Just in case you are under a Martian rock, you know today is the 40th anniversary of man landing on the moon. I wasn’t alive back then. I can’t remember my first space memory. Well beside visiting Mission Control in Houston during some shuttle mission. Can’t remember which one and likely couldn’t guess. I remotely remember when Rick Husband went up on first mission and had heard a mention that he was on the 2003 Columbia mission. Apollo 13 and a 5th grade science project really is my connection to space. Even with this stacked against me, I love space. Never wanted to be an astronaut but knowledge of the cosmos makes me happy.
Even with all of this being said, I do have a memory of Apollo 11. Wait what? That’s right, I have a memory of Apollo 11. For various projects, I’ve had to read newspaper headlines from the 1960s and 70s. The latest project is no different. While searching for a needle in a burnt haystack, I loved reading what the people said, felt, focused upon. Often events like Apollo 11 are isolated from their time. John F. Kennedy’s comments are often seen as this heroic speech. We had to make it in time to honor our fallen president. The funny thing is this speech barely made headlines in 1961. Sure a two paragraph might make it to page 5, but it was not an earth-shattering speech. Projections for landing on the moon during the Eisenhower administration was 1970 or 1971. How much support Eisenhower wanted to give NASA is debateable. What is clear is having a projection off by a few years happens.
Like with Apollo 8 (another big step for mankind), other events occurred in that year and around that time. It seemed like the public was caught in Apollo fever to go to their normal lives during the day. That’s what I like about newspapers, at least from the past. The context is not as lost as a when viewing a video clip. You notice things that have been forgotten or seen what people were thinking at that moment. My view of the moon landing has been at least less hindsight because of these “time machine” articles. I only wish it could be done more often.
