The Eagle has Landed

50 years ago today Apollo 11 launched from Cape Canaveral on its way to the moon. It would touch down four days later on July 20th, 1969 setting two humans on the first object beyond Earth. A monumental achievement that caught the collective attention of the world.

Growing up in Florida close enough to KSC to see regular shuttle launches, space was always in the forefront of my world. I’m sure it played no small part in my interest in sci-fi. I was born less than a decade after the last moon mission so everything was still fresh for the adults around me.

But I’m getting old now because the fact that Apollo 11 was 50yrs ago came as a bit of a surprise to me. I was reading something that talked about events from 50 years ago. In my mind, I pictured post WW2 era, early 50’s, late 40’s. But that didn’t fit with what I was reading. Then I did the math and realized my mistake.

In the fifty years since Apollo, it might seem like we’ve been stuck in a rut. What accomplishments in space has humanity done since? There’s no people on Mars yet. We haven’t been back to the moon in forty years. They retired the shuttle. Even the space station is 20yrs old now.

But space exploration isn’t always as flashy as landing people on a giant orbiting rock. Rovers on Mars. Flybys of Pluto. Discovering exo-solar planets. Pictures of black holes. All of that is scientifically exciting. Sure, I’d like to see people on Mars, moon bases and full on reusable spaceships blasting around the solar system but it’s not like NASA’s been sitting around doing nothing for 50yrs.

Here’s to the next 50years of space exploration. What else will we learn about our universe? Will Apollo remain the only time humans have visited another celestial body or will we reach out to Mars or an asteroid? Will we crack the code of some potential FTL drive or even just something better than rockets?