On April 9th of 2002 I had the wonderful chance to be a part of maybe 50 other people that had dinner with Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. He is best known for being the anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (from 1962 to 1981). After nearly 70 years in the news business one of the comments he made that stood out for me was the following:
The date that will be most remembered, five hundred years from now, will be the day we landed on the moon.
2002 was a long time ago. At that time I could have never imagined that I would eventually fly in zero G with one of the people that made that famous walk on July 20, 1969. Yet, on July 22, 2006, with the help of Zero-G Corporation and American Express, I did. The flight experience was, of course, amazing in itself. We ran parabolas through martian gravity, then through lunar gravity, and finally flew the rest in total zero-G. For me it was almost as amazing on the up side of the parabolas, being pressed to the floor of the cargo hold, as it was floating on the downside. For a SCUBA diver and a roller coaster nut it was the best of all worlds coming together at once in a convolution that, yes, you need to experience to fully understand.
Buzz Aldrin was aboard for the fun of returning to zero-G and to spend the day with us. He described himself something like a ‘retired civil servant’ and for someone who shared in that great day a little more than 40 years ago it was a surprisingly humble perspective. He was very approachable and when I related the story about what Walter Cronkite told us he in return commented about how special Walter was during those days of space flight.
At the time I did not know much about the man besides what he was famous for. Recently I listened to his latest book Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon. The book started with an amazing reflection of journey to the moon and then was devoted to the story of the problems Buzz had returning to Earth. After being focused on a goal and achieving one of the most significant feats of our modern history the problem for Buzz was what could possibly come next. Going to Disney World was not going to work after winning this game.
Over the summer the 40th anniversary of the landing and listening to the book brought back the joy of meeting both Walter and Buzz with a vivid clarity of touching something in a new light. (Sadly Walter passed away three days before the exact date of the anniversary)
The recent months have also seen the LRO send back photos of those great landing sites. I wonder, not enough to find out however, what ‘the landing was faked’ conspiracy nuts think of this news. My six year old son and I watched (unfortunately in New Jersey over the internet) the lift off of the Ares I-X rocket. It may have been just the first in the long series of planned tests but at least it also brings hope that someday we will indeed return to the moon and hopefully go well beyond it. May I have the opportunity to see those steps in my lifetime.