Space Program Was our Bread and Butter

Published by admin under Dad, Historic Events, Space Program on July 20, 2009

I join many today who remember Neil Armstrong stepping down from the Apollo 11 spacecraft and making that first small step on the moon…I was working at a summer camp in New Hampshire during summer break from high school 40 years ago today, it was getting close to dinner time here on the east coast.  We stayed in a dorm-type setting, and there were people camping with campers and tents in the campground.

Many of us gathered around a particular camper that had a screened-in section and television set up on their picnic table.  The TV screen was small, the picture black and white, and the image was snowy and a bit difficult to see, but we did see that amazing moment when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon and the footage that followed.

The space program was important to our family…my Dad was working for the aeronautics division of a company at the time, an electrical engineer, and designed parts for air and space travel.  When Kennedy declared that we were going to go to the moon, it was a boost to the industry, and more job security and new jobs for people who did work like my father did.   I remember in particular one of the unmanned viking missions for  which he had designed a part that was to allow an arm to reach out and scoop up soil samples.  I remember him watching and listening intently to the news that day to see if what he had designed had worked.  His name is up there on the moon somewhere as everyone who had a part in the designing had their name sent up to the moon with the ship.  Exactly how that was done,  or where the names are, I don’t remember as I type right now off the top of my head, but do know that is a part of our family history stored away somewhere in my papers.

So today is not only a wonderful memory of an amazing historic moment, but brings back fond memories of my Dad.