So Long to a Hero

Well, It Wasn't Forbidden Planet, But...

Neil Armstrong once thrilled the whole nation
With flicks of his Lunar vacation.
     As SF films go,
     Not much of a show;
But it was the first made on location!

                 —Dan J. Hicks
                 Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
                 July, 1979

Neil Armstrong, the first human being to set foot on the Moon, died today.

This fact saddens me in a way that is hard to put into words.

Today we mourn the passing of a man, but also relive the loss of a dream, of a goal, of an anticipation of an event which, although culminating in the act of one man, was the result of millions of hours of thought, hopes, dreams, sacrifice, and sheer hard work of many thousands of men and women.

Just about any person alive today, who was born before 1964 or 1965, can remember what he or she was doing on July 20, 1969, when the Eagle, the Apollo 11 lander, touched down on Tranquility.

This being the summer, my family was able to watch and listen as much of this unfolded. CBS was our network of choice. Walter Cronkite was at the helm for the broadcasts that so captivated us.

There was a lot of time to fill. CBS allowed its affiliates some network time to show what was taking place in each of the fifty states during the days between liftoff and landing. At least I think they showcased each state. It sure seemed like it at the time.

In any event this view around the country made an impression on my young mind. It showed me that, all around the USA — maybe all around the world — there were people not all that different from those in my house, wishing Armstrong, Aldrin, and Well, and knowing that they would never look up at the moon at night, and see the same, lifeless, alien body they had known all of their lives. It would be different.

The bootprints left by Neil Armstrong and those who followed him are still there, and there they will remain for the far, foreseeable future.

Another era ended when Neil Armstrong passed away.

I hope we humans return to the moon and travel beyond in the years and centuries ahead. I think that is how Neil Armstrong and all the other brave pioneers of the Space Program would have waned it.

I don’t think we, as a nation, and as a species, should settle for anything less.