mission to the moon

NASA has a fancy new logo in honor of the apollo rocket successes the 1960s. the main accomplishment was the apollo 11 mission carrying the first human beings to ever step foot on the moon. today, july 16th, was the day the apollo rocket launched 40 years ago with three excited astronauts on board: neil armstrong (left), michael collins (center), and buzz aldrin (right).

those three lucky and persevering men landed on the moon on july 21st, 1969. i'd love to hear stories from people about their memories of this date. did you watch the event in the living room of a neighbor? with your family? did you hear stories from your parents or grandparents about their memories of the historic moment? were you or your family not aware of it at the time?

the photo below comes from a wonderful set of 40 pictures featured in the big picture series from the washington post. neil armstrong took the photo while being reflected in buzz aldrin's helmet.

michael collins remained in the command module while the other two took the lunar module to the surface of the moon. when asked to describe his strongest memory of the Apollo 11 mission, he said:

"Looking back at Earth from a great distance.

I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied.

Small, shiny, serene, blue and white, FRAGILE."

congratulations humanity on your 40th anniversary of landing on the moon - almost 400,000km away!!!

as far as our future endeavors go, i dont personally see a reason to bother going back to the moon and think we should set our sights a bit higher (and farther). but i'm thoroughly pleased to sit back, remember, and celebrate the amazing reality that human beings successfully explored our nearest neighbor in the universe, our moon, 40 years ago!

neil armstrong, just hours after 1st walking on the moon.