It was on this day in 1969 that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped down from Apollo 11's Lunar Lander, the Eagle, and onto the fine dust in the Sea of Tranquility on the moon, the first time earthlings made that trip. We all cheered. I'm often angry that the current NASA is in no condition to repeat the trip, and wonder where my generation’s “Moon Shot” was – today; however I'll calmly accept it as a reason to send out quotes about the moon.
One aside, my Dad, Tony Restucci had the distinct pleasure of being part of the Apollo 11 mission, he worked for Hamilton Standard Corporation and was involved in the making and design of the air packs that the Astronauts used. He has shown me the letter from the President of the United States and the small piece of carbon from one of the air packs that went to the moon and back.
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“That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
– Neil Alden Armstrong
“If the cells and fibre in one human brain were all stretched out end to end, they would certainly reach to the moon and back. Yet the fact that they are not arranged end to end enabled man to go there himself. The astonishing tangle within our heads makes us what we are.” – Colin Blakemore
“The sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago … had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands.” – Havelock Ellis, 1853 – 1939
“The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.” – I. F. Stone, 1907 – 1989
“So there he is at last. Man on the moon. The poor magnificent bungler! He can't even get to the office without undergoing the agonies of the damned, but give him a little metal, a few chemicals, some wire, and twenty or thirty billion dollars and, vroom! there he is, up on a rock a quarter of a million miles up in the sky.” – Russell Baker
“When the Eagle landed on the moon, I was speechless – overwhelmed, like most of the world. Couldn't say a word. I think all I said was, "Wow! Jeez!" Not exactly immortal. Well, I was nothing if not human.” – Walter Cronkite, 1916 – 2009
He is 16
How old is your son Dylan if you don’t mind my asking?
Thanks Libby, I have been meaning to get that series, as my son Dylan has talked for years about being a scientist for NASA.
I just finished watching the DVDs of the HBO series “From the Earth to the Moon”. It’s 700+ minutes long and it took me 3 days to get through all the discs, but it was well worth the effort. In case you’re not familiar with it [as I wasn’t], it was produced by Tom Hanks and he made it shortly after he starred in “Apollo 13”–A great movie, IMO. As with most people, after the Apollo 11 mission I lost interest in the follow-up missions and didn’t tune in to them. Except for Apollo 13. Only because that one came so close to disaster. Anyway, if you want a great inspirational over-view of the American man-in-space effort from the Mercury missions through Apollo 17, I highly recommend this series.
That was a very cool day indeed.