Forty years ago today, July 20th, 1969, NASA's Apollo 11 mission successfully put the first man, specifically Neil Armstrong, on the surface on the moon.
Armstrong was joined in his exploration of the moon's dusty surface by Buzz Aldrin, while Command Module Pilot, Michael Collins remained in orbit circling the moon. They embarked on the lunar bound mission with the launch of the Saturn V rocket on July 16, 1969, and some four days later President John F Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s was fulfilled. A famous aspiration he had expressed during his speech given before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
For anyone interested in celebrating the day in true cinephile fashion, Turner Classic Movies is showing a variety of "Moon" related films to honour the occasion all day long. I highly recommend the prime time showing tonight of director Al Reinert's 1989 documentary, For All Mankind. It airs at 8:15PM. Also recommended is Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff (1983), then at 10:00PM. The prime time segment tonight also features introductions by TCM host Robert Osborne with special guest host, Buzz Aldrin.In the meantime here's some video from the ReelNASA channel on YouTube which is certainly marking today in high clip fashion! This is a wonderful resource collection for anyone looking to remember the history of NASA's accomplishments or to learn more about these missions for the first time. The general public doesn't quite follow the exploits of the work NASA continues to do in space, but here's hoping an anniversary such as this may ignite some new imaginations regarding the possibilities in space that still lay ahead for all of humankind.
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