Fifty years ago today, I was an excited 12-year-old sitting in front of our family's black and white TV. Within less than a decade, we did what we said we were going to do. We put humans on the moon.

Today C-Span replayed the two and a half hour CBS coverage of the first moon walk. The famed Walter Cronkite was the announcer. A few things stuck out to me -- first, the *extremely* detailed directions that Neil Armstrong gave to Buzz Aldrin as he came down the ladder of the lunar module. Neil had somehow figured it out, but he wasn't taking any chances with his friend. Second, there was the extreme caution of the astronauts as they first started to move around, trying to find their center of gravity. Then, within a half hour, they were starting to gently bound around. Eventually they were bounding with the glee of children. Neil tried a kangaroo hop for good measure.

One of the astronauts gave a very detailed description of a space rock in the mid-distance. "It's about 15 inches long, and 6 inches high, angled up on its side." Never has a rather ordinary rock been described so lovingly. They struggled to describe the color of the soil, settling on "greyish cocoa." The flight surgeon in Houston noted that they amount of energy both astronauts were expending was in line with projections, reminding me that absolutely everything had been thought through ahead of time, and nothing had been left to chance.

As that entranced twelve year old, I remember looking up at the moon the next couple of nights, and thinking, humans are on the moon's surface right now. I never saw the moon in quite the same way again.

It was a glorious time. I tell my young students that they will see humans walking on Mars one day -- and that if they are so inclined, they might possibly be one of those humans. I hope that they embrace that journey with the same sense of wonder and zest that we did, fifty years ago.

The bishop who called me to be his ward's EQP was obviously completely out to lunch when it came to 'power of discernment'.

But 50 years ago, pre-'The Block' church attendance, he dismissed Snackerment Meeting right after we partook of the Snackerment so that we could all go home and watch America kick the Moon's butt.

America won big that afternoon! I took America, giving 13 points, and still cleaned up!

Summer 14 year old me had a very similar experience. One of the few times I remember my parents telling us to watch TV, not that they could have stopped me.

My Dad was an engineer so the science was fascinating with his added perspective.

I’ve spent a lot of this month glued to PBS and the coverage they have given the anniversary.

I was ten years old when I watched Neil Armstrong make that speech from his walk on the moon.

It was one of those moments in a young girl's life that was unforgettable.

They practiced for their moon walk in Craters of the Moon National Monument near our home out on the desert by the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. My third grade teacher had a special presentation for us where we were able to sample some space food (dehydrated ice cream and peas!) for a guest speaker one day during that time leading up to the moon landing. :)

>>They practiced for their moon walk in Craters of the Moon National Monument near our home out on the desert by the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

They did compare what they were seeing to the desert. Buzz Aldrin called the moon's surface, "magnificent desolation."

Craters of the Moon on the Arco Desert is pretty desolate too, but at least it gets plenty of daylight and sunshine at least a fair portion of each day. ;)

It's like in the middle of nowhere on a road that stretches for miles and miles in either direction.

The nuclear site that is nearby to that is also remote and highly classified - hence sits off behind a secured area that only employees who work there can cross into. Kind of like Area 51.

Joseph Fielding Smith, 1957
"it is doubtful that man will ever be permitted to make any instrument or ship to travel through space and visit the moon or any distant planet."

Our family had a black and white TV like yours. I pestered a neighbor to see the news on their color TV, only to be disappointed that the TV camera on the moon was black and white.

Moon Quakers are shy folk.

I remember all the "space food" products that were popular after the moon landing, like Tang and Space Food Sticks. The Space Food Sticks were chewy but kind of gross.

I also remember trying to watch the moon landing on the old black and white TV. The reception was really boor and I couldn't see much. Too bad we didn't have cable back then.

Found the Space Food Stick commercial on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPZ8HHRR1A0

I remember drinking lots of Tang. I don't recall my parents bringing home Space Food Sticks. Shucks, we got jipped!

Those look kind of good. Like nutrition bars of today. :)

I was a few weeks back from my mission. Yes, I missed all of 1968. :-/. But then, right after I got back came the moon landing, Woodstock, and the first experimental transmissions at the UofU of what became the Internet. It was a hopping decade!

Part of the caution walking on the moon was that they were afraid the surface might be partly or completely very fine powder like talc. Just sinking out of sight was a possibility. It happens in grain silos.

Sinking was not a problem, but they were not sure of that in those first steps.

There was a lot of discussion about the soil texture -- generally fine and sand-like but also somewhat adhesive. Neil noted that he was only sinking into the soil a little bit -- maybe an eighth of an inch to a quarter inch.

I was in São Paulo, Brasil as a missionary when the moon landing took place. Lots of the members we saw and worked with were very excited about it. IF the members had a TV at all, it was likely a v. small B&W model so what they (and we) saw, was pretty limited.

At this point in my life, 50 years later, I remember very little about seeing it on TV (the mission leaders told us it was OK for us to watch it) and I don’t remember much about the actual day of. I do remember talking to several members and people on the street who were convinced that it was a hoax and had been done by "Hollywood" The next week, I bought a copy of the Brasileiro edition of Time Magazine…it was all in English and I read it cover to cover and was quite taken with the whole story. I wish I had still had the magazine…Lots of souvenirs I brought home have disappeared over the years.

I'm sure the rest of the family was there, but my dad was the one explaining things. I was so afraid they weren't going to get off the moon.

I had completely forgotten about Apollo 13 until I saw the movie. Again, I watched it with my dad on our black and white TV.

The moon landing was amazing. I also was 12 years old.

And I have my wife's cousin's from West Virginia here for a reunion who believe it was all a hoax (as are the dinosaurs) cause their preachers tell them so.

I didn't work around the space program until 1977 at Thiokol, now ATK. Now I definitely believe it. I did then, too. It boggles my mind that they were able to do what they did then. I think it is sad they did away with the space shuttle. I worked there during the time of the beginning of the space shuttle.

Okay, I might be making this up, but since this is SoCal, the odds are I am not!

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is now in residence at the California Science Center, just south of the USC campus in Los Angeles. There is a virtually unknown program that allows honeymooning couples (they get first dibs over other couples or couplings) to spend their wedding night in the hold of the Endeavor. There is a soundtrack that plays for the first two hours of the 'flight' and it is rumored to be soul-stirring. After that, it's whatever you brought for your Bluetooth speaker.

Have a good flight!

USC?

Did they try to recruit you for their rowing team?

Sadly my parents didn't have that kind of money. And then BYU made me an offer I couldn't refuse!

From wikipedia:

"In 1986 it (Thiokol) was found at fault for the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger and the deaths of its astronauts."

I guess that's why they "did away with the space shuttle."

c12, were you working at Thiokol during the time of the Challenger disaster?

Oops, this was in reply to c12's post above.

The "O Rings."

Who would have thought that the size and characteristics of rubber would change when the ambient temperature changed enormously?

Silly engineers.

That’s why engineers should test “O Rings” on their own “rockets”.

I am not EVEN going to ask...

OMG, really?

How awful.

I wish this was an original thought:

“West Virginia-where the moon landings were fake, but professional wrestling is real.”

I get to drive the Tesla.

I was only five, so my memories are hazy. My family had rented a house (actually only the bottom half) in Ocean City NJ. It was one of those old-construction, never-heard-of-Air-Conditioning places which people immediately tear down these days. We watched the landing on my mother's "portable" TV (only weighed 75lbs). and all that week, my brother and I were using the outside shower shed as our Lunar Module.

I was 9, in the UK and on a family holiday. Late night/early morning watching on a B&W TV. I was enthralled and comtinued watching the later missions with avid interest. I share a birthday with Buzz Aldrin, which adds to the joy of it all. My friend met him when he came to the Science Museum in London.

When I finally visited the Kennedy Space Centre I was so excited that it was tough to prioritise what to see and do. I sat looking out at the launch pads and got into conversation with other visitors. We were talking about the enduring fascination for those of us of a certain age - I said that these men walked across our childhoods, they will always be heroes.

I was 13 years old when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. My aunt, uncle, and cousins were over at our house and we all gathered in front of the TV to watch. Everyone was cheering when Armstrong took his first steps. I was worried that something would go wrong when they were going to leave and that they would be stuck there. My husband said that in Peru, all of his relatives were at his aunt's house and watched it on their black and white TV. He said when they watched it, it was about 3 in the morning.

Valkyriequeen, Walter Cronkite said that most countries around the world were showing the transmission. However Russia and China blocked it from being shown.