The Eagle Has Landed
It is the task of older generations to bear witness to the younger, to recount the events of their lives, so that they are remembered. These personal, first-hand accounts are as important to history as any formal documentation … and because those official accounts often play to an agenda, they are often more important.
In these troubled times, those who have borne witness to the atrocities of the past continue this vital task, standing firm against those who would deny their role in repeating the worst and darkest moments of the last century.
Their words must be heard. There are some things that we must always remember, some things that we must never forget.
But not all of these are hard, dark things. History is more than bleak cruelty. There are moments of light, of hope, of triumph, and it is our duty to remember and share these, as well, to keep that light of hope alive.
I am, as I write, listening to one of those moments, courtesy of https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/, a real-time replay of the Apollo 11 flight. A few minutes ago, I heard Neil Armstrong announce those immortal words: “The Eagle Has Landed.”
I heard them when they were first uttered.
My memories of the Apollo program are entwined with my memories of my mother, who left us not long ago. We watched every one of the Apollo flights, and she kept us home from school to do so on at least one of them. (Of course, one of her Good Republican Cloth Coat acquaintances asked her, “aren’t you worried that they’ll miss something important in school?” I can only image the LOOK Mom must have given them when she responded, “What could be more important than THIS?”) *
I have always suspected that the midsummer scheduling of Apollo 11 was no accident: only the most ardent space flight devotees (like my family) were glued to the television for the dry runs of 8, 9, and 10, but NASA knew that when it was time for the actual landing, the whole world would just stop.
I am aware that much of the manned space program of my childhood was political. The “Space Race” was as much for prestige as for science, a grandiose game of Capture the Flag played to one-up our Soviet counterparts. That’s the official account, these days. That’s the excuse for canceling the last three Apollo missions, the justification for half a century of shoestring budgets. We “won the race,” so why should we still keep running?
I suppose that in the adult world of 1969, this was common knowledge, the enthusiasm leavened with the world-weary cynicism of the times.
But I was five. All I knew about the Soviet Union was that they called their astronauts “cosmonauts.” I didn’t have politics: I had WONDER. I BELIEVED.
I know that I will always see the events of that day through that five-year-old’s eyes … but I have to think that, when the Eagle landed, and a few hours later, when Armstrong took that One Small Step … for just a day, even just an hour … three and a half billion human beings let themselves believe, too. For all the cynical rhetoric then and now about the Apollo program being a nationalistic publicity stunt … for a brief, fragile moment, this was a victory not just for the United States, but for humanity as a whole.
The truth of Apollo 11 isn’t in the flag they raised, which toppled in the exhaust of their departure and has almost certainly faded in half a century of the hard and unrelenting lunar sunlight. It’s etched in the plaque on the leg of the lunar module, in gleaming stainless steel:
HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969, A.D. WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND
For all mankind.
Look into the night sky tonight, at the the waning gibbous Moon.
And remember:
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, we reached for the Moon, and had it in our grasp. That we let it go all too soon doesn’t matter: we have touched the sky.
All of us.
In the face of tyranny and cruelty, in the face of catastrophe, remember what we have done, and dare to believe in what we yet can do.
The Eagle Has Landed.
Keep reading
Reblogging my post from 2019.
It’s a waxing gibbous moon tonight, not a waning, and I’m not listening to https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/, but everything else I said still holds.
“We came in peace for all mankind.”
Maybe that was all just crepe-paper and glitter draped over cynical politics. Maybe it was just a fantasy.
But Terry Pratchett said it best:
“Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.”
If you could point to that place, it would be the Sea of Tranquility.
I normally save this one for Moon Landing Day on July 20th, but withy yesterday’s launch of Artemis II, I thought it appropriate to bring it back early.
Certainly, all of the emotional resonance still holds true for me. I am certainly of the political and propaganda aspects of this flight, but in this midst of all this hellish turmoil, I am setting those aside to let my inner child embrace that sense of joy and wonder and unity.
We’re going back to the moon.
And, yes, “we.” Much of the lead-in to yesterday’s launch on NASA’s streaming service was full of idealistic rhetoric about “discovery and exploration for all”, and certainly, there is an element of propaganda there. But I think that for the astronauts and the support staff behind them, those ideals are sincere. The mission patch encapsulates it, with the “AII” deliberately depicted in such a way that it spells “All”:
[source]
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, Jeremy Hansen. You carry our hopes and dreams with you. Clear skies.
And time to bring it around again for Moon Landing Day.
