They left fifty years ago today to land on the Moon. We’d been around the Moon, but we hadn’t ever landed.
The spacecraft was crewed by three American heterosexual, non-Muslim, males. Can you imagine that selection process happening today?
Whether fair or unfair, it was, and America repeated that mission five more times. Twelve Americans walked on the surface of the Moon. Later missions included a rover so they rode around the surface of the Moon, conducting scientific experiments. They planted the AMERICAN flag. Not the UN flag or the Canadian flag, or the Russian flag, or the Chinese Flag, or the French flag.
Apollo 11
Niel Armstrong (Mission Commander)
Edwin Aldrin (LEM Pilot)
Michael Collins (CSM Pilot)
Apollo 12
Charles Conrad (Mission Commander)
Alan Bean (LEM Pilot)
Richard Gordon (CSM Pilot)
Apollo 13 (didn’t land)
James Lovell (Mission Commander)
Fred Haise (LEM Pilot)
Jack Swigert (CSM Pilot)
Apollo 14
Alan Shepherd (Mission Commander)
Edgar Mitchell (LEM Pilot)
Stuart Roosa (CSM Pilot)
Apollo 15
David Scott (Mission Commander)
James Irwin (LEM Pilot)
Alfred Warden (CSM Pilot)
Apollo 16
John Young (Mission Commander)
Charles Duke (LEM Pilot)
Thomas Mattingly (CSM Pilot)
Apollo 17
Eugene Cernan (Mission Commander)
Harrison Schmitt (LEM Pilot/Scientist)
Ronald Evans (CSM Pilot)
While many in my generation venerated singers or sports stars, the men of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights were my heroes. They traveled to the Moon and did heroic things. Difficult things. Life threatening things.
No other nation on Earth has equalled this, though one day somebody might. We abandoned the Moon, but there is a push to return, possibly in 2025, with intentions to remain.
As a country, can that be considered our apogee? Are we now headed for our perigee?
We can only hope. There are people who say bypass the moon for Mars; but I think we should go for the moon. They can learn all about low gravity, etc., there as well as the mission to Mars.
Or heck. Do both.
Just get our DNA off this rock if we want to survive as a species.
Robert Heinlein once commented, "The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in it." I recall well the first moon landing. I know it was July 20th when it happened, but at that time I was on the other side of the date line so it was the 21st where I was. That also happens to be my birthday, so I always viewed the landing as a present to me from NASA. I also had a bit of fun explaining the landing to a mama-san I knew. I don't think she got it.
Well that was a helpful testament to PATRIARCHY and RACISM.
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