Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D.
We came in peace for all mankind
I am an historian. I teach the Cold War to teenagers. I know those words, on the plaque attached to the lunar landing module in the Sea of Tranquility, left there by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 50 years ago, are not true. The USA did not send astronauts to Earth's satellite in peace for all mankind. It went to the Moon because JFK had needed to give the country a boost after repeated Soviet successes in the Space Race back in the early 1960s. The Johnson administration had continued to support NASA, in part at least, to distract the country from the social divides his policies were opening up, and the escalating catastrophe he was presiding over in Vietnam. It was Richard Nixon, the president these landings occurred under, who cancelled further manned lunar landings. After a brief exploration, America turned its back on the Moon. No person has been there since 1972. No space probes visited between the mid 1970s and mid 1990s. And the memory of Project Apollo is very much fading. Of the 12 men to have walked on the Moon, only four are still alive. The dreams of the early Space Age have faded and cooled.
I know all this. And yet...
It is impossible not to be inspired by the Apollo missions, and the early years of space exploration. Impossible not to marvel at the idea that people flew to another world, using calculations done on a slide rule, in a device with less thinking power than a single app on your phone. That science came on leaps and bounds, both our understanding of the universe, but also in terms of 'spin off' products that we use in our everyday lives. And this was all achieved without human killing human.
Surely, that is worth another shot?
We cannot predict the new forces, powers, and discoveries that will be disclosed to us when we reach the other planets and set up new laboratories in space. They are as much beyond our vision today as fire or electricity would be beyond the imagination of a fish.
Arthur C. Clarke, Space and the Spirit of Man, 1965
The view from the Eagle lunar lander, out over the Sea of Tranquility
Eagle, with the Earth above it. This picture contains every human being apart from three
Buzz Aldrin, descending the Eagle's ladder. At this point, Neil Armstrong was still the only person to have walked on the Moon
The plaque on the lunar lander
The only clear picture of Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface
Tranquility Base
The face of success- Neil Armstrong, returning to the Eagle
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