Where were you when Apollo flew?

Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009 2:36 PM by Alan Boyle

Co Rentmeester / Time Life Pictures via Getty Images

Gamblers watch moonshot coverage at the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas in July 1969.

On July 20, 1969, I was an Iowa farmboy watching every black-and-white move of a fuzzy-looking, spacesuited figure on our living-room television set. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson was doing pretty much the same thing in New York City (though he was a mere 10 years old, four whole years younger than I was).

Sen. John McCain was sitting in a Hanoi prison - and wouldn't even find out that someone landed on the moon until a year and a half later. But for millions and millions of people around the world, even for McCain's Vietnamese captors, the Apollo 11 landing and that "one small step" on another world was a red-letter day that would be remembered through the decades.

Now it's your turn to share some moonshot memories: Where were you when Apollo 11 flew? Even if you're took young to have been around when the first moon landing took place (which is the case for more than half of the U.S. population), you can still feel free to comment on the past, present and future of space exploration.

Watch the moonshot, then milk the cows
I'd like to say that watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin climb down to the moon's surface put me on the path I'm on today. At the time, I was just one more teenager with a 3-inch telescope who didn't know what he was going to do when he grew up. I do remember that watching the moonshot was pushing back my bedtime, which was particularly crucial because I had to get up at 6:30 the next morning to help my dad milk the cows.

Eventually, I left the farm and got into the journalism trade (after stints as editor of my high-school and college newspaper). I really didn't get into space news coverage until after I joined msnbc.com, almost exactly 13 years ago. But every now and then, I come across hints that there was a space geek inside me just waiting to be let out.

For example, while cleaning out my basement bookshelves recently, I rediscovered the special issue of Life magazine I've been saving for 40 years. And I've always gotten a little thrill from knowing that Neil Armstrong's parents once lived where my in-laws live today in Wapakoneta, Ohio. (Check out this chapter from "First Man," Armstrong's authorized biography, to get an idea what the "center of the chaos" in Wapakoneta was like 40 years ago.)

I happened to grow up in the generation when the Apollo effort was winding down just as we were revving up: The last mission to the moon was launched just as I was entering college, and by the time I graduated, Apollo was history and the space shuttle era had not yet dawned. Some have even called my generation the "Orphans of Apollo."

Prizes for your prose
Now we're heading toward another spaceflight gap: An era in American spaceflight is winding down once more, and although NASA is taking aim at the moon again, the road from here to there is far from clear.

Even if you're too young to remember Apollo, I'd love to hear about your favorite space-related experiences, or find out what you think about the parallels and the differences between the 1970s and the current transition time. Please feel free to add your space-shot memories and your thoughts about the future of space travel as comments below. I'll pick out some of the comments for a follow-up story on July 20.

To get your creative juices flowing, I'll set aside my copy of Andrew Chaikin's wonderful coffee-table book, "Voices From the Moon," to send to the author of the choicest comment (as judged solely by this former Iowa farmboy). If you're so inclined, I'll send along the "Orphans of Apollo" DVD as well.

More on the Apollo 11 anniversary from msnbc.com:

More Apollo 11 reminiscences on the Web:

Join the Cosmic Log corps by signing up as my Facebook friend or hooking up on Twitter. If you really want to be friendly, ask me about my upcoming book, "The Case for Pluto." You can pre-order it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Borders.

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Comments

I was six months old at the time. So I guess I also was sitting in front of the TV, but was likely sucking on my mothers breast at the time.

Chris Jackson (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 6:49 PM)

I was in New Jersey at my parents house with my husband, brand new baby, cousins and my mother and grandmother. It was getting late and my grandmother ( in her 70's) decided that she was not staying up to watch neil Armstrong walk on the moon. . She said that "Man had no business playing around in space anyway. It would only ruin the weather." I still think about her commemtn whenever I read an article about global warming or other problems that relate to weather changes.

Susan Hirshman, Fort Myers, FL (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 6:50 PM)

July 20th, perhaps?

[ALAN ADDS: Yes, my fingers misfired and I wrote "June 20" instead of July 20. Ugh! Keith, you were the first one to call my attention to that, and for that you deserve an Apollo book ... Please get in touch with me at alan-dot-boyle-at-msnbc-dot-com to find out what I have available. I think I'll forgo publishing all the other messages calling attention to my error. :-( Maybe I should go back to the farm after all...]

Keith B, Charlotte, NC (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 6:52 PM)

I was between my junior and senior years in high school when Apollo 11 flew. I had a scrapbook with clippings from every flight starting with Mercury 1.Some people thought it was a little goofy to keep a scrapbook in high school,but now I wish I knew what happened to it. We used to get to watch every launch in school,and when Apollo 11 landed,I dont think anyone was NOT watching. We need that kind of public enthusiasm again if we are ever to equal or match the Mercury,Gemini and Apollo programs!

Dave--Alabama (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 6:54 PM)

I was five. I was at the neighbor's house in Corona Del Mar (CA) because they had just bought a new TV - one of those huge console style...all us neighborhood kids were sitting on the floor watching the moon landing.

California Girl, Laguna Beach CA (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 6:58 PM)

I was about 9 years old and glued to the TV watching in fascination! All the space flights back then were really interesting to watch and I still would/will if they showed more on TV!

Janet Fischer, Portland OR (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:00 PM)

I was an awe struck 16 year old enamored with the 60s' US Space Program on that July Night. I spent that night watching TV and listening to Short Wave radio to get the world response. Those heady, can do days that was predominant in the US motivated and inspired me and others to embrace technology.

Keith, Willingboro, New Jersey (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:02 PM)

I was attending the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Idaho, the landing was projected on a large screen, and an Astronaut (Borman?) was there speaking to the hordes of scouts. A heckuva a memory!

Peter Portland, OR (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:09 PM)

I was sitting outdoors with several hundred guys who were in Air Force basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio. The TI's had set up several television sets outside and we could look at the pictures on the screen and look up at a the moon in the night sky.

Bill Fisher, Phoenix, AZ (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:14 PM)

I was 7 years old watching it at our home in Wheaton, IL. I also remember those terrible black and white images and I kept asking "Where are they? I don't see them." I also couldn't understand why it was taking so long for them to open the hatch and get down the ladder as if it were a trip to the beach where you fling the door open and go running. I was as excited about the space program as a kid could be. Today I can't get my 9 year old excited about anything but video games.

Joe C, Las Vegas Nv (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:21 PM)

I was out to dinner celebrating my anniversary. The bar in the restaurant had the TV turn to the news and we watched Neil Armstrong while we waited for our dinner.

Joanne Presson, Jamestown, Ca. (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:22 PM)

I was in the back of a Greyhound bus heading home to RI from Michigan. someone had a radio on and we were listening to the unfolding story about the men landing on the moon. ever since then, when July 20th rolls around, I say to my daughters "did I ever tell you what I was doing on this date...." and, of course they laugh and say "yes, Mom!"

claire marling west warwick ri (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:28 PM)

I have told this story before...but I love it.
The day Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, I arrived in California for the first time after a classic late 60s cross country road trip in a Simca...they would be a big hit today...almost as small as today's mini-vehicles...with an engine that couldn't push the car faster than 50 mph under any conditions...the all night drive across Route 66 was absolutely terrifying with Big Rigs sucking us almost under their trailer with every pass...in either direction...and jackrabbits as tall as the car everywhere.
My sidekick, The Mole, had a sister in San Francisco... living the radical revolutionary existence.
The car was hers.
The piles of boxes and other personal belongings filling every inch not occupied by The Mole and I, were hers as well...delivery road trip.
The first thing we did upon reaching the Pacific at Huntington Beach was park, and run like madmen to the water.
It was early AM, and the beach was empty for as far as one could see in either direction...a long stretch of empty beach...perfect for a couple of East Coast boys with surfer fantasies...all to ourselves until the crowds arrived.
What I failed to notice in all the excitement were red flags atop all the empty lifeguard stands...on whiplike shafts all bending severely toward the water.
Riptide Warnings!
I immediately swam out about 100 yards and waited to body surf back to shore on waves that were pure fantasy for an Atlantic Ocean guy...picturing myself stuck out from the front of the wave wall, speeding to shore, I swam full tilt up, forward, and grabbed my first wave.
The power was incredible, but things were going OK.
Suddenly, the face of the wave crashed down, turned under itself and swept me out like being flushed.
When I got back to the surface, I was more than 100 yards out, and in the middle of roller after roller developing pre-break.
In all honesty, I still wasn't really aware of the seriousness...between the rollers was not bad...rest up...and swim for all it's worth to shore atop the waves.
OOOPS!!!
By the time I reached shore, after crawling along the bottom, uphill toward shore, with sand and gravel ripping beneath me in the opposite direction, I looked like hamburger from head to toe, and was as close to a last gasp as I ever want to be.
There were sharp pebbles the size of green peas stuck into my skin...my hands looked like the loser in a battle over a handful of broken glass...but, I made it.
The late edition of the LA Times had MAN ON MOON in three inch block letters for their headline...with '1500 rescued in riptide' above the masthead...a flotilla of local vessels were sitting offshore, awaiting swept away floaters and got 'em all.
I've tried to get LA Times to dig into their archive a few times with no luck...anyone got pull with LA Times?...it must be there somewhere...sure would be nice to have a copy.
The day ended with Yours Truly staring up at ol' Neil and feeling plenty of empathy for the tenuous situation he faced...I got to identify with the guys on the Moon.
YIPES!

steve smyth (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:30 PM)

In July, 1969, I was a Marine PFC in Vietnam when Neil Armstrong first set his foot on the lunar surface. At the time, because of my circumstances, I didn't even realize Apollo 11 was headed to the moon. (An aside: in bootcamp during the 1968 presidential election we were so isolated that the Drill Instructors were able to convince us that George Wallace had been elected. We wouldn't have known any different.) What was amazing to me about the moon landing was not that we had succeeded but that several fellow Marines thought it was all a hoax.

Richard B. Ellenberger, Normandy Park, Wa. (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:35 PM)

I can't belive it has been 40 years. Lets go back!

jerry martin (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:38 PM)

I was 10 years old and glued to the TV watching the mission. I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up and loved science. I remember that the house was hot as it mid summer and I didn't care I wanted to see the man walk on the moon.

Laurie Heupel (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:38 PM)

I was a journalist in San Diego, Calfironia,then. I remember being astounded to realize there were actually men on the moon. As a member of Sigma Delta Chi, I was priviledged to see footage of the first orbit around the moon. A NASA official showed the footage at a Sigma Delta Chi dinnner. He was taking the film to President Nixon at his San Clemente White House. As fantastic as that was, it wasn't quite as spell binding as the actual moon landing. That was dramatic as the lander almost ran out of fuel searching for a flat landing zone. I wish we had kept sending man to the moon.

Lyle W. La Faver (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:39 PM)

The appliance section at K-mart.
Major appliances, stereos and TV's;
Two or three walls full of TV's.
Attention, K-mart shoppers!
I was just fifteen years old
on that strange, wonderful day
of July 20th, 1969...
People from all over the store
wandered over to major appliances
to stand, like so many mannequins
watching walls of tv's...
The same surreal drama
playing out on every channel.
It seemed ethereal, eternal,
as we stood there watching,
nearly paralyzed; forgetting to breath;
and finally... finally, Neal spoke.
A great CHEER went up
from the K-mart crowd
and I remember shuddering
as a tear of pride for my country
rolled down my cheek:

"Houston, Tranquility Base Here"
"The Eagle has landed"

****************************
Cecil Williams 8/31/92

Cecil Williams, Pullman, Washington (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:41 PM)

Uh...Houston...we have a problem...

It was JULY 20, 1969 (not JUNE 20), that Neil Armstrong took that one small step/giant leap.

Best regards,
Brother Wayne

P.S. Hey, that's a pretty good trick...I was just about to send this when I noticed you corrected the date. :-)

P.S. I remember the same grainy black and white images of the Saturn V rockets launching and especially the blasts from the stages separating. Cool stuff before today's flip phones which look like what Captain Kirk used!

Brother Wayne, Paso Robles, CA (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:44 PM)

I was 25, called in sick, and watched every minute. Took several black and white photos as it happened that I developed and printed in my bathroom that evening.

John Herrmann, bellingham WA (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:45 PM)

Where was I? Totally clued to our TV in awe. Young and hopeful, I was so enthralled with the space program and believed that the future had no bounds.

I along with many others in my generation were filled with the wonder of it.

I watch avidly even today whenever there is news of our efforts in space.

It reminds me of the wonderful promise of America -- what we are capable of doing....

abby, temple, tx (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:55 PM)

I was 12 years old. I lived in La Jolla, CA. That evening I was riding my bike up and down the street. I would periodically check in to see what was going on. I finally watched the landing. It was exciting.

Bill Jones, Denver, CO (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 7:59 PM)

My wife and I were in Rotterdam Holland that day. We were in a hotel lobby and could hear it on the owners TV but he never invited us behind the check-in area so that we could see it. It left a slightly bad feeling with me about the Dutch ever since

kip carter (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:04 PM)

We were at the Grand Canyon, looking through the campsites to find someone with a TV set (we could hear everything on the radio, but wanted to SEE!)

Finally found an Airstream trailer whose owner could pick up a station 40 miles away. It was showing "Rat Patrol" reruns. At the time the astronauts climbed down, a TV announcer came on, saying: "We interrupt this show to announce that Man Has Walked on the Moon. Now, back to our show."

Grump!

Jay B., Southfield, MI (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:07 PM)

I was at the Boy Scout National Jamboree in Farragut, Idaho. We gathered that night in a tent to which temporary power had been provided. The TV was crowded by a mass of young boys, amazingly quiet given the usual unbridled energy of such a group. After they landed, I remember pulling back the flap on the tent and walking out into the wilderness with the sky alive with stars. I can't remember if the moon was visible that night, but my spine tingled with the very thought of man going to the moon.

Years later, my professional career as a lighting designer took me to the NASA Visitors Center. Part of our work was to light the Apollo 17 spacecraft. The sheer guts of the men who flew those spacecraft was never so clear as when you get up close, the spacecraft looks like a thin shell. The very close quarters also give you pause when you realize those guys were in there for 13 days. What a glorious achievment that was.

Larry French (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:10 PM)

I was taking my draft physical after graduating from college. The war was still going on.

Frank, New Castle, PA (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:11 PM)

I was 20 years old, had just been accepted to medical school and was working that summer at school. I had met this incredible girl [...]. We were in the shower "exploring mysteries without any clues" when we finally had enough and came out to see Neil Armstrong take a big hop down unto the moon's surface.

Paul Robinson, Jr. (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:16 PM)

For an exceptional remembrance, please refer to:

http://www.stanfordalumni.org/
travelswithrico/41MoonLandPrag.htm

Dave Schaff Truckee, CA (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:18 PM)

I was at the Circle B Boy Scout camp in the Sierras with no TV. I have incredibly vivid memories of looking up at the moon that night with a sense of awe and wonder!

Richard, Apple Valley, CA (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:22 PM)

Glued to the TV like so many others. I believe this landing was on Sunday, but I took personal vacation to watch all Apollo launches, moon landings and return to earth. As an engineer I dreamed of joining NASA, but never did. I did design and build telemetry systems for early AMSAT (Amateur Satellite) missions, so at least my fingerprints made it to space!

John Goode, Bandera, Texas (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:26 PM)

Funny..I can't remember. Probably sitting in the living room at 3 AM watching because I do have a memory of watching it. I certainly remember my situation for JFK, Elvis and John Lennon off hand.

Thomas Ashby (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:27 PM)

I was one of the million or so people who traveled to Florida to actually witness the launch of Apollo 11. It was a spectacle I will never forget. During the actual first step onto the moon, I was on duty at Los Angeles International Airport. We rigged up a small black and white TV at our Customer Service desk where for a few short moments, it seemed as if time stood still. Absolute silence reigned. The magnitude of what we were actually witnessing was almost too much to take in. Driving home that night, the moon seemed like a completely different place to me. Knowing that two Americans we actually on that moon was a transformational moment. I took my whole family to Florida to witness the last launch to the moon: Apollo 17. That was the one and only night launch and remains to this day one of the most awe inspiring visual experience of my life. Only my wife and I traveled back to the cape to witness the launch of STS-1, the dawn of an entirely new area in space travel. I am conflicted about the potential cost of the Constellation program with its two Ares rockets. It seems counterproductive to be going back to the moon. If it was up to me, Mars would be the target. In many ways, the future of our species involves not only getting our impact on this planet under control, but possible terraforming of our nearest potentially habitable planet.

Donn W. Anderson, Dallas, Oregon (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:28 PM)

I was 5 and my mom woke me up so I could watch this on TV. Being 5 I was a little confused and remember thinking they did this sort of thing all the time...right?

wrong. and I'm super thankful my mom woke me up that "night" (I'm thinking it probably wasn't that late but I had an early bedtime back then)

ce, buffalo, NY (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:28 PM)

...Oh and sure remember the living room scene when The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan in 1964.

Thomas Ashby (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:28 PM)

I went to Camp Northwoods Boy Scout camp in Northern Michigan the previous two weeks as a camper, and had been chosen to stay over as a Junior camp counselor for the next two weeks. Someone brought out a television set and put it up in front of the fireplace in the big mess hall, and the staff and as many Scoutmasters as could get away from their troops were in the mess hall watching the flickering black and white images of the Moon landing.
As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin prepared for the first Moonwalk, a troop arrived at the camp very late at night and had to be taken to their campsite in the dark. Their campsite was a primitive camp, on the other side of the lake - not one of the regular troop campsites within easy walking distance. Someone had to row the troop across the lake in the dark in a rowboat, and I pulled the short straw.
I had to make several trips to get all of the scouts and their gear across, but I remember rowing in the dark and looking up at the Moon thinking that there were Americans walking up there while I was down in a boat in the middle of the lake. In between trips, I would stop by and watch Armstrong and Aldrin on the Moon for a few moments, and then go back to the boat to make another trip.
For a long while I resented not being able to watch the entire Moonwalk on the television, but now I remember the contrast that watching the Moon from the middle of the lake provided as interludes to watching the Moonwalk on television, and feel the perspective I gained was special, and well worth it.

Harmon Everett, Houston, TX (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:32 PM)

I was 19 years old, station at a remote Air Force station in Alaska, defending the country from the Soviet (Russian) hordes (should they decide to invade). We didn't have TV, communication with the "outside world" was limited, so we kind of heard about the landing after the fact.

David Clemo, Grand Rapids MI (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:34 PM)

I was nine years and attending a California Angels baseball game in Anaheim. I remember that a young Oakland A's star, Reggie Jackson, hit a grand slam home run in one of the games of a double header. The landing on the moon was announced on the scoreboard.

Bud Cowan, Scotts Valley, Ca (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:39 PM)

I was 16, having grown up with the space program. On July 20 I was an Eagle Scout and attending the Boy Scouts National Jamboree at Farragut State Park, on Lake Pend Orielle, Idaho. the landing occurred in the late afternoon. At that time the 50,000+ scouts and leaders were spread around the Park at their campsites, cooking dinner. many guys had transistor radios, all of which were turned up loud. all activity stopped as we listened to the announcements of the descent. As soon as we heard "Houston, the Eagle has landed", a huge cheer from all 50,000+ went up from all around the Park, echoing off the hills, for several minutes. At a campfire assembly later that night, an astronaut flew around the big natural bowl in a jet pack [the Jetsons come to life!] while thousands of flashbulbs went off [remember the Instamatic?], lighting up the bowl. A great day.

Dave Robertson, Jr., Chicago (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:46 PM)

i was 5, in victoria hospital in kirkcaldy fife Scotland. O'd been hit by a speeding motorist on june 24th 1969 ouside my parents home, the day before my younger brothers birthday.

I listened to the landing. My eyes were bandaged. Still remember it like yesterday. Ive been a fan of ALL space programs my whole life. We either explore or we die as a species. That simple.

Humbled by the men and women who have designed and flown the missions the world over. They deserve our respect and thanks for showing just what humans can do if they put aside the 'petty'.

Dr Ivan Bishop (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:46 PM)

I was 12 years old and had just arrived in Rome Italy on vacation with my family, when then the lunar landing took place. I watched it all on the TV in the bar lounge of the Hotel Fiume,with the astronauts words translated to Italian! The Italians were wonderful and celebrated both the landing and my American family as visitors. When we later arrived at a campsite on Lago di Garda the other campers stuck an American flag in the beach sand on our behalf. It was a trip and moment I'll never forget.

Lina, Santa Barbara, CA (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:49 PM)

I was an 8-year-old girl riding home from a day at Hermosa Beach in California and we were listening to the voices from the moon on our car radio. I looked up at the moon and asked my Dad how far away it was, because I wanted to know if I could see the astronauts and the capsule. I realized I could not see over 200,000 miles because I had journeyed by train from California to Ohio the previous year, and therefore knew what a mere 2,000 miles looked like. I spent the rest of the night looking at the moon, visualizing how far into space the astronauts had traveled, 100 times from California to Ohio.

That little girl grew up to be an aerospace engineer. I spent 17 years working on satellites before I changed careers after time off with the kids. When the Mars Rover landed 35 years after the moon landing, I was astounded to see color photos from Mars mere hours after landing, wireless on my laptop, so much more advanced than the 1960's car radio voices from the moon. As I gushed on about it, my 13-year-old daughter said "That's a big deal for people your age, isn't it?" I laughed and said "Yes. Yes it is. It should be a big deal for everyone. It's amazing."

Linda Mele, Torrance, California (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:51 PM)

I was a 12 year old in Kansas who thought it was amazing. I am sure this helped send me off to an engineering degree...

However, the really big thing was not when or where you watched, but the attitude of the time. I, at least, felt like anything was possible, and I think many others felt the same way. This appeared to be only the beginning of space exploration, there was much more to come. From what I can tell this was a national, and maybe international phenomenon, the idea that humanity could eventually do anything and go anywhere, even far into space. It was not that there were not problems on earth, there were; but there was a future - an exciting and amazing future.

We appear to have lost some of that excitement as a country and/or world. Maybe the loss is due to how much progress has been made, communications on earth today is often better than 1960's science fiction. Or maybe we have lost track of what the entire world could do if we focused on a clear goal. I don't have an answer, but we need to be excited and interested in exploring new worlds, and going where no one has gone before. We don't know where it will lead, but we will grow and progress as a world only if we move forward.

Clayton Nash, Dallas, Texas (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:51 PM)

I was in medical school at that time,and was listening to BBC,THE time was almost midnight.I was so scared that how aman can lend on a moon,but finally I,heared that mission was accomplished.

Muzaffar H. Khan.Saint Paul,MN. (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:53 PM)

I had just returned from two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a very rural village in India. I had lived for two years with no English speakers, no television, no radio, no running water, no bathroom, and certainly no air conditioning. I was used to riding two wheeled bullock carts. So, there I was sitting on a sofa in a cool house with a cold beer as I watched the landing on the moon. Needless to say, I was future shocked like few have ever been.

George Jeffcott, Eugene, Oregon (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:56 PM)

All the kids in the neighborhood (I was 10) gathered around the black and white TV in my house for the launch and three days later we were gathered around the black and white TV at Sherry's house (halfway down the black). I remember how mesmerizing it was. Even at that young age we got the significance of someone walking on the moon. It was such a defining event I've come to consider someone to be "young" if they missed this event.

Kevin, Sunnyvale, CA (was Berkeley, CA in 1969) (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:56 PM)

I was a sperm in my Dad's testicle and an egg in my Mom's ovary!

split (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 8:58 PM)

I was a 9 years old living in Newport News Va. My dad had just come back from a 2nd tour of Vietnam safely (it would be many years until I understood the real danger and accomplishment there). I had watched the Gemini launches intently and was already sure I wanted to be an astronaut when I saw the landing that early morning in 1969. Later I learned my corrected vision would keep me from being a fighter pilot, then test pilot, then astronaut. The space program gave me a keen interest in all kinds of technology, eventually leading me to study electrical engineering and computers which lead to a career in oil exploration in Houston. Oil and Space have long been linked in Houston. I did get a chance to fulfill part of my dream when I joined the Nasa Shuttle program as a sub-contractor in 1990 on the GPC subsystem. Watching HW you have worked on fly and being part of that launch team...there's nothing like it. There are countless other engineers like me whose first inklings of a career came from watching these flights in the '60s. The USA needs these programs. As you know, We Americans NEED that last frontier...

John Rogers, Houston Texas (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 9:00 PM)

I was six years old at the time and living in the neighborhood just south of Houston, TX that was home to most of the personnel that worked around the clock in Mission Control at Johnson Space Center. I remember my dad taking Polaroid snapshots of the television screen as Neil Armstrong stepped off of the ladder on the lunar module and onto the moon's stark surface while uttering those famous words. I also remember there being a raucous block party soon after the successful return to earth of the Apollo 11 command capsule. Imagine if you will a couple of hundred geeks running on andrenaline and alcohol and you pretty much have the complete picture.

Our next door neighbor whose name I have long forgotten, but whose contribution to my interest in science and space will never be forgotten; was mission director of one of the later Apollo missions. He was a junior director on the Apollo 11 mission and as such had complete access to the mission plans and gave my dad a print out from the massive mainframe computer that showed in ASCII characters the flight path of the entire mission from lift-off to splash-down. Unfortunately that now priceless document was destroyed when a pipe burst in our home years later and flooded the basement where it was stored.

An even more poignant memory of 'Jeffery's dad' which is how I always remember my neighbor, is when the command module returned to Houston on the back of a flat-bed semi; he took my dad, his son Jeffrey, and me to see the ship that had carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins into history. Jeffrey and I actually climbed into and all over the capsule as it sat strapped to the flat-bed truck. Then, being boys, we left our own marks on history...we scratched our initials into the carbon scoring on the edge of the heat shield and promised never to tell anyone. Years later as a teenager I visited the Smithsonian Air and Space museum and there in the front entrance, encased in plexiglass for all the world to see, sat the capsule and my initials. I broke my promise to Jeffrey at that moment and showed my dad what we had done. I couldn't tell if he was incredulous or proud or both, but I will never forget the look on his face as I pointed out the tiny scratches spelling out my initials FAB...

Believe it or not, it's true.

I am going to be taking my own teenager to visit the Smithsonian Air and Space museum on July 20th and if I am lucky the capsule will still be there and I can show here where her dad left his mark on history.

Forrest Bennett, Memphis, TN (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 9:04 PM)

I was on an aircraft in the middle of the Pacific
heading for Vietnam. The Pilot made an anouncement
over the speaker system on a Braniff Boeing 707. He
told us that Neil Armstrong had landed on the moon. the
military passengers yelled "screw him - he should be
heading for the Nam like us poor bastards".

bill (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 9:06 PM)

I WAS FLYING GRASS TOP AND TREE TOP OVER HOSTIL TERRITORY OVER VIETNAM. I WAS AN AERO SCOUT DOOR GUNNER AND CREW CHIEF ON AN OH6-A (LOH), AIR RECON HELICOPTER AS BULLET BAIT FOR A HUNTER KILLER TEAM. I WOULD HAVE BEEN SAFER AND ENJOYED FLYING TO THE MOON A LOT MORE I’M SURE. I THINK MY FLIGHTS WERE THE ULTAMATE RUSH, BUT I STILL WANT TO FLY TO THE MOON TOO

JIMMY CREGAN (Sent Friday, July 10, 2009 9:07 PM)

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