Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.
That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine.
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.
I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful.
The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.
Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind.
I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.
I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.
July 20, 1969 was summer. I was 14 years old and I think I had just finished my freshman year of high school at Andrew Hill High Shcool, go Falcons! I was playing Buck Owens, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and George Jones on the record player.
ReplyDeleteWe lived in Santa Barbara, and were glued to the TV.
ReplyDeleteI was in a field in Korat, Thailand where a big screen had been erected. Thousands of Thais looked on and they had such great respect and admiration for America.
ReplyDeleteBut I offer you another quote from Armstrong: "The first man to walk on the moon blasted President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s back-to-the-moon program on Tuesday, saying that the move is “devastating” to America’s space effort."