look up at the moon and give him a wink
ooh, close encounters of the third kind is on. i need to go to the grocery store and i need to take a walk out in the gorgeous weather and instead i'm sitting here thinking about space and neil armstrong.
my mom was pregnant with me when men landed on the moon, so i've never lived in a world where it wasn't possible. we live on a tiny blue marble floating in an immense black sea, and putting men on the moon was the first step to the rest of the solar system, and from there to the rest of the galaxy and the universe. think of all the people all over the world who watched the first moon landing in 1969 and thought holy shit, we really can do anything, who looked up at the star-speckled sky and were inspired to search it, to see what else might be out there.
and it might seem like nothing now - we've got cassini, we've got hubble, the space shuttles, the international space station, all the mars rovers, the voyagers - our little unmanned space explorers have seen saturn's rings up close and have pierced europa's atmosphere and have essentially filmed themselves landing on mars, and have sent back pictures so we can see where they've been and what they've seen. but in 1969 science fiction became science fact in a way i don't think anything ever had, and while i can't deny that watching the curiosity rover land itself on mars was immensely fucking cool and a trememdous tribute to the advances in science and technology that made it happen, it wouldn't have happened at all without neil armstrong's one small step.
we've stopped looking up so much. we've stopped asking what could be out there, what could we find if only we looked for it, and i think it's a fucking shame.
rest in peace, mr armstrong. more than any of your fellow astronauts, you ended up being a shining example of the amazing things that human beings are capable of, an example of how far our curiosity can take us, because the first bootprint on the moon, and the first words spoken from its dusty alien surface, were yours.
For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.
my mom was pregnant with me when men landed on the moon, so i've never lived in a world where it wasn't possible. we live on a tiny blue marble floating in an immense black sea, and putting men on the moon was the first step to the rest of the solar system, and from there to the rest of the galaxy and the universe. think of all the people all over the world who watched the first moon landing in 1969 and thought holy shit, we really can do anything, who looked up at the star-speckled sky and were inspired to search it, to see what else might be out there.
and it might seem like nothing now - we've got cassini, we've got hubble, the space shuttles, the international space station, all the mars rovers, the voyagers - our little unmanned space explorers have seen saturn's rings up close and have pierced europa's atmosphere and have essentially filmed themselves landing on mars, and have sent back pictures so we can see where they've been and what they've seen. but in 1969 science fiction became science fact in a way i don't think anything ever had, and while i can't deny that watching the curiosity rover land itself on mars was immensely fucking cool and a trememdous tribute to the advances in science and technology that made it happen, it wouldn't have happened at all without neil armstrong's one small step.
we've stopped looking up so much. we've stopped asking what could be out there, what could we find if only we looked for it, and i think it's a fucking shame.
rest in peace, mr armstrong. more than any of your fellow astronauts, you ended up being a shining example of the amazing things that human beings are capable of, an example of how far our curiosity can take us, because the first bootprint on the moon, and the first words spoken from its dusty alien surface, were yours.
For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.