There was a great thread on FR in 2009 during the 40th anniversary of the first Moon landing. it just astonishes me when I try my best to imagine making that first landing — no one but two Astronauts in the LM, no chance of rescue if anything goes wrong, first attempt at landing on an alien surface. The stress and the professionalism required to handle it. Just gives me the shivers. What balls.
>>— no one but two Astronauts in the LM, no chance of rescue if anything goes wrong, first attempt at landing on an alien surface. The stress and the professionalism required to handle it. Just gives me the shivers. What balls.<<
I remember when they landed. The Houston comment about “we have a bunch of guys about to turn blue” comment and my mom bursting out (I later realized why) in both laughter and tears.
We did have balls back then. Mr. Armstrong was almost the accidental tourist — a nice guy with a great sense of humor. We need so many more of him: strong stomach, steel-eyed dedication, cool in a crisis (there were more than a few in both the ramp-up and the actual mission).
If we had the “fortitude” of today’s politicians we would never have made it to the moon. It would have been amazing if we had made it to Modesto.
One of the engineers connected to Apollo (I can't recall which one) commented when looking back on the program that "there was no mercy in those days." It was hard, terrifying and dangerous and they went and did it anyway, because they could. And that is what America used to stand for.