Do you remember where you were the evening of July 20, 1969? Were you even born? Today marks the 40th Anniversary of man’s landing on the moon. Take a minute to think what you were doing…

I remember it so vividly. I always followed NASA and think I watched most of the space launches, especially the Mercury and Gemini flights. I remember Apollo 1, and the disastrous fire. The remaining Apollo flights that tested all systems and circled the moon and returned. They all lead up to Apollo 11.

So when Apollo 11 launched on July 16, it was very exciting. Man was actually going to land on the moon! From the time leading up to the launch, and the journey to the moon, the Apollo mission was all the news.

We rode along the journey with Walter Cronkite providing the commentary as he had done for many (if not all) of the space missions. The drama and emotion of the touchdown of the Eagle, the waiting for what seemed like forever, for Neil Armstrong to emerge from the lunar lander and finally step foot on the surface of the moon.

I think it was a school night. We lived in Everett, Pennsylvania at the time. It was past my bedtime, and I was tired. But the family gathered around the TV, to watch the grainy, contrasty black and white images emanating from the surface. You could just see as the Neil Armstrong slowly lowered himself down the ladder of the LEM. It was like in slow motion. He paused, for what seemed another long time, and then took that first step into history.

This was in the days before video tapes or the VCR, and eons before the DVR. My dad, camera at the ready (I think it might have been a Polaroid, but I don’t quite remember) snapped some images to save the moment for personal posterity. (I wonder if those photos are still around somewhere…?)

The next thing I remember was planting the flag. Probably because this was a big deal (some thought we beat the Russians and “claimed” the moon as US soil, but it is international territory, “owned” by no one), but really because of the technical feat of the matter.

Walter Cronkite explained how a lot of thought and engineering went into this simply activity. As there is no wind on the moon, the idea of displaying a flag as you would here on earth would not be very impressive. Think about a flag draped around a pole on a calm day, and you get the mental picture.

So they came up with a scheme to build an expandable frame to unfurl, and keep the flag flying forever. I think I was as intrigued with that aspect as much as anything else.

Forty years… almost a lifetime. Long ago, I decided that being an astronaut wasn’t a career path for me. But achievements in space continue, through triumph and tragedy. Over time, especially more recently it has become almost common place, and you have to search out stories of space exploration. But they are there, exploration continues, and we continue to study the universe around us. I’m sure the future holds so much more than we can dream, while the past is now but a memory.