#tbt - July 18, 1969 : Apollo 11 streaks to the Moon!
It’s “Throwback Thursday!”
Do you remember what you were doing on this date – July 18 -- 50 years ago?
If you were like most Earthlings you were consumed with the real-life adventure playing out in the sky above your home.
“Apollo Streaks Closer To Moon Landing – As Mother Earth Shrinks,” the Middletown Journal’s July 18, 1969, front-page headline announced.
No movies, music, TV shows or other forms of entertainment could compare to the real-life drama of “three brave men unerringly” headed “toward a Saturday rendezvous with the moon and destiny....”
On that historic Friday it wouldn’t be long before the trio of America’s best and brightest would fulfill the age-old dream of mankind: a visit to the Moon.
“Spacecraft commander Neil A. Armstrong, Air Force Col. Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. And Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Collins planned a relatively quiet day today, resting for a historic weekend exploration...,” the article stated.
“They are to fire themselves into moon orbit Saturday afternoon, and a day later Armstrong and Aldrin are to fly a lunar landing craft, or LM, to the surface. Early Monday, they are to take man’s first steps on another celestial body...”
The “major event” for Friday was scheduled “late in the day when Armstrong and Aldrin wiggle through a connecting tunnel into the LM (lunar module) nicknamed Eagle, hitched nose-to-nose to the Columbia command ship...”
The Eagle would be their vehicle to the Moon.
“For two hours they are to check the systems of the spindly-legged lander. Mainly they will look for damage that might have occurred Wednesday during the jolting liftoff from Cape Kennedy...
“If they find major damage, they will cancel their landing plans. However, mission control officials say chances of this are remote...”
Although we know how the Apollo 11 story ends (successfully!), the days leading to man’s first steps on the Moon are as gripping today as they were in the summer of ‘69.
For your enjoyment...
Below are images of July 1969 Middletown Journal ads for entertainment venues and merchants. Click through to remember what life was like down-to-Earth!
