Fifty Years Ago The World Celebrated

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July 19, 1969. Man landed on the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things. NOT because they are easy, but because they are hard. (President John F. Kennedy, September 12, 1962) Astronauts were heroes when I was a kid. John Glenn, Alan Shepard, and Ed White were as well-known then as the biggest rock stars are today. We cheered their accomplishments, and we mourned when White died along with Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee in a fire on the launching pad in January 1967. With that accident in 1967 it seemed that President Kennedy's dream of reaching the moon by the end of the 60s might not be realized. But by the next year Apollo 8 orbited the moon. Then Apollo 11 blasted off in July 1969. Fifty years ago today, the "Eagle" landed on the moon. It seemed as though "everybody" was glued to their television sets, listening to the dramatic landing. Then, in the early morning of July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong left the lunar module and set foot on the moon, proclaiming, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." And I slept through the moon walk. Hey, I was only nine. Back then, 11 PM was late for me. Now? It's pretty darn early. But I remember the joy that we all felt when the news -- for once, amid all the turmoil of the late 60s -- told the world that man had made it to the moon. Happy golden anniversary to the Apollo 11 moon landing. President Nixon talking to the moon: