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When writers are fully engaged in their work — not just writing, but actively (or unconsciously) thinking about the writing — it tends to create a state of unique receptivity. Everything we see, hear, read, or smell becomes fodder for the work. A face we see in a coffee shop becomes exactly the face we need for a minor character. Someone’s small gesture — the way a girl crosses her arms and squeezes the skin of her elbows when she’s nervous — soon worms its way into our writing.

We have our antennas up. We’re sticky like flypaper, catching the signals in the atmosphere. I’ve heard it described as a time of being particularly “spongey,” a state where writers are especially absorbent, like quality paper towels. The song in the elevator becomes the key song in the book, and so on. The whole world feeds into the writing in unexpected ways.

I suppose I was in that sticky/spongey condition when I began casting about for ideas for a new Jigsaw Jones book. After a while, I figured out that it would revolve around a note stuck inside a book, found at a Little Free Library (because I love them). Without disclosing too many spoilers, the found note would lead some to believe that aliens were coming from outer space. Spoiler #1: They are not. Coincidentally (or not), Jigsaw and Mila’s teacher, Ms. Gleason, has been talking about the planets in class. Spoiler #2: She was even planning a surprise Skype visit from a real, live astronaut.

I was eight years old on July 20, 1969, sitting before my television watching grainy, black-and-white images of Neal Armstrong walking on the moon. At the same time, “Star Trek” was the most popular show with my older brothers. “Lost In Space” was also on television, feeding that fascination. The idea of space, the final frontier, has always loomed large in my imagination.

Below is a photo of the only twelve people who have ever walked on the moon. This is what the astronauts looked like:

Notice anything about them? Go ahead, study hard; this might take some time. Hit the buzzer when you are ready.

BUZZZZZZZZ!

Yes, correct, they are all white men! Good work. I don’t recall questioning it at the time. But times do change, and many things do get better, even though it doesn’t always feel that way. Even so, this concept of what an astronaut looks like had been planted deep inside my brain. It just . . . was. Then one day the internet coughed up this image on my Facebook feed:

Beautiful, perfect. This was just what I needed. One of the tricks with plotting mysteries is to run counter to assumptions, gender or racial or otherwise. The reader leans one way, you go the other. Also, politically and personally, I want to celebrate the diversity in our world. I want to jar readers a little bit, perhaps. Remind them to rethink those assumptions. Or, maybe, help them see themselves reflected from a new distance . . . under a new light . . . maybe even a world away.

From the book:

 

 

NOTE: One of the primary missions of this blog is to provide readers with a glimpse behind the scenes into the writing process and a writer’s working life. If you go to the Jigsaw Jones page and scroll through, you’ll find links to many other “Stories Behind the Story” posts. This new book will come out in the summer of 2017, along with the repackaging of four more titles that are currently out of print. I’m happy about that.

 

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By Matthew D. Tribbe

Today marks the forty-fifth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. To understand Apollo’s place in history, it might be helpful to go back forty-four rather than forty-five years, to the very first anniversary of the event in 1970. That July, several newspapers conducted informal surveys that revealed large majorities of Americans could no longer remember the name of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. This does not mean they forgot the event — few who watched it ever forgot the event — but it suggests that we need to reconsider what Apollo meant to Americans at the time, and what it can tell us about the history of the 1960s and 1970s.

Dave Eggers’s new novel, Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?, opens with a disturbed man peppering an astronaut he has kidnapped with questions about why the United States has not revisited the moon since the early 1970s. America, Eggers’s protagonist complains, is not living up to its promise — a failure seen clearly in its betrayal of the space program. This is a common complaint among the many Americans who yearn to return to an aggressive program of human exploration, and to whom it makes no sense that the United States called it quits after the Apollo program ended in 1972.

The truth is, sending men to the moon in 1969 did not make sense to a majority of Americans in the first place, let alone continuing with an ambitious effort to send astronauts on to Mars or permanent space colonies, as advocates urged. In fact, with the exception of a brief period following Apollo 11, poll after poll in the late 1960s revealed a public that disapproved of the high cost of the moon race, the rush to complete it before 1970, and the misplaced priorities it represented. Beneath all the celebratory rhetoric and vague notions that Apollo somehow changed everything was a realization that it really had not changed much at all. It certainly did not inaugurate any “new era” in history, as many assumed it would. Instead, Americans grew indifferent to the program shortly after the first landing, as the rapid dismissal of Armstrong from the national consciousness indicated. In 1970, the final three planned Apollo missions — what would have been Apollos 18, 19, and 20 — were cancelled, and few Americans complained.

What happened? Why didn’t Apollo even complete its original plan of ten moon landings, let alone fundamentally alter history? There are some obvious reasons. The Cold War, Apollo’s original impetus, had eased considerably by the late 1960s, and with the moon race won there was little interest in continuing an expensive crash program of exploration. There were also more pressing social issues (and a divisive war) to deal with at the time, eroding NASA’s budget and scuttling any ambitious post-Apollo agenda.

But there is another significant reason why human space exploration not only waned after Apollo but also why Apollo itself failed to have the impact most expected it would: cultural changes in the late 1960s undermined interest in the kind of progress Apollo symbolized. By 1969, the Space Age values that were associated with Apollo — faith in rational progress, optimism that science and technology would continue to propel the nation toward an ever brighter future — were being challenged not just by a growing skepticism of technology, which was expressed throughout popular and intellectual culture, but by a broader anti-rationalist backlash that first emerged in the counterculture before becoming mainstream by the early 1970s.

This anti-rationalism, and its penetration into mainstream culture, can be seen in the reaction to Apollo of one well-known American: Charles Lindbergh. Life — the magazine of Middle America — in 1969 asked Lindbergh to pen a reflection on Apollo. He refused, and instead sent a letter that Life published in which he claimed he no longer believed rationality was the proper path to understanding the universe. “In instinct rather than intellect lay the cosmic plan of life,” he wrote, anticipating not further space travel of the Apollo variety, but, in language reminiscent of the mystical ending of the contemporaneous 2001: A Space Odyssey, “voyages inconceivable by our 20th century rationality . . . through peripheries untouched by time and space.” “Will we discover that only without spaceships can we reach the galaxies?” he asked in closing, and his answer was yes: “To venture beyond the fantastic accomplishments of this physically fantastic age, sensory perception must combine with the extrasensory. . . . I believe it is through sensing and thinking about such concepts that great adventures of the future will be found.”

Lindbergh was far from alone with these sentiments, as evidenced by the overwhelmingly positive letters to the editor they drew. American culture by 1969 was moving away from the rationality that undergirded the Apollo missions, as Americans began investing more importance in non-rational perspectives — in religion and mysticism, mystery and magic; in meditation or ecstatic prayer rather than in shooting men to the moon; in journeys of personal discovery over journeys to other planets. Apollo was thrilling to most who watched it, but it failed to offer sufficient deeper meaning in a culture that was beginning to eschew the rationalist version of progress it represented.

So, why didn’t Apollo make a bigger splash? Why did it mark the end of an era of human exploration rather than the beginning? In short, “the Sixties” happened, and the space program has never recovered. It is entirely possible that, when viewed from its 100th or (if we last so long) 1000th anniversary, Apollo will indeed be considered the beginning of a space-faring era that is yet to come. In the meantime, understanding the retreat away from the Space Age’s rationalist culture not only helps us understand what happened to the space program after Apollo, but also what happened to the United States in that maelstrom we call “the Sixties.”

Matthew Tribbe is a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the University of Connecticut, and the author of No Requiem for the Space Age: The Apollo Moon Landings and American Culture.

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Welcome to the Teens!

Last year was definitely a pre-teen time for Puppicasso and me.  Many new creations, activities, and attitudes were realized — but our offline life got in the way of our blogging life.  And since the world didn’t end, he decided to resume his predictions.  So, the first part of this year will be a cleaning house and catching up on the life of Pupp.

The motto of this year will be, “Always put one paw in front of another, and go forward no matter what.”

We wish you a Happy 2013!  Enjoy this Millennium’s entry into puberty — hormones will rage and change will be the constant!

Puppicasso wishes to extend a special shout out to Neil Armstrong for use of his likeness and spirit… he is missed.

Filed under: Puppicasso Predictions Tagged: 2013 Predictions, Cute, Dog, Moon, Neil Armstrong, New Year's Resolutions

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By Neil Armstrong

In recent years German Christmas markets have been promoted to the English as the epitome of a traditional and authentic Christmas. As germany-christmas-market.org.uk suggests, “if you’re tired of commercialism taking over this holiday period and would like to get right away for a real traditional and romantic Christmas market you might want to consider heading to Germany.” If a trip to Germany is impossible, a visit to a German Christmas market nearer to home is more feasible. Beginning with Lincoln in 1982, German Christmas markets have appeared in a number of British towns and cities.

One of the largest markets outside of the German-speaking world now takes place in Birmingham. In 2006 the Daily Telegraph reported on this, commenting: “The late Queen (Victoria) would have almost certainly have been thinking of her beloved Albert, who is credited with introducing a number of German Christmas traditions to Britain, and who was famously pictured with his then young bride and children beside a decorated tree — a custom which has since become an established norm the length and breadth of the country.” The link between Christmas and Germany automatically conjures the image of Prince Albert and the persistence of the myth of his role in the making of the modern English Christmas. Even before the death of the Prince Consort, children’s books such as Peter Parley’s Annual were making unproblematic claims that the Christmas tree was “introduced” to Britain by Prince Albert. The royal Christmas tree at Windsor Castle was not the first to appear in England, though the appearance of the lithograph representation in the Illustrated London News in 1848 undoubtedly did much to promote the custom.

Pinpointing the precise moment when a ritual practice appears in a new culture for the first time is often difficult. One way of examining the cultural transfer of customs is to look at the activities of artistic and literary elites. The first reference to German Christmas customs to appear in England was Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s account of the Christmas he spent in the German town of Ratzeburg in 1798. He described a Christmas Eve custom according to which children decorated the parlour with a yew bough, secured to a table, fastened little tapers to it, and then laid out presents for their parents (the children received their presents on Christmas Day). This account was published in the periodical The Friend in 1809, and was regularly reprinted during the first half of the nineteenth century. Reaction to it varied. Whilst Thomas de Quincey dismissed the “stage sentimentality” of a description which emphasized the potential of Christmas to promote much “weeping aloud for joy” on the part of parents touched by their children’s conduct, the poet Felicia Hemans took a great interest in German customs and attempted to imitate the tree ritual.

From 1840 a number of German Christmas stories for children were translated and published in England. These books emphasized the Christmas tree as being at the heart of a family-centred celebration, though by this time children were now the main recipients of seasonal gifts. The stories served as a reminder of the German origins of the Christmas tree, a fact which was often repeated when the tree was discussed in the popular press. For example, in his periodical Household Words, Charles Dickens described the tree as “that pretty German toy.” The majority of references to the German Christmas customs were not followed by any commentary of the significance of these origins. More occasionally, writers would eulogise the Germans as a simple, domestic and sentimental people, precisely the characteristics which were increasingly ascribed the festive English hearth. Consequently, the English were able to quickly adopt and naturalize the Christmas tree by making it palatable to the national story.

Despite growing Anglo-German rivalry in the years leading up to the First World War, the English view of the German Christmas persisted at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was played out in the press coverage of the famous Christmas truce of 1914, when British and German troops exchanged cigarettes and food, showed one another pictures of their families, and organised football matches. The best known image of the ceasefire appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1915, featuring a German soldier holding aloft a miniature tree as he approached two British soldiers; this was not only a symbol of peace but also of the values of domesticity and indulgence of childhood.

Whilst the Christmas truce has claimed a prominent place in the mythology of the Great War, it was followed by an abrupt change in Anglo-German relations, which were subsequently defined by anti-German propaganda, the legacy of Nazism, and post-war football rivalry. It is perhaps surprising then, that Germany should re-emerge as a spiritual home of the authentic and traditional Christmas in the English imagination. However, this is testimony to the inherent dynamic of nostalgia embedded in the festival. As I argue in Christmas in Nineteenth-Century England, laments for the loss of Christmases past have been present in festive discourse since the early seventeenth century.

German customs play an important role in the development of the English Christmas, but this argument can only be taken so far. After all, in the nineteenth century the English were no strangers to domesticity and the romanticization of childhood. Furthermore, Christmas is a transnational festival, and all modern Christmases are the product of a multiplicity of cultural transfers.

Neil Armstrong is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Gloucestershire. He is the author of “England and German Christmas Festlichkeit, c.1800–1914″ in German History, which is available to read for free for a limited time.

German History is renowned for its extensive range, covering all periods of German history and all German-speaking areas. Every issue contains refereed articles and book reviews on various aspects the history of the German-speaking world, as well as news items and conference reports. It is an essential journal for German historians and of major value for all non-specialists interested in the field.

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President Barack Obama‘s picture book, Of Thee I Sing, arrived in bookstores and eBook format today. Random House has also released a promotional video about the book.

Here’s more about the book, from the release: “Obama’s poignant words and Loren Long’s stunning images together capture the promise of childhood and the personalities and achievements of the following Americans: Georgia O’Keeffe, Albert Einstein, Jackie Robinson, Sitting Bull, Billie Holiday, Helen Keller, Maya Lin, Jane Addams, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Neil Armstrong, Cesar Chavez, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.”

President Obama’s attorney, Robert B. Barnett, handled the negotiations for the manuscript back in 2009. Knopf executive editor Michelle Frey edited the book. Children’s book artist Loren Long provided the illustrations.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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1. What album was the second released by The Beatles in the U.K.?

2. What is the second largest planet in the Solar System?

3. Who was the second U.S. President to be assassinated?

4. And, as a follow-up to the previous question, who was the second assassin of a U.S. President? 

5. Who was the second person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean?

6. Of the World’s continents what is the second largest in area?

7. What was the title of the second film in the James Bond series made by Eon Productions?

8. Mount Everest is the highest but what is the second highest mountain?

9. Queen Victoria has the longest reign in British history but who has the second longest?

10. Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin made the first manned Moon landing, what mission, and what astronauts made the second manned Moon landing?

ANSWERS

1. What album was the second released by The Beatles in the U.K.?

With The Beatles was the second album released by the group.  Like the first (Please Please Me) it was released in 1963, amongst its 14 tracks were Lennon and McCartney’s All My Loving and I Wanna Be Your Man.

Image from Wikipedia

2. What is the second largest planet in the Solar System?

Saturn. Jupiter is the largest of the planets and Saturn is approximately one-third of Jupiter’s mass whereas it is 95 times the mass of Earth.  It is the sixth planet from the Sun and takes approximately 29.5 (Earth) years to orbit the Sun.

Image from Wikipedia

3. Who was the second U.S. President to be assassinated?

James A. Garfield who was not only the second U.S. President to be assassinated, after Abraham Lincoln, he was also the one who had the second shortest tenure in presidential history, after William Henry Harrison.

 

Image from Wikipedia

4. And, as a follow-up to the previous question, who was the second assassin of a U.S. President?

Charles Guiteau. John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin, being the first. 

Image from Wikipedia

5. Who was the second person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean?

Amelia Earhart was the second to achieve this feat, after Charles Lindbergh.  Her time for her flight was 14 hours 56 minutes, which was a record at that time. She had previously become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic albeit as a passenger.

Image from Wikipedia

6. Of the World’s continents what is the second largest in area?

Africa is second in size after Asia.  Africa 11,668,598.7 sq mi (30,221,532 sq km) compared to Asia 17,212,000 sq mi (44,579,000 sq km).

Image from Wikipedia

7. What was the title of the second film in the James Bond series made by Eon Productions?

From Russia with Love, released in 1963, followed its predecessor Dr. No.  It was the also the second to star Sean Connery in the role of 007.

Image via Wikipedia

8. Mount Everest is the highest but what is the second highest mountain?

K2 (other names Mount Godwin Austen, Qogir Feng, Dapsang or Chogori) at 28,251 feet (8,611 metres)is the world’s second highest mountain.  Situated in the Karakoram Range K2 is located on the border of and lies partly in the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang of China and partly in the Kashmir region of Pakistan.

Image from Wikipedia

9. Queen Victoria has the longest reign in British history but who has the second longest?

George III is the second longest reigning monarch in British history having reigned for 59 years 96 days.  Victoria reigned for 63 years 216 days.  If she was still on the throne on 12th May 2011 Elizabeth II would surpass George III and become the second longest reigning British monarch.

Image from Wikipedia

10. Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin made the first manned Moon landing, what mission, and what astronauts made the second manned Moon landing?

Apollo 12 with Pete Conrad & Alan Bean.  Between 1969 and 1972 Apollo’s 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 landed on the Moon each carrying a two man crew meaning that 12 Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon’s surface.  In July 1969 Neil Armstrong of Apollo 11 became the first man to walk on the Moon and in December 1972 Eugene Cernan of Apollo 17 was the ‘last man on the Moon’.  An on-board explosion meant that Apollo 13 had to abandon a Moon landing while trying to make repairs that would allow them to return to Earth.

 

Image from Wikipedia

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1. What album was the second released by The Beatles in the U.K.?

2. What is the second largest planet in the Solar System?

3. Who was the second U.S. President to be assassinated?

4. And, as a follow-up to the previous question, who was the second assassin of a U.S. President? 

5. Who was the second person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean?

6. Of the World’s continents what is the second largest in area?

7. What was the title of the second film in the James Bond series made by Eon Productions?

8. Mount Everest is the highest but what is the second highest mountain?

9. Queen Victoria has the longest reign in British history but who has the second longest?

10. Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin made the first manned Moon landing, what mission, and what astronauts made the second manned Moon landing?

ANSWERS

1. What album was the second released by The Beatles in the U.K.?

With The Beatles was the second album released by the group.  Like the first (Please Please Me) it was released in 1963, amongst its 14 tracks were Lennon and McCartney’s All My Loving and I Wanna Be Your Man.

Image from Wikipedia

2. What is the second largest planet in the Solar System?

Saturn. Jupiter is the largest of the planets and Saturn is approximately one-third of Jupiter’s mass whereas it is 95 times the mass of Earth.  It is the sixth planet from the Sun and takes approximately 29.5 (Earth) years to orbit the Sun.

Image from Wikipedia

3. Who was the second U.S. President to be assassinated?

James A. Garfield who was not only the second U.S. President to be assassinated, after Abraham Lincoln, he was also the one who had the second shortest tenure in presidential history, after William Henry Harrison.

 

Image from Wikipedia

4. And, as a follow-up to the previous question, who was the second assassin of a U.S. President?

Charles Guiteau. John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin, being the first. 

Image from Wikipedia

5. Who was the second person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean?

Amelia Earhart was the second to achieve this feat, after Charles Lindbergh.  Her time for her flight was 14 hours 56 minutes, which was a record at that time. She had previously become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic albeit as a passenger.

Image from Wikipedia

6. Of the World’s continents what is the second largest in area?

Africa is second in size after Asia.  Africa 11,668,598.7 sq mi (30,221,532 sq km) compared to Asia 17,212,000 sq mi (44,579,000 sq km).

Image from Wikipedia

7. What was the title of the second film in the James Bond series made by Eon Productions?

From Russia with Love, released in 1963, followed its predecessor Dr. No.  It was the also the second to star Sean Connery in the role of 007.

Image via Wikipedia

8. Mount Everest is the highest but what is the second highest mountain?

K2 (other names Mount Godwin Austen, Qogir Feng, Dapsang or Chogori) at 28,251 feet (8,611 metres)is the world’s second highest mountain.  Situated in the Karakoram Range K2 is located on the border of and lies partly in the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang of China and partly in the Kashmir region of Pakistan.

Image from Wikipedia

9. Queen Victoria has the longest reign in British history but who has the second longest?

George III is the second longest reigning monarch in British history having reigned for 59 years 96 days.  Victoria reigned for 63 years 216 days.  If she was still on the throne on 12th May 2011 Elizabeth II would surpass George III and become the second longest reigning British monarch.

Image from Wikipedia

10. Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin made the first manned Moon landing, what mission, and what astronauts made the second manned Moon landing?

Apollo 12 with Pete Conrad & Alan Bean.  Between 1969 and 1972 Apollo’s 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 landed on the Moon each carrying a two man crew meaning that 12 Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon’s surface.  In July 1969 Neil Armstrong of Apollo 11 became the first man to walk on the Moon and in December 1972 Eugene Cernan of Apollo 17 was the ‘last man on the Moon’.  An on-board explosion meant that Apollo 13 had to abandon a Moon landing while trying to make repairs that would allow them to return to Earth.

 

Image from Wikipedia

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McCourt: A Storyteller Even as a Teacher
A tribute to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt, who died on July 19, highlighting his decades of work as a New York City public school teacher.

Alice In Wonderland Movie Trailer
Take a first look at the Alice in Wonderland movie trailer, directed by Tim Burton, scheduled for release in March 2010.

Happy birthday, Ernest Hemingway
This week marked the 110th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway’s birth. Check out Jacket Copy’s post and links to the annual Papa Look-Alike Contest, held last weekend at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, Fla.

The Fortieth Anniversary of the First Moon Landing: review
The Telegraph’s Helen Brown examines four accounts of the moon landings by astronauts and historians, including Magnificent Desolation by Buzz Aldrin.

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I was eight years of age when Neill Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong took that most famous of steps and said the immortal words “One small step for man, one Giant leap for mankind”.  I can’t say as I remember where I was but I don’t imagine that I saw it live for I was probably tucked up in bed. I do remember seeing it though, probably in news programs after the event.

Image via Wikipedia

The moon landing is an epic part of 20th Century history. The images and the quote iconic. Western Society had thumped the Soviets in the space race thouroughly and science fact had caught up with science fiction. Move over Flash Gordon For some real life astronauts.

Image via Wikipedia

At the time I dont think I understood the buzz of excitment surrounding the event. It is strange to think that you are alive at a momentous moment in the history of humankind but it really means nothing to you. I could not understand the big deal really and wondered would the man in the moon mind the intrusion.

Image via Wikipedia

They were asking on a radio program was space travel obsolete and were people no longer interested? i dont think so. The idea of space travel and exploration has always held a particular fascination for people and some of the best stories I have ever read have been sci/fi. I am thinking of people like Mary Shelly, H.G Wells, Jules Verne and George Orwell. Then more recent people like Douglas Adams and Arthur C Clarke. The next project will be a manned flight to Mars and science fact will once more catch up with science fiction. Man as a species is too imaginative to remain grounded

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I was eight years of age when Neill Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong took that most famous of steps and said the immortal words “One small step for man, one Giant leap for mankind”.  I can’t say as I remember where I was but I don’t imagine that I saw it live for I was probably tucked up in bed. I do remember seeing it though, probably in news programs after the event.

Image via Wikipedia

The moon landing is an epic part of 20th Century history. The images and the quote iconic. Western Society had thumped the Soviets in the space race thouroughly and science fact had caught up with science fiction. Move over Flash Gordon For some real life astronauts.

Image via Wikipedia

At the time I dont think I understood the buzz of excitment surrounding the event. It is strange to think that you are alive at a momentous moment in the history of humankind but it really means nothing to you. I could not understand the big deal really and wondered would the man in the moon mind the intrusion.

Image via Wikipedia

They were asking on a radio program was space travel obsolete and were people no longer interested? i dont think so. The idea of space travel and exploration has always held a particular fascination for people and some of the best stories I have ever read have been sci/fi. I am thinking of people like Mary Shelly, H.G Wells, Jules Verne and George Orwell. Then more recent people like Douglas Adams and Arthur C Clarke. The next project will be a manned flight to Mars and science fact will once more catch up with science fiction. Man as a species is too imaginative to remain grounded

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NASA’s Apollo 11, which was crewed by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, was launched on its four day journey to the Moon from Pad 39A at Cape Kennedy by a Saturn V launch vehicle on 16th July 1969.  On arrival in lunar orbit Collins remained in the command module Columbia whilst Armstrong and Aldrin transferred to the lunar module Eagle and descended to the surface of the Moon where they landed at 20:17:39 GMT on 20th July (see NASA’s Apollo 11 Timeline).  Armstrong and Aldrin both walked on the surface of the Moon while Collins remained in lunar orbit.

Another five Apollo missions, namely 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 successfully followed Apollo 11 to the Moon with two astronauts on the lunar surface on each occasion meaning that during the entire Apollo programme 12 men walked on the Moon.

James Lovell and Fred Haise should have walked on the Moon during Apollo 13 but their lunar landing was aborted after a malfunction.  As Lovell had previously been in lunar orbit on Apollo 8 he is the only person to have been to the Moon twice without landing on it.

Image via Wikipedia

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NASA’s Apollo 11, which was crewed by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, was launched on its four day journey to the Moon from Pad 39A at Cape Kennedy by a Saturn V launch vehicle on 16th July 1969.  On arrival in lunar orbit Collins remained in the command module Columbia whilst Armstrong and Aldrin transferred to the lunar module Eagle and descended to the surface of the Moon where they landed at 20:17:39 GMT on 20th July (see NASA’s Apollo 11 Timeline).  Armstrong and Aldrin both walked on the surface of the Moon while Collins remained in lunar orbit.

Another five Apollo missions, namely 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 successfully followed Apollo 11 to the Moon with two astronauts on the lunar surface on each occasion meaning that during the entire Apollo programme 12 men walked on the Moon.

James Lovell and Fred Haise should have walked on the Moon during Apollo 13 but their lunar landing was aborted after a malfunction.  As Lovell had previously been in lunar orbit on Apollo 8 he is the only person to have been to the Moon twice without landing on it.

Image via Wikipedia

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