Moon landing anniversary

Thirty-four years ago today, On July 20, 1969, Commander Armstrong and
fellow astronaut Edwin Aldrin successfully touched down on the lunar
surface. As Armstrong became the first person to step the Moon's surface, he
spoke the unforgettable phrase, "That's one small step for man; one giant
leap for mankind". There has always been some controversy over whether he
meant to say "a man" or just "man".

He and Aldrin explored the Moon's surface for 2.5 hours. Armstrong was
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his
accomplishments and his contributions to the space program.

Susan and I were living in Columbia, Missouri then, where I was finishing my
degree in journalism. We were riveted to our black-and-white TV through the
entire process, from the separation of the Lunar Lander, through the
hair-raising last moments of the landing (they had only 30 seconds of fuel
left), the long six hours before Neil Armstrong exited the spacecraft, and
then the breathtaking first step onto the moon.

Less than two months after that momentous day, on September 9, 1969, the
U.S. Post Office had issued a large pictorial stamp showing Armstrong's
first step onto the lunar surface:
http://www.ingraham.ca/bob/stepmoon.jpg.

Edwin Aldrin and Neil Armstrong spent several hours on the moon before
blasting back into space to rendevous with Michael Collins, who was obiting
the moon as commander of Apollo 11. Collins must have had the lonliest job
in the world during those hours. And if the Lunar Module had malfunctioned
on the moon's surface, Armstgrong and Aldrin would have been more surely
marooned than anyone in history. Rescue would have been impossible.

There is a small personal chapter in the saga of the moon landing. Before we
were married, Susan had a summer job in the typing pool at Ryan Aeronautical
in San Diego. Ryan (the company that had designed and built Lindbergh's
Spirit of St. Louis) had the contract to design the landing legs for what
was then called the Lunar Excursion Module, or LEM. Some public relations
type, or perhaps a politician, decided that the "Excursion" part of the name
had to go, and Susan's job that summer consisted primarily of whiting out
the words "Lunar Excursion Module" and "LEM" on engineering documents and
typing in the words "Lunar Module" and "LM," a job that could be done with a
few keystrokes today. She says that she used an electric typewriter with in
interchangeable "type ball," probably an IBM selectric. One of the balls was
used for engineering symbols. In any event, my wife helped get Neil
Armstrong on the moon! :^)