The  largest operational launch vehicle ever produced thunders off it’s pad, on a trip from the Earth to the Moon!

 

Forty years ago today, three astronauts embarked on one of the most extraordinary voyages of exploration in human history.  The launch of Apollo 11 was the first step in the culmination of a dream, articulated by President John F. Kennedy, and brought to fruition by the hard work of some 400,000 engineers, scientists, technicians, designers, builders, and other dreamers.  For Denise, Doug, myself, and all our brothers and sisters who share the dream of adventure on the final frontier, this was a very special moment in time.

 

On the morning of July 16, 1969, I woke up at 3:24 am Honolulu time.  (The launch was scheduled for 9:32 am Eastern time, but living in Honolulu, it was six hours earlier.)  I had borrowed my parents’ alarm clock to be sure that I didn’t oversleep.  I set the clock for 3:25 am, but was so excited that I woke up a minute before the alarm went off!  Even as a child, I knew that this was a singular moment in history.  I trundled off to the living room and turned on the black-and-white television.  Walter Cronkite’s face appeared on the screen.  Back in those days, satellite time was very expensive, and only the most important news stories were covered “live via satellite.”  The flight of Apollo 11 was one such story.

 

 

Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. On their way to the greatest adventure in human history.

 

“Uncle Walter” was visibly trying to contain his excitement at the historic event.  He maintained his cool as he reported the last few minutes of the countdown.  Those minutes took forever.  Project Apollo was a “crash program,” America’s entry in the race for space with the Soviet Union.  To a child, the years leading up to the lunar landing seemed to last an eternity.  In fact, it was a highly-accelerated effort because of the high national priority that President Kennedy had assigned to space exploration.  It was less than only a little over eight years since the visionary president had asked the nation to “commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”  Kennedy later noted that “We choose to go to the Moon… not because it is easy, but because it is hard.”

 

 

 

363 feet high, 7.5 million pounds of thrust and the aspirations of the human race.

 

Then, suddenly, the count reached T-minus fifteen seconds, and the Apollo’s guidance system took over.  At T-minus nine, the five massive F-1 rocket engines stirred to life.  Hints of rocket exhaust emerged from the base of the Saturn V rocket.  Two seconds, and the vehicle was committed to launch.  Zero, and Apollo 11 lumbered into the air.  For several long seconds, the massive rocket inched upward, almost at a crawl.  Then a voice announced “the tower is clear.”  Apollo 11 continued skyward, faster and faster.  

 

Soon it was out of range of the television cameras.  Apollo 11, carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, was on its way to the Moon and into history.

 

-Mike

 

 

 

 

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

  

It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.

 

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, “Because it is there.”

Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.

Thank you.

John F. Kennedy – September 12, 1962