To All of You On the Good Earth

Forty three years ago tonight, Christmas Eve 1968, I was a 12 year old boy with a Christmas television dilemma. On one channel the annual Red Skelton Christmas special was on. Our family really loved Red Skelton, and we all wanted to watch it. But on another channel was one of the most exciting events in human history - a live television broadcast from the Moon!

I was a space fanatic who wanted to grow up to be an astronaut. I knew all the astronauts by name. I cried in January 1967 when three men died in the Apollo 1 fire. They were my heroes. I had models of the various spacecraft and wanted to explain to anyone who would listen what was happening out at the moon.

Therefore, I chose both. Sitting inches from our black and white TV, I manually switched channels back and forth to see both the Skelton show and the moon broadcast.

Thus I was able to hear these words: "And for all the people back on earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send to you. 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth..'" The You Tube clip above is a recording of what I saw and heard that night.

The Apollo 8 astronaut crew of Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders took turns reading Genesis 1 from the King James Version of the Bible. As they read the ancient words, the on board TV camera showed the lunar landscape passing underneath the small and lonely spacecraft. The memory of hearing and watching that broadcast, and experiencing it live, is still awe inspiring even after 40 years.

Commander Frank Borman closed the broadcast with "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you, all of you on the good Earth." Here's wishing a Merry Christmas this night, forty three years later, to all of you on the good earth.

22 Reasons To Go To Space

This has nothing much to do with spirituality and following Jesus, but as an old "space nut," I loved it!

Hat Tip to Andrew Piper for the picture- 22 reasons to go to space | 22 Words:

We Need to Go Back - and Onward

Remembering 41 years ago today.  Remembering my boyhood heroes.  We need to go back to the moon, and to continue (to borrow a phrase) to boldly go where no one has gone before!

One Small Step

Forty years ago today, on July 20, 1969, my family arrived in California after travelling across the country from Maryland via Mississippi. We were scheduled to fly to Hawaii on the 24th.

I remember listening to the radio as we set up our camp site and announcing to my parents that "we did it- they are on the moon." For some reason they were not as excited about it as I was! Having no access to television, I missed the great national experience of watching the first step live on TV. I spent that time curled up in the front seat of our old Buick, trying to hear what was going on through the radio static. Only got to see those grainy images of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin a week or so later via TV repeats. Who would've thought it could be- Live TV from the surface of the moon! Less than two years later we were getting clear color TV images from Apollo 15, 16, and 17, but by then no one (but me!) seemed to care anymore.

The next day we were at Disneyland when Armstrong and Aldrin successfully lifted off from the surface of the moon to rejoin Michael Collins in orbit. I was probably more excited about that than about Disneyland. By the time they splashed down, we were in Hawaii, watching the coverage of their arrival via air craft carrier to Pearl Harbor.

We need to do it again. We need to continue with the new national goal established by President bush and get back to the Moon by 2020 - or sooner. I'm excited about the Constellation program, the new successor to Apollo. Let's do it!

Note: There has always been a controversy about Armstrong's first words after stepping on the ladder onto the surface of the Moon: "One small step for (a) man: One giant leap for mankind." Neil Armstrong has always said that he thought he said, and intended to say, "a man" although the "a" cannot be heard on the recordings. However, the sentence only makes good sense with the "a" so I say leave it in, and just assume he slurred the word in the excitement of the moment.

For informative fun, read about NASA's new Constellation Program to return to the moon, and next generation moon car. Also, check out We Choose the Moon (a space nerd's paradise) for a recreation of the Apolo 11 mission.

40 Years Ago Today

I know exactly where I was 40 years ago this morning.

My family was travailing across the country to my Dad's new assignment with the Air Force - Hawaii. We were preparing to "suffer" for the country in Hawaii for three years. I was 12 years old.

The week of July 16 we were camping in our Apache pop-up camper at Grand Canyon National Park. We had a great time and even hiked about a mile down into the canyon and back. But on this day, 40 years ago, I asked my Dad for a brief break from "roughing it." He graciously took me to the Grand Canyon Lodge where we would have access to a television set. I had to see it!

That morning three men rode a huge Saturn V rocket up from the earth, and they were going to THE MOON! A few hours later they fired the third stage rocket again and left earth orbit for a three day journey to the moon.

As I have commented here before, I was a space nut. I knew the names of all the astronauts, what missions they had flown, and what they had done. I wanted to be an astronaut some day. I was so excited and thrilled to be able to watch something so historic as it happened.

Sometimes I miss that young fellow and his boundless dreams for the future. Although the dreams may have changed somewhat, I think he is still there deep inside. I am determined to find him and let him loose!