Forty-five years ago, on July 16, 1969, a Saturn-5 rocket was launched from Cape Kennedy on Florida’s northeast coast. Carrying three astronauts, the spacecraft circled the globe one and a half times, then re-ignited its engines and headed toward the moon. Much of the human race watched, excited and nervous.
Before Apollo 11, there had been almost five dozen unmanned lunar voyages. The goal of some was a simple flyby, sailing past the target to get a quick glimpse. Others were meant to go into orbit and take pictures. Still others were supposed to land, and transmit visual and digital data. A few were intended to retrieve rock and soil samples and bring them back for analysis.
More than half of these missions failed. Some never made it off the launch pad, or into orbit. Some missed the moon entirely, or crashed into it. And some arrived at their destination, only to experience what space agencies call a mechanical malfunction. In other words, something broke, got jammed, or just didn’t work.
I’m not sure the general public knew about most of those unsuccessful attempts. We’d watched several of them on television in our classrooms, but as soon as a rocket tipped over and burst into flames, the teacher would turn off the set and we’d go back to diagramming sentences or studying Bible stories. And we’d forget about the mechanical malfunction as quickly as we’d forgotten about yesterday’s hot lunch. There would always be another try in a few months.
Seventy-six hours after liftoff, the Apollo 11 crew was in lunar orbit. On July 20, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin separated from Michael Collins, the command module pilot, and descended to the surface. Maneuvering the lunar module over boulders and craters, they eventually settled down in a dry plain called the Sea of Tranquility, becoming – as far as we know – the first people to land on another world.
I had been working on a similar plan of my own.
There was a room on the ground floor at the front of our two-family brick house in the Bronx. It was a storage space, where my father kept his hand tools and a bronze-colored sword that he claimed was from the Civil War. There were also Christmas decorations and spare tires and dusty wooden cases of seltzer bottles. And there was the rocket ship I was building.
I wasn’t really building a rocket ship. I had neither the expertise nor the funding for that kind of project. But there was this girl in my second-grade class. I liked her, in that vague manner of seven-year-old boys, probably based on nothing more than the way she chewed on her pencil eraser while figuring out an arithmetic problem. One morning, after watching a launch, I told her that I was constructing a rocket in my house, and that if she wanted to, she could go with me into Earth orbit. This was 1962, and although we had been electrified by John Glenn’s heroics, the prospect of reaching the moon remained unrealistic. In fact, an issue of our Weekly Reader had flatly declared that such a thing would never happen, and that it was all but impossible. I didn’t dare contradict the Weekly Reader, so I limited my endeavor to a couple of loops around the planet. The girl accepted the offer, and seemed somewhat dazzled by my ambition.
But the truth is, there was no rocket ship in my house. There was a pile of junk that I inexplicably thought of as the raw materials I would need to build one: old umbrellas, oily bicycle chains, folded lawn chairs with torn webbing, a rusted cabinet of some sort, and an obsolete washing machine.
After months of listening to my evasive excuses and senseless explanations, the girl appeared at my house, without warning and accompanied by a friend. They demanded to see the rocket, and they wouldn’t leave unless I showed it to them. I led them into the storage room, and the three of us stood there for a minute, silently gazing at the assortment of objects stacked to the ceiling.
“Wow!” they said, because they, too, were seven years old. Satisfied at last, they went outside to jump rope and sing impossibly-intricate songs and talk about how stupid the boys were.
Meanwhile, NASA got its act together. After a major tragedy and several sparkling successes, it sent those men to the moon and – as President Kennedy had urged – returned them safely to the Earth. Six more missions followed, with a total of twelve astronauts treading on our only natural satellite. Three others almost died trying.
Nobody has been there since 1972. For a little while, it was a place we visited, a place that felt less remote and more familiar. The excursions were no doubt fueled as much by political competition and military paranoia as by liquid propellants. But most of us could ignore all that, and simply feel proud and hopeful about the accomplishment.
Subsequent generations have lost that connection. For them, the moon is once again a big, shiny rock that comes out at night. Still, it retains the power to make us stop, and stare. Especially when it’s full and looks enormous in the sky.
The moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical, so sometimes the distance between them is smaller than at other times. When the moon arrives at its closest point and is full, we call it a Super Moon. There was one this past weekend. If you missed it because of heavy clouds, or because you were busy constructing a rocket ship in your basement, there are two more coming up – on August 10 and September 9. The event in August will represent the moon’s nearest approach to Earth all year. And you can count on that. Unlike humans and their inventions, the moon is always where it’s supposed to be, and doing what it’s supposed to do. It never has a mechanical malfunction. And it never has to tell a lie just to impress a girl.
claywatkins
July 16, 2014
Every time I reflect on that time period I am amazed that we were able to get to the moon and back – it was an incredible feat. We were the leaders of the world and now we have to hitch a ride to get into space… Interesting. Love the story of your rocket ship ….. I dreamed something similar …. Hadn’t thought about it in years. Thank you.
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
It was an incredible thing. I still try to imagine the LM taking off from the surface of the moon, re-docking with the command module, leaving lunar orbit, flying all the way back to Earth, and splashing down in the Pacific — and it seems impossible.
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swamiyesudas
July 16, 2014
Naughty of You to have left that Girl on Earth, while You were enjoying Your Orbits! And as Your second picture shows, You definitely succeeded in building Your rocket. Kudos indeed. …I built all my castle in the Air. Did have a Meccano set, though! …Thanks for the dates of the Super Moon. Shall be watching out. Take Care!
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
We watched the huge, orange moon rise over a nearby river and then slip behind a band of clouds. Unforgettable.
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swamiyesudas
July 17, 2014
Thank You for sharing the news and information of all Your travels! 🙂
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Personal Concerns
July 16, 2014
This post, as usual, is an absolute delight to read. Kept chuckling throughout. The natural satellite’s predisposition to playing that hide n seek game with us is fascinating to say the least. In India, kids are told through several tales n lullabies that the moon is in fact their maternal uncle. The super moon you mentioned for this month is a big thing in India. Hindus observe the day of the full moon in this month (Ashadh in the Hindu calendar) as Guru Poornima (Guru-teacher and Poornima-Full Moon Day). It seems the regard for the moon is not as diminished in my country as elsewhere it seems to be.
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
It makes sense to observe and acknowledge the moon. Without it, life on our planet would be very different. Some scientists believe life would not even exist without the moon’s influence on the oceans.
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Personal Concerns
July 17, 2014
that’s true. In agreement. 🙂
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morristownmemos by Ronnie Hammer
July 16, 2014
Although I wasn’t as ambitious as you were in trying to build my own rocket ship, our results were the same, and the memories are wonderful! Thanks for this post. I loved it.
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
I agree about the memories. The decade of the ’60s was a complicated time, and for a few years, the moon landings gave people something to feel good about.
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Margo Karolyi
July 16, 2014
A company called ‘Space Adventures’ announced a couple of years ago that it was offering space ‘tourism’ flights to the moon on a Soyuz rocket (you don’t land but you’d fly around the moon at a distance of about 100 km and then come back home). The price tag is ‘in the neighbourhood of’ $150,000,000 per person, so if you have that girl’s phone number and a spare 300 million dollars in your bank account, you could still fulfill that boyhood promise!
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
I wonder how many carry-on bags you’re allowed. Also, is there an in-flight movie, and if so, do they still make you pay two dollars for the headphones?
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Terri S. Vanech
July 16, 2014
You got my day started with a smile. Wonder if that girl ever thinks of you and your rocket ship….
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
I hope not.
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Terri S. Vanech
July 17, 2014
🙂
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Doug Bittinger
July 16, 2014
Do you happen to know, Charles, if there is any truth to the rumor that when Buzz and Neil arrived and explored, they found the remains of Alice Kramden?
Oh, and congratulations on your early conquest of womankind. Well played.
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
No truth to that rumor. Ralph wasn’t as tough as he pretended to be.
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Mikels Skele
July 16, 2014
The amazing thing is, they did it all with slide rules. The computers they had then were as big as a house and less powerful than your phone, so they backed up their calculations the old fashioned way.
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
They sure did a lot with a little. The technology is certainly there today, but the space program has lost its focus — and most of its funding.
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helenofmarlowe
July 16, 2014
I remember those Weekly Readers. Are they still around? Maybe archived somewhere.
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
They are:
http://www.weeklyreader.com
I wish I’d saved those old issues. I also wonder if I’m remembering the moon article correctly. Probably not.
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icedteawithlemon
July 16, 2014
Perhaps it’s a good thing that we’ve left the moon alone since 1972 (or else all those boulders would have been blasted to make room for super highways, the craters would have been filled with refuse, and the Sea of Tranquility would be lined with condos). I was out with my camera for last weekend’s Super Moon, and I’ll be out again in August and September because even though I’m guilty of Googling for explanations to practically every subject that intrigues me, I still like knowing that a few things remain a mystery–I like staring at that “big, shiny rock” in the sky and pondering what might be rather than what is.
Another great post–I thoroughly enjoy when you weave your younger self into the story line. 🙂
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
I’m going to look into postponing the September full moon for about ten days. Just not sure who to speak to about it.
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genusrosa
July 16, 2014
“Wow!” says I, considerably older than seven. (“Brilliant post!” says the current version of me, who never thought boys were stupid because I had four brothers three of whom were Superheroes in my mind…and I once thought of building an atom smasher out of an old crockpot so your rocket ship sounds pretty cool)
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bronxboy55
July 18, 2014
I was talking with someone about atom smashers just the other day. I don’t know that I’ll ever comprehend how such a big, bulky machine can be used to deal with the smallest of things. Then again, I still haven’t figured out the self-cleaning oven.
Would the crockpot smash atoms really slowly?
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O. Leonard
July 16, 2014
Your post was a total flash-back pill. I was, by far, the biggest “space nut” in my family and my grade school, probably my whole town. I couldn’t get enough. I had every model of every rocket proudly displayed in my room. I watched every launch from start to finish, and, as I’m sure you remember, some were very early in the morning, and had intolerable holds at “T-Minus 3 minutes and holding” that could last for days. I was big into the Estes Model Rocket program and launched rockets at the school yard on Saturdays to the amazement of all the kids who ran around the neighborhood retrieving them from tree tops and roof tops. It was a nice trip down memory lane…..thanks. I wonder why I’m not retired from NASA.
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bronxboy55
July 18, 2014
I remember that feeling of disappointment when the countdown would get to a minute, or less, and then the launch would be scrubbed. I could never understand what could happen in those final seconds that was critical enough to delay the mission. Of course, subsequent disasters had us wishing they’d taken a little extra time.
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Chichina Guevara
July 16, 2014
A wonderful story, and as usual, you never disappoint. There is nothing more magical than a full, super moon.
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bronxboy55
July 18, 2014
Did you see it? We watched the moon come up over the West River. It was stunning. And it was great to see other people stop what they were doing to witness a natural event. I think the silence added to the effect.
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rangewriter
July 16, 2014
It really is amazing, those days seem so long ago, the technology so antiquated, and yet we could pull together to travel through space. Today we can’t seem to pull together to fix a bridge. What happened to this country?
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bronxboy55
July 18, 2014
There was a glimpse of it right after 9-11-01. Maybe we perform better when facing annihilation?
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rangewriter
July 18, 2014
Yeah, but what I saw after 9/11 was a frightening bunch of knee-jerking and chickens running around with their heads chopped of. That mania resulted is misdirected policies and a failure to look for and solve root causes. And we seem to just keep rolling down that path.
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wheremyfeetare
July 16, 2014
Thanks for the memories. I did notice the full moon this weekend but didn’t realize it was a Super Moon; I still stopped and stared.
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bronxboy55
July 18, 2014
Once the Super Moon is up in the sky, the larger size isn’t that noticeable. But when it’s sitting on the horizon, it’s huge. I’m glad you saw it.
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thecontentedcrafter
July 16, 2014
Great story! I wonder if that little girl ever thinks of you and your rocket ship? I remember the day Armstrong said his famous line – I was waiting for a momentous moment in my life to unfurl. It did and the two events are inextricably linked 🙂 I too am glad the moon has been left alone since – I love her movements and her changing faces!
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bronxboy55
July 18, 2014
Have you blogged about that momentous moment, and its connection to the moon landing? If so, I’d like to read it.
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thecontentedcrafter
July 18, 2014
No I haven’t – maybe next anniversary ……..
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earthriderjudyberman
July 16, 2014
Beautiful write up, Charles. It was exciting to know that we fulfilled John F. Kennedy’s goal to be on the moon. Living near NASA and Kennedy Space Center since 1999, I know that we, as consumers, have benefited from discoveries made to get to the moon. My Dad worked on the rocket program and I can only say that it is sad and disappointing that our race in space ended all too soon.
A couple of years ago, I talked with astronaut Eugene Cernan who was the last man to set foot on the moon. As he said in his book, “Too many years have passed for me to still be the last man to have walked on the Moon. Somewhere on Earth today is the young girl or boy, the possessor of indomitable will and courage, who will lift that dubious honor from me and take us back out there where we belong.”
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bronxboy55
July 18, 2014
Judy, I have no idea where space exploration is going, but it seems clear that unmanned probes make a lot more sense than shooting human beings out into the darkness. I’m not sure we’ll even return to the moon anytime soon. It looks as though Cernan’s distinction will stand for a while longer.
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Angelo DeCesare
July 16, 2014
Great blog, Charlie. Do you remember the name of the girl? The space launches were always welcomed, because they interrupted the tedium of the school day (although sometimes replacing it with more tedium). I think once they realized that there wasn’t a lot to be gained (profit-wise) by exploring the moon, they gave up. These space orbs hold such a fascination for us, but they are really just a specks of dust in an infinite sky. We should all be very humble about our existence.
Here’s hoping that, later in life, you did better with the phrase “Wanna see my rocket?”.
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bronxboy55
July 17, 2014
I seem to remember that there were three girls named Joanne in our class. This was the one with the orange hair and freckles. She’s right behind me in the fifth-grade class picture.
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reneejohnsonwrites
July 17, 2014
Isn’t it odd to think about the things from our childhood? The late sixties and early seventies now seem more like the ‘Jetsons’ than anything we’re doing now. Who would have thought we would have regressed?
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bronxboy55
July 18, 2014
But now we can send tweets and text messages to each other, so our complaints about how much technology has regressed all travel much faster.
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Diane Henders
July 17, 2014
Wow, if only I’d known I almost had the raw materials to build a rocket, too! I was only missing the umbrella. Great post, Charles – thanks for the chuckle. 🙂
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bronxboy55
July 19, 2014
Only missing the umbrella? How were you planning to break your fall after plunging through the atmosphere at twenty thousand miles an hour?
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Diane Henders
July 19, 2014
Clearly I didn’t think that through… 😉
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Roaming Days
July 18, 2014
I’ve only been following your blog for a short while, but I really look forward to seeing a new post from you. They are insightfully witty and always give me a good laugh. In this one, I love the history lesson, the personal memory, and the intertwining of the two. Great post.
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bronxboy55
July 19, 2014
Thanks, Ben. I appreciate the kind words. And I hope you and your family are still enjoying your great adventure.
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Nel
July 18, 2014
I’m still fascinated by that first lunar landing. I guess it comes with the understanding at how complicated the technology used back then was considering that it was 1969. When you think about it, electronic components back then were hundreds (maybe some thousands) of times larger than they are now with better capacity.
I missed the last super moon. We had horrible weather here with a typhoon passing by. Looking forward to the next one though, hopefully with clearer skies.
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bronxboy55
July 19, 2014
In some ways, maybe the relatively simple technology was an advantage. If they’d had really advanced systems on Apollo 13, the crew may not have been able to make the clunky repairs that helped them survive.
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Ann Koplow
July 18, 2014
Two things I never want to miss (and sometimes do): (1) Super moons and (2) your posts.
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bronxboy55
July 22, 2014
Thanks, Ann. That’s nice to hear.
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Christiana Pilgrim
July 18, 2014
I love reading memories from people who lived during the era of fascination with space—it’s one of the few times I really curse being younger, because I would totally have been at the forefront of fascination with all things space. My dad is a pretty intense amateur astronomer, so I have a lot a of memories of getting dragged out to dark fields at hell-early o’clock to watch some meteor shower or simply observe a clear constellation or whatnot.
How incredible it must have been to watch a human on a totally different cosmological body! My heart broke when NASA basically scrubbed any manned missions in the near future due to funding issues.
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bronxboy55
July 22, 2014
Fortunately, with astronomy, some missions last for decades. There are several probes, launched in the 1970s, that are still sending back information. Here’s an example:
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/science/planetary.html
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Elyse
July 19, 2014
Thanks! I’m gonna mark that down.
Shame we stopped caring about the moon, isn’t it.
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bronxboy55
July 22, 2014
I think the two space shuttle disasters made a lot of people pretty jittery about manned exploration.
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mefinally
July 20, 2014
Ah, the moon is all about dreams. Enjoy the magic !
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bronxboy55
July 22, 2014
Yes, it is. I think that was part of the excitement of getting there — that we could finally see and touch the magic.
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silkpurseproductions
July 20, 2014
That year changed my life. My Mom passed in March and I remember vividly the whole time we watched history being made that summer all I kept thinking was that she was missing this remarkable thing that was happening.
Years later Col. Chris Hadfield has brought space travel back into our lives as a realty. He took us along on his trip and shared every moment with us. His interaction with those of us still with our feet planted firmly on planet earth has ignited a whole new generation of Astronaut want-to-be s. I’m enjoying it much more this time around.
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bronxboy55
July 22, 2014
Still, without a definite goal — getting to Mars by 2020, for example — it’s hard for people to stay interested for very long. It’s now been almost half a century, and human beings have barely ventured beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
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m88bet
August 15, 2015
Pictures moon wonderful, light for all things,,,))
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