Man On The Moon

I still find it amazing that we did it. We went There!!! The place of space fantasies, where heroes like Buck Rogers and Han Solo called home. It seems strange that we cannot cure the common cold or grow hair for the hair challenged, but we did this. On a perfect July evening in 1969, while the planet Earth was coming apart in dissension over war and race and gender lines, three men went to the Moon....... Visiting that strange object that has adorned the sky must have been a fantasy of humans ever since we started to inhabit this planet. We can only wonder what cavemen thought of that strange object in the sky as they ran for their lives to keep from being Sunday dinner by the dinosaurs. As mankind---- or, better yet, humankind----- developed into the beings we are now, the fascination of this object in the sky, along with other planets that were rotating around us, grew into a desire to visit and explore what might be out there....... Jump ahead to the 1930's and 40's. Among the madness and horrors that Hitler's Third Reich did, they did one sane thing: create a space program. Underneath his evil ways, Hitler did have an active imagination when it came to alternative life. He believed in the paranormal, ghosts, living before in past lives, and in outer space. With his war machine, he also told his scientists--- brilliant men and minds, it must be said--- to create travel in outer space. That is the foundation of where rockets came from. Hitler, in time, used these rockets [ ''V-1''and ''V-2''] to shoot at England when he was losing the war. After the Nazis went down in defeat, the best and the brightest among the German scientists, immigrated to other lands. Some were taken against their will to Russia and made to work with the Communists in the Cold War fight against the West. But, most came to America, and, after being cleared of any offenses committed against the Allies in WW2, they were put to work for our government to create the next big thing: the eventual travel to space........ Throughout the late 40's and 50's, a big push was made by the U.S. Government, led by the Eisenhower Administration, to get something up into space. The Russians were competing with us, and in true Cold War competition, we had to beat them in the race for space. In 1957, the Russians drew first blood by sending the ''Sputnik'' rocket into space. This was the test missile to see if humans could shoot something into the sky. It was a success, a very short test. But, it did go up and come back down successfully. The United States was highly embarrassed by this launch. We needed to get something up as well, along with the training of men to be a thing called ''astronauts''.......... In 1958, we rang the bell by sending up the ''Jupiter C'' rocket into space. It was our ''Sputnik''. It went up, tasted space for a few minutes, and then came down as planned, splashing into the ocean. The country was thrilled. The government was more thrilled. Not only because we got into outer space finally, but, it showed the power of how a rocket could reach anywhere, at any target. Which meant the military would get stronger. Not only were we aiming upwards but we were aiming at our enemies across the globe. These rockets could now become nuclear rockets used in the ongoing Cold War against Communism. The success of the ''Jupiter C'' brought us not only a taste of what was ''up there'' but also brought the threat of nuclear extinction through these rockets, a mere few minutes from happening........ ''NASA'' was created in Florida. It was the home headquarters for the space program. And, seven men were recruited and trained to be the first visitors to be sent into orbit. The ''Mercury 7'' they were called and they consisted of such brave men as, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Virgil ''Gus'' Grissom, Alan Shepard, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, and Gordon Cooper. These men lived together, palled around together, fought together, and ultimately, succeeded together as they battled the elements pitted against them to go to space. Later, these men would be immortalized by writer Tom Wolfe as having ''The Right Stuff''....... When John F. Kennedy got into the White House in 1961, one of the first items on his agenda was getting the space program into fast track. His hard-charging administration wanted to best the Russians on all fronts. In May, 1961, President Kennedy made a public speech declaring that he would like a man on the moon by the end of the 1960's....... First off the bat into space was Alan Shepard. It was April, 1961. The Russians had already sent a man up and, once again, we were behind the eight-ball. Shepard was a fine pilot---- as all the men were--- to lead this mission. The only problem was he had to wait forever on the launching pad for the ok to ''light this candle''. Hour after hour went by as the world waited for NASA to finally give the go-ahead. There was understandable concern that something might malfunction and Shepard could be killed on the spot. Things even got so bad that the natural body functions of a human being came into play. Alan Shepard, after drinking a lot of coffee and water before he was latched into his capsule, quite simply, had to take a piss. To pry him out of his capsule would abort the trip. So Shepard did the only thing we all would do: he peed into his spacesuit.  Soon, detections of liquid appeared on the NASA computers. Everything was fine, everyone had a laugh, and Shepard was feeling better. Soon after, he was launched into space successfully. He was up less than half an hour. But, it was a rousing success. Alan Shepard, pee stained and all, came back to Earth and was rightfully declared an American Hero......... John Glenn would go up in 1962. His mission would be more hazardous. He not only was going up into space but was going to orbit Earth many times. This had never been done. And, when something has never been done before, beginners accidents happen. No one could predict if Glenn would come back alive. The first part of his mission went soundly. He spun around the planet many times, marveling in the glorious sights that he was seeing. Then, a problem developed. A serious problem. His heat shield around the capsule failed him. It was burning up. This shield was what was protecting him from being burned alive when he started to reenter Earth's orbit. For several moments, as the capsule came back to Earth, John Glenn was in enormous pain from the heat. For several frightening moments, it was feared he may burn to death. But, he survived just fine, like the true American Hero he is........... Eventually, all of the ''Mercury 7'' would go into space. None made it to the moon, however. And, in 1967, Virgil ''Gus'' Grissom and two other men were killed when their lunar capsule exploded on the runway at NASA. Of all of those seven, only John Glenn is still alive........ By 1969, we were ready to go to the moon. Various astronauts had traveled into space and even one capsule had spun around the moon in 1968. We had long-since lapped the Russians by winning the space race but one destination still needed to be conquered. In July 1969 it was......... The three astronauts were Neil Armstrong, Edwin ''Buzz'' Aldrin, and Michael Collins. Armstrong was the commander of the mission, so, he would be the first man on the moon. Aldrin, according to legend, was not happy about this. He wanted to be the first, not the second man to walk on the moon. He tried to pull some strings in Washington to force his position. But, NASA wanted Armstrong. Collins would stay with the ship and man the controls. Among our achievements into outer space, we had been sending satellites up there---- as did other countries---- to better our lives on Earth. Because of these satellites, we were able to watch the landing from our living rooms. Seeing a man, so many thousands of miles away in space, from the comfort of our couches made the whole space program worth all of the time and money and blood spent achieving this goal. I'm sure JFK, wherever he was, was watching his dream come true also........ On July 20, 1969, ''Apollo 11'' landed on the surface of the moon. Hundreds of millions of people were watching this around the world. After some time, the door of the capsule opened and a solitary figure stepped out onto the steps to take him to the surface. The world held a collective breath right as he made the step onto the moon's surface. After making this historic step, Neil Armstrong said. '' That is one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind''........ Soon, Aldrin would join him walking the moon. They took samples of the moon's surface to bring back to Earth. They took pictures of each other and what the view was like around them. Eventually, they would plant an American flag. It was a final statement of the decades of hard work and some blood lost getting there. It showed America had won the race to space....... The flag was also planted for another reason. The year of 1969 on the planet Earth was as tumultuous a year as history had ever been. There was the Vietnam war raging out of control. There was the race riots in many cities. There was the fallout of important leaders being assassinated . There was revolution in the air. Hate and divisions among the people was very much felt....... But, in another place, where two men were walking, like Adam and Eve, a new world where none of the Earth's hatreds and fears was felt, a flag they were planting also was a symbol. The flag was planted in the spirit of peace.........