There are times, safe at home and with fresh air in our lungs, we look at the moon at night – and wonder what it must have taken to send three men there, landing two of them on its surface.
We think of all the things that could have gone wrong and the science behind the endeavor – and marvel that some really smart people, and some really brave men, managed to pull it off.
And we wonder when the last time was that the nation was so united, so committed to a common goal, and so proud – and if we’ll ever see another moment like it.
I cried. I’ll never forget it. I was 13.
I was back home in the UK and us kids were up way way late and hugging the television. The adults did not have our stamina and had all gone to bed. The presenters were yammering on but none of us would leave and in the early early morning we realized that they were going to make a landing. There were technical issues but eventually you could hear them say the Eagle had landed and they were on the surface. The presenters stopped talking and all had these stunned looks on their faces. We hugged each other and said the words over and over and knew we would have to tell the adults what had happened the next day. It was brilliant.
I wonder what it would take to pull us together like that again. First flight to Mars? Some kind of global effort to save our own planet from overpopulation and pollution? It will take something big.
It’s still pretty freaking cool.
It is, isn’t it?
re-entry burn tomorrow. soft landing at sea. open hatch to release alien microbes into the sea and THEN and only then do the humans report to a 3 week quarantine…it’s a perfect plan. Seen any good sci-fi movies lately? The only missing elements are atomic radiation and Japanese extras. It just goes to show that these overly zealous engineers never go to the movies.
Andromeda Strain… enough said.