This week in July 2020 marks the 51st anniversary of man’s trip to the moon.

Planet earth and its inhabitants worldwide watched Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins execute a historic, incredibly complex voyage that demanded pinpoint accuracy and timing throughout the eight-day journey.

Even after Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon to the delight of 100 million earthlings watching on TV the explorers pick up geological samples, do moonwalks and provide a view of Mother Earth unlike any ever seen before from the vantage point of its only astronomical body known also in space lingo as a natural satellite. 

However, the drama of this adventure was far from over.  After Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the EAGEL/LEM spacecraft, they found that the end of the switch to turn on the engines that would propel them off the face of the moon was broken.

NASA in an effort to minimize the problem and not alert the public to a problem with life and death consequences told Aldrin and Armstrong to get some rest after their busy day romping on the moon’s surface with a promise that the problem would be addressed the next day.  That evening, NASA engineers scoured through the architecture of the electrical system of the EAGLE/LEM to see if there might be a way to bypass that switch.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t.  Fortunately, Aldrin grabbed a felt pen, stuck it into the hole of that switch, and somehow pushed down the broken nub and fired up the engines.

The rest is history.  The two moon explorers reunited with Michael Collins and the command module and returned to earth in spite of heat shield problems (oh, you thought the drama was over?).  Drama, drama, drama – played a part in making this story even sweeter in spite of all the problems that had to be faced and overcome for this mission to be accomplished.

Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins went on a world tour.  They were ROCKSTARS for sure meeting with the heads of state in some 24 countries – visiting some 27 cities on a trip that was more surreal than BEATLEMANIA.

It was a great time to be an earthling and even more so for U.S. citizens who truly could boast of American Exceptionalism – something that has escaped us in recent years – especially in light of our failure dealing with a virus that other countries have if not overcome, dealt with effectively.

To our explorers, we salute you – and that includes all of the people who worked on Apollo 11, including the workers who built that amazing flying machine on a quest to GO DO GOOD and make our world a better place for looking beyond our own planet and reaching for the stars.