Simply the coolest thing mankind has done so far:
At 4:17PM EDT, stop and remember where you were when you heard “The Eagle has landed.”
At 10:56PM EDT, as you are getting ready for bed, remember how you stayed up late as a child to watch a fuzzy black and white picture of a man making history.
A moon landing today would be extraordinary. 40 years ago it was the apex of human achievement. Let us never forget the wonder.
on Jul 20th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
… and I leave it up to the reader to decide whether today’s activities in space are an appropriate metaphor for the space program since the days of Apollo:
Shuttle astronauts Wolf and Marshburn are performing the 202nd spacewalk since the Apollo 11 landing; their mission is to fix the malfunctioning toilet on the International Space Station.
The Final Frontier …
on Jul 20th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I’m spending the day listening to songs from ‘69 - Tommy, CCR, Yellow Submarine, and of course Major Tom. The music back then was simply better.
We have lived in a world where man has walked on the moon for forty years now. We still fight stupid wars for stupid reasons. We still screw each other over based on color, creed, and gender. We still manage to foul our one true spaceship with toxic gas, acid rain, and tons of plastic. We still await the promise of Apollo XI.
But forty years ago we managed to truly surprise ourselves. I think we’ve got more to come. Lots more.
on Jul 23rd, 2009 at 3:40 pm
That moment is also what I remember. I think most people more remember “one small step,” but the one that sticks in my memory is “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
on Jul 25th, 2009 at 9:24 am
I was 2…well, not even