Moon Day Musings!

July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap for Mankind

"Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars"

- Les Brown

 

“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”

Neil Armstrong

Astronaut Edwin Aldrin seen in the reflection walking on the surface of the Moon near the leg of the Lunar Module (LM) ‘Eagle’ during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity.

Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon. The image, which was released on March 7, 2012, even shows the remnants of Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin's historic first steps on the surface around the Lunar Module (Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)

(Photos: NASA)

 

Human footprints were first imprinted on the Moon on Sunday 20th July 1969.  The International Moon Day is being observed on this day annually to raise awareness among the public and generate support for sustainable exploration and utilization of the Moon - our nearest neighbor in space.  On this day (also a Sunday), I recollect my experience of that eventful day in 1969, and of my visits much later to two major NASA centers associated with the endeavor.

 

A slice of history

On 25 May 1961, President John F Kennedy, addressing a joint session of the US Congress, made a bold promise to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade.  His prophetic promise came to fruition on 20 July 1969 when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin guided the Apollo 11 spacecraft on to the lunar surface excitedly exclaiming, “Houston, Tranquillity Base here, the Eagle has landed!”

Those were the days when we had no TV in India and even radio service was primitive. FM was yet to make its debut. BBC and Voice of America (VOA) were the most popular foreign radio services accessible in the country via short wave.  Their audio quality was a far cry from what we are used to on FM today.  Yet, I was an avid follower of both. The VOA used to cover NASA’s lunar exploration missions extensively, often with live broadcasts from several vantage points, especially Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the (present) Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

For much of the Apollo 11 program, I would sit glued to the VOA live crackling broadcasts, from launch to splashdown. On that eventful day, now being celebrated worldwide as Moon Day, VOA was on air non-stop for about 22 hours, from lunar landing to redocking with the mother ship in lunar orbit. I recall having heard vital segments of this marathon live broadcast, and even making recordings on a fancy transistor tape recorder I had purchased in Frankfurt on my way back from the USA just two years previously. Unfortunately, these recordings have not survived.

Incidentally, the conquest of the Moon has been hailed as one of the greatest technological achievements in human history.  I am glad to have been in the prime of my life when this was played out.

A pictorial recap   

In 2017, I was able to set foot on the Kennedy Space Center in Florida during my month-long tour of the USA the prime focus of which was a total solar eclipse on 21 August.  A key attraction was the display of a gigantic unused Saturn V launch vehicle which had lifted off the Apollo 11 and subsequent missions of human lunar landings. Here are two pictures of this behemoth:

I am seen in front of the five gigantic thrusters of the first stage of an actual

Saturn V lunar launch vehicle

 

A side-on view of part of the gigantic first stage of the Saturn V lunar launch vehicle

Last year (2024) took me to the USA, again as part of a total solar eclipse visit.  Two days before the eclipse on 8 April, I spent a whole day at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas (see an inside view below).  

A prime attraction for me here was the Lunar Mission Control Center which has been preserved unchanged as a permanent museum. Below is a picture at the entrance to the building in which an entire upper floor houses this facility:

NASA Johnson Space Center: National Historic Landmark – Designated by

United States Dept. of the Interior

Below is a picture of the visitors’ entrance to the Apollo Mission Control Centre now preserved for posterity as a permanent display. 

At the entrance to the Apollo Mission Control Center

Here is a picture of the Mission Control Center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, preserved exactly as it appeared at the end of the Apollo lunar missions: 

A memorable picture of the Apollo Mission Control Center from the visitors’ gallery,

with the reflection of me (in stripes) caught in the act of taking the picture

[The original mission control center underwent a two-year restoration to return the room to a configuration identical to the one on July 20, 1969.]

Moon in the spotliight again!

Just under fifty days from now, on September 7, yet again a Sunday, the full Moon will present a rather strange appearance when it undergoes a total eclipse, with the Earth blocking the sunlight falling on it (see illustration below). 

The last time such an event happened and visible from India was on the late evening of 8th November 2022. Here is how it appeared during totality, a dull red-blood colored disk:

[While the eclipsed Sun during the brief period of totality is indeed invisible, such is not the case in a total lunar eclipse as sunlight scattered by the earth's atmosphere still illuminates the lunar surface though with considerably reduced intensity, and in the reddish end of the light spectrum.]

On September 7th, the partial phase of the lunar eclipse begins at 9:57 PM. The total phase begins at 11:01 PM and ends at 00:23 AM the next morning. This is the period of heightened interest for those who envision eclipses as spectacular sights to be seen and admired. However, the vast majority of people may 'play it safe' and choose to stay indoors, or, as is more likely, be altogether unaware of the event!

Epilogue

On the day after the Apollo 11 lunar exploration, a colleague and I addressed a gathering of students at my institution, the (then) Regional College of Education, Mysore, remarking how the Moon was no longer the same entity we had all known before, and the human footprints would probably endure till eternity.