Man Walks on the Moon
July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin Jr. Land on The Moon
On that glorious date 38 years ago, Commander Neil A. Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. made one giant leap for mankind.
Do you remember where you were? Humanity has the propensity to indelibly mark unforgettable dates in its mind. On April 14th 1865, a Black man from Virginia would never forget the murder of the Great Emancipator. What were you doing that Sunday morning on December 7th 1941, “a date which will live in infamy?” Do you remember November 22, 1963, when Camelot died in Dallas, Texas? If you are not old enough to remember any of those dates: what were you doing that horrible day, over half a decade ago, now simply called “9-11?”
The Orbit of the Columbia
But on that glorious date, July 20th 1969, as Command Module Pilot Michael Collins orbited the moon some 50 miles above Armstrong and Aldrin in “Columbia,” humans everywhere were proud to be members of the planet Earth.
The USA, no all of humankind, took its first footstep outside this tiny blue marble we call Earth. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their tin-foil craft, exactly where they wanted, the waterless Sea of Tranquility. As that tiny Lunar Excursion Module, Eagle, touchdown so lightly the world changed forever.
The Modern World
When Neil Armstrong took man’s first steps on another world and mutter those immortal words: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” even detractors became teary eyed. Many had called it a waste of time and money. What those detractors did not know was that the experience gained and discoveries made during those missions were to become everyday items of the future.
During 1969, microwave ovens, PDAs, cell phones, space shuttles and computers only existed in science fiction books, films and shows. Instant food and dehydrated drinks were to become as common in the future as they were in any Ray Bradbury book of that era. Futuristic light emitting devices (lasers) could cure or kill and today these inventions of that mission spot targets for police sharpshooters and surgically remove blood clots for heart doctors.
Getting to the moon, traveling thousands of miles per hour, was like trying to hit a moving target while you were moving at a different speed in a different direction. It required a new form of navigation and Inertial Navigation Systems were born. By the late 1970s these INS devices were installed on every modern airliner flying the free world’s oceans.
All the items above and many more not mentioned have advanced to levels even these heroes could not imagine. But on July 20th 1969, mankind took his first steps and the world never looked back.
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- NASA, "Sounds from Apollo 11" 21 July 2007
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