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Jul. 20th, 2008
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Neil Alden Armstrong and Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. arrived on the Moon in peace for all mankind on July 20, 1969, as the culmination of the Apollo XI mission. They became the first humans to set foot on Earth's sole natural satellite, and the first in what remains to this day a small, select group of Apollo astronauts to have accomplished this...and their courage has lighted the way for everyone who has aspired to reach beyond the heavens since.
I was all of six years old that summer, just old enough to be starting kindergarten in the fall, and my only vague memory of that time is of watching CBS News coverage of what must have been a later mission that year, as it was in the afternoon after class (kindergarten back then was only half a day) and seeing Uncle Walter describe the action and interview various people in his famed sonorous tones. But this was unmistakably the point at which I began my lifelong fascination with space exploration.
May a merciful God grant that it not be much longer before theirs cease being the only footprints in the regolith.
I was all of six years old that summer, just old enough to be starting kindergarten in the fall, and my only vague memory of that time is of watching CBS News coverage of what must have been a later mission that year, as it was in the afternoon after class (kindergarten back then was only half a day) and seeing Uncle Walter describe the action and interview various people in his famed sonorous tones. But this was unmistakably the point at which I began my lifelong fascination with space exploration.
May a merciful God grant that it not be much longer before theirs cease being the only footprints in the regolith.
