Rant #2,409: Up, Up and Away

The Apollo 11 spacecraft--carrying Commander Neil Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins--and continued onto its mission to the moon today, July 17, 1969, and several significant things happened on the way to Jackie Gleason's favorite orb.

There was a slight course correction, putting the ship right on course to come to the moon's surface in just two days. This procedure also tested how the engines were working, a monumental test because they needed those engines working perfectly to get the crew in and out of lunar orbit.

There was a color broadcast on this day which lasted a bit more than a half hour, and it was broadcast worldwide. During the telecast, the crew showed the viewing public how the earth looked out of their window at 147,300 miles away.

Another significant event that turned out to be something that didn't happen occurred during this day, when Vice President Spiro Agnew told the crew during a radio broadcast that the U.S. would be on Mars by the year 2000. That has never even come close to happening, although estimates now are that we will reach there, if everything goes as planned, by the mid 2030s or so.

On to the moon!

I remember those days so well. My family was in the Catskill Mountains of New York--also known as "The Jewish Alps" on vacation when the flight took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and the hype surrounding this flight was amazing.

Anything and everything related to the moon was hot back then--even what the crew members ate and drank.

I remember that Tang--that orange powder that you mixed in water and it turned into something like orange juice--was the hottest food going back then, but once you had it, well, you had it. It was awful tasting--sort of like an orange version of Ovaltine--and heck, why have Tang when you could have the real, honest to goodness orange juice?

When we were in the Catskill Mountains, we had the New York Daily News delivered to our room each day. It was the Catskill Mountains edition, so it wasn't nearly as large as the regular New York City edition, but it sufficed.

And leading up to the moon landing, it also included cutouts for the kids to use to build their own lunar module. You simply punched out the pieces on light cardboard and put them together like a puzzle. I remember my sister and I--me 12 years old, my sister just nine--doing this, and while ours was kind of wobbly, it really put the bug in our head about what was yet to come.

I so wanted to be home to watch the actual moon landing, and since we were leaving on July 20, the long trek home would have us home in plenty of time, so I breathed a sigh of relief.

But on this day, July 17, 1969, it was another day of vacation for us, playing ball, swimming, and eating in the big dining hall of the hotel we stayed at, which I think was called Green Acres, but I don't remember for sure right at the moment.

But everyone--and by everyone, I mean the entire world--was at frenzy pace two days prior to the big day, but life went on.

Two days later, life would seemingly stop to witness what was unfolding before our eyes.