Forty-nine years ago today (July 20) marks the first manned landing on the Moon. Neil Armstrong first planted a foot step on the surface in the wee hours of the morning (US East coast time) the next day (July 21). What you may not know is: there was a small baby boom in the East coast hospitals 9 months later as couples needed something to do between the time of the landing and the walking.
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I just wrote a thing about this on facebook.
49 years. Forty. Nine. Years.
49 years after Kitty Hawk, there was a thriving, world-wide aviation industry.
49 years after Trinity, despite a huge backlash, 20% of US electricity was produced by nuclear power.
49 years after becoming the first (and so far, only) country to walk on the freakin moon, you can't even get into low earth orbit without hitchhiking,
Ozman
Level 7
July 21, 2018
0
Good last point. I believe the astronauts themselves express their great sadness that their heroic efforts have largely not been followed up in space. For me the US space program is a perfect metaphor for the US as a whole: lost its way, lost its nerve, doesn't know what it stands for, no longer has the will to do the "hard things", as JFK put it.
I was 14, so no celebratory sex, but I remember like it was yesterday. Here in Australia it was July 21st and Monday and during the day. It's wasn't a holiday, but what kid was going to school while dudes walked on the moon? I thought the world was going to be like 2001 A Space Oddessy, instead the world has turned into the shit-fest we live in. And just two weeks later Manson and his cult of morons went a-slaughtering, a portent of the real future ahead of us, as I look back. But, I've never forgotten the thrill of that day, and what we as a species can do when we follow our better natures and science. Of course, what they might have discovered on the moon over Apollos 11 to 17, and never told us, well that's something else again. Sadly, back then as a kid, I thought NASA was the most amazing organization in the world. These days it's Never A Straight Answer NASA and I barely believe a word they say about anything. Loss of youthful idealism indeed.
David1955
Level 8
July 20, 2018
0
My 2nd daughter as born on the night of the moon launch, and I was home the day they landed. I was 22 years old. It was absolutely unbelievable that earthlings stood on another planet for the first time in history. ( I know the moon isn't a planet but you know what I mean). We were outside at night looking at the moon, to memorialize the occasion. Just to see the moon in the sky, so far away, and know that humans were standing on it, was mind blowing.
Wisewoman3
Level 7
July 20, 2018
1
@Wisewoman3 Your post was informative - I didn't know that the Moon wasn't a planet but that it's considered a natural satellite. I kind of felt rather silly for not knowing that - like I had missed an email or something or that I had the wrong teacher. However, then I looked at the second most popular question which was "is the moon made from cheese" - I didn't feel so bad at that point 
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I remember being as excited as a kid could be. I begged my mom to let me stay up to watch, we settled on a compromise instead. I went to bed on time, but she got me up so I could watch it as it happened. It was just a couple of weeks before my 8th birthday.
It was the most exciting thing I had ever seen. I wanted to grow up to be a scientist so badly.
KKGator
Level 9
July 20, 2018
2
I remember that very well. Balls of steel those guys had. That event Is what got me on my path to Science. I rember as a kid I had all kinds of posters, models of the mercury rockets, the saturn5.I couldn't get enough of it back then.
TristanNuvo
Level 8
July 20, 2018
1
@TheAstroChuck I started out with wanting to go into engineering with my fascination with NASA, I also had a thing for Chemistry. But then computers came out, And It was like love at first site. I've been in that field ever since.
But to this day I still have that feeling of what if I would have stayed with my dream of working with NASA.
I still follow as much as I can On NASA.com. and i'm a big fan of Elon Musk and space x.
Thanks for the heads up!
It was one of the strangest days of my life!
My friend Gary and I were hitchhiking from Santa Cruz back to Sacramento when we were dropped off in Emeryville next to Berkeley we walked to into town no one about no cars moving, it was like being in a Twilight Zone episode. Not one person walking anywhere, no cars moving anywhere! Finally we found a tavern with it front door open about an hour later! That is when we learned that that the USA had a man walking on the moon! We continues walking, then suddenly the streets fill with people and cars were now moving as we reached Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley. It remains one of my most haunting experiences of my life!
of-the-mountain
Level 9
July 20, 2018
1
@TheAstroChuck YES! A true anniversary to behold! If only I could find a rerun of that event and day in person!
The landing is actually my very first solid memory...watching it on TV...and everyone saying how important it was.
SkotlandSkye
Level 8
July 20, 2018
2
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