Tales of a Naturalist, Musician, Firefighter, and Radio Host: To the Moon!

Today is the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. It was a long, but fast road to get to that point. The United States completed a goal in about 8 1/2 years that would have otherwise taken decades.

For many years, there was little interest in bringing this country into the space age. However, that all changed in October of 1957, when the Soviet Union launched a satellite named Sputnik into space. The cold war was in overdrive at that time, and many people feared that if the Soviet Union dominated space, Earth would be next. This brought about an incredible space race.

The National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA) began operation in October of 1958, taking over for its predecessor, the National Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). There was only one rocket capable of putting a satellite or person into space in the U.S. at the time, the Redstone Rocket, which was the first intercontinental ballistic missile. The Mercury 7 astronauts were all vying to be the first person in space.

Prior to launching a person into space, NASA sent a satellite, and a chimpanzee named Ham into space to make sure someone could survive up there. Allen B. Shepard was chosen to be the first American astronaut into space, with a launch scheduled around the beginning of May. However, on April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union flew Yuri Gagarin into orbit. Shepard followed with approximately 15 minutes in space on May 5, 1961.

The United States was behind in the space race, and President Kennedy sent Vice President Johnson to NASA to figure out where they could get ahead in space. Their conclusion was that they could possibly beat the Soviet Union to the Moon.

On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy addressed a special joint session of Congress, and put forth the goal to get a man to the Moon, and return him safely to Earth before the decade was out. At this point, the United States only have 15 minutes of manned space flight. NASA had not yet flown its own rocket into space. No American had been in orbit, or on an Extra Vehicular Activity (spacewalk). Computers were very primitive. Not only had the technology to get to the Moon not been invented, but the tools to make that technology were still not in existence.

It was decided to use three space programs with very specific goals to get to the Moon:

Mercury - Get one astronaut in space, and in orbit at a time.

Gemini - Get two astronauts in space, rendezvous two craft together, and get out of the spacecraft (Extra Vehicular Activity).

Apollo - Get 3 astronauts to the moon and back.

As the programs progressed, more astronauts were brought into NASA. Project Gemini brought both Neil Armstrong, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. During Gemini, both astronauts proved they had the right stuff. Armstrong avoided what could have been two disasters by keeping calm when his Gemini spacecraft malfunctioned and put them in rapid spin in space, and when the Lunar Module live flight simulator malfunctioned, and he had to eject. If it hadn't been for Buzz Aldrin pioneering the underwater training, the astronauts could have never gotten out of the spacecraft and done their tasks on the Moon.

On July 16, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were launched aboard a 363 foot (35 story) Saturn V Rocket to the Moon. The rocket carried a million gallons of fuel, and still is the largest rocket ever flown from anywhere on Earth.

July 20, 1969 brought the separation of the Columbia Command Module, and the Eagle Lunar Module in Lunar orbit. Michael Collins piloted the command module around the Moon, and Armstrong and Aldrin journeyed to the surface.

When the Eagle was over its schedule landing spot, Armstrong looked down, and saw R.V. sized boulders throughout the area. He stayed calm, and leveled out the spacecraft, flying until they found a suitable landing spot in the Sea of Tranquility. When he set down, there were only a few seconds of fuel left before the automatic abort. The first radio transmission from the moon was, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

After a mandatory rest period, the astronauts ventured out of the spacecraft. Commander Neil Armstrong was the first to the surface. His immortal words were, "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind." The transmission was a little garbled, and the existence of the (a) has been debated ever since. He definitely meant to say "a man" since that is grammatically correct.

The landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon was one of the great moments in our world's history. If you talk to people who were old enough to remember that event, they can tell you exactly were they were at that moment. I was not born several years after the landing, but have a similar imprint in my mind of the Challenger disaster, and a few other events in my life.

In going to the moon, people learned about what Earth would have been like at its very beginning. There is evidence of major astronomical events on the moon, that has long been erased be the weathering on Earth.

The technological push of the space race also brought us far ahead of where we would be otherwise. Many of the technologies that we take for granted now, were developed or seeded at that time.

I saw a taped interview with Neil Armstrong at the Smithsonian a few years ago. He made a great point that the space race was a way for the United States and the Soviet Union to work out the tensions of the cold war in a peaceful way.

The effort go get to the Moon was undertaken by many thousands of people, and thousands of industrial firms and universities. Apollo 11's mission patch shows an eagle landing on the Moon with an olive branch in its talons. The names of the astronauts were not on that mission patch because it was an effort of so many to get to the moon. In an interview with Michael Collins, he talks about touring the world after the mission, and how wherever they went people would say "we did it" rather than "you did it," which shows what a great moment this was not only in American history, but also the history of the world.

In this day and age, I would love to see more events that bring the whole world together. We need more heroes like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and the other astronauts and NASA workers whose work and sacrifices culminated in bringing the world together with the landing at the Sea of Tranquility of July 20, 1969.

Below I have several pictures of the moon that I have taken over the last few months: