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Ringside seat for the greatest adventure of all time

By Larry Clark | Hickory Daily Record

Published: July 18, 2009

The greatest adventure of all time occurred on July 20, 1969. Those of us who could find a TV watched as Neil Armstrong stepped from the lunar module onto the surface of the moon.

Science fiction had become technological reality.

Someone actually did what was once possible only in books, movies or one's imagination.

There have been many great adventures of exploration and discovery throughout history, but the Apollo 11 mission was the first time a human left the planet and stood on another world.

It was a far cry from the early failures of the U.S. satellite program when we witnessed launching pad blowups of Vanguard and had to endure the success of the Soviet Union and Sputnik I.

When Explorer I was finally put in orbit by the Army, Americans thought we were on our way. We'll show those commies.

Not so fast. The Soviets put Yuri Gagarin into space before we could orbit one of the Mercury 7. It was a disappointment, but there was no doubt Gagarin was a hero. He truly went where no one had gone before.

The Russians even beat us on putting an animal into space. We took some comfort in the fact that our monkeys came back alive and their dog didn't, even though many of us were angry that they let the dog die.

When President Kennedy promised Americans would land on the moon before the end of the decade, imaginations went wild and we just knew we'd be on Mars by the end of the 1970s.

The moon mission developed slowly, however, and the Apollo 11 landing was almost a last gasp at fulfilling Kennedy's promise. If anything had gone wrong, it would have been a major setback.

I got to see an Apollo capsule up close and personal in Huntsville, Ala., along with some of the equipment from the mission.

Most of the stuff had to be invented, so these high-tech wonders look homemade.

Everything seemed surreal and fantastic in the grainy telecast of the moon landing.

When you see the space capsule eyeball-to-eyeball, your first reaction may be, "What a bucket of bolts!" Mine was.

The astronauts zipped off into space in what looks like a big, tricked-out cattle feeder.

The interior was cramped. Controls, lights and wires were everywhere. Remember, there was no generator on Apollo. Power and air came from batteries and bottles.

Still, the astronauts couldn't wait to launch. The technology seems coarse today, and some home computers have more capability than the system that put the lunar module on the moon.

But what a ride!

The guy I felt sorry for was Michael Collins. He sat in the command module, in orbit, while Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin cavorted on the lunar surface.

All that way just to look out the window like a kid with a sore throat watching his friends play in the snow.

That's what would happen to me, I thought. To tell the truth, just taking the trip would be awesome, but I would have wanted my own moon dust.

Exactly what Armstrong said when he stepped off the ladder and made the first footprint on the moon has been debated over the years.

Armstrong insists he said "One small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind."

But nobody heard "a man." We just heard "man."

Armstrong says the poor transmission was at fault. Well, it was the first live TV show to originate on the moon.

Close examination of the broadcast, one sound wave at a time, confirms Armstrong's contention. History can put the "a" in his famous quote.

Thank goodness there were some private recordings of the landing. NASA erased the original so the tape could be reused.

A bazillion dollars for a moon trip and they couldn't afford but one tape?

NASA went on a global scavenger hunt to obtain a complete video of the historic moment, and it's been enhanced by the same bunch that restored "Casablanca."

Humphrey Bogart was in sharper detail than Armstrong. However, the new version is an improvement. Expect to see it several times as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11.

When you younger folks watch this, remember there were no home computers. Business and scientific computers took up large rooms. Today's laptops are far better and more powerful.

There were no cell phones, DVDs, CDs or video recorders as we know them. Videotape, such as it was, was wider than most duct tape. We were not that far removed from the days when international communication was through undersea cables. Satellite transmission meant bouncing a signal off the moon.

"Star Trek," meaning science fiction, was our only ticket to another world.

I don't know how long I held my breath, but I didn't exhale until Armstrong set both feet on the moon.

I will forever be grateful I got to watch the greatest adventure as it happened.

Larry Clark is a Record staff writer. Reach him at lclark@hickoryrecord.com.