Forty years ago today Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy (at the time) to begin its flight to the Moon. As a child I followed the space program with a nerdy delight. I was a little young when the Mercury program began, but I caught up quickly and I followed everything through Gemini and Apollo. I read the magazine articles on various lifting body re-entry designs, the boosters that were used, the lunar lander and rover concepts, the Agena rendezvous and space walk missions - the works.
I loved it. I was enthralled. I was thrilled by the successes, angered and saddened by the tragedy and sat in rapt attention watching the launches.
July of 1969 was a magical month. It was not, as I hoped, the beginning of an age of space exploration. It was, however, the realization of an astonishing human endeavour. Was it all altruistic? Of course not. It was, however, amazing and magical and for a 10 year old boy – and avid reader of science fiction and lover of science – it was a dream come true. Well, by proxy at least.
It was wonderful to have in the world when I was a child.
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