Apollo 11 – Forty years later
July 20th, 2009 | 
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The Apollo 11 mission to land man on the moon is a source of great debate whether it was faked or an actual historic event. You chose to believe what you want. Personally, I believe we achieved a feat not since matched. Regardless of the geo-political issues of the time, a common goal was defined for the nation, we experienced uncommon efforts by hundreds of thousands of people, and ultimate sacrifices were made by a few.
Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr., as seen in this NASA media photo. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon.
Although Apollo 11 was a huge success, I would like to remind everyone of the tragic loss of the AS-204 mission crew. Command Pilot Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee died in a fire during a command module launch pad test. The AS-204 mission was re-designated Apollo 1 in honor of the crew. It is unfortunate that sacrifices like this occur, but it is in sacrifices like this of a few that we as a whole succeed.
We went to explore the Moon, and in fact discovered the Earth.
-Eugene Cernan
One of My fondest memories growing up was watching Walter Cronkite reporting on the Apollo program from the "Moon Desk" on the CBS Evening News. His passing is our loss.
As a young pre-teenager, I remember my dad buying an Estes rocket kit of the Saturn 1B. I spent hours in my room painstakingly cutting fins and gluing tubes. Finally, this monster of a rocket was complete. The Saturn 1B model rocket had room for four engines. I had two. We took the rocket, the launch pad, and the home-made electronic launcher to the park. Come to find out, two engines were perfect for the weight of this model. The launch was realistic in time as the real launch, the engines bellowed smoke, the model shook on the pad, and the rocket slowly lifted off. It's flight and recovery was flawless.
I wonder what Walter would have said.
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