I remember staying up to watch the landing I was 10

We had a connection to the landing, my uncle worked for NASA (still does)
and sent us pictures of the moon that were passed out to employees.
Unfortunately after several moves the pictures got lost (rats rats rats).
I've visited NASA several times both before the Space Center was built and
after. Before was better, you could walk around some of the facility and go
in the cafeteria and a small gift shop, now everything is escorted and you
take a cart for most of the tour.

Mission control is TINY looks huge on TV but its about the size of my
living room.

I did get into the Director's Show, the art exhibit the have every year, (3
paintings)
back in the late 80's. Unfortunately my car had a breakdown and I didn't
get to go to the reception. Didn't have the security clearance to go see
the exhibit later either

A couple of my most prized covers are the ones I have for John Glenn's trips
up.

Shell


"Bob Ingraham" wrote in message
...
Thirty-four years ago today, On July 20, 1969, Commander Armstrong and
fellow astronaut Edwin Aldrin successfully touched down on the lunar
surface. As Armstrong became the first person to step the Moon's surface,
he
spoke the unforgettable phrase, "That's one small step for man; one giant
leap for mankind". There has always been some controversy over whether he
meant to say "a man" or just "man".

He and Aldrin explored the Moon's surface for 2.5 hours. Armstrong was
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his
accomplishments and his contributions to the space program.

Susan and I were living in Columbia, Missouri then, where I was finishing
my
degree in journalism. We were riveted to our black-and-white TV through
the
entire process, from the separation of the Lunar Lander, through the
hair-raising last moments of the landing (they had only 30 seconds of fuel
left), the long six hours before Neil Armstrong exited the spacecraft, and
then the breathtaking first step onto the moon.

Less than two months after that momentous day, on September 9, 1969, the
U.S. Post Office had issued a large pictorial stamp showing Armstrong's
first step onto the lunar surface:
http://www.ingraham.ca/bob/stepmoon.jpg.

Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong spent several hours on the moon before
blasting back into space to rendevous with Michael Collins, who was
obiting
the moon as commander of Apollo 11. Collins must have had the lonliest job
in the world during those hours. And if the Lunar Module had malfunctioned
on the moon's surface, Armstgrong and Aldrin would have been more surely
marooned than anyone in history. Rescue would have been impossible.

There is a small personal chapter in the saga of the moon landing. Before
we
were married, Susan had a summer job in the typing pool at Ryan
Aeronautical
in San Diego. Ryan (the company that had designed and built Lindbergh's
Spirit of St. Louis) had the contract to design the landing legs for what
was then called the Lunar Excursion Module, or LEM. Some public relations
type, or perhaps a politician, decided that the "Excursion" part of the
name
had to go, and Susan's job that summer consisted primarily of whiting out
the words "Lunar Excursion Module" and "LEM" on engineering documents and
typing in the words "Lunar Module" and "LM," a job that could be done with
a
few keystrokes today. She says that she used an electric typewriter with
in
interchangeable "type ball," probably an IBM selectric. One of the balls
was
used for engineering symbols. In any event, my wife helped get Neil
Armstrong on the moon! :^)