The 55th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing, which took place on July 20, 1969, is drawing nigh. The anniversary falls under the shadow of the Artemis program, which intends to land astronauts on the lunar surface sometime later this decade.
The anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing has been a bittersweet occasion for a long time. Nobody has walked on the lunar surface since Apollo 17 in December 1972. Until recently, the prospect of anyone else visiting the moon seemed to be remote at best. Apollo seemed to represent a lost time of glory that was unlikely to recur.
As time went on from the last moon landing, the world was divided between people who had witnessed the Apollo lunar missions in life and those for whom they were long ago history.
People who were alive during the first moon landing remember well that sultry, summer evening when friends and family gathered around a television set to watch the first footsteps on the lunar surface.
The picture quality was, by today’s standards, lousy. However, at the time, the idea of receiving live television from the lunar surface was as much of a technological marvel as actually landing people there and returning them to Earth.
Many who witnessed the first moon landing live believed that it was just the opening act of a great age of space exploration. Soon, people would make regular trips to space stations and lunar bases. In short order, people would gather around television sets to watch the first footsteps on the planet Mars.
Fictional illustrations of what such an age would have been like include the excellent TV series “For All Mankind” and my own “Children of Apollo” trilogy. “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which was released the year before Apollo 11, is also a great depiction of what many people believed the moon landings would lead to.
The reason America turned back from the moon is a complex one, that I have described in detail in previous work. The short answer is a combination of toxic politics, bad decision-making and a lack of vision among policymakers caused the pull-back. The same could be said to have killed both President George H.W. Bush’s and President George W. Bush’s attempts to send America back to the moon.
Just when all hope of anyone ever walking on the moon again seemed to be lost, an unlikely president, Donald Trump, made a third attempt to send humans back to the lunar surface. It was called the Artemis Program, named after the twin sister of the god Apollo. Although the previous two undertakings failed, it looks like this time the world will see footsteps on the moon in the 21st century,
Several factors have combined to lend support to Artemis, including the advent of commercial space companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the rise of China as a space superpower, the international nature of the undertaking as exemplified by the Artemis Accords and the realization that space contains resources that can be accessed for Earth’s benefit.
It didn’t hurt that President Trump nominated Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) as head of NASA, a former congressman and political Jedi master who succeeded in selling the return to the moon to Congress and the American people.
The next moonwalk is officially scheduled for late 2026, though no one would be surprised if that date will slip a year or two. For the Apollo generation, those alive being just at or beyond retirement age, the reaction is, “It’s about time.” Also, better late than never.
Bridenstine, when he was still NASA administrator, coined the phrase “Artemis generation” to describe those who are about to witness their first moonwalk. Billions of people walking this Earth have never seen human beings walking and working on the lunar surface live as it happened. They are about to, and it will be wonderful beyond imagination.
Just like the 1960s, the world of the 2020s is filled with political mendacity, wars and rumors of wars, civil strife and seemingly unsolvable social problems. Just as Apollo 11 did, Artemis 3, whenever it happens, will provide a realization that there is still the capacity for greatness in the world.
And there will be a smile of much-deferred satisfaction for those aging members of the Apollo generation lucky enough to live to see both moonwalks.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond,” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner.