Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Just 50 years ago, we conquered the moon
“That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind” - Neil Armstrong.
I never get tired of hearing those words and we will certainly hear that phrase many times in advance of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the July 20, 1969 moon walk.
I was only seven-years old when we stepped onto the moon, but the excitement from everyone I came into contact with was intense. Even a sevenyear old couldn’t help but feel the fire.
The stories were amazing. Years later, I met someone whose mother said her last wish was to see man land on the moon. Two hours after Armstrong left his foot prints, she died.
America won JFK’s space race and conquered the “Final Frontier.” I watched on a black and white television set as the American flag was planted in the Sea of Tranquility during a two and a quarter hour moon walk by Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
Those astronauts collected 47 pounds of “moon rocks” while the lunar module circled “The Eagle” for 30 revolutions. A moon rock sits in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington and has been touched by millions.
President Kennedy was a leader of the space race.
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one we are willing to accept…”
Twenty-four year old West Chester Councilman Bill Scott, and his Dickinson College law school buddy, Rick Gray, who later became the mayor of Lancaster, had recently taken the bar exam not long before the planned lunar mission. They were in the mood to blow off some steam and took a road trip in Scott’s VW Beetle. On July 16, 1969 they found themselves at Cape Canaveral for the launch of Apollo 11.
These two pals witnessed history carved out before their eyes.
“I hope it’s successful,” Scott said prior to the launch. “I hope it goes off.
“Isn’t this amazing? It is a national event; we’ve done something momentous.”
The two pals slept in the bug the night prior to the launch.
Gray described the impact of the launch as “awesome” which he said is often now an overused term.
“Exciting is an understatement, overwhelming may be better,” he said. “It was a 30-story building, like a sky-scraper, just going up in the air.”
Scott said the rocket took five seconds after the countdown was completed to lift off and Gray said he could feel the concussions. Scott described it as a “colossal explosion.”
“Kaboom, a great big one, that’s what we came to see,” Scott said. “Hearing the big boom, it goes
right through you.
“You could feel it through the soles of your feet.”
“Holy Moses,” he said. “We’re going to pull this off.”
Later he said, “I’m just thrilled and excited that it worked.”
Scott said that on that blazing hot Florida summer day the spaceship took two minutes to recede from view.
Karen Schwarz, planetarium director and associate professor of Astronomy at West Chester University, is also excited to celebrate the 50th anniversary.
Schwarz said that landing on the moon was “one the greatest achievements we have accomplished as a country.”
“It was an adventure that unified the country,” she said. “It was an important thing at the time.”
Schwarz said that NASA is not just reminiscing but still doing great things. She projected that astronauts would land on Mars within the next 50 years.
Later that summer, the Summer of Love, Gray attended Woodstock in Bethel, New York.
The former mayor jokingly said that he “remembered the moon launch” but not Woodstock so much.
“It was two different experiences—the moon launch was the pride of the country and Woodstock was pride of the community.
“Everybody got along. Both were positive but different.”
Gray noted that he was hippie as much as law school graduate could be.
Next time you look up, remember that those great American explorers planted an American flag on the moon. And don’t forget to dream. Bill Rettew is a Chester County resident and weekly columnist. He often enjoys a good nibble on a hunk of cheese. Contact him at brettew@ dailylocal.com