Today is the 40th anniversary of the first and only* manned landing on the moon. *(I’ve been corrected).
On Sunday, 1969 July 20, the world watched on live television as the Apollo 11 landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong exited the craft and walked on the surface of the moon and planted the American flag and said his famous line:
That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong (RIP August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012)
I was born in 1969, a few months after this occurred…so I have no experience seeing it.
How about you? Did you see man land on the moon in July 1969?
***
I didn’t see the Apollo 11 land on the moon…but I grew up in Florida and I remember the first reusable Space Shuttle. It was the “Space Shuttle Columbia” and it flew it’s first mission in 1981.
Since I grew up in Florida, which is where NASA launches the Space Shuttles from, my high school used to have all of the students and teachers go outside whenever a Space Shuttle was scheduled to be launched because we could watch it in the sky from the schoolyard.
Since we were teenagers, most of us were bored of watching every single Space Shuttle launch. So on Tuesday, 1986 January 28, I remember being outside to watch another launch…this time of the Space Shuttle Challenger (which had the first female astronaut and Japanese-American astronaut on board).
It was just another launch to us teenagers…until it exploded in midair!
We all ran inside and turned on the television news.
All seven of the crew perished in that tragedy.
RIP.
(Also, the entire crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia (the original Space Shuttle) died when the craft disintegrated on re-entry in 2003).
Tokyo Five 
The photo is not correct. They did not have a moon buggie with them.
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I know … someone told me that in a comment yesterday.
(Update (2012 Sept 27): I changed the photo in this post to one of Neil Armstrong (that I found on Google Images)).
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It’s Apollo 15 commander Dave Scott, July 1971. And what the heck with your sentence about the only (so far) landing? There were six between 1969 and ’72. Best wishes……
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You’re right…I should have checked my facts before I posted.
According to Wikipedia, there have been twelve manned landings on the moon.
I edited this post.
I changed the photo to one of Neil Armstrong, I always updated this post (that was written in 2009) to mention Mr. Armstrong’s passing last month (August 2012), and I scratched the line about only one moon landing.
I think this post is accurate now.
Thank you.
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The photo is not Neil Armstrong, since there is a lunar rover in it. The rover did not happen until Apollo 15.
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Oh, my mistake then.
I guess you know though… Neil Armstrong died yesterday.
RIP
(Update (2012 Sept 27): I changed the photo in this post to one of Neil Armstrong (that I found on Google Images)).
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I remember the Challenger and Columbia tragedies. I hope the crew that’s currently on the Space Station make it back safely.
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Yes, noone wants to see anymore tragic news.
There’s a Japanese astronaut on the Space Station right now…so he’s sometimes on the news here (in Japan).
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The Russians have had many disasters in their space history. Some are known while many others are believed to have happened but have been hidden by the old Soviets. I have heard that it is believed that the Russian have lost many more lives in their space program then the Americans.
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Yes, often Communist (and other) governments lie about any problems their country has.
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Have the Russians had similar disasters? I have not read about any.
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Yes, of course. Being an astronaut (or “cosmonaut”, as the Russian ones are usually referred to as) is a dangerous job.
But America has launched more rockets into space than Russia has, so America has had more accidents than they have…but Russia’s space programs have had disasters.
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on that day in 1969, I was in a bank in Bangkok, cashing a check. There was a TV set on the counter, and everyone watched in silence and wonder…
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Yes, I’m sure.
It must have been a monumental event!
I’m sure you saw the 1986 Challenger tragedy…and the 2003 Columbia tragedy too.
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