Volume 11 , Issue 29

Looking Back ... 40 Years Ago Today

What were you doing 40 years ago today, July 20, 1969, Sunday? Were you one of 500 million people that were seated in front of a television set, mesmerized by the continuous television coverage of the lunar module's descent toward the moon's cratered surface?

To many of those 500 million TV viewers the idea of a landing on the moon an almost unimaginable. Though, we were also intrigued with a television series that was also on television in 1969, "Star Trek."

This NW Okie was 21 years-old, single, junior college student attending Summer school at Northwestern State College, in Alva, Oklahoma and planning a wedding to be united in marriage ten days later (July 30th, 1969), was one of many glued to a television set at my friend Judy and her husband's house on the Eastside of Enid, Oklahoma, the evening of July 20, 1969 with my fiance.

Let us go back to the Apollo 11 Saturn V space vehicle as it lifted off at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on July 16, 1969. It would be four days later when a scheduled moon landing created "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" was made by a Apollo 11 crew, Neil A. Armstrong, civilian aeronautical engineer from Ohio, as Edwin E. ?Buzz? Aldrin Jr., Air Force test pilot from New Jersey, watched from the Lunar Module. Overhead in the Apollo 11 space craft, Michael Collins, another Air Force test pilot reared in a military household and spent time living in Oklahoma, was circling the moon.

This was also a time when the Space lift offs got continuous live coverage of CBS, NBC, and ABC. and everyone was gathered around their TV sets (black & white) and radios to watch and listen as Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. were preparing for their lunar landing on the moon surface.

As events unfolded in space, Oklahoma Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, a Weatherford, Oklahoma native and part of the Apollo 10 crew with Eugene Cernan, stood in Mission Control and explained each move made by the astronauts in meticulous detail to others.

At the precise moon landing, Astronaut Armstrong announced at 3:10p.m., July 20, 1969, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." When Armstrong landed, he only had 17 seconds of fuel left. They were that close from aborting the mission that day.

Six hours and 40 minutes elapsed between the lunar module landing and Armstrong's appearance on the lunar module ladder. The fuzzy, black and white images were telecast worldwide via a camera mounted on the outside of the spacecraft.

On that day in Summer of '69, the streets were virtually empty in cities like Enid, Oklahoma City, Lawton and Tulsa. Theaters entertained a few stragglers. Gas station attendants sat around transistor radios. Telephone lines were silent as viewers gathered around to view and listen at 9:56 p.m., as Astronaut Armstrong lowered his bulky boot onto the moon?s chalky surface and uttered his first words: ?That?s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.?

On that July day back in the Summer of '69 many viewers jotted down in their journals, ?TODAY, JULY 20, 1969 ? AT 3:14 P.M. THE LM, LUNAR MODULE LANDED ON THE MOON. NEIL ARMSTRONG WAS THE FIRST MAN OF THE U.S. TO WALK ON A FOREIGN PLANET!?

What did you jot down in your journals on that Summer day, July 20th, 1969? Where did you watch and listen?

As our imaginations unfurled, we watched something great and gained a great deal. Did we also lose something in the process? Did we forever lose the mysteries of the moon?

NO! In this NW Okie's mind, there are still mysteries to seek and great things to accomplish as our creative minds are unleashed into outer space.

You might have heard Walter Cronkite memorable closing newsline at the end of the Moon landing story, "That's the way it was!"
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