Fifty-six years ago, on the 20th of July, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped from the lunar module onto the surface of the Moon. One hundred and twenty-five million Americans watched NASA’s live feed on TV, along with countless numbers of people around the planet.
Donna and I were watching too, glued to the TV in our Sacramento, California apartment. My grandfather Estes, at his home in Jackson, Missouri, went us one better, focusing his camera on the TV screen and snapping two rolls of film … we were to see his Moon landing slide show several times on future visits.
Not many people then would have said the Moon landing was faked, or even dared to think so. There were a few, though, as there are today. I don’t think their numbers have grown significantly over the years, but with the advent of social media those few miserable assholes have a louder presence than before, along with chemtrail loonies and flat-Earthers.
Is NASA still capable, especially in the face of cuts the Trump administration is imposing, of returning us to the Moon and beyond? Private industry, working with NASA, is doing a good job ferrying astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station, but will it be able to take over more ambitious missions in the event NASA is forced to give up on them?
This science fiction junkie, in the time left to him, hopes to see us return to the Moon and set up a more or less permanent base there. Mars? That too, but it’ll be a stretch.