Forty years ago today, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to walk on the surface of the moon. I remember my father insisting that we wake up in time to watch it on a small, grainy, black and white TV set, the only one in the house, in my parents' bedroom.
For years afterward, our teachers would wheel TV sets into our classrooms so that we could watch live coverage of the take offs, landings, moon walks and space walks of the Apollo astronauts.
Below is a restored video montage of Apollo 11's lift off, landing, and Armstrong's famous first steps. The newscaster's voice you hear on the tape is that of the late Walter Cronkite.
Notice the lack of extraneous information. There was no need then for three or four simultaneous methods of news imput (constant voice overs from news casters, extra film footage in the corner of the screen, scrolling text declaring "news" completely unrelated to the story). The news organizations of the day realized the immense importance of this story, and let the event speak for itself.
As I was searching YouTube for appropriate video of this historic occurrence, I was disheartened by the number of conspiracy theorists who insist the moon landings never happened. Besides an addiction to sensationalism, this shows a lack of scientific knowledge and education. The doubts they have can be easily researched and understood, especially in light of the information available to anyone on the internet.
I think time has dimmed our understanding of the level of achievement that was reached by all the Apollo astronauts. Computers at the time had a fraction of the calculating ability that is available today in such everyday objects as telephones and watches, and they took up entire buildings. Most of the planning and calculating necessary to get the space program running was done by hand, or, rather, by brain. We were moving into uncharted territory and the astronauts risked their lives for exploration and science.
There is great irony in the fact that we are so much more technologically advanced today than we were on July 20, 1969 and yet, much of our technology is used for a sort of self gratification and national defense without looking forward to explore the last, great, "final frontier".
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2 comments:
im only going to comment on those conpsiracy theorists out there. they don't have a "point". the moon landing happened and that is a fact, the pics of the earth taken from the moon were taken by the moon landing crew. there is no fraud. its all real. so they might as well suck it up and stop their ridiculous theories.
I absolutely agree with you, Marilena! What frightens me is that 40 years after the fact, this isn't being celebrated as a scientific achievement--its being doubted as a lie and a conspiracy!!! Apparently, we've gotten to the point in this society where not only doubt the existence of God, we doubt things that have happened within (some of) our own lifetimes! I fear for society's future.
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