From the Earth to the Moon

Exactly five decades ago, on July 20th, 1969 at 02:56 UTC, Commander Neil Armstrong, Jr. set foot on the Moon, the first human being ever to plant his feet solidly on another planet or planet-like object. This event was set in motion eight years before, on May 25th, 1961, when President John F Kennedy spoke these words: “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.” 

The Space Race (between the USSR and the USA) began the day that Americans heard the radio beeps of an unmanned space vehicle called Sputnik on October 4th, 1957. Less than a year later, July 29th, 1958, President Eisenhower established NASA to compete head to head with our Cold War adversary. Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made man’s first flight into space on April 12th, 1961, Kennedy spoke his stirring words a few weeks after Gagarin’s flight, and the second stage of the Space Race was on – the race to the Moon! NASA responded immediately with the Apollo program, dedicated to putting men on the Moon before the decade was out. Apollo’s brightest moment occurred on July 20th, 1969, fifty years ago today.

Over in pop culture land, the original Star Trek TV series aired in 1966 through 1969, alongside Apollo 4 through Apollo 11. Eight Star Trek TV series were produced, many of which can still be seen in re-runs today; and there are at least thirteen Star Trek films.

What was the inspiration for all this outer space stuff? 

• Immediately, space flight was not the fulfillment of the dream of space flight, it was the fear of rockets in warfare. Late in World War II, from September 1944, German scientists led by Wernher von Braun, terrorized all of London with V-2 rocket attacks, causing at least 9,000 deaths and unimaginable chaos. At war’s end, von Braun led his team to capture by the Americans. Former Nazis who had fought us became an important part of our own participation in the Space Race. 
• Von Braun had been in turn inspired by our own Robert Goddard (1882-1945), the Father of Modern Rocketry, the man who did for rockets what the Wright Brothers had done for manned flight. His first successful launch of a liquid fueled rocket took place on March 16th, 1926. Goddard is the undisputed daddy of space flight, everything else before was imaginary. 
• Georges Méliès was a French film director, perhaps the most famous in early silent film days. His most famous creation was A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune), 1902. It was hugely successful in the United States, but he did not make a dime from its performance as Thomas Edison had stolen prints, duplicated them and distributed them himself. 
• Another French man, Jules Verne, wrote the classic space novel, From the Earth to the Moon (De la terre à la lune) in 1865. 
• Yet another French author, Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-55) (yes he was not just a fictional creation of playwright Edmond Rostand, another French man) published (posthumously) Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (L'Autre Monde: ou les États et Empires de la Lune) in 1657, a bunch of tall tales that included a voyage to the Moon. 
• One more, the great great grand daddy of science fiction was a fellow named Lucian de Samosata (125-180AD), who wrote A True Story (Vera Historia), probably the first sci-fi anything despite its being a satire. 

What have we done since? What was the aftermath of Neil and Buzz’s walk on the Moon? 

• The Apollo program continued to send astronauts on Moon explorations until December 19, 1972, the date that Apollo 17 returned to Earth. We have not gone beyond Earth orbit since, some 47 years, to our shame. 
• George Lucas’ Star Wars burst into movie history (it was declared a classic before it was even released) on May 25th, 1977, and the Star Wars franchise continues to energize space freaks everywhere. The next, and surely NOT the last, episode – Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker, is due out on December 20, 2019. 
• Andrew Chaikin published his book, A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, in 1994. It was the basis for 
• the TV mini-series, From the Earth to the Moon, executive produced, narrated and co-written by Tom Hanks, in 1998. 
• And Chasing the Moon, a new TV mini-series by Robert Stone, debuted on July 8th of this year. 

It is encouraging that space continues to fascinate us, as we are a sea-faring species and space, the Final Frontier, is our last ocean. It is discouraging that not more of us are sea-faring. But as long as a few billionaires – Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, et al – are willing to take the lead when our government decides we can’t afford a new space program, or fix our roads and bridges, there is still hope. 

As Neil deGrasse Tyson is wont to say: "keep looking up!"  Men who have looked up at night have imagined walking on the Moon since the beginning of time. 

P.S. #1: you may have noticed the paucity of information that I have written about some really interesting dudes: Lucian, Cyrano, Verne, Méliès, von Braun and, of course, Goddard. If you are reading this online, you know what to do. Google, Wikipedia. It’s good stuff!

P.S. #2: There are super-human events in human history: painting the Sistine Chapel, building the pyramids, Notre Dame de Paris and the Brooklyn Bridge.  Landing a man on the Moon (not just the fact but the effort) was a species altering event.

P.S. #3: A barely boasted about feature of the Apollo Program (if not our entire space program) that demonstrates beyond doubt how great we once were is that every launch was broadcast live on TV, for the whole world to see, warts and all, triumphs and tragedies alike.  We were once secure about our worth.  But TV coverage eventually came to an end, because the audience for real-life space launches disappeared, and that says something about us too.

P.S. #4: Carl Sagan reflects on The Gift of Apollo, 1994.