First moon walk commemorated

Washington – The United States this week marks the 40th anniversary of the historic first moon walk, with President Barack Obama kicking off events by meeting the crew of the Apollo 11 mission at the White House on Monday.

The Apollo 11 crew became the first to accomplish the dream of walking on the surface of the moon – an endeavor now remembered at a time when future US dominance in space has become far less certain.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” said astronaut Neil Armstrong as he stepped down from the lunar craft on July 20 1969, as an estimated 500 million people on Earth crowded round televisions and radios.

Apollo

Washington’s “Newseum” on Monday will simulcast a discussion – The Apollo Legacy: The Moon and Beyond – to science centres across the United States.

In addition to the White House reception, a host of events planned included a news conference in Washington with astronauts from the Apollo programme.

Celebrations will be held from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the Apollo 11 mission blasted off, to mission control at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas and at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in the US capital.

The lunar landing was a huge morale booster to a country mired in the bloody Vietnam war and on edge because of the Cold War, ushering in a new sense of confidence and challenging concepts of science and religion.

Only 12 men, all Americans, have ever walked on the moon, and the last to set foot there were in 1972, at the end of the Apollo missions.

Ignored

To recapture one of mankind’s most dramatic moments, Nasa last week unveiled restored video footage of key moments from the Apollo 11 mission found after a three-year search through about 45 000 video cassettes in its analog archives.

Nasa has also upgraded its internet website to mark the anniversary, which was largely ignored when the 30th anniversary rolled by in 1999.

And the record of America’s crowning achievement remains visible on the moon – in the shape of astronauts’ footprints.

“The first footprints on the moon will be there for a million years,” reads a posting on a Nasa website. “There is no wind to blow them away”.

AFP