Celestia Forums

Hi folks,

To commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing, I have changed my signature for the remainder of the month.

I thought that maybe those who are old enough to actually remember the event, would care to comment here on their thoughts, feelings, memories, experiences of the event.

Did you see it on TV? See the launch from Mission Control? ... etc

CC

I was a 12yr old kid whose family was stationed at the Naval Air Station on Adak, Alaska. Adak is an island way out in the Aleutian Chain, tundra, rain, wind and fog...

I watched the landing on AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio and Television Service on that day and I remember being totally spellbound by the events and thinking what a thing to witness in my lifetime. I had wanted to be an astronaut myself, but at 12, I was already just shy of 6 foot tall. Too big for the program at that time...

Anyway, my memory of that day has stayed vivid through all the intervening years...

Cheers.

I was 4.5 years old, and even though I have very few memories of those times, I clearly remember it.

I lived in Buenos Aires. Television was still very primitive in Argentina: black and white, very few live transmissions. But several highlights of the travel were transmitted live. I don't remember the takeoff. My parents thought that the first transmission from the Moon was historical enough to make me watch it live, even though it was at midnight. I remember staying up late and watching it on our old TV. I remember the blurry video that we have seen so many times. Then I remember the sea landing and rescue in the Pacific. My father kept the La Prensa journal every day for the duration of the trip, and now I keep them. On the 20th July it reads, full first page: Ante la admiraci?n del Mundo lleg? el Hombre a la Luna.

But what I remember most vividly is my reaction to it. I suddenly understood that the Moon was a PLACE, somewhere to go and walk, not just a bright thing in the sky. This year, when we celebrate the 400 years of Galileo's discoveries, I believe that he must have felt the same thing when watching the Moon through his telescope, and understanding that the Moon was a WORLD, and not just a bright thing in the sky.

Another thing I remember is that everybody in Argentina took it as a human achievement, not an American one. Some years after I saw in the Planetarium of Buenos Aires small pieces of lunar rocks, and a small Argentine flag that had been carried to the Moon and brought back. And I was thankful to Americans and the USA for their generosity making those expeditions in the name of Mankind. And I thank you again, fellow American Celestians!

Cheers,

Guillermo

abramson wrote:Another thing I remember is that everybody in Argentina took it as a human achievement, not an American one.

It's interesting you mention that, because Michael Collins noticed the same thing when the crew went on their world tour and comments on it in the movie "In the Shadow of The Moon" (which I've been watching on YouTube):

Michael Collins wrote:Wherever we went, people, instead of saying "Well, you Americans did it," Everywhere, they said, "We did it. We Humankind, we the Human race, we, people, did it." And, I had never heard of people in different countries use this word "We, we, we" as emphatically as we were hearing from Europeans, Asians, Africans....Wherever we went, it was, "We finally did it!" And I thought that was a wonderful thing. Ephemeral, but wonderful.

EDIT:The movie/documentary (at least some of the 10 parts) can be found here: In the Shadow of The Moon...
(You might have to search youtube for the remaining parts.)

abramson wrote:And I was thankful to Americans and the USA for their generosity making those expeditions in the name of Mankind. And I thank you again, fellow American Celestians!

I'm not being cynical, but realistically I think we have to recognize that the real motivation at the time had more to do with national interests (getting one over the Russians at the height of the cold war) rather than more altruistic notions such as "for the good of all mankind". (The latter was probably a creation of the PR man. )
However, this certainly doesn't detract from the enormity of the achievement, but perhaps explains why Mike Collins appears in the movie to have been be little surprised by the "We, we, we" reaction they got from everyone.

CC

I wasn't here.

The manned space program I know is unable to get people beyond low Earth orbit. It seems pretty much there to get a few obscenely wealthy businessmen up to spend time doing not particularly much on a pointless space station, and only seems to be going because various agencies are still desperately trying to convince themselves they are still living the glory days which in reality ended 40 years ago.

So people walked on the Moon. So what? It evidently didn't achieve much.

ajtribick wrote:I wasn't here.

The manned space program I know is unable to get people beyond low Earth orbit. It seems pretty much there to get a few obscenely wealthy businessmen ....

...and business ladies

Fridger

Oops. My apologies to Anousheh Ansari, who apparently is the one female space tourist. Can't say I follow the space tourist news particularly much, and given the fairly extreme male:female ratio I guess I missed that one.

It was an American achievement, there was great national pride involved... but the astronauts went in the name of all mankind, as was meant to be.

My fascination with space got started early. Sputnik was launched the year after I was born, which of course I don't remember. I do however remember the news of the Russian efforts, and America's first flight of Alan Shepard in Freedom 7 which I watched with my dad on tv... I was 5 years old, I remember the excitement. I also vividly remember the flight of Friendship 7 with John Glen, the clincher for my interest in space.

I was 13 when men landed on the moon. My dad let me take off from school (the Monday following), I watched the entire moon walk, from landing to return liftoff. Much like the day John F. Kennedy was shot, the world seemed to come to a grinding halt - only this time it was in awe and amazement. I watched all the other moon shots as well, live when I could, from recordings otherwise. My grandfather (my father's father) also an avid space fan, died during the Apollo 16 final countdown (heart attack), he was that into it!... as my dad says, he went up with the rocket. I think, next to the electric light, it was the greatest achievement mankind has ever performed, even unto today.

Oh wow, thats a hard one, i guess i was still in two parts as genetic material inside the cells of 2 four year olds & wouldnt come together for another 21 years.

Though my memory of that day is a bit fuzzy

I just read some sad news related to this thread: Legendary newsman Walter Cronkite dies at 92

Chuft-Captain wrote:I just read some sad news related to this thread: Legendary newsman Walter Cronkite dies at 92

That strikes a note here with old Brain-Dead...
I was 16 when Walter recorded his words for the Moon landing.
I guess I'm getting really old now.

Thanks, Brain-Dead

BobHegwood wrote:

Chuft-Captain wrote:I just read some sad news related to this thread: Legendary newsman Walter Cronkite dies at 92

That strikes a note here with old Brain-Dead...
I was 16 when Walter recorded his words for the Moon landing.
I guess I'm getting really old now.

Thanks, Brain-Dead

I remember I looked forward to his coverage of the space missions. I enjoyed them. May he rest in Peace.
cartrite

--- edit ---

I was a 9-year-old in Alexandria, VA that day. Like lots of others my age, I was fascinated by anything having to do with space exploration, and I had been following the American space program intently since at least Apollo 8. The awe and wonder I felt watching Armstrong and Aldrin then are brought back every time I watch replays of what, in my opinion, was the defining moment of my life. Sadly, the next step, watching humans land on Mars, seems to have been deferred to some date likely to be well past my expected life expectancy.

Radtech

In Paris, squatting on the carpet in front of a small black and white TV , i was 7 years old .

Linuxman

I was a freshman in college.
They set up a video projector on a screen in the main room of the student union building and hundreds of people watched. I remember that the image was sepia. Obviously it was one of the early video projector designs.

Some inappropriate posts have been removed.

Reminder: politically oriented commentary is not acceptable on the Celestia forum.

selden wrote:Some inappropriate posts have been removed.

Reminder: politically oriented commentary is not acceptable on the Celestia forum.

Thanks very much, Selden... YOU are the MAN...

Unfortunately, I was more-or-less unalive. I look upon the generation of my parents with envy. I get excited watching the newscasts of the day, I can't imagine what it must have been like to grow up in the early days of the space programme, watching it develop step by step, mission by mission, until the final momentous event.

Hopefully, my grandchildren will say the same of their parents. "Where were you when they walked on Mars?"

In front of TV. At that time Italian TV was black and white but I recall the direct from the studios (a studios in which all men were with the headphones, waiting for notices from Huston. The cameraman seemed would listen throught the anchorman's headphone because he stay movied the headphone in the centre of the screen. Just before the notice that in English sounded "The Eagle has landed" the anchorman said in Italian the equivalent of: "it has touched!" and the cameraman zoomed out! I remember a friend of my parents (at that time not all had a TV, so more people watched the TV in group) that said: "does they land and does he fly? And another one: "we live in the psychedelic era, let make him a trip!".