As we all now know the first man on the moon died Sunday…
Neil Armstrong was 82. He stayed out of the limelight, though he accomplished what many thought impossible. Some skeptics still do. He was the first man who landed on the moon and walked on its surface. Or so they tell us.
There are still those who believe it all was faked.
Some back that theory up with many things, including that we’ve never sent any explorer groups to other planets or even back to the moon more than another time or two. And it’s nearly half a century later.
Me, I think Armstrong walked on the Moon.
It was July 26th, 1969 and many readers on this site were in their early teens, younger or not even born when it allegedly went down. The world stood still, it was THAT MOMENT.
It was also for America the moment this nation seemed to become THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE POWER ON EARTH.
Maybe that’s true.
And 1969 was a big year for so many things in this nation. We had overcome the assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. We’d gotten stuck in the Vietnam War…pretty much alone…to stop the spread of Communism. The US economy was strong, music had turned to harder rock, movies were the rage, television was hot and all the world wanted to be American.
We had become the Kings of the World.
Landing on the Moon was simply the final proof.
See nobody else could do it, not even the Russians, our closest competitor and enemy. Russia’s gone now, a nation of broken up leadership that includes the modern day Russian Mafia. Our other enemy, China, is more of an ally today than since it first went Red.
I loved that Moon landing. I loved 1969. I had come into my own as well, a young teenager soon to enter high school. In fact in prison I did a stand up bit about being the FIRST JEW ON THE MOON and it killed. It got me out to compete with other speaking groups about three times a year which was a nice deal.
“Neil…this is Houston Mission Control….we want you to hold up on that touchdown in the Sea of Tranquility…the Moon’s surface is not stable…”
I thought, man we are just moments from touchdown – the glory, the parades, the TONIGHT SHOW..this can’t happen, we have to land.
“Neil, again landing on the Moon’s surface may not be safe…the surface may be dangerous…tell you what..send the JEWISH KID down first and see how it goes.”
See, I was the first man on the Moon, not Neil Armstrong.
How do you think they got those pictures? They threw the camera down and I took all those shots of Armstrong coming down that ladder. Remember how the film shook? THAT WAS ME…I WAS THE FIRST MAN ON THE MOON.
Well, that’s how the comedy sketch kinda went anyway.
Since 1969 – nearly half a century ago – not much space exploration has gone down. Sure we have tons of things up there, mostly to watch 5,000 TV networks or drop a bomb on some enemy. Or perhaps listen in on someone and so on and so on.
But not much in the way of what we all thought would happen has happened.
Space travel? Today it’s not even a dream much anymore.
There is nothing like Captain Kirk, 2001 Space Odyssey or anything close.
No space cars (via the Jetsons). Nope, on the surface things have changed surprisingly little. Clothes are nearly the same. Hair styles are much the same. Cars are really not much faster. Heck, we even design some cars to look like 1969. Music has changed but there is still a hard rock sound out there (though it’s dying).
The big change is with computers and smart phones.
So now we can all now pretend to go somewhere in a video game or whatever.
In many ways the adventure of America was at its peak in 1969 with the landing on the moon by Neil Armstrong.
But what was once the biggest event in our history arguably, is now but a footnote. And that’s sad. Life is that way for everyone though – what seems so important today, is gone tomorrow, as are we all.
For the most part everyone and everything will be forgotten…even 1969.
You mention the computer and smartphone technology. Much of that had it’s genesis in our space program.
Yes agreed, many things came out of the program except the big thing…space travel for today, or the continued exploration of other planets…seems kinda dead…little interest…maybe solving many of todays issues is on another planet somewhere, oil, other products for our nation…
Mars is a whole different ballgame. Just a radio signal from there takes about 4 to 21 minutes to get here depending on how close the 2 planets line up. Imagine trying to communicate with someone out there and it taking from 8 to 42 minutes to hear an answer back! And that is the closest planet to us!
Technically Venus, given the position.
Thank you for the clarification. I should have said closest planet that man could land on.
Since Apollo 13 we have not sent any manned spacecraft more than 400 miles into space. The moon is 250,000 miles away. If going to the moon was/is the standard in space exploration why haven’t the Chi-Coms or Russians been? Are they both really 40 years behind us? How come we haven’t been back? One giant step for man. One giant lie for mankind.
One of the reasons cited for the Obama Administration’s defunding of NASA is due to the fact that the President, when briefed, learned that Apollo was a hoax and as part of his anti US Imperialism and Colonialism stance, as well as a healthy hatred and mistrust of the Military Industrial Complex he cut off the cash.
Wow, Smartman. Just…….wow.
that is interesting, strange.
Go to moonmovie.com and spend a couple of hours reviewing the information. The more that you understand about math, science and physics the more sense it will make.
Smarty, we did go to the moon, the lie was about what they saw there and photographed and covered up.
By “we” if you mean that we put or dropped stuff on the surface of moon I agree. As for any man standing on the surface….no fucking way.
The cameras made for Apollo were made by Hasselblad. They had no viewfinder, since you wouldn’t be able to use it inside a space helmet. All focus and shutter speed had to be manually set using space gloves. So you really had no idea where your settings were. Despite all that they took incredible pictures, perfect pictures. When the scenario was recreated on earth some 25 years later using professional photographers in full spacesuits they were only able to take perfect pictures 20% of the time.
So, let me see if I understand this, Smartman. If the astronauts took 100 pictures, only 20 of them would be in perfect focus and clarity? Well, that leads me to a question.
How many pictures did the astronauts take? If you are on the moon for the first time in human history and don’t have ANY idea when or if you will ever return, how many pictures do you take? I go to the Ozarks every year for a golf vacation. I take 300 to 4oo pictures when I’m there. How many would NASA take if they are on the FREAKING moon?
If what you say is true, why didn’t the Russians or Chinese tell everyone we faked it? They could have really embarassed and demoralized our nation if they had.
I think the Russians didn’t go to the moon because of the massive expense involved. Their economy didn’t produce the money ours did and they were pretty much spending what they had on their military. Putting a man on the moon was a statement but had no immediate practical application.
The Chinese never were even in that game at that time.
Neither the Russians or the Chinese had the technological capability to prove it was a hoax. At the time the best technology the Russians had allowed them to monitor communications between the moon and earth. Unknown to anyone at the time the US figured out that you could bounce transmissions off the moon, creating the illusion they were indeed coming from the moon. Additionally, all transmissions were conducted on secure frequencies so the Russians were probably only able to monitor or intercept a small portion. Like everyone else on earth they saw what we saw on television.
YOU FOOL SMARMYMAN…MUSTBE THE FUMES FROM THE CLEANING ACID YOU USE TO CLEAN
THE FECES INFECTED HOT TUBS THATS MAKING
YOUR BRAIN ALL SCREWEDUP!!!
go back to your comic books weirdo!
If after all these years Russia and China can’t prove the moon landing was a hoax, how can you do it? Surely they have enough experts on math, science, and physics to disprove the moon landing if it can be disproven.
Mike, don’t even attempt to argue the point with Lunar “birthers”. The same people that claim the moon landing was fake claim that God is real. Go figure. Never let the facts get in the way of a good debate. People are ALWAYS going to believe what they WANT to believe regardless of evidence (or lack of evidence) to the contrary.
I beleive man landed on the moon AND God is real. Belief in one does not preclude belief in the other.
I believe in unicorns and leprechans.
Agreed, but there was indeed a space race and Cold War on at the time between the US and USSR. In every other aspect of military and communications technology the Russians were for the most part keeping pace with us. They opted not to shoot for the moon knowing that failure was the option and having dead cosmonauts would be a bigger blow to deal with then doing nothing at all.
My point exactly, Mike. People choose to believe anything and everything regardless of evidence or data.
It was JULY 20th, not the 26th. He was the first man to step foot on ground that wasn’t of this earth. Pretty big deal. Hardly a footnote. This guys had major stones, solid brass. They had 30 seconds of fuel left to get them off the moon. They knew they had one shot. I’d say that Armstrong will be one of the most remembered men in history. Not for nothin, but your write up is the most piss poor thing Ive read about one of the greatest trail blazers this world has known. Not trying to get on the bash Glazer bandwagon, but your take sucked . jmo
Please bring the Midtown Miscreant out of hiding.
Will u ever get over 20 comments again. Heck this was with you and smartman commenting several times and u r just barely breaking the 15 mark. Ahh…the glory days remembered.
Really check below Bob, 112 on my story about the girl, thanks
Concerned Bob, I get the most comments overall, with Hearne a close second…average is well over 30…sure sometimes an article gets only ten or so…doesn’t mean its not good, it just means haters have less to bitch about…like here I read the landing date as 26 instead of 20, my fault, but clearly not a big issue, I was wrong…this is not the KC Star, Hearne is a one man band, and some mistakes get past all of us when you write so often and quickly…this is not my fulltime job…and I am busy so I go fast…and it does lead to some extra errors…for that I am sorry…hoping the content makes up for it all..seems it often does.
Under the new format the articles usually are up for less time and that often gives less time for comments, not always…so you will see more comments in the teens and twenties instead of 40’s, 50’s etc…
smartman says:
August 28, 2012 at 10:19 am
“Since Apollo 13 we have not sent any manned spacecraft more than 400 miles into space. ”
Huh? I guess that’s true if you don’t count Apollo 14-17. That’s only 4 MORE manned-space flights that landed on the moon.
PLEASE EXCUSE SMARMYMAN….HE’Sbeen sniffing that cleaning
fluid he used to clean those old disgusting hot tubs he depends on to
pay for his head turning wife’s shopping sprees at the dollar store
!!!!!!
I heard the dollar stores have a good deal on duct tape right now!
I’m sure glad Mark Smith finally caught the mistake with the date. It was a Sunday and I was watching the Royals on TV with my father, late of The Star, as they played the White Sox up in Chicago. A most memorable day! But I certainly can’t recall who won the game. Seemed very meaningless at the time. That said, the U.S. has spent boatloads of $$$ on the space program over the years, ostensibly for the purpose of broadening our knowledge and understanding of the universe, checking out the possibility of establishing human colonies elsewhere within the galaxy, and developing products that would potentially benefit people here on Earth. And yet when someone did a story a few years ago calling attention to the “benefits” to the average person made possible by the space program, the first three things the author mentioned were Tang, Teflon and Velcro. Not exactly life-changing “inventions”. No cures for cancer, arthritis or even the common cold, not to mention tooth decay and hair loss. Is this the best we can do?
“Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars.
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars.”
And yes, I borrowed the above from the song by Ol’ Blue Eyes.
Craig Glazer is a retard of monumental proportions; “smartman” is just your run-of-the-mill retard.
I love when jealous haters just spew …I hate you…you suck…you are a retard…its like the kid on the yellow bus with his hat taken off….they say the most strange things…cause they are ill….
Craig, you’re in the entertainment world. Maybe you’ll be a little more receptive. I want you to (re)watch 2001: A Space Odyssey by Kubrick, especially the opening scene. That entire beginning ape sequence was shot on a soundstage. I kid you not. Stanley used a technique called “front projection effect” where the set is in the foreground and the background is a giant Scotch Guard screen with a projected matte. Analyze some Apollo photographs and you’ll be amazed. You’ll need to remove any kind of mind filter of course and battle your cognitive dissonance. Researcher Jay Weidner makes an extensive case about Kubrick being involved for the moon landings. He was subsequently given carte blanche for his films as a result. No one was more cryptic than him. I’m not completely sold that we never went to the moon camp yet, but I suspect we spent more time up there than realized. History shows once we visit, we stay for good.
I must admit its quite odd that we never really went back, or set up anything on the moon, like you mentioned even a camp of sorts…no effort made to send a man to land on Mars or anywhere else in now nearly 50 years….there is some strong evidence to show us that maybe the moon landing was not real…I hate to think that, but we also were sold on JFK’s one man hit, Bobby Kennedy’s one insane man hit, Martin Luther Kings…Sept 11, 2001 has many holes, so on…so who knows…I want to believe it was real, but there is a real chance it wasn’t based mostly on NO FOLLOW UP..and I agree why didn’t we set up something on the Moon. Odd.
Becuause it costs a SHITLOAD of money and we beat the Russkies to it, that’s why. We found out that spending money on corporate wars was much more profitable for corporations than space exploration, very simple math.
Some real Area 51 shit here.
smarmyman…besides selling old used hot tubs also makes moonshine in his
outhouse in the back. Keeps him ripped while he writes the dumbest freaking
comments ever seen.
smarmyman need the money so send him a few nickels so he’ll have money to
pay for his shopping trips to the dollar sstore for food.
“Neil, again landing on the Moon’s surface may not be safe…the surface may be dangerous…tell you what..send the JEWISH KID down first and see how it goes.”
Not funny, truly funny jokes have basis in fact. Fact is that Jews where always at the fore front or US science since Los Alamos. It would have be more truthful if they said, send the WASP, we need the Jew to do the math to keep the mission on track. Now if they called you the test monkey, that would have been more truthful.
Seriously, it is a bad joke because the Jewish scientists where more valuable than the guys the actually went up.