July 20, 1969 in pictures

The official NASA Apollo 11 website.

I remember watching the launch on TV, sitting in my friend Alan Fairfield's living room, and hearing his mother lecture us about how historic and significant it all was (we were 9 . . . historical was anything that happened more than a block away or more than a month ago: we had no historical perspective yet). Oddly, although I know I watched the landings, I can't remember it. The human memory is very odd — and mine is probably odder than most.

I had already started reading juvenile science fiction by that point: I was expecting that by the time I was 40, it would be commonplace to take a vacation on the moon, and that we'd be actively colonizing Mars. We didn't get that, but I still remember the thrill of watching the Apollo mission coverage on TV.

NASA was already well on the way to becoming the bloated bureaucratic monster it is today, but briefly it did seem to carry mankind's hopes into space. Thanks for the memories, guys. I think these guys will be the ones to do the carrying in the future.