Small Step; Giant Leap

 

This is the 45th anniversary of the day the United States landed on the moon. 

I remember my mom telling me that she spent this evening in a hotel room while her parents slept, with her brother, watching the moon landing on TV. 

Those who paid attention during our astronomy unit this year will remember that Neil Armstrong (Purdue graduate, just saying...) stepped off of the lunar module and said the words, "This is one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind..." 

In an interview after returning to Earth, Armstrong was quoted as saying, "It suddenly occurred to me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. It felt very, very small." 

Armstrong passed this mortal coil nearly two years ago now. His legacy lives on in anyone who looks up into the night sky and thinks, "I would love to go there."