I WAS IN SUNAPEE, NH WITH STEVEN TYLER AND HIS FAMILY ON THEIR PROPERTY.

I was nearly 10 yrs old, my Grandmother had just passed away, our house was full of relatives from out of town for the funeral. Everybody was crowded around the black and white tv.
Years later my love and interest in the space program helped me in another way...my husband to be was also a space nut...we even went to Huntsville Alabama on our honeymoon...in 1981

Was at Murry's restaurnant in Minneapolis getting engaged.

I was 14, solidly rooted to my parents' living room floor in front of the TV. Watching CBS coverage (as I usually did), hanging onto Walter Cronkheit's every word (and he was just a fraction away from speaking over Neal's first words) I made a reel-to-reel audio recording, the tape of which I lost only a few years ago...

On January 1,2000 the first day of the new millennium (Yes yes, I know that's really 1-1-2001. Tell it to my PC that went back to 1-1-1980, in spite of a patch to prevent that.) I walked around one of the remaining Saturn Fives at the Johnson Space Center with a friend who works there and wondered aloud; "When will we do things like this again?"

Today, the answer still isn't clear...

I was fishing for lake trout in Keuka Lake, New York with a fishing buddy. We had a tranistor radio in the boat, and when we heard that the Eagle had landed, we both cheered. I can't believe that it was forty years ago, and I was just forty years old. Time really flies.

For a real interesting story about the original Mercury 7 astronauts, read the article I wrote titled "Ryan Seacrest should host all space shuttle launches" posted on my blog. Here is the link to the article. Enjoy and comments are always appreciated.
http://cliffyworld.com/blogs/blog1.php/2008/03/
11/ryan-seacrest-should-host-all-space-shut

I was fifteen living in England.  I've never considered TV too important; I've only twice got out of bed in the middle of the night to watch TV:  the moon landing and Nixon's resignation speech.
I found the entire Apollo program thrilling and wathced hours of it on TV and read masses.  It certainly catalysed my science and engineering geekiness for which I am thankful.  I feel sorry for kids today that do not have such exciting times to live through; not just the moon landings, but the improvements in civil rights, women's rights and people's growing acceptance of people different to themselves.  I miss the excitement and sense of wonder I had at the time.

I was 2 years and 9 months old in July of 1969, so I don't remember being aware of the whole thing until the later missions. I do remember hearing the name "Armstrong" and asking my dad, "Why do they call him Armstrong? Does he have strong arms"? or something to that effect. I also remember when Harrison Schmidt was running for reelection to the Senate from our home state of New Mexico, and the scandal that resulted when his challenger, Jeff Bingaman (still in the Senate today), said something along the lines that they had sent a man to do a monkey's job.

My best friend and the woman who would some day become my second ex-wife had flown from NY to Munich and were driving to Italy for a boat to Greece to join an archaeological expedition on Santorini, in search of Atlantis.   We followed the progress of the flight on Armed Forced Radio.  I was an embarrassed American, what the with war in Vietnam, which I opposed.But the space mission had captured even the Europeans' imagination and given us a moment to be proud.  An Italian embraced me and proclaimed "Americani, Astronati, La Luna La Luna."  We stayed in a dive of a youth hostel in Athens.  "Especial" meant there was a mattress on the cot, "Very espeical meant a sheet.
That night it was too hot to sleep and I went out.  A small group was clustered around a gated electronic shop, and it was there, on a fuzzy black and white set, as far away from my home as they were from their it felt, that I saw man set foot on Tranquility.  In my sight line above and behind the store, was the Acropolis and the Parthenon, glowing silvery in the light of the actual moon above.

I was 9 years old in 1969 living up in the mountains in Costa Rica, I remember going into a friends house his mom had the TV on and I watch the entire show until my Mom came looking for me, at the time that was one of only two houses with televisions in it in the entire neiborhhood, I am please to say that up to today I have follow the space programe, from the Shutle Launches to the sithings of the International Space station, form visiting the Kennedy Space center to wakeing up at all hours of the night just to see the ISS' making a pass over the City of Miami, from endessly wachting the stars with mi small telescope and following the Satelites pictures and stories thru the internet, that day in 1969 start it all, and it will stay in my heart as long as we continue persuing the final frontier and we all keep looking up.

I was in the living room of Dr. Ned Trannel's family in Big Horn, Wyoming, because they had a color set...  My Dad had been a bomber pilot in WW II and my brothers and I all loved to watch anything about flight.  Our home had watched every launch and landing, and still do.  I can remember playing ball outside and coming in to check the progress of it all.  The Trannels had 8 kids then, and we were 3 (plus the four parents) and we all crowded in front of that color set, and then it was all in black and white.  No color shots from the moon...  our home was so into the space flight that when our cat had kittens, and a big white kitten was the first to climb out of the box, we names him John Glenn, (appologies to Alan Shepard).  I continue to follow the space program, and my entire family visited the Kennedy Space Center in the summer of '97 and I got goosebumps when we went out to the Apollo building, and got to walk under the Saturn V rocket.

God Speed to all the astronauts, and we should continue the efforts to explore space.

Alan,

I was just 6 years old but have vivid memories of the Apollo moon shots.  My Dad would set up his reel-to-reel tape recorder and we would record all of the various launches’ coverage.  I remember Walter Cronkite’s deep voice trying to be heard over the loud rumble coming from the lone speaker in our black-and-white TV as the mighty Saturn V would slowly lift-off from the launch pad.  In fact, I still have one old tape left sitting in my closet (on my “to do list” is to get it to a professional for preservation this summer).

On July 20th, 1969 I was outside playing next to our carport and my Mom called me in to the house for what was to become one of the most important moments in our nation’s history.  I was in such a hurry to get in front of the TV that I cut my ankle on a rock as I got up from the ground (still have a faint scar – my Apollo 11 memento).  As my sister, parents and I sat in front of the TV watching the grainy b&w images coming back from the moon, little did I realize the significance of what was happening.  Sure, I was aware it was a big deal, but looking back on it today I’m so thankful that my parents were also tuned in to the historical turning point.  

For years afterward, I was an astronaut during Halloween, I would draw the Lunar Module from a dozen different perspectives at home (and at school), my friends and I would play astronaut, and I would watch TV specials on the Apollo and later Skylab missions.  When in High School, my science teacher had a TV brought in to watch the first Shuttle landing (I watched the launch from home).

Years later, I had the fortune of working at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (Aug 97-Nov 99) while in the USAF.  I was a Captain working in the 5th Space Launch Squadron, the 3rd Space Launch Squadron and later the 45th Ops Group.  I worked on the Titan IV as a Mission Planner, Satellite Ops Controller, and AF Launch Controller, and never once took a day for granted.  When I could I was out on one of our two launch pads (SLC 40 and SLC 41).  I remember standing on top of SLC 41 and looking out at the row of abandoned launch pads from the Gemini and Mercury days, as well as across to the Shuttle launch complexes and thinking how lucky I was.  I got to watch a Shuttle launch from our Vertical Integration Building from the 7th floor (awesome!).  I drove the same roads the Mercury and Gemini and Apollo astronauts drove, and would on more than one occasion go to Launch Complex 34, where the Apollo 1 tragedy occurred.  I’ve never written this down before and reading it now reminds me of how lucky I really am to have had a small part in our space program.  I also took the opportunity to make sure something of mine would make it into space – my fingerprints are all over several rocket body parts and one satellite in particular that I spent a great deal of time with.  We would even sign our names with a Sharpie on the Titan IV.

My space launch career was capped off as the 45th Ops Group “standardization and evaluation” representative while on console during STS-93 in July 1999.  I not only wore a headset and ran a checklist during the launch, I got to conduct the “hot wash” for the Ops Group with the Wing Commander and the NASA representatives at the Range Ops Control Center (naturally, they were really running the show, but we thought we were in charge…).  I lived a small part of my dream – never made it into the astronaut program but I have no complaints.

Where are we headed from here?  I hope our nation can keep pushing the envelope to get man back to the moon.  The Constellation/Orion program is a hopeful first step.  NASA just completed the Ares I-X stacking, the first stacking operation of a new vehicle in 25 years, and I don’t think I saw anything on the news.  I hope our new President can light our younger generation’s imaginations with a renewed interest in the space program so that today’s youth can have a rich treasure trove of memories.

As Armstrong stepped onto the moon and began his walk around, my boyfriend took a small box out of his pocket, opened it, and proposed. I knew he was "The One" and quickly took the ring and said yes.  Neither of us remember too much of the moon walk after that. Now, 2 children and 3 grandchildren (and one more on the way) later, we're about to celebrate our 40th anniversary.

I remember it pretty well.  I was about 13.  The night was very warm down in the OC; we only had a black-&-white TV, but since the coverage was also B&W, that didn't matter.  I remember wandering in and out of the living room (because it was lots cooler outside than inside!), and being mildly amused that my parents (Depression-era survivors) were almost delerious with fascination and amazement.  I, on the other hand, while thinking it was kinda cool, wasn't nearly as impressed about it all as they were - I guess my generation kind of took it as a given.

That being said, we should continue to re-visit the Moon and also get to Mars eventually - kids can't stay in the nest forever, yanno.  =;>)=

My father and I sat together watching the whole voyage on a small B&W TV in upstate NY.  As a rebellious teenager, I didn't do anything with my Dad.  For Apollo 11, we were kindred spirits.  Later, I realized he had been a techno-geek for years, buying the first Polaroid camera available, automating his business accounting with a Burroughs computer in the 1960's, and making sure our Popular Science issue came every month.  
I left for Japan to be an exchange student just a bit after that, and my father died when I was away.  Sharing the moments of wonder at a man on the moon between a man born in 1914 and a rebellious teenager who would never have that opportunity again is bittersweet memory for me.

I was eight years old that summer.  Even at that age I was fascinated by all things scientific.  I remember sitting bleary-eyed staring at our small black and white TV asking my mother (albeit annoyingly often) is that Neil Armstrong?  Is he on the moon yet?  THe inspiration of real science doing real, public things gave me a career.  But at that age, minutes are hours and in retrospect, my impatience was a glimpse at our future in a world that now expects results in minutes not hours or God-forbid - days.  I fear that we now will not have the patience to for space missions that take weeks, months or years.  Bring on the Star Trek transporters!

I  had my sixth birthday on July 16, 1969. I clearly remember that my family we had a  birthday picnic at the park. During this picnic in Northampton, Mass. my parents told me to look to the sky to see the launch. I honestly thought I saw a white stream with a rocket attached. It seemed like I held my breath for four days until I saw the moon landing and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked across the Sea of Tranquility. As a side note, many  children of the 60's and 70's almost idolized astronauts and wanted to grow up to be an astronaut. I remember telling my fifth grade teacher  that I would like to be an astronaut. She replied, "Astronauts are very intelligent, are very good in math and you are neither." For years I was devastated by her  seemingly casual remark. I did not grow up to be an astronaut, but, I grew up to be an elementary teacher and I have not  and I will not tell a child they cannot grow up to be an astronaut.

As a lot of people watched the moon landing, I was a 7 year old girl in Indianapolis, In.  I still vividly remember sitting in our family room watching the black and white TV.  I was so excited and enthralled that yes, I had finally seen - what it was like to stay up past my bedtime!!!

I was 13 years old in York, PA watching with my mother and grandmother.  I was already a huge fan of the U.S. Space Program, but that night, I was hooked for life.  The two strongest memories I have of that night are the tremendous excitment I felt, and my grandmother's disbelief.  She had a very hard time accepting that this was real.  She was born in 1914, and so much had changed since she was a child.  She is now 94 years young, still going strong, and we still occasionally talk about that day.  

Four years ago, my wife, daughter (who was 9 years old at the time) and I had the opportunity to tour Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  I was like a kid all over again - my daughter just could not understand why I was so excited.  

I first heard about it after spending the night on ambush patrol near the Hoc Mon Canal.It was morning, and my squad spent the night on ambush patrol. We were heating water for coffee and picking the leeches off of our bodies. A few weeks earlier, I was living it up in the states. It was surreal day.

I wasn't born.

When I was in class 4, I was taught that Neil Armstrong was the first man to land on moon. But as I grew into a teen, did I gradually realize the significance of the first moon landing. I remember feverishly poring over the glossy pages of a science book which described the Apollo missions/Space Race, reading how America did it. I was mesmerized and speechless at the same time. Since then, I have had a deep admiration and respect for America and its scientific achievements.

My 4th son was 6 days old, I was 40 years old. We lived in Blue Hill, Maine with my husband and 3 other sons.We gathered in a small room and were breathless, not so much of the landing on the moon but because we were able to watch this miracle on television. Which was the greatest accomplishment?
We will celebrate his 40 years on earth this month and my being 80 years old.It has "been a real ride" these forty years!

At the time of the first lunar landing, I was with the rest of my family in my Dad's and Mom's bedroom--all of us huddled around our battered radio receiver, windows shut tight in the middle of a tropical summer with no AC whatsoever, trying to keep from making any loud noises, listening on the shortwave band to VOA as it carried live Neil Armstrong's first words on the Moon....we risked going to jail for years without trial or lawyer in my native Cuba if we were caught listening on mankind's greatest achievement ever....and my Dad's face, his pride and joy as we heard the old dream was no longer a dream...You bet I remember what I was doing--trying not to shout and jump in jubilation for fear of jail!!

I was 17 and assigned to Naval Activities Saigon working a mail room at Tan Son Nhat Air Base. As I was walking by a guard post, I saw the Stars and Stripes headlines, about Apollo and the moon landing. Ahhh...the good years.

I was eight years old.  My Dad was ex-Air Force but someone who never told anyone of this experiences.  To this day, I can remember sitting in the basement where the old black and white TV was, it was late, given that we were in the Eastern Time Zone.  Sitting there with my Dad, we were in awe.  Three fearless men, basically flying a pop can with less electronics of an early computer, made it to the Moon.  I can still remember the lousy images, but they made it.
I doubt I'll ever make it to the moon, but given the spirit of our Nation, and humanity, I think there us reason to believe that my son will.

I was being born!  I was born on the 21st, the day that they left.  The headlines of all of the papers on my birthday was the moon landing.  The story of my mom watching it on the tv while she was at the hospital are always fun to hear.  I'm having a 40th party next weekend and the headline on the invite is "July of 1969 was a banner month.  Apollo 11 landed on the moon.  A few hours later I was born.  The world hasn't been the same since!"  

I was 4yrs old. I remember that Mom had told me several times that they were flying to the moon but I remember watching tv and wondering how they got up that far and that they should be smaller since they were so far away.

I was in the 10th grade in Orlando Florida, having moved there in January of 1969.  My family spent the night before the launch in the house of one of my dad's friends in Titusville, right on A1A.   We were 12 miles or so directly across the Banana and Indian rivers from the launch pad and could see the Saturn 5 shining like a beacon across the water.   Lit up by brilliant white spot lights it's an image that I'll never foreg.  I remember waking up around 3 in the morning and looking out the upstairs window of the house at what seemed like a hundred thousand people milling around  on the highway and shoreline waiting for the next morning's launch.  Some were sleeping, but the majority were wide awake.  A guy with a bagpipe was even marching north on the hiway, serenading everyone!    Around 6 on the morning of the 16th we walked across the road with our chairs and waded through the mass to find a spot to wait out the launch.  With the excitement building, we counted down the final seconds and watched that little dot on the horizon turn into a mixture of brilliant orange flame and puffy white smoke.  A few seconds after ignition we could hear AND feel the sound coming from the massive Saturn V.   It was our first launch of any type that my family had witnessed, but not the last.   My dad was able to secure passes for us to watch all of the following Apollo, Apollo/ Soyuz and Skylab launches from the space center itself, getting within 3 to 4 miles of the pad.   What an experience as a teenager.

Four nights later we were all huddled around our new 19" RCA color television, focused on the grainy black and white transmission as Neil Armstrong made his historic step.    It was a time I'll never forget and often wonder if my child will ever be able to experience what I did over those few days in July 1969.

I still live in Orlando and launches from KSC never cease to amaze me.   No matter what time a shuttle or satellite goes up, I look east to catch a glimpse of one of the wonders of our time.

One July 20, 1969 I lived on a farm two miles from nowhere and surrounded by cornfields. The closest community of any size was South Charleston, Ohio (pop. 1700). I was 13 years old. I remember I stayed up well into the wee hours of the morning to make a tape recording of Walter Chronkite's CBS commentary. I shushed everyone to silence because the crude way I had to record the audio picked up every noise around the family room.

My parents were farm people; they always went to bed early and got up early. Sometimes my dad would listen to the radio after going to bed, especially if there was a Cincinatti Red's game on - and there usually was in the middle of July. But that night was very different. No one went to bed until we witnessed the history being made.

There were a lot of memorably events during the 1960's, some of them were not so good for America. I recall the Christmas 1968 mission of Apollo 8 circling th moon and the picture of an Earth-rise over the Moon, the first time a human had ever witnessed the puissant contrast between the dead gray pockmarked surface of the moon and the vibrantly beautiful world that all the rest of humanity shared.

It was a magical time to be a kid. Everything seemed potential for the creativity of the human race. Although it was a proud accomplishment that John Kennedy's challenge years before had set into motion, at the moment that Neil Armstrong stepped down from the Lunar Excursion Module onto the surface he acknowledged that it was an achievement for all mankind.

Although the resources came from American taxpayers, some of whom felt that the money could have been better spent fighting poverty in our homeland, there was probably no other nation on Earth at that time that could have afforded such a risky venture. Maybe the rest of the world even expected we'd be the ones crazy enough to believe it was possible and smart enough to devise a way of pulling it off.

In that moment shared the world over, we even believed we could accomplish the impossible, sharing our world in peace. I don't think I was alone in believing that if humans were clever enough to land on the Moon we were at the threshold of the age of miracles.

The first dose of reality was the ill fated Apollo 13 mission that followed a few months later. Until then everything had been going very smoothly. It wasn't until years later when I saw Ron Howard's film account of that mission that I understood how very close we came to losing three brave men or how brave any of the men were who sat atop million of gallons of explosive chemicals to achieve the ride of a lifetime in the name of progress.                

I was at Meadowbrook Park in Bascom, OH, with the TV sitting on a picnic table, and my parents, my sisters and brother-in-law.  The event was two dimensioned...a welcome home for my brother-in-law's brother, w/ home I had attended high school and who had just returned from Vietnam, and a send off for me, who was on leave from the Army and ordered to report for shipment to Vietnam w/in the next week.  I also, obviously, survived my year.  I remember being impressed w/ the feat of landing on the moon.  It was the only reason we had a TV along on the picnic because, back then, people just didn't watch TV outside.  But I had other concerns at the time that probably kept me from being able to completely savor its significance.  

July 20, 1969

I was about a third of the way through a 36-week U.S. Army Electronics course at Ft Monmouth and 6 months from being sent to Vietnam.

I had turned 20 years old, 5 days earlier. Friends I had known from back home, in Illinois, had invited me to their home in Northern New Jersey to celebrate my birthday with a cake and watch the Moon landing.  All these years later I can still remember the Moon landing but not the Birthday cake.

I remember the speculation and the very real fears that we had at the time. Even Walter Cronkite was worried!

- Will the astronauts be able to land on the Moon without crashing?

- Would the Moon’s surface actually hold the Lunar Lander or would it, or the astronauts, sink into the surface like you would a snow bank?

- Would they be able to get back to the ship or will they be stranded on the Moon?

As it turned out, none of these concerns turned out to be true.

Instead, we all held our breath as they got closer and closer to the surface and came closer and closer to running out of fuel. We were relieved and overjoyed when we saw the dust blowing away from the landing gear, heard and saw them touch down safely.

Later, we saw the astronauts climb out of the Lunar Lander and actually step on the surface of the moon. I don’t think that I will ever forget that iconic picture of the first footprint left by man on the surface of the moon.

For our generation, that footprint represented an achievement and a challenge. America/Mankind, all of us, had in fact been able to achieve the “impossible” task of putting a man on the moon and returning him safely.

The challenge and the dreams became, if we can do that, what other impossible task(s) could we overcome?

We have had some notable successes and yet we still have many challenges before us.

In 1969, we didn’t have Personal Computers (desk top and laptop), Cell Phones, Space Stations and the World Wide Web did not exist. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) had been signed into law, in 1964, but was far from a reality for nearly all minorities including all women. Getting cancer, any cancer, was considered a death sentence for both men and women.

In 2009 all of those devices exist. Real EEO is still a work in progress, but our newest President gives me hope. Cancer is now considered to be a treatable disease, with certain types able to be cured or prevented and many others with positive long-term remissions.

I would like to think that future space projects such as, the “new” space telescope, missions to Mars, etc. will spark that same kind of wonder and ability to overcome the “impossible” in our current and future generations.

If they do, I look forward the next 40 years of my life with great anticipation and a certain amount of wonder.

I was not quite 4 years old, but I remember it very clearly. My parents made sure I knew how important it was, and of course let me stay up very late just this once.

As for countless others, this set my expectations for what the future of technology would be like. Of course, I would be able to work on Mars when I grew up!

I was at Meadowbrook Park in Bascom, OH, with the TV sitting on a picnic table, and my parents, my sisters and brother-in-law.  The event was two dimensioned...a welcome home for my brother-in-law's brother, w/ home I had attended high school and who had just returned from Vietnam, and a send off for me, who was on leave from the Army and ordered to report for shipment to Vietnam w/in the next week.  I also, obviously, survived my year.  I remember being impressed w/ the feat of landing on the moon.  It was the only reason we had a TV along on the picnic because, back then, people just didn't watch TV outside.  But I had other concerns at the time that probably kept me from being able to completely savor its significance.  

I was 11 years old camping on Lake James in North Carolina. My dad had a little black and white TV hooked to a car battery. I was looking up at the moon in the middle of a lake on a island watching the moon landing
on a black and white hooked to a car battery. I will never forget it.

I was in high school, in Kuching, Sarawak in Malaysia when we we were given the chance to watch the first man on the moon. I remember it was at the US Information Centre near the Independence Square. Everyone was excited and and watch in disbelief the making of a scientific breakthrough.

The US Info Centre was closed because of budget costraint in the early 70s but the time when Peace Corps Volunteers were around and the Centre was opened we were ushered to the Houston and the moon at a time when cyberspace and internet was unheard of in this part of the world.
Old folks still could not believe the moon landing for a few more weeks later but by the time I was in the University in Kuala Lumpur, the man on the moon became history and all folks were thinking of what next tmat man would do to broaden the horizon.

I was watching at home, on the phone with guy I worked with on the Apollo Command Module control system in Honeywell's Development & Evaluation Lab.  Along with other engineers and technicians, we'd spent several years torturing the various components of the control system, baking them in ovens, cycling the temperature in vacuum chambers while we exercised them, subjected them to over-voltages and under-voltages, jolted them, and generally subjected them to assorted bad stuff looking for their performance limits.  We had our fingers, arms, legs, and eyes crossed hoping we hadn't missed anything.  It was an amazing feeling to know it all worked.

I was in the army stationed in Landstuhl West Germany.  Our SATCOM Station got to relay the pictures from the moon landings back to the states,  I got to see the pictures that were sent back to us by AFRTS.  

I was 9 years old. My entire family and I were mesmerized by what we were seeing on the black and white TV. I remember my Dad took slides of the landing. I hope he still has them.

When I saw Neil Armstrong climb down the ladder, I turned and asked my parents, "Why didn't he just beam down like Capt. Kirk?"

I still get teased about that remark.

I was 4 years old, my brother had just been born a couple of weeks prior. The moon landing is my earliest recollection. Our black and white tv that picked up 2 channels on a good day played all week long. I think the tone and the beginning and end of each verbage is what made it stick in my head. I am sure when my parents pointed out the moon in the sky I was amazed at how we could do such a thing. My grandmother always said it was a hoax, like the show capricorn one. Just movie film tricks.

12 year old Iowa farm boy, and total, certifiable space-geek.  Glued to TV, of course, as I was for *any* NASA action.  Bedroom covered with maps of the solar system.  Dresser covered with model rockets. I'm still moved when I think of that moment of man's first steps on the moon.

I bacame an engineer, but heck, I probably would have anyway. But because of NASA, I knew what an engineer *was*, and it seemed preferable to cleaning hog barns.

I was also at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Idaho; there were 50,000 Boy Scouts there for the week, they had installed Jumbo Screens in the main "arena" and we all watched the moon landing on the jumbo screens.  It was quite a site; thousands of Scouts all wearing the red Jamboree wool jacket watching the first step on the moon.

I was in front of the TV watching all the action, because at the time I was an engineer at Douglas Aircraft and had worked on the Apollo.  Knowing the way it was build with all the advanced technology I was not sure the thing would fly.  BUT IT DID.

I was 8 years old and a Trekie.  I was glued to the family's old B&W TV, enthralled every moment of the mission's broadcast, and later went to bed to dream that I was a part of that mission.  It was a thrilling time and filled me with a sense of peace, of unity, and of hope for humanity.

On July 20th 1969 I was a 12 year old boy. I was  the ghostly images from the moon in our darkened den with my family with my father, mother and younger brother. Our house was located about 20 miles from Pad A. Four days earlier the doors and windows rattled and shook at the unimaginable power of Apollo 11's Saturn V launch vehicle. I'd watched the astronauts leaving Earth on the way to their great adventure. I'd felt the Saturn's rumbling growl in my chest as it climbed triumphantly into the clear Florida sky. Growing up, almost every adult I knew worked at the Cape or supported it in some way. My father, my grandfather, and the fathers of my friends all worked there. These people, and thousands of others all over the US had worked tirelessly for years upon end to make what I was now watching possible. I felt tremendous pride in the role that my family and the local community had played. I didn't feel this was an achievement of "mankind" or even of America. It was us - family and friends. My community. WE did this.

At the time, I didn't realize what a remarkable thing it was to have so many people focused on a single goal, nor how difficult it was to create such focus, or maintain it over a decade. I'm afraid today's America has too much Attention Deficit Disorder to accomplish anything like Apollo again.

I was 13 in Memphis and anyone visiting my room would think they were were in an unofficial branch of mission control.  I had miniature models of Apollo spacecraft being tracked across huge moon maps and a library of space books and magazines on every aspect of the Apollo program.  I had been closely following the space race since the early 1960's watching the Mercury astronauts rocket into space.  On the afternoon of July 20, 1969, my hands sweated along with everyone else as the Eagle landed.  I stepped outside the house and saw traffic on the road and was incredulous that these people were oblivious to the moon landing.  That night, our family watched on the TV set and finally pulled a mattress into the den to watch the mission coverage all the way through.  Here's a picture of us all around the TV that night (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4hRfFTEe-0I/SjcTh8QcAwI/AAAAAAAAAE4/NCfS9e_KD94/s1600-h/Bickers+family+on+July+20+1969+s.jpg) (I am the one holding our dog).  Years later, I never did become an astronaut.  I became an attorney instead, but I also became skilled as an artist and now I have an art show and tribute to that special mission, called APOLLO 11 - 40 YEARS A MEMORY.  More on that can be found at http://www.bobbickers.net and on my blog at http://www.fineartbybobbickers.blogspot.com  The moon landings have fueled my imagination all these years while waiting for us to return.  I hope I will see that day soon.

For me the experience all started on July 15th, 1969. It was my birthday and the next day was going to be the launch of Apollo 11. Unfortunately for me, we didn't own a TV. With 9 brothers and sisters on our small Iowa farm, TV's were a luxury that we did without.
After chores on the morning of the 15th, my Mom called me in to the kitchen so everyone could sing 'Happy Birthday' to me. There, in the living room doorway, was my Dad, hooking an antenna to an ancient black & white TV. I whooped for joy and asked if it was for me. My Dad told me "Don't be silly. Its for everyone. You're not the only one who wants to see the moon landing".
My brothers and I rushed through our chores the next morning and were in plenty of time to watch the launch of Apollo 11. It seems that it was around 8 or maybe 8:30 in the morning. Walter Cronkite stated something about it taking 3 or 4 days to reach the moon. I was devastated. I thought it was going to be a short, quick trip. My brothers laughed at me and picked on me all day for my ignorance. It was 35 years later that one of them told me that they had no idea that it was going to take that long either. Ah, well. Boys will be boys.
On July 20th, at around 3pm, we were all planted around the TV, mesmerized. We watched as the Eagle headed for the moon. We were in awe as it touched down on the surface. Then the agonizing wait began.
"Why don't the get out?" I asked. "Are they scared? Will they sink into all that dust and be gone?"
The only answer I ever got was a loud "Shhhhh!" from everyone in the room.
By the time they were getting ready to get out my 4 little sisters, the "little girls" were asleep and I was starting to doze myself. After all, it was nearly 10pm! I remember it was hard to see what was going on. For years I just figured it was the old TV, but others told me it was just as fuzzy and grainy for them. Those were the days. The US was invincible and so were our astronauts.
I hope to share the next moon shot with my kids and grandkids. Go USA!

My personal experience is shocking after reading Books, News, Journals and story I hear and see from NASA because Actual facts seems hidden from the Public. According to Astronauts today they seem to claim in parallel to Books and Hidden News: For an example: 1. First moon visit was way earlier than Appollo; 2. When they went to the moon some claims there were already many of us (like) waiting for them during arrival 3. According to some March mission was completed in 1966 4. Today they have finished journey to our Solar systems and beyond. For above: reference are: John Lear interview, project camelot interviews. There are many people working in NASA are coming out with different stories which directly contradict with NASA.

I watched the first moon walk, my being a few days short of age 10, at the home of my friend of that era, Scott Anderson.  He was staying at his Grandparent's home for the summer, which was only a few houses down the road from my home.  His Grandparents had a COLOR TV (woo hoo!!!).  I remember hearing my mother's voice echoing across the neighborhood for me to come home, no doubt because she thought I would miss the moment.  I watched the event on that color TV at Scott's house but soon realized that the picture was still black and white and with a lot of visual static.  Regardless, I'll never forget it.  I was at an age where I sensed the excitement from the grown-ups about was happening and fortunately I paid attention.  I look back now, and wow, what an accomplishment for them to have walked on the moon after just scratching the edge of space a little over 9 years before. I wish we could recapture that spirit of exploration again.

I had just joined the US Air Force and was at basic training in San Antonio, TX.  This was the first and only time I saw TV during that training.  I went on to be a Missile Launch Crew Member on the Titan II system.

I was 12 years old and I spent that memorable week at Boy Scout Camp in Pike, NY. When astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon it was fairly late at night. A small black and white television was set for all of us watch and what I remember most was that one of the first television shots was broadcast UPSIDE DOWN at first. Apparently the camera was installed incorrectly back on earth. It took one of the astronauts a few minutes to re-align the camera too. As a kid I knew all the astronauts names from Mercury and all the way through to the end of the Apollo program.

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