplished something unheard of in our history. We slipped the surly bonds of earth. Not in a temporal fashion, not just the earth's atmosphere, but actually left earth. Left beyond the ability for Earth's gravity to pull them back again. Nothing in our experience could compare.
And then less than seven months, and three missions later, men were poised to land on the moon. Something, that I think it is safe to say, humans and our predecessors have dreamed of since they could form that thought.
I sat transfixed that afternoon as the LEM landed on the moon, along with my best friend, eyes barely leaving the TV. And then just before midnight, watched Neil Armstrong take that small step for [a] man. As inconceivable as it was men were walking around on that glowing globe. Anything seemed possible then.
I still long for space. When my late wife was sick two fantasies were my escape, sailing around the world, and going back to school, getting Phd in anything, and joining the Canadian Space program after I retired. If NASA called me up today and offered to send me up in the Shuttle, with only a 50 percent chance of surviving, I'm pretty sure I'd go. Damned sure.
I'm not sure if is the same for people that have come after Apollo 11, now that we have walked on the moon. There was something about gazing up at a big full moon on a summer night, and thinking "wouldn't it be something." It was something, I'm sad we havn't been back, but there is nothing to compare to that summer night, forty years ago today, when the world was a spectator to men on the moon, and we turned our eyes upwards in awe.
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3 responses
Kia ora Clare,
I recall a warm summer night in Wisconsin, being in the living room with my parents and the neighbors having drinks, us kids hanging out in front of the tv. I recall the moment Armstrong stepped on the surface of the moon seeing tears in my dad’s eyes, a very rare sight. Years later it occured to me that like my dad many of the men in the room that night were war veterans, and what that moment must have meant to them. For us kids it was more or less part of the way life was, the changes coming fast and furious and we just part of it. But for them, it must have been a moment to take pride in a country that was very troubled and must have been very confusing for so many of them. So I think of my father. Great post Clare, kia ora.
Cheers,
Robb
How I long for a moment like that! No human being has walked on another planet during my lifetime. We’re going back to the Moon, of course, but what I really want is for us to dip our toe a little deeper into the cosmic ocean. Unmanned missions are cheaper and far more practical for the expansion of scientific knowledge, but nothing compares to the romance and awe of real human space travel. If I get to see the first Mars landing, I’ll die a happy woman.
Very nice story Robb. Funny but while I was writing the post I thought of another event, my earliest memory, where I saw my mother cry watching TV… the assassination of JFK, who launched this drive for the moon.
It may happen Jo. Interesting the Apollo 11 astronauts talked of the importance of a Mars mission, at an event this week. For me, as cool as a Mars mission would be, the moon mission is more deeply ingrained in desire. I like watching Mars and other planets, but I don’t gaze up at it and wonder…