Where were you when Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon July 20, 1969, forty seven years ago today?

I was sixteen years old, living on a farm outside Richfield, Idaho. Our family didn’t own a television set, but on that historic Sunday evening, our family joined some friends in town to watch the moon landing on their black and white television.

What a thrill to see that grainy image of a man from earth climb down the stairs and step onto the surface of the moon!

Submitting expense reports is one of the seemingly never-ending exercises I have had to endure in over three decades of professional travel. But last week I saw a copy of the coolest travel expense report I have ever seen.

Col. Buzz Aldrin submitted an expense report requesting reimbursement for $33.31 to cover personal expenses for his Apollo 11 trip to the moon!

Enjoy!

 

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

A brief excerpt of the speech:

I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

… in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon–if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

What a thrill it was of living through those years of incredible innovation, splendid courage and diligent work by so many people. As President Kennedy said, it was not just one man going to the moon, it was a nation united in effort to get that astronauts there and bring them back.

P.S.  I think the look on Lyndon Johnson’s face is priceless.  It is as if he were thinking, “What in the world has that guy been smoking? We’ll never do that!”

Regardless of how many times I see this photo or ones like it, the view is still awe-inspiring.  To look beyond the moon’s horizon to see our beautiful planet rising in the distance must have been a moving experience for the Apollo astronauts who took the first photos from that perspective.

Thanks, NASA!

Forty years ago today, on December 11, 1972, astronaut Eugene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 mission, took what must have been an exhilarating drive in the moon rover.   Talk about four-wheeling excitement!

Today’s NASA “Image of the Day” celebrated that significant event with this photo and the accompanying explanation:

Forty years ago today on Dec. 11, 1972, astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, commander, makes a short checkout of the lunar rover during the early part of the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. This view of the “stripped down” rover is prior to loading up. Equipment later loaded onto the rover included the ground-controlled television assembly, the lunar communications relay unit, hi-gain antenna, low-gain antenna, aft tool pallet, lunar tools and scientific gear.

This photograph was taken by scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt, lunar module pilot. The mountain in the right background is the east end of South Massif. While astronauts Cernan and Schmitt descended in the Lunar Module “Challenger” to explore the moon, astronaut Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules “America” in lunar orbit.

The big question:  Will we ever return?