Saturday, July 20, 2013
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This grainy image -- taken of a CBS television broadcast of the Apollo 11 lunar landing -- is similar to what the author saw. (CBS)
It's the first moment I remember. I was a very small child. I could not yet stand, but I recall my father holding me up close to our giant, '60s-era console TV set -- a boxy wooden behemoth much taller than me.
My dad was very excited. He was pointing out grainy, black-and-white photos on the screen and stressing to me, his 23-month-old child, the extreme importance of what I was seeing. He wanted me, a baby, really, to remember this moment. That this was something huge.
My dad did not often get excited, so I'm sure it was his enthusiasm that cemented the event into my brain. At that age, I had no idea there was such a thing as a moon...or an Earth. All I knew was to pay attention when Papa got excited, because that meant good things were happening. Up until that point, it meant things like ice cream and being tossed far, far, far up into the air and being caught.
I believe it was Apollo 14, the third U.S. manned moon landing, that my father wanted to sear into my nascent memory. It was February of 1971, and I was not yet 2.
I was born in late March of 1969, at the very height of the space race. I had a father who had a passion for all things airborne. By day he worked for Pratt and Whitney, an aerospace contractor, in Connecticut. At night, he studied to earn his private pilot's license.
I grew up in hangars, inhaling the pungent smell of airplane fuel, and staying out of the way. I learned how to check for birds' nests in Cessna engines, how to read aeronautical maps, I even learned how to take control of the stick if my dad suddenly had a heart attack (he's a morbid realist, as am I).
Looking back, I know that my father was right to be so excited -- and to want to pass that enthusiasm on to his firstborn. No human has set foot on the moon since December 1972 (the last was the Apollo 17 mission -- I was likely held up to the TV for that one, too). It's a shame. Of course, I understand that some people feel the nation's money should be spent helping people here on Earth. But the urge to explore, to go farther, to see what else is out there, is at the core of what it means to be human. NASA's Apollo missions represented the very best of what it means to be an American.
To this day, I think the idea of taking off, of getting out there, of slipping "the surly bonds of Earth" -- a line from a sonnet, written by American pilot John Gillespie Magee, that hung in my dad's office -- is one of the most wondrous things one can do. (I am simply thrilled to get onto a plane, any plane, going anywhere.)
Ultimately, I believe my father thought space travel might very well possible, common even, within his his young child's lifetime. There are a few options, but none affordable to an average American. Deep down, though the odds seem against it, I hope that my father was right, and that I'll someday have the thrill of seeing our planet from space. Till then I'll look back and marvel at Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, taken exactly 44 years ago today.
RELATED ON SKYE: 25 Amazing Photos of the International Space Station
![International Space Station, Shuttle]()
This grainy image -- taken of a CBS television broadcast of the Apollo 11 lunar landing -- is similar to what the author saw. (CBS)
It's the first moment I remember. I was a very small child. I could not yet stand, but I recall my father holding me up close to our giant, '60s-era console TV set -- a boxy wooden behemoth much taller than me.
My dad was very excited. He was pointing out grainy, black-and-white photos on the screen and stressing to me, his 23-month-old child, the extreme importance of what I was seeing. He wanted me, a baby, really, to remember this moment. That this was something huge.
My dad did not often get excited, so I'm sure it was his enthusiasm that cemented the event into my brain. At that age, I had no idea there was such a thing as a moon...or an Earth. All I knew was to pay attention when Papa got excited, because that meant good things were happening. Up until that point, it meant things like ice cream and being tossed far, far, far up into the air and being caught.
I believe it was Apollo 14, the third U.S. manned moon landing, that my father wanted to sear into my nascent memory. It was February of 1971, and I was not yet 2.
I was born in late March of 1969, at the very height of the space race. I had a father who had a passion for all things airborne. By day he worked for Pratt and Whitney, an aerospace contractor, in Connecticut. At night, he studied to earn his private pilot's license.
I grew up in hangars, inhaling the pungent smell of airplane fuel, and staying out of the way. I learned how to check for birds' nests in Cessna engines, how to read aeronautical maps, I even learned how to take control of the stick if my dad suddenly had a heart attack (he's a morbid realist, as am I).
Looking back, I know that my father was right to be so excited -- and to want to pass that enthusiasm on to his firstborn. No human has set foot on the moon since December 1972 (the last was the Apollo 17 mission -- I was likely held up to the TV for that one, too). It's a shame. Of course, I understand that some people feel the nation's money should be spent helping people here on Earth. But the urge to explore, to go farther, to see what else is out there, is at the core of what it means to be human. NASA's Apollo missions represented the very best of what it means to be an American.
To this day, I think the idea of taking off, of getting out there, of slipping "the surly bonds of Earth" -- a line from a sonnet, written by American pilot John Gillespie Magee, that hung in my dad's office -- is one of the most wondrous things one can do. (I am simply thrilled to get onto a plane, any plane, going anywhere.)
Ultimately, I believe my father thought space travel might very well possible, common even, within his his young child's lifetime. There are a few options, but none affordable to an average American. Deep down, though the odds seem against it, I hope that my father was right, and that I'll someday have the thrill of seeing our planet from space. Till then I'll look back and marvel at Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, taken exactly 44 years ago today.
RELATED ON SKYE: 25 Amazing Photos of the International Space Station
