Apollo 11 Launches On this day in 1969

· by · in History. ·

On this day in 1969 at 9;32 EST , Apollo 11 the first lunar landing mission launched from the Kenneddy Space Center in Florida. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would walk on the moon. I believe the choice of Armstrong to be the first to walk on the moon was a wise choice. In the years since Armstrong has kept a low profile, has been kind of reclusive. He never tried to cash in on his fame. I do not know if Buzz Aldrin would have followed Armstrong’s path had he been the first.

They would land on the moon on July 20th. Michael Collins was the third man in the crew. He stayed in the Command Module while Armstrong and Aldrin went to the moon. It was Collins by the way who designed the famous mission patch for Apollo 11.

I was 8 years old when this all happened and I was captivated. The country and the world was too. A couple years later I was still fascinated with the space program but it had become ho-hum to a lot of people.  I wanted to be an astronaut back then or a major league baseball player. A few years ago I was talking to my students about the space program and I said I wanted to be an astronaut when I was eight years old. I said “Can anyone tell me why I couldn’t be an astronaut?” I was thinking- the reason- i was too tall. A student raised his hand and said “You’re not smart enough” Well that is true too-but not what I was thinking!

Sending men to the moon and bringing them back alive may be the greatest accomplishment in the history of mankind. It is a shame that they took their eye off the ball. I would have bet 43 years ago- that by 2012 we’d be on Mars. We’ve just went backward since the glory days of NASA.

7 responses to “Apollo 11 Launches On this day in 1969”

  1. no question in my mind this is mans greatest achievement. i highly recommend the book by andrew chiakin on the apollo program. while i agree that armstrong was a good choice as the first man on the moon, i wonder if he was not such a recluse in later life would the program be where it is now.
    again however too many things are decided by politicos who only care to keep power and get reelected.

    • i think the attention span of people is limited no matter who your front man is..and yes you throw the politicos in there..and that’s all she wrote..

  2. true – we had no clear plan afterward. there was an article that charles krauthammer wrote after the columbia incident that was spot on. i remember one of the ideas there was in 66 years we went from no flight to the moon. in the 35+ years since all we have done is sent a ‘space truck’ in and out of low orbit.
    i think like a lot of things if you are standing still you are falling behind. always must strive to go forward.

  3. Great blog, excellent job of reminding people how important this achievement was. I was 17. I stayed up for two days and nights in England following the journey on radio and what TV was available. Fell asleep through exhaustion and missed the actual moment of landing! But the blast off from the lunar surface was one of the most amazing things I ever saw in my life! Now NASA is in my life – my wife worked on first shuttle at Langley. Small (blue and green) world.

    • Thank you… I don’t think kids growing up today..well they just take it for granted- man went to the moon.they don’t realize how amazing an event it was… that is funny how things go- with your wife working on the shuttle..

  4. i would go a step further – my brother teaches at a community college that is within the shadow of NASA. I had the chance to speak with his class on one occasion and the moon landings topic came up, i was shocked but more than half of his class did not believe that we went to the moon.

Comments are closed.