Contributed by:
Daniel Smith/YourHub.com
Article Contributed on: 7/20/2009 4:46:54 PM
Many of us will never forget where we were when it happened - where we watched it. Others who weren't born yet, only know of it through media archives.
The 40th anniversary of the first moon landing stands as one of the highest technological achievements of this country - of humanity, in fact.
Watching at home with my family that July 20, 1969, many could not help but remember the words of John F. Kennedy at the start of the decade when he boldly announced a manned moon landing as a national goal.
A counsin of mine watched the moon landing with our grandfather - in the same house he was born in, and whose experiences spanned from having milk delivered by horse-drawn wagon to watching an astronaut walk on the surface of the moon.
The race to the moon against the Russians was for much more than national pride or bragging rights - it was a uniting goal to advance scientific discovery and exploration akin to the first world explorers in both challenge and courage.
I once interviewed Jim Lovell, the Apollo 13 commander remembered for his words, "Houston, we have a problem," that heralded a crisis that would end the crew's hope for a moon landing in exchange for a dramatic battle to return to earth after an explosion crippled their spacecraft.
Lovell told me Apollo 13 was not his most memorable space experience.
We forget he was also command module pilot and navigator on the historic Apollo 8 mission over Christmas, 1968 - man's maiden voyage around the moon that saw our first view of earth from space, our blue planet rising up over the lunar landscape. Unforgettable.
Later 'moonglow,' as someone coined our infatuation with traveling to another body in space, would fade.
Congress would cut NASA's budget and the final two moon missions were canceled. It seemed the public grew weary of the lofty adventure and complaints were even heard about the cost of going there to "collect rocks."
Andrew Chaikin was author of the definitive book on our lunar exploration,
A Man on the Moon, which chronicled the Apollo program through the astronaut's personal recollections.
I interviewed Chaikin for network radio, and he said that the zeal for human space exploration perhaps would never return in that same way, that we might lose the yearning to explore the real, endless last frontier of space, and be grounded by our own concerns with earthly matters.
When Neil Armstrong made a footprint on the moon 40 years ago, it really was a "giant leap for mankind," and a crowning achievement for our nation in technology and science; with technology considered relatively crude by today's standards.
Older-style computers, it's said, have many times the computing power of the first space shuttles, and the computers used in the moon program pale in comparison to even those early data processors.
But it was the determination and dedication of a mostly young workforce that did the research, developed the necessary technology, rockets and spacecraft, trained the astronauts and had the verve to damn well go ahead and do it that is the most remarkable achievement of all.
Now, we've decided to go back to the moon - by 2020, and some experts wonder whether we can accomplish that with the same ambition and urgency as we did the first time.
Let's hope so. For even in a time of crushing economic concerns, pushing the boundaries of science and exploration is what will make us a true space-faring nation again - to exceed the boundaries of our own imaginations as we reach out into the vastness of the universe.