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On This Day, 53 Years Ago, America Landed a Man on the Moon
This is perhaps the most momentous achievement in the history of America. To date, no other country has landed its astronauts on the Moon. Landing ours was only the first tiny step for humanity in its journey to the stars. May it not be the last. And may America be the leader on that great quest.
God Bless America, the Greatest Country on God’s Green (and getting greener) Earth.
Published in History
Heck, I thought it was three! It was a long time ago.
I’ll send you a PM after I download some podcasts . . .
Nope, Armstrong and Aldrin went down to the surface; Collins remained in orbit.
Nah, it all happened in the Arizona desert and O. J. Simpson was one of the astronauts. Fake news!
That was for Mars, not the Moon.
Three went. Two landed.
Loneliest human ever for a bit.
Michael Collins orbited the moon, listening to country & western tunes when he was out of radio contact on the dark side.
The far side. There is no dark side, really.
Picky, picky, picky……….
Chicago’s Bill Mellberg did a routine, Neil, Buzz and What’s His Name. Through his connection with Apollo 17’s Jack Schmitt, he exchanged a couple of messages with Armstrong. He was looking forward to meeting Armstrong at an Apollo 16 40th, but Neil died from a botched operation.
From the Star Trek: Enterprise episode, “First Flight.”
“Magnificent desolation.”
Also the title of Aldrin’s second memoir.
I almost met Neil Armstrong. He came down to fly the plane I was working on for a TV show. Every engineer in the flight control lab wore a suit and tie. Some of us even shaved. In the end, he and the TV crew bypassed us It turns out Armstrong was a little shy about meeting people. One of the producers gave us all autographed photos of our airplane. I still have mine.
Autographed? The plane signed them? :-)
It made my dad happy. It was his 34th birthday. He is 87 now.
For a long time, it was widely believed that Neil Armstrong flubbed his quote by leaving the “a” out of the “One small step for a man” part. Then, a few years ago, someone digitally enhanced the recording and the “a” was there. Armstrong was vindicated!
The good news is that they made the discovery while Armstrong was still alive, so he was aware of his vindication.
Careful with enough digital enhancements you can see the saguaro cactus in the background 😛
Uh Oh!
And the Hollywood set backdrop . . .