Filmmakers realized "a part of history was about to pass them by," said Edgar Mitchell, 76, who spent 1½ days on the moon in 1971. "We're all in our 70s now — better grab us before we're gone."
Of the 12 men who walked on the moon, only nine survive, and those men are all in their seventies. Within a couple of decades the men who went to the moon will have passed into history. Around the middle of this century, the moon landings will have disappeared from living memory. Will future generations even believe that we went to the moon?
This is terribly sad to me. As for most late Boomers, the space program was part of the backdrop to my childhood and the inspiration for this boy's dreams. I grew up watching launches and listening to the commentary of Walter Cronkite on CBS, Frank McGee on NBC, and Frank Reynolds and Jules Bergman on ABC.
To turn this post back toward pop culture, have we seen any breaking news coverage in recent years as dignified and informative as the network space shot coverage of the '60s and '70s? I don't think so. I would dearly love to watch it and relive it all again. I'm on a hunt for video from that coverage, either excerpts on the web, or whole broadcasts on DVD. Drop me a comment if you know where it can be found.
Until I find some of that video, here's this. If Buzz Aldrin wasn't already my hero for being on the first moon landing and continuing to advocate for manned space exploration, I'd love him for the way he dealt with this conspiracy wacko, five years ago when he was about 72 years old:
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