Editorial: Even today moonwalk thrills us

Tuesday, July 20, 1999 | 9:29 a.m.

The 1960s is remembered as a turbulent period in our nation's history, marked by civil rights struggles, Vietnam War protests and political assassinations. But at least for one night, and in one indelible moment, the tumultuous times of that decade were placed on hold. Thirty years ago today Americans were sitting in front of their television sets, riveted by what just a short time before had seemed unthinkable: Man was on the verge of setting foot on the moon.

Apollo 11 almost didn't make it to the moon, nearly running out of fuel. But Neil Armstrong, who was piloting the ship and became the first man to walk on the moon, was able to find a smooth enough landing site with just seconds to spare. The tension wasn't just palpable for all those watching at home -- even those at Mission Control in Houston were white-knuckled until the Eagle landed. "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue," astronaut Charlie Duke, speaking from Mission Control, told Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. "We're breathing again. Thanks a lot."

For children who were not yet born, or were too young to remember that first moonwalk, it's probably difficult to comprehend how breathtaking that journey was. For thousands of years explorers of distant lands had to do so either by land or water. After all, it wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that man discovered how to fly. It is almost incomprehensible that in less than 70 years after the Wright brothers made history in 1903 in Kitty Hawk, N.C., that man figured out how to leave this planet and venture to our moon.

When President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation in 1961 to send a man to the moon and arrive back safely by the end of that decade, the times certainly were different. The United States and the then-Soviet Union were in a space race that was spurred by the Cold War, so that the huge costs incurred from that expedition were secondary. The reality is that politics -- not science -- is what drove the Apollo program.

Some argue credibly that the money spent on Apollo could have been spent more wisely on unmanned missions to other planets to gather scientific evidence. While that may be the case, another reality is that man's yearning to explore new worlds firsthand also boosted the Apollo program, winning it public support that robots never could obtain.

Given today's budget constraints and collapse of communism, though, it is almost inconceivable that a similar manned mission -- one to Mars, for instance -- will be undertaken anytime soon. It may be centuries before a similar groundbreaking journey takes place. For now, however, Americans can look fondly back on July 20, 1969, as a day when a nation, surmounting incredible odds, came together and completed a voyage for the ages.