Academic

One Small Step For Man

By Tim Zinnecker

On this day in history -- July 20, 1969 -- two major events happened in my life.

First, I celebrated my tenth birthday.  (By my calculations, then, today I'm turning ... no ... it can't be ... please say it isn't so ... this would explain the application I received a few days ago to join some group calling itself AARP ... now I'm feeling despondent ... must ... press ... on ....)

And second, Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon.  You'll remember exactly where you were if you were born in 1962 or earlier (yeah, there are a few of us).  Me?  I was living in sleepy St. Peters MO, eating birthday cake as I watched history unfold before my very eyes on a small black-and-white TV.   How we landed a man on the moon and safely returned him to earth is still beyond my limited ability to comprehend, and it certainly ranks at or near the top of my list of greatest accomplishments achieved by mankind during my half-century of life.

Now I live in southeast Houston, only a ten-minute drive from NASA's Johnson Space Center.  Today marks the 40th anniversary of Armstrong's lunar walk.  The Houston Chronicle has a nice collection of 72 photographs here (the first of which appears at the top right of this post).  And you can find additional stories on this historic event at NASA's web site here.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on July 20, 2009 (boomark / email).