We just did a live broadcast on slooh.com to commemorate the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11. I had already decided what to say following film of the mission’s launch.
Then the impact of seeing it.
I didn’t realize how emotional it would be.
I was still a teenager. Looking back, I wasn’t very informed in a society where staying informed was more difficult. The magnitude of the achievement didn’t hit me immediately.
It was Sunday evening. I was driving to work at WSAR in Fall River, MA. I stopped at the rest area on Route 24.
You didn’t need a radio. Sound was everywhere. I walked the parking lot listening to Mission Control and the astronauts on a symphony of car radios. People stood near their car windows on this muggy New England night when few cars had a/c.
I missed nothing by listening to radio. That 16mm footage of the landing you’ve probably seen wasn’t processed until after the astronauts returned. There was no video on the way in.
Apollo 11 on the Moon is one of those “I remember what I was doing” events, like JFK’s assassination and 9/11.
I’m no longer a supporter of manned space flight. Apollo taught us space is very difficult, very costly and not particularly practical.