Yep, that was really cool. I think I was 6 or 7 when we first landed on the moon. I remember watching it on a black and white TV with rabbit ears. Reception wasn't that great (by today's standards) but good enough to watch.
When you consider there's more 10x-100x more technology in a smartphone than we used to put a man on the moon, it was really an incredible accomplishment. Those guys were really risking their lives, nothing was guaranteed -- they went knowing it was within the realm of possibility that they might not make it back.
And yet they went, and they came back. As I think about it, it's almost like yesterday I was sitting on the floor in front of the TV with my sister and my parents watching on the TV, waiting for the delay in communications to pass to hear what was said next.
That was an incredible time in our history. Even with all the technology we have today, it feels like innovation is dead. Getting to the moon was a quantum leap in technology. So were PC's when they were first invented. Everything else since then has been nothing more than newer/faster iterations of technology that already existed.
I hope we're on the verge of the next quantum leap in technology ...
I still remember it too. It was the Summer of 1969 and we were watching an old TV in the rec room of the boys dorm at a Summer retreat.
We knew we were watching history happening.
I can remember back around 1952, my older brother and a bunch of other boys were talking about space. Someone asked if we would ever land on the moon. My older Brother thought for a while then pronounced that we never would.
That settled it for me as my older Brother knew everything.
I was 9 1/2 when we landed first.
I collected all the lithos available from my Congressman at the time, who actually would respond to my letters - imagine that -
Today my wife asks why I get teary eyed when I pull them out and reminisce...
I collected shuttle stuff for the kids, but that didn't carry the same exploration value as a moonshot and the National pride we all felt
I'd be thankful for a lowly shuttle program at this point...
Branson picks up the ball though, at least in entertainment value