Remarkable Achievement Was Indeed A ‘Giant Leap For Mankind’
The 50th anniversary of the moon landing is Saturday, July 20, and that may cause a yawn among some folks.
After all, with all of today’s technology – I’m writing this post on a laptop the size of a 1960s album cover and I can reach over to my palm-sized phone and post a photo to anyone in the world – it no longer seems to remarkable.
But here’s why you should pay attention to it and celebrate it.
Landing on the moon was the greatest achievement in the history of mankind and remains so to this day. Think about what occurred: we left the planet, landed and walked on another one. And it was done within the same decade.
A giant rocket lifted off a launchpad and a tiny and flimsy looking device that looks as if were made of aluminum foil landed on the moon. Out stepped two astronauts – Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin while a third, Michael Collins, held down the fort in another spacecraft circling the moon – in something so improbable that a few nuts thought the entire thing was staged and took place in a movie studio.
What it took to get to that moment remains remarkable. There were more than 400,000 people working on the Apollo project – think about that number for a second – and the average age of the engineers was only 27. Many of them were right out of college and collectively, they were too young to be told “that can’t be done” so they just went to work.
Together, they had to develop systems, training, and overcome tremendous logistical issues, and they succeeded in spectacular fashion. It was, as Armstrong said when took his first step: “that’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
This is why you should pay attention to the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.
So sometime on July 20, 2019, take a moment to look up at the moon and remember that 50 years ago, men were walking on it. Grab a drink, hold it up and give a cheers, and not just to the astronauts but everyone involved in the project.
#moonlanding
#50thanniversary
#moonlanding50
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