Moon Walk, July 20, 1969

I grew up in rural Idaho in a home without television. But forty years ago today, our family stopped by a neighbor’s home on the way home from evening church service to watch television coverage of the the moon landing. What a wonderful experience! I had grown up through the age of Sputnik, Vanguard, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. The first time I can remember being punished for doing something wrong was when I stole paper from my first grade classroom to draw pictures of rockets! To witness the first manned space flight to the moon was fantastic.

Flag on Moon

So today, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of this event, I tip my hat again to all those who made it possible – from President Kennedy who challenged the nation to accomplish this incredible feat – to the engineers who used slide rules, not handheld calcualtors, to design the equipment – to the brave astronauts who had the privilege to make the journey. Bravo all!