Day 145/365 We Choose The Moon Part 2

So in July 1969, first we did this (8 years before President Kennedy's deadline, although he didn't live to see it):

The Apollo 11 was powered by these:

Saturn 5 rockets were the biggest rockets ever built and they had to be, to push the Apollo spacecraft along this path:

They worked just fine. Apollo 11 arrived with just 20 seconds of fuel to spare (talk about flying on a wing and a prayer):

Plenty of time for photo ops and small steps leading to giant leaps:

And of course the money shot:

One day the first step would be stuck to a stamp:

And all the while Uncle Walt was watching and laughing, and filling in every detail we missed on the scratchy transmission from a tiny rock in the sky:

We left the important stuff up there. It's still there, waiting for the next arrivals.

Neil, Buzz and Mike arrived home safe. They were on top of the world.

New York City threw a party and a tickertape parade - Neil, Buzz and Mike are in there somewhere.

We even drank a toast to the crew from a special souvenir Moon Landing glass.

Kids got their own Question & Answer Race for the Moon books.

But all I got was this 500-piece Life magazine commemorative puzzle Journey To the Moon...

And a 14th birthday I will never forget.

Day 144/365 We Choose The Moon... Part 1

I was going to wait till Monday to send my readers to the moon, it being the 40th anniversary of The Moon Landing, but I've just discovered a great site where all the space fans and virtual moon walkers can follow the entire mission in real time:

http://www.wechoosethemoon.org/

THIS IS SO COOL!

And I admit to be just a tiny bit of a Moon Landing freak, not only because it still sends chills down me to watch the launch and hear the transmissions but also because it happened on my 14th birthday.

As I type this, forty years ago, the Apollo 11 is in Stage 6, 31565 miles from Earth.

How come nothing is this exciting anymore?