Apollo 11 Moon Landing Stories

I remember my mom and dad waking me up to watch the landing and Moon walk. Like a goofy kid, I had to have all my cool space stuff next to me while we watched. I remember most my dad’s eyes starting to well up when they walked on the Moon. It was a huge sense of pride for all of us.

I remember watching the moon landing on TV. I was watching NASA's broadcast from Cayey, Puerto Rico. My parents and my sister Maria were with me. Back then I loved learning about science in school so I loved the space program very much. The moon landings and watching Star Trek while growing up in Puerto Rico inspired me to become an engineer and a pilot, both of which I achieved in the 1979. The NASM is my favorite museum and I still enjoy flying.

I remember when TV was interrupted and stated that a broadcast of the moon landing was going to begin. It was so exciting and nerve racking at the same time. I thought it was so important to Americans. My family was glued to the TV and hard to believe the vision was coming from the moon.

My grandfather was born July 20th, 1903, six months before the Wright Brothers' first flight. In May of '61, my dad - a freshly minted fighter pilot, was home on leave to the small town in Nebraska where he grew up and he was sitting with my grandfather talking about Kennedy's speech from earlier in the day wherein the president had challenged America to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. My grandpa said "It'll never happen..." My dad said "Oh yes it will!" They decided to bet a dollar and my grandpa used a carpenter's marking crayon to write "Man On Moon By 01-01-70" across the face of the bill. They placed the bill on a shelf in the kitchen and there it remained until July 20, 1969 when my grandpa answered a long distance phone call from California. It wasn't a birthday greeting he received, but rather, a call from my dad who gleefully exclaimed "Send it out!" A few days later, the "Moon Dollar" arrived in the mail and my dad placed it with his other important documents where it safely remained until his passing two years ago this July. Now, the Moon Dollar is one of my treasured possessions, a fond reminder of a friendly bet placed nearly 60 years ago between an old Nebraska farmer and his fighter pilot son...

It was such a huge deal around our house my dad wanted to preserve the moment. This was long before VCRs, DVDs, and DVRs. With all of us gathered around the TV to watch, he used his 8 mm home movie camera to film it off the TV. The result wasn't very high quality, but still, it was the moment man first stepped on the Moon! Recently my brother put all our home movies onto DVDs, and when going through them I really enjoyed seeing the forgotten film my father took on the momentous day in 1969.

I was only 3 years old - but somehow by the magic of Dads RCA black and white TV, I can remember images of ghostly men bouncing slowly around on some other place - this is my earliest vivid memory of my LIFE. I sat on the living room floor with Dad watching history unfold before my very very young eyes. My very first memory of anything I can recall. Godspeed Apollo 11

I was a child of the space race growing up in the 60's and watching everything we did to put men on the moon. I built models of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft and read everything I could find on the vehicles and men flying them. But I was most excited when, on my 15th birthday, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. What a birthday gift for and excited space nut! My family gathered around our TV to watch the live broadcast in Dallas, Texas that night. I would not make it into NASA but did fly in the USAF and enjoyed watching two good friends get selected and fly on the Shuttle.

I was 5 years old when Apollo 11 flew and my memories of the mission are somewhat vague. I can remember the later Apollo flights much better. Anyway, I can remember watching the landing coverage with my parents. Everybody seems to remember Walter Cronkite's coverage but my Dad never liked him so we watched ABC with Frank Reynolds and Jules Bergman. I seem to recall that they were on the moon but in the LM for several hours before they went outside. I can then recall being outside playing in the yard when my Mom called me inside. I recall it was in the evening but summer days in Montana are long. I got in just in time to see the ghostly b&w image of Neil Armstrong coming out on to the "porch" then down the ladder and finally stepping out on the surface.

I remember my grammar school teacher telling me about her experience on the day Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. She had such a sense of patriotism when telling our class how her and her family sat around the TV and watched this momentous event of American history.

My parents took the family to the annual Navy picnic in Annapolis and everybody crowded around a small black and white TV set to watch. It was so exciting and meaningful that so many of us saw it happen together. We all cheered and hugged and celebrated. It was a moment I'll never forget. The day the world felt as one as we stepped onto another one.

In an audio interview with me, one of the "Voices of Apollo 11," Douglas Ward recalls the 1969 moon landing: "Several computer alarms began to pop up." http://www.meyersonstrategy.com/2016/07/voice-of-apollo-11-recalls-moon-landing.html

I was a bright-eyed 5 year old living in Australia, where to us, history was being made on a cold and wintery morning. My entire school had crowded into an assembly hall where we watched the grainy images on a small B&W TV that had been placed on a stand. When compared with so many other "Where were you when...?" events that have transformed our lives, it's sad that at that age I couldn't really comprehend the historic significance of what I was viewing. 47 years later though, that cold morning, that hall, that TV and those ghostly images are all deeply etched in my memory. I speak of them proudly too when I tell my kids that if I can witness 2 men walk on the moon, then there are simply no boundaries to what they can achieve in their lives.

My parents, who did not allow a TV in the house, rented a television so that we could all watch this historic space exploration achievement. My father worked for NASA at the Lewis Research Center (now John Glenn) and my mother was interested in science too.

I remember watching the landing with my childhood friend Eric in the basement of his parents house that afternoon and then later that evening at my parents house with Eric again surrounded by my family, but even at the age of 10 feeling a connection with the whole world.

To me, this journey meant the proof that humans could break the barrier that our planet meant, where all the species that lived here in the past remained. It's the fist step to interplanetary species that hopefully will become a reality.

I remember when I went to space camp in Huntsville the summer of 1988 right before the return to flight of the STS program after the Challenger explosion. I also got to go down to Cape Canaveral and see / walk across the gantry that Neil, Buzz and Michael walked as the last steps on Earth before man journeyed to another celestial body. Standing on that gantry I had a small moment of realization that I walked across this the same as they did ( minus the A7L suit) that we are all in this together and that the Apollo missions were for all of humanity not just a space race, but a dream of so many, for so long, it was finally achieved. I still think the best news broadcast I have ever seen is Walter Cronkite taking his glasses off and rubbing his hands together with excitement....... I wish we could have that feeling of unity in our world once again the Apollo Missions did that. Now lets get to MARS.

This was a fabulous event for the entire world. I vividly recall it as I was in my early teens in Alberta Canada. My parents encouraged my fascination and study of space exploration - even as a Canadian. It helped me to learn to strive and indirectly motivated me into another profession. It solidified my lifelong passion for all things air and space; it motivated my travel to witness both Apollo 16 and 17 be launched; it sparked interest in other Canadians who eventually flew into space alongside our American neighbors; it clearly showed space exploration is international in scope and but for the dedication of our American friends it could well have been otherwise; it inspired awe in all who witnessed it and it still creates chills as I view my library of space and Apollo materials, videos and memorabilia; it was simply one of the most memorable events of my life. It profoundly affected technology and how we view ourselves and our planet. It helped us glimpse how tiny we are in the realm of the cosmos but gave us the opportunity to recognize our small part in it after its creation. Quite simply it was a turning point for humans and I am proud and humbled to have witnessed it and to be associated with our American friends who thought it important enough to prioritize and pursue. I say thank you to all Americans who believed in this goal and to those who preserve its memory and legacy. May both its memory and legacy continue for the betterment of all mankind.

I remember my mother letting my sister and me stay up late to watch the moon walk. I love anything space related. I had a model of the Apollo 11 rocket, the lunar module, and the Star Trek Enterprise on my desk. I still have my scrapbook of newspaper clippings starting 1 week before blast off till the day the astronauts came out of quarantine on the Apollo 11 mission. I got to meet Buzz Aldrin at the Star Trek 30th anniversary convention in Huntsville, Al. It was one of the greatest thrills of my life!

It was like a dream - I was so young (2.5 years old), but something I saw stayed with me. As I clasped my hands over the push chair, I could see these ghostly figures dancing across the landscape whilst leaving a wispy trail behind them. Even then I could sense history - if nothing else the tension in our living room told me that. Flash forward five years, and some anniversary programme on TV pulls me back in time - it wasn't a dream after all ...

My class and others at our school watched the first step. We had been learning about the moon landing for some time, but now the day had arrived. I listened to the news of the preparations with my father before school - by various twists of fate, he had taken one of the steps forward decades before. I was riveted to the small black-and-white TV screen in the assembly hall at lunch-time. It was raining cats-and-dogs outside. Some students were fidgeting. I was 7 years old. The events that day and those on related days by people that I may never know set me on my path.

My family was gathered around our new black and white TV, anxiously awaiting the broadcast of Apollo 11 Moon Landing. I'll never forget that "ah-ah-ah-moment." I was only six years old, but I can still picture our family and the anticipation. And, I remember my dad saying, "Just look outside. There's no traffic anywhere. Everybody is watching TV."

The Moon walk by Neil Armstrong was all over the news. I was working as a cashier at the local coffee shop and when things were slow, I spent time reading "kiddie lit" in anticipation of my upcoming college course on Childrens' Literature. Trying to focus on "Charlotte's Web" and other classics was very difficult as everyone in the restaurant was glued to the TV. I remember one "very old" woman (probably my age at the current moment) coming up to me at my register, and she grabbed my hand saying, "Honey, you are young and you probably don't realize how big this moment is. I'm old and I've seen so many changes, but you....you are going to see more changes in your lifetime than you can ever imagine. Don't ever forget this moment and embrace all the changes that you will see." She was soooo right.

I was seven years old, and waiting at the bus stop to go to school, in Toowoomba, Australia. My mother came up to the bus stop to get me, and told me I didn't have to go to school because a man was going to walk on the moon. Little Judy Wakefield, who was waiting with me, started to cry and mum told her she had the day off too, so she could go home. Now this was well before the internet, so how my mother knew the schools had given everyone the day off, I don't know. Especially since other kids growing up in the same town still had to go to school, as I found out much later in life. Mum was always a pretty independent thinker, so there's a better than good possibility that Judy and I got an unofficial day off school because mum thought it was more important that we witness a man make history live on TV. (Being in Australia, this was early in the afternoon our time.) My memories of sitting in the living room in our house in Perth Street with mum, and watching on TV as the first man ever walked on the moon are precious to me in so many ways - my mother passed away a few years ago, and our family home was sold and then demolished. But they are both so vivid in my mind, it's as if they're still there.

I remember when Apollo 11 lifted off launch pad 39A on Wednesday 16 July 1969 at 9:32 am EDT. Being only 18 at the time and living in the 60's it was quite impressive indeed. That Sunday I watched with my family, as president Kennedys goal was realized. I filmed the moon walk with a Kodak movie camera, I still have the movies. My decision to become an engineer started with Apollo 8 and was reinforced with Apollo 11 and as JFK said "nothing will be more impressive to mankind or more expensive to accomplish".

I loved the space race and read and watched everything I could find about our astronauts, cosmonauts, rockets, and satellites. Now I was watching the first men to ever walk on another heavenly body. The USA completed the challenge set out by the late President John F. Kennedy. I was able to record this remarkable moment with my 35 mm camera. Unfortunately, the pictures did not turn out very well. But the images of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon are burned into my memory forever.

Drafted into the US Army, I was in 'Basic Training' at Fort Ord, California. The entire ~400 Company lined up on the street for muster, ready to be transported to a Sunday rodeo in Monterrey. I alone raised my hand in the formation and, mentioning the billions of tax dollars, what about the moon landing later that day? I was marched off to the orderly office and sat alone watching the only b&w TV available. My best day in the Army.

My earliest aerospace memories are that of my father working in our home town of Downey California. My father worked on the Apollo Program at North American Aviation, Space Division. He worked on the Apollo Capsule. He worked in Logistical Support; in today’s terminology it would probably be called Supply Chain Management. He was responsible for ensuring parts arrived on time in support of Apollo, this is different from an expediting job. This was more of the master planning that takes place in a complicated system. The definition is: Procurement and distribution of equipment, facilities, spares, technical information, and trained personnel, essential to the proper operation of project. He was very proud of the contribution that he was making on the Apollo Project. He worked real long hours and we would not usually see him until late in the evening around 7 pm. He was not a drinking man, but he loved his sports, so after dinner, he would smoke a cigarette and watch sports and read the paper. With us kids, he did not really talk much. Each Apollo Capsule that was being fabricated at the Downey plant was baby sat by the prime crew of the Astronauts assigned to her. They would often visit with the fabricators on the production lines. This effectively communicated to the workers that it was these Astronauts whose lives were on the line, dependent on the workmanship and attention to detail of each line worker and engineer. I later spoke with some of these line workers and, yes, the Astronauts did develop relationships with them and they had fond memories of those encounters. Several of the Apollo Astronauts were an integral influence into the design on the Capsule during the initial stages of its inception. Notably Gus Grissom, as a result of the ill-fated launch/recovery of the Mercury-Redstone 4, which Gus named Liberty Bell 7. At splashdown, the hatch blew open and water rushed in. As the helicopter attempted to lift the capsule up out of the water, it was too heavy and so the helicopter was unable to retrieve it. Gus was rescued, but the Liberty Bell 7 capsule was lost. He later flew Gemini 3 and then was assigned to the Apollo program, Gus was very prominent in the Block I Capsule design of the Entry/Egress hatch. It is sad to note that it was the design of that very hatch that contributed to his death in the capsule fire of Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967. The hatch opened inward, as the astronauts attempted to open the hatch; they were fighting the pressures of approximately 29 psi. Now, given the door was approximately 42 X 30 inches that would be 1,260 square inches at 29 psi, which means it would take an effort of approximately 36,540 lbs of force to pull the door open. I was only 5 at the time, but I do remember my father being devastated when it happened. He said that many at the Downey plant took it real hard. Dad later said that he and every one he knew on the program experienced many deep sessions of self-evaluation because of Apollo 1. I remember being lucky to watch every launch that was televised. When we watched Apollo 11, I was six years old and that summer evening at my grandparents’ house is etched in my mind. We were in the family room and I was lying on the floor as thick clouds of cigarette smoke swirled overhead from my parents and grandparents smoking. We all watched with much anticipation for Neil Armstrong to pilot the LEM to a safe landing on the moon. I remember a little panic as some alarm went off, I looked up at my father as to say, “dad help them land”. We then were breathless as we watched Neil begin to descend down the ladder, he is at the base and now to step foot on the surface of the moon. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Yes, that famous quote of Neil Armstrong as he said his first words standing on another body in the heavens. Mankind has now escaped this planet we call Earth and set foot on another heavenly body! We were all transfixed on what was happening right before our eyes, can it really be, yes, man was actually walking on the moon! Then as we were all watching, straining to hear every word expressed from these moon explorers, Walter Cronkite continued with his commentary talking over Neil and Buzz and mission control. Why can’t this talking head shut up for just a few minutes so the world can take it all in? We know the magnitude of the event; we do not need him to point it out. So, what were Neil’s first observations of the surface of the moon? Can anyone quote the next words after his “small step” quote? No, that is a bit more difficult because of ol Wally could not keep his trap shut. Well, these were Neil’s next words, “Yes, the surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles.” We were all right there with him, enjoying all the sights and sounds of exploring this brave new world. We have all read in the history books about the great explorers like Christopher Columbus, Marco Polo, James Cook, Leif Eriksson and the others of the likes of Louis and Clark, but now, we are watching these great explorers Neil, Buzz and Michael, right in the comfort of our living rooms! One of man kind’s greatest achievements and it was broadcasted live on TV. I am still in awe of it to this day. Wow, to think of it, it was on my father’s shoulders as well as the shoulders of over 400,000 other’s that Neil, Buzz and Michael were standing on, that helped them get there. Even while working the long hours to get man to the moon, dad still found time to take us camping, fishing, to Dodger games, coach baseball and the many other little things that dad’s do. After each Apollo mission, the Astronauts would visit the Downey facility to inspect the capsule and visit with the workers who designed and fabricated their spacecraft. Upon arrival by helicopter, just as they had done when arriving on board the aircraft carrier after splashdown, their first steps back were painted with the outline of their shoes. Downey would duplicate that with a similar ceremony. My dad enabled me to witness these events as a 6, 7 and 8 year old. The Downey plant continued the foot print ceremony well on into the shuttle program. Years later, when I was working at the same facility, I also witnessed it for Shuttle astronauts. One thing I remember that really made me wonder, when the rocket was blasting off the pad, the Capsule was white, but now that it is back here, why is it all brown? I could see the silver pattern of a honeycomb, but did not know why it was like that and why no more white? It was only later that I realized the white were only strips of thin aluminum that covered the outside of the Capsule and it was painted white, but they burned away after re-entry. The capsules that were only flown in orbit retained much of the white because they saw less re-entry heat, whereas those that were flown to the moon and back were seeing higher re-entry temperatures because of higher re-entry speeds. The brown was phenolic resin impregnated with powdered quartz injected in liquid form into the aluminum honeycomb cell pattern. This was the heat shield that protected the Astronauts from the 6,000 + degree heat during re-entry from space. The high melting temperature of the quartz enabled a slow burn of the resin and made up the “ablative” material. As the ablative material burned away, it took with it the higher temperature. I found these photos in a box in the garage.

I remember quite well being a sixteen-year-old and watching the first Moon walk with my grandmother, Annie Gragg Mullins, and my cousin, April Mullins on my grandmother's color TV in Magnolia Springs, Alabama. My grandmother, Mimi was amazed at the astronauts walking on the Moon since she grew up riding in a horse and buggy until her father, a doctor, bought the first car in town. April was amazed because her Uncle Bubba’s roommate at West Point, Buzz Aldrin was walking on the Moon. Memories from our past can shape our future. Who knew that years later, I’d be taking my own small step which turned into a giant leap for me. On the 45th anniversary of the Moon walk, my husband Todd and I were watching the news. I commented that the 50th anniversary of that small step would be a great theme for a collection of art quilts called Fly Me to the Moon. He encouraged me to pursue it and later that same day I had the exhibit planned out by category. That was my small step. The next larger step came when I approached Schiffer Publishing with an idea for a book about this collection.They encouraged me to pursue it and that’s when the giant leap came, I put out a call for entries. Would anybody respond? Would there be enough art quilts to show? Could I find venues? I was overwhelmed by the international response. Fly Me to the Moon drew artists from around the world. It held universal appeal.

I was in the US Navy and stationed aboard USS Hornet CVS-12. I was there from the time we picked up the practice capsule and did all the practicing putting it over the side and recovering it. My discharge date was 04/01/1969 so I missed the actual recovery. When I got home with all the excitement of being home this was still a major date for me to remember and not to forget to watch. I did watch the walking on the moon and when they returned to earth the recovery was a real special event The crew of the Hornet were the best. Went out to he Hornet museum in 2004 and had a chance to go in the Quarantine trailer they stayed in. I had my son and wife with me and at the time he was 36 and was emotional at the fact he was 8 months old when this took place and was able to go and visit his fathers ship and actually touch a big part of US history. We were both along with his son at the Air and Space Museum last year My grand son loved and we did also Great Job to All

I was 13 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I'd followed the Apollo programme from Apollo 8 onwards; the earthrise pictures and Frank Borman's Christmas greeting - 'God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth' filled me with a sense of wonder and hope. Through 1969 the excitement and tension built as the Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 missions were successfully completed and my school library's copy of Time magazine carried incredible photos of the Apollo 10 command module in orbit around the moon - around the moon! When Apollo 11 blasted off into a clear, sunny Florida sky, it felt as if the whole world was watching, hoping and praying - holding its breath until the brave men on board had carried out the most daring and significant act of exploration in the history of mankind. They were doing it for all of us, and we were all willing them to succeed. I remember staying up to watch the live TV feed of the moonwalk - at around 3 a.m. in the UK; at first the picture was upside down and horribly grainy, but it improved as time went on so I could see two ghostly figures - raising the flag, setting up experiments, and taking that 'giant leap for mankind'. The day after, it seemed as if the whole world was celebrating and uplifted at the thought of what 'we' had achieved. To a 13 year old the age of Apollo seemed a simpler, somehow more innocent, time - a time of hope and optimism; the moon landings showed us that mankind could achieve absolutely anything it set its mind to. As a man in his early 60's, I have a much better understanding of the politics involved , the price paid - and just how close some of those Apollo missions came to catastrophic failure. But I will always be in awe of the bravery, commitment and determination of the 400,000-odd people who made Apollo such a milestone in the history of mankind - and the insight they gave us into our place in the Universe.

In 1969 I was 16-years-old. That summer, my parents packed the family in the car to take us to experience an event they felt would be educational and one for the memories--the Apollo 11 launch. I remember waking up in the week hours of July 16 to park the car in a prime viewing area on the Banana River. The plan was to sleep in the car, but I was far too excited. From where we parked you could see the Saturn 5, lit up with spotlights, ready to go. When the launch occurred the ground shook and everyone around us was cheering and yelling. It was a thrilling and a pivotal moment of my youth. A few years ago, I returned to Cocoa Beach for the first time since 1969. While driving through Port Canaveral there was a point where the car turned north and I yelled to the driver to stop the car. It was the location where my family watched the Apollo 11 launch. The place that was once lined with bait shacks was now part of Port Canaveral. So many good memories of that launch!

I remember my first day on the job, I was suited up and escorted into the plant 5 clean room that was the birth place of manned space vehicles. Undoubtedly a combined personal and historical connection to history and the best team of men and women employees and management ever assembled on a single mission.

I remember that i watchingthe broadcast its was amazing....

I remember the Apollo Landing because I was at Woodstock that weekend. So, I got to experience two incredible events and link them in my personal history. I remember coming into my folks living and seeing some of the event live!

The highlight of my career was to have worked on all of the Apollo missions. I managed a group of five computer software programmers. We were tasked with validating that the Apollo ground station telemetry software complied with all NASA mission requirements. This software was installed on computers at several ground stations located around the world. Telemetry data received from the Apollo spacecraft was immediately processed then forwarded to the NASA mission control facility at Houston, Texas and to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. My team worked at Goddard. Apollo 11 was scheduled to be launched on July 16, 1969; however, just prior to the Memorial Day weekend in May, a difficult problem surfaced in our testing. My team had found a strange timing anomaly in the data which occurred randomly. Timing was critical since the software combined data from four telemetry streams originating from four independent parts of the spacecraft arriving at slightly different times. With less than two months remaining before this historical launch, I felt compelled to forfeit my holiday weekend by remaining to work in my apartment on solving this anomaly. I convinced another member of my team to join me working independently from his home. All weekend long we scoured over all parts of the source code, searching for the origin of that timing anomaly. Finally, on that Memorial Day Monday, the solution dawned on me. My partner made the changes, and the revised telemetry software was retested multiple times. The anomaly never recurred. I was so relieved and elated that, after about a week, I sent a hand-written letter to the Apollo 11 astronauts in Houston. I included a photograph of my team with their names and our mission objectives. At that time, the astronauts were practicing on complex simulators for their mission. I informed them that they could rest assured that the Apollo11’s telemetry data handling was solid. Some of that data was biomedical in nature, which directly affected them. I never expected a response since it was so close to launch – but a letter did arrive with their three signatures! The date on that letter was July 7, 1969. Their launch date was July 16, 1969. The United States had beaten the Soviet Union in a very competitive race to accomplish the first successful manned landing on and return from the moon. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of that landing. It is great to know that my team had played a tiny part in that historic effort.

I remember when the Appollo launch occurred. Seeing the footage from the launch was awesome! I will never forget it - I had just graduated from college two years before. It changed my life in that it was clear that science fiction had become reality. (And we all still use the expression 'one step....etc) Today, I saw another step forward. At the Escape Reality Conference in Maryland - Cassini scientists from NASA showed images (along with calculations, data and analysis) from the Cassini photo missions. Incredible as science. Then there were clips from a new documentary film -'In Saturn's Rings' - the director presented the production techniques, using millions of real images from Cassini and other missions, and suddenly science became art. The speakers said this is an IMAX film, and is already playing in other cities. Beautiful , Inspiring. Lavarre Burton narrating - great music -- really cool. But they only had clips. Wondering when the film will be at Air and Space?? And if the speakers and film folks will be doing some of your 'What's New in..' lecture events. This is heavy science brought to life. Truly amazing! Lots of kids in the audience as well as grey haired and everything in between, and all mesmerized!. A truly beautiful way to present science. Where will this film be at Air and Space??

Excitement and pride going to work each day and arriving at 7AM Plant 5 in Bethpage, NY. Realizing that good intension, the spirit to excel at your work, liking what you do and working together with thousands of others was a good thing for mankind. Grummanites engineered an created a perfectly safe dedicated for moon space ship to safely land on the moon, keep the explorers safe, provide environmental studies, and serve as a launch pad to rocket the men off the moon and on their way home to planet earth. Working with landing and rendezvous radar installation and testing, FEAT testing (Final Engineering & Acceptance Testing) and Ground Support in getting the vehicle into the Supper Guppy for its delivery to the Cape. all were part to making my day. Proud to be an American. Twelve men walked on the moon and all 21 men that were part of the flight crews returned safely back to planet earth. The lunar module far exceeded expectations when it in the time of need it became a "life boat" for 72 hours instead of landing on the moon. When the words Houston we have a problem indicated the command module was doomed and unable to support the crew it was shut down early in the flight in the hope it would be able to resume operation days later when needed. From all the communities around Bethpage Grumman workers rushed onto the parkways to get back to the plant and intensify the activate LEM simulator vehicle in order to hands reconfigure and make the life boat a success. Yes all was good.

I was 8 years old, living with my parents in Honolulu Hawaii. I loved science and science fiction. I was thrilled that we were going to the moon. I remember going to our neighbors apartment to watch as Neil and Buzz Landed on the moon. We all gathered around the little 13" Black and White TV and held our breath as he stepped form the lander to the surface of the moon. Over the next few days I could always be found glued to the TV watching as the pictures and video showed the bouncy and glare fill shots of another place in the Universe that we were exploring. The small ness of the distant earth in the photos and the sense that this was the beginning exploration was everywhere and I loved it.

I was only ten years old when the Apollo crew circled the lunar surface, and then on July 20 1969 landed the Eagle lunar module onto the moon. I got to see this only because of my Dad telling me to wake up, and come to our living room to watch the landing. I'm so glad he thought enough to do this for me. I loved the space program, and at ten there were few greater fans than I was, of the landing. God bless America!

The week of the very first moon landing, I was attending a science camp for boys in Hawley Pennsylvania called Camp Watonka. The camp featured rocketry, chemistry, photography, science exploration within nature, as well as traditional summer camp activities such as swimming, canoeing, hiking etc.. I personally knew that on the second week that I was at the camp that the moon landing was to take place. There was no television what so ever at the camp, since its belief was a rigid schedule of "Early to bed early to rise" motto with recorded bugle revelry to get up and taps to go to bed. I asked the camp director, Donald Wacker, "If"- he knew about the fact that man was to land on the moon this week!" And, he did say "Yes!" but I followed with the question - Aren't we going to watch this - since it will be a Sunday? His response was - WE don't have a TV! I suggested, well, what about renting one? This was on the Saturday a day before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Since I sat at the mess hall table with the camp director, he shared with me that in FACT he did rent a TV for the entire camp of 175 campers will in fact watch this historical day, thanks to my suggestion. It turns out though that the only TV available to rent was a very small 15 inch TV. It was set up on that historic Sunday, July 20th and there were only two chairs in the Ping Pong room. I stacked out my place the whole day - since it was a FREE day (Sunday) to watch the broadcasts from the various network stations. I will never forget that evening of ALL 175 campers and me sitting in the chair watching this small B/W TV and watching Neil Armstrong coming out of the LEM in that very blurry image from the moon. The room was in total AWE you could hear a pin drop. I will NEVER for get this day!

Due to the different time zone the lunar landing was on the 21st July in Australia, not the official date of 20 July. I was a five-year old at school and I knew our school didn’t have a TV. As a mad keen space fan I decided to pretend to be sick (In Australian terms this would be called “chucking a sickie”). I told the teacher I felt ill so two older children walked me home where I promptly sat down and watched the landing on our TV. It was only the next day that I found out that the school had indeed borrowed a large TV and everyone watched together, except me, in the school hall.

I was twelve years old living in Oklahoma City when Apollo 11 touched down that July 1969. I had just purchased and assembled the 1/144 scale Apollo Saturn V model. I launched it when the astronauts launched and kept the pieces flying by hanging them on a string from the ceiling. The command module was the last piece to come down when they splashed down in the Pacific. Like a lot of kids my age, I built a lunar module interior out of cardboard boxes, drawing the dials and switches on the cardboard. It was the greatest adventure humans had ever been on and thanks to television, we went along with them for the ride! When Neil took that first step, I was front and center, laying on the floor directly in front of our black and white television. The moon landing influenced my life to the point that I have produced documentaries on the space program and written numerous magazine articles and books about our exploration of space. We were fortunate in that we had true heroes to look up to - these astronauts were bold, intelligent and approachable. They accomplished amazing things and we are the better for it.

I remember being in my control room in CBS studio 41 "flying" the mission along with the astronauts. I was the CBS senior director directing our coverage of Apollo 11. There were also many other directors through out the united states and overseas providing coverage of this mission. I followed all the mission events, highlighted in the actual mission flight plan in front of me, making sure I created my engine burns on time with Apollo 11, rendezvous and docked on time with miniatures of the space craft and our full scale mock ups at a remote location, and eventual y starting the landing sequence for the millions of people watching CBS, holding their breaths and praying for a successful landing. Directors usualy are seated when they direct, sometimes standing when directing a kinetic squence in a live program. This was that moment in studio 41, overflowing with company executives, and extra production personel squeezed into the back of the control room. It was strangly quiet in my control room. All one heard were my commands to my technicians in the control room, studio, and remote locations all around the world. There was my boss, the program producer, leaning over my shoulder and whispering into my ear, when necessary. In a control room speaker, there the voices of mission control and the Apollo crew and the commentary of Walter & Wally. If there was a loud voice in the control room it was me. As I gave the command to start the De-orbit burn, I stood up excited knowing this part of the mission was the culmination of every thing NASA had done in the Mercury and Gemini missions. I had to raise my voice over all of the incoming audio feeds as I directed my luna landing sequence. On touchdown I still was calling shots, two of them that I'll never forget. One was Wally Shirra wiping away a tear, and Walter rubing his hands, not speaking a word, turns to Wally saying "Wally say something, I'm speechless. People in mission were whooping it up as well as everyone else in the control room. I wanted to do that , but had to just keep calling my shots. That's what I remember about July 19 1969.

I was at the Cape for the launch. I was 16 years old. I grew up in a space race family who watched the launches on TV. But in 1969 my parents decided to take the family to Florida to watch the historic launch. We parked the car in the area now known as Port Canaveral on the evening before the launch and slept until dawn. On the morning of the launch thousands of people were camped out on blankets and lawn chairs. Transistor radios were blaring with up-to-date news and the countdown...and the crowd was silent. When the Saturn 5 began to lift, everyone started cheering and yelling, "Go!" And they kept yelling until the rocket was no longer visible. In my mind, being at the bottom launch was one of the most pivotal events of my youth. I still have newspapers and souvenirs from the event.

We were renting an apartment in Webster, TX ... spending the summer there because my husband, John, was one of the four scientists who would receive the material from the Apollo 11 landing for gas analysis of the lunar surface. I and our three young children were, of course, glued to the small TV set as that historic day unfolded. I asked our 3-1/2 year old son what was happening. His reply: "They are getting Daddy his moon rocks!" It was an incredibly exciting time to be a proud American, and for me and my family and John's parents, family and all our friends, it was especially exhilarating to be so closely connected to that extraordinary moment in history.

This isn't really my story, but more my mother and father's story (mostly my mom's). I was born on July 20, 1969 at approximately 7:00 am. Although my mom was extremely happy to welcome her 4th child in 5 years into this world, she did admit she was a bit disappointed to have missed the moon landing on TV. Obviously it was a momentous, historical event and shown as much as possible on live TV. These were obviously before the days of birthing suites with satellite TV and fine furnishings! As I grew older, she also told me I should consider myself lucky because many other children born on the same day were given names such as Lunar, Moonbeam, Apollo, etc. Although Moonbeam would have been fun, my parents were fine with naming me Debbie, and so was I.

I witnessed the Apollo 11 Moon Landing at my Grandmothers row house in Bethlehem, PA. I was 10 years old, laying on the oriental rug, along with my 4 younger sisters, Dad and Mom wanted to be sure we were all there together to witness History. And since my Grandmother was born in 1893, and was 10 years old when the Wright Bros. first left the Earth under powered flight, this was truly a memory to share across the Generations. We watched with the lights out so Dad could take pictures of the TV screen, like many, many others that day.

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing was probably one of the most profound moments in human history! This also happened to be the day I was born. My father and older sister recall the night clearly as my mother refused to leave for the hospital even though she was in heavy labor. It was an amazing night and everyone was glued to their television screens, including my mother! I was born in the hospital parking lot, without a doctor, only a nurse present, because my mom didn't want to miss Neil Armstrong stepping out onto the moon for the first time in history. I've always had a fascination for space, and now I have a son, who has been given an appointment to USAFA, in the hopes of becoming a pilot, or perhaps pursuing an Astro Engineering program! It's in our genes!

I stayed up at age 13 to watch the landing, and astronaut Armstrong said "The Eagle has landed, That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." My parents could not understand why I was so fascinated with this milestone. I remembered President Kennedy talking about putting a man on the moon, and here it was actually happening! It was amazing.

I was 9 years old, playing with my Barbie dolls. In the room gathered around the tv were my siblings, parents, aunt and grandparents. Both my Grandpa and Grandma were born in 1890 and 1896 respectively, well before the Wright brothers historic flight on Kitty Hawk. And now they were witnessing man walking on the moon. How I wish I could go back in time and ask them what they thought about that historic day! They lived in that wonderful exciting era that spanned horse and buggy days to space rockets!

I was the lead Bermuda tracking station (BDA) Computer engineer, a Bendix contractor to NASA, when we landed the first man on the moon. My family was with me at the time, wife Barbara, daughter Elizabeth and son Sean. It was the height of my career working for God and country in which I was given the Silver Snoopy award for my support. I had served two volunteer years in Vietnam and was extremely proud of my Naval service but this surpassed even that. My top Bendix supervisor in BDA was the best leader an engineer could have. The whole BDA NASA/Bendix team was the best! I went on to serve with various contractors to NASA on the Hubble Space Telescope and also the James Webb Space Telescope but nothing surpassed my work effort with the Apollo 11 endeavor team. I was forced into retirement at the age of 79 by cancer. Our great President Kennedy set a great goal for our country to put a man on the moon and I am humbled to have been part of that superior achievement. God Bless America...

I was 16 years old when Apollo 11 happened. My father had passed away in 1967 and I spent a lot of time in my room reading and building plastic models of all the spacecraft of the time. I used to record CBS space coverage on a little reel to reel tape player since the days of Gemini, and had a tremendous supply of tapes to use for "The Epic Voyage of Apollo 11." The morning of July 16 I had the tape recorder going as the count reached its final seconds ... just at ignition, my mother walked by and passed gas. “Liftoff!!“ she shouted. I was mortified and mad that she had ruined my historic tape. Of course, every time I listened to it I had to smile at my mom’s sense of both humor and timing. I will always treasure that little bit of tape long after Neil, Buzz, and Mike returned to Earth, and my mom departed this Earth.

I was a CalTech student with a summer job at JPL in 1969. There was a building, the Space Flight Operations Facility (SFOF) which did pretty much what its name says. A great deal of information during the Apollo 11 mission was displayed in real time in the SFOF. It was the very best place to watch the mission unfold. Unfortunately, it wasn't accessible by lowly summer interns. My boss, Mr. Durr, knew how badly I wanted to see the lunar exploration segment of the mission. He lent me his SFOF access badge, and I did my best to look 20 years older. I was able to hang out in the SFOF for the landing, the two days of exploration, and takeoff for the trip home. It was a lifetime experience and an example of generosity that shaped my life thereafter. Thanks, Larry!

On that day, Apollo 11 landed on the moon! It was especially exciting since my good friend Peter Cairo and I were on a very large passenger ferryboat heading from Patras, Greece to Brindisi, Italy ( a 17 hour journey). The ferry was in the middle of the Ionia Sea with magnificent stars and the moon overhead. On board there was grainy black and white TV coverage along with an audio feeds ( I believe it was Walter Cronkite). When the lunar craft touched down on the moon around 11 PM the boat erupted in euphoric cheers and applause. The captain was sounding the air horns. Americans onboard were treated like heroes. People were buying you drinks as if you were NASA astronaut. The following morning prior arriving in Brindisi, we watched the moon walk. It was a great night and day to be an American and be in such a unique place for witnessing history.

Like most of us in America, our family was huddled around the television, watching the Apollo 11 moon landing. Shortly before the scheduled landing, the television announcer stated that there was a pressure problem. Just then the phone rang. I answered the phone, wondering who would be calling in the middle of the moon landing. It was NASA calling, urgently asking to talk to my dad. You see, my father is Harvey Wright, part of the team that designed the pressure valves in the descent engine of the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module. I passed the phone to my dad. We were all mesmerized, listening as he intensively responded to NASA with a series of technical terms and instructions. We quickly began watching again after the call. A few minutes later the announcer stated that the pressure problem had been resolved and the LEM was continuing its descent. This 16 year-old girl never forgot the day her dad became a hero. July 20, 1969.

My mother went into labor with me sometime on July 20, 1969. My father took her to Evanston Hospital in Illinois for the delivery. My mother had a difficult time getting attention from her nurses, because they were all absorbed watching the broadcast of the moon landing. My father was watching the broadcast with them, as men were not permitted in delivery rooms as they are now. I arrived in the world shortly after midnight on July 21, which the papers were calling, "Moon Monday". My mother promptly named me Luna and called me Luna for the three days she was confined in the hospital. However, my dad didn't care for the name, and asked a nurse what a popular girls name might be. That's how I became "Jennifer" - but my mother would sometimes call me Luna anyway.

It's easy to remember the July 20, 1969 date for me. It was my fathers 50th birthday, and he was very proud of that. On his 25th birthday in 1944 the German generals made their last assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler. I was eighteen and had just graduated from high school. I had been at the beach on Dauphin Island Alabama when the LEM had landed. A guy sitting in his car suddenly started hollering "we're on the moon". That night my family sat around the black and white set to watch the steps on the surface. Naturally we listened to Walter Cronkite. My six year old sister was sleepy and not pleased that my parents made her stay up. We did exactly what the entire world was doing.

The Apollo 11 moon landing is one day in my life I'll never forget. It was my 18th birthday. Surrounded by extended family who came to help celebrate my birthday, we were all glued to the TV as this historic event unfolded. Home made ice cream and cake waited while we tried to fathom the magnitude of what was happening.

In the UK the landing was on the Sunday evening. I was 7 so perhaps I had already gone to bed; certainly I don't remember seeing it live. The following day at school I do remember being taken into the school hall with every other child and we all sat cross legged on the floor to watch a repeat of the landing and Neil Armstrong stepping onto the lunar surface. People say "it blew my mind" far too often to describe the most mundane things these days. But honestly, that event did, it made me and quite a few others cry. Still brings a tear to my eye.

As an 8-year old in Leeds, Yorkshire, UK my mother woke me at an ungodly hour to watch Mr Armstrong and Dr Aldrin walk on the moon. It must have been around 2am or so. I think I was excited, but maybe that's because I was watching TV in the middle of the night - Our TV programmes usually ended at around midnight with the National Anthem and a strict instruction to make sure the TV was properly turned off...Around 40 years later I visited the Cape, seeing the Saturn 5 was the nearest I ever got to a religious experience.

On July 20, 1969, I was outside playing baseball when my father comes out of the house and tells me to "get in this house and watch the T.V.!" At seven years of age I asked him why? He said to me "because history is about to be made and you need to be a part of it." I reluctantly put the baseball and the bat down and went into the living room where the big console T.V. was. I saw the CBS broadcast with Walter Cronkite telling us that Neil Armstrong was about to walk on the moon. I saw the now famous broadcast when Neil stepped off the ladder of the lunar module and made his "One small step" statement and hearing Cronkite repeating Neil Armstrong's statement. I remember being frozen in place as this was going on. I will never forget the reaction of Walter Cronkite being speechless himself and having to wipe away his tears on camera. I think the entire country must have shed a tear or two with Walter Cronkite! I have been a teacher in Springtown, Texas for the past 32 years. Currently I teach technology and the space program is an anchor for many of my lessons in technology. Even today when I show the video of that broadcast, I still get teary-eyed along with Walter Cronkite!

At the time of the Apollo missions, communications and communication networks were not as developed as they are today. At the time, I lived in very rural part of upstate New York where there were even less communication networks than in the rest of the country. My brother in law, married to the second oldest sister in the family, was at that time the chief of the local fire department. He had setup a small but well built and designed ham radio network to help support the local fire department. I always remember going to their house and seeing this (what I thought) was a huge radio tower in their back yard. During the Apollo missions, NASA contacted my brother-in-law asking if they could use his equipment as a back-up communication system in case it was needed during these missions. The whole family would congregate at their house to watch on TV, as most did at the time I'm sure, but we had the added dimension of listening in the back-ground through the ham radio equipment the actual conversations in real time between NASA and the astronauts, while watching the broadcast on the TV. This was almost a magical experience and instilled in me a love of space exploration, NASA, and all that's associated with these programs that has lasted my whole life.

I remember when there were no onboard space ship cameras streaming to the public. I sat on the floor with my family wondering why we stared at the "tube" forEVER at the most boring cartoons on the planet. (Oh yeah, "animations" of Apollo 11.) Now we just click on YouTube and watch space flight in real time. It's a wonderful world!