Fifty years ago today, July 21, 1969, the front page of the Middletown Journal banner headline read: “Moon Men Head For Vital Link-Up – Lunar Walk Unforgettable Odyssey”

Fifty years ago today, July 21, 1969, the front page of the Middletown Journal became a keepsake. Its banner headline read: 

“Moon Men Head For Vital Link-Up – Lunar Walk Unforgettable Odyssey” 

The previous day the “Eagle,” an American Space vehicle (“lunar module” in astronaut-speak) had departed the command module “Columbia,” to transport the first human beings to the Moon.   

Several hours later a native of Wapakoneta, Ohio, became the first person to step foot upon the lunar surface. 

Neil A. Armstrong, who as a teenager had learned to fly in an Aeronca airplane manufactured in Middletown, Ohio, “planted his white left boot in the moon’s gray dust” and proclaimed: 

‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind...’”  

 His words became history. 

Joining Armstrong on the lunar surface was New Jersey native Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin. Astronaut Michael Collins, born in Rome, Italy, during his father’s U.S. Army career, remained aloft in the command ship Columbia awaiting his colleagues’ return in the Eagle.  

In his book titled “1969 -- The Year Everything Changed,” author Rob Kirkpatrick recalled that “Just as humans had never landed on an alien body before Apollo 11, they had also never taken off from an alien body...”  

“If any malfunction had occurred, Aldrin and Armstrong would have been, at best, stranded on the lunar surface, doomed to deplete their life-support systems before any method of rescue could be hatched,” Kirkpatrick wrote. 

“In fact, this remained such a distinct possibility that a [President Richard] Nixon speechwriter had been told to prepare an address for the president to read in the event that such a disaster occurred...” 

Thankfully, that grim scenario never occurred.  

“...Twenty-two hours after it had landed, the Eagle capsule successfully took off from the moon and began its journey back to the mother ship....” and a reunion with Collins. 

Left behind on the Moon was a “silver plaque with pictures of the western and eastern hemispheres, along with an inscription that was reminiscent of early science fiction films:  

       HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH  

          FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON 

                         JULY 1969, A.D. 

       WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND 

 Post-Space, Neil Armstrong moved to Southwest Ohio and became a professor of aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He lived on a farm in the Lebanon, Ohio, area. He died at age 82 in 2012. 

Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin is 89 years old. Michael Collins is 88. 

 

Sources:  

*The Middletown Journal, July 21, 1969 edition, available for viewing on microfilm at MidPointe Library’s Middletown location, 125 South Broad St. The newspaper can also be viewed online at www.midpointelibrary.org>MidPointe Library> 

elibrary > Research Databases > Magazines and Newspapers > Newspaper Archive > Middletown Journal 

"1969-The Year Everything Changed” by Rob Kirkpatrick. Published in 2009 by Skyhorse Publishing. Available for checkout at MidPointe Library. 

“First Man - The Life of Neil A. Armstrong” by James R. Hansen.  Published in 2005 by Simon & Schuster. Available for checkout at MidPointe  

Library.  

Wikipedia. 

If you love all-things-Space, you’ll be over-the-Moon at MidPointe Library’s “Summer Reading Program” themed “A Universe of Stories”! The Space theme couldn’t be more appropriate since Saturday, July 20, marked the 50th anniversary of  man’s first steps on the Moon! 

For more information go to: 

www.midpointelibrary.org > Services > Summer Reading 

A full calendar of MidPointe activities is available at www.midpointelibrary.org > Events 

In the meantime, check out MidPointe’s on-shelf and eCatalog of Space-related material! 

www.midpointelibrary.org > Catalog Search 

And don’t forget to peruse our vast eLibrary :  www.midpointelibrary.org > eLibrary