Are You Ready for the Next Giant Leap?
Fifty years ago, humans stepped foot on another world for the first time in history. The U.S. had achieved an ambitious goal. But where are we going next? Ideas and ambitions abound. By Richard F. Ames
“T
hat’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” At 9:56 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke that famous and oft-quoted phrase as his boot touched the lunar soil. After a harrowing descent—nearly a crash—in a lander with an almost-empty fuel tank, Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the Moon. Fellow astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin joined him outside their spacecraft 20 minutes later. After just shy of two hours exploring the lunar surface, Aldrin returned to the lunar module, followed shortly by Armstrong, and in less than a day lifted off to rejoin
12 Tomorrow’s World | July-August 2019
crewmate Michael Collins in the Apollo 11 command module. From the moment Armstrong spoke, listeners have disagreed on whether he uttered the “a” he intended in that famous sentence. Few, however, dispute that Armstrong’s small step was a major milestone. But what has come of mankind’s giant leap? Seeing the Earth, Reaching the Moon In 1975, author Norman Cousins famously told the U.S. Congress, “What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the moon but that they set eye on the earth.” In December 1968, Apollo 8’s William Anders stirred the world’s imagination when, in orbit around the Moon, he took the famous photo now known as “Earthrise.” Seeing their
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