Monday, July 20, 2026

Fifty Seven Years Ago Today, We First Stepped On Another World

                                                                      

NASA


Today is the 57th anniversary of the Apollo 11 pioneering expedition to the lunar surface, the day human beings first made landfall on another world. Here is a video capturing the first two explorers on the Moon.



The Moody Blues were one of the premier rock music bands of that era. They were (and still are) great fans of space travel. Here is a video of highlights of the Apollo lunar expeditions accompanied by the first three songs from their 1969 album To Our Childrens' Childrens' Children, which was the band's celebration of the first human lunar landing.


Today is also the twenty third anniversary ('blogiversary') of the launch of this humble blog. Here is the inaugural post (Note that I was too inexperienced to think of giving it a title.) on Life at the Frontier.




Thursday, July 16, 2026

As It Happened, the Apollo 11 Launch

Fifty seven years ago this morning, Apollo 11 lifted off on the voyage to land the first men on the Moon. Here's a replay of what it looked like on TV from ~6 min before 'til ~4 min after launch. (The video quality is somewhat degraded from that of the live TV broadcast.) The terse, crisp voice of Jack King as Apollo Launch Control added to the drama of the historic countdown. Relive the moment or experience what it was like.