Some of this is my memory of the event, some is reading web sites, and
some is watching videos on Youtube.

Since I think, note that word _think_, any and all conspiracy theories
will be ignored. Many have been debunked as the crap that they are. So
I will not mention them otherwise. Humanity has better things to do
anyway.

Here I go.

[ background music: a piano solo by Larisa, a few seconds from time to
time of a violin solo, and the occasional pedal steel guitar solo.
Well, some giant bronze cymbals to. At the appropriate moments. ]

I remember that day long ago. Humans were going to head for Earth's
Moon. The astronauts had trained hard, some test flights had gone
badly. Apollo 8 had circled the moon. This was to be launch day for
the landing. Three days it would take to get there.

A bright sunny day at Cape Canaveral. A large crowd there. Millions
and millions watching television sets around the world. I was one of
them.

Fuel aboard, clock counting down. The anticipation builds. The
countdown clock goes down to zero.

Liftoff !

I can almost feel the engine roar in my chest and in the air.

The Saturn V/Apollo 11 clears the tower. Roll sequence starts. The
ship and astronauts make their up to Earth orbit, riding on the
shoulders of giants who all made this possible. The ground crews, the
engineers, and all those with imaginations and dreams.

Up in orbit. The LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) and the Command Module
join their tunnels together. They break orbit, firing the engine that
will take them to the Moon.

Three days later they arrive and take up orbit around the Moon.

The LEM separates and heads for the surface of the Moon, the CM stays
in orbit with one person on board.

Boulders are spotted in the landing zone, large ones. Manual control
is taken. They start moving sideways to clear the boulders. Not close
to the surface by much, 60 seconds of fuel left.

They get closer, 30 seconds of fuel left before they have to fire the
ascent engine and return to orbit.

The engine flame starts kicking up dust.

from Houston, "15 seconds !"

"Contact light !"

The engine shuts down.

Then, "Houston, Tranquility Base here ! The Eagle has Landed !"

"We copy you down Eagle, a bunch of guys were turning blue ! We can
breathe again !"

Walter Cronkite becomes speechless as the astronauts walk out onto the
Lunar Surface.

"One giant leap..."

The landing took place on July 20, 1969.

What a wonderful feeling it was. We had made a small journey to
another world. The future waited, Mars and the rest of our Solar
System beckoned.

[ exit ]