People tend to think first of the momentous achievement involved with putting a living person on the moon, and forget the equally daunting task of returning that person to earth alive. 40 years ago, human beings accomplished that second task. I seem to vaguely remember being woken for the landing itself, but not being able to stay awake to watch the first step. I'm honestly not sure. But I do remember being riveted by the event, and I was much more emotionally involved with the astronauts' fate afterwards. The days it took for them to return to earth were nail-biters, and the splash-down and recovery of the crew was a much more exciting moment for me than the actual walking on the moon. Picture from NASA's Image of the Day Gallery; front page here.
Friday, July 24, 2009
It Was 40 Years Ago Today
People tend to think first of the momentous achievement involved with putting a living person on the moon, and forget the equally daunting task of returning that person to earth alive. 40 years ago, human beings accomplished that second task. I seem to vaguely remember being woken for the landing itself, but not being able to stay awake to watch the first step. I'm honestly not sure. But I do remember being riveted by the event, and I was much more emotionally involved with the astronauts' fate afterwards. The days it took for them to return to earth were nail-biters, and the splash-down and recovery of the crew was a much more exciting moment for me than the actual walking on the moon. Picture from NASA's Image of the Day Gallery; front page here.
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