I can remember bits and bobs of the landing, but not a lot — this kind of stuff has too much waiting for a little kid, and I had my brother to keep amused, I expect. Also, I was already deep into science fiction, and while I knew this was big, historic stuff, frankly, it was old hat to someone who watched Star Trek.
Stupid little kid.
Honestly, I appreciate the adventure now a lot more than I did then. And I think we should go back, and go elsewhere, just to prove to ourselves that we can. And so that I can pay closer attention this time.
Reshared post from +NASA
The Eagle has landed! When it comes time to set Eagle down in the moon's Sea of Tranquility, Neil Armstrong improvises, manually piloting the ship past an area littered with boulders. During the final seconds of descent, Eagle's computer is sounding alarms. It turns out to be a simple case of the computer trying to do too many things at once, but as Buzz Aldrin will later point out, "unfortunately it came up when we did not want to be trying to solve these particular problems."
When the lunar module lands at 4:18 p.m. EDT, only 30 seconds of fuel remain. Armstrong radios "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Mission control erupts in celebration as the tension breaks, and a controller tells the crew "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue, we're breathing again."
Technology drives exploration and we're building on the Apollo program's accomplishments to test and fly transformative, cutting-edge technologies today for tomorrow's missions. As we develop and test the new tools of 21st century spaceflight on the human Path to Mars, we once again will change the course of history.
Image Credit: NASA
I was 7, and I don't remember it at all. We were overseas, my mom thinks we were in Denmark, but she's not sure. I feel a bit sad that this historic event occurred in my lifetime, and I don't remember it.