Space (I Believe In)

Yesterday was the 36th anniversary of the Apollo 11 space mission allowing the first men to walk on the Moon. I have been reading Moondust recently, in which the author travels round trying to speak to the men who have been to the moon and see how it has affected them, both while they were there, but more when they have come back.

Some of it is fascinating. Even the description of the moon landing excited me greatly, talking through how it set down and creating images of the men in the Eagle lander looking out the windows to see the surface of another planetary body. I have read much more fantastical things in science fiction before but the massive difference is that this is fact, that people have actually walked on the small, grey sphere that you see in the sky each night.

At one point the author is rememebering watching the landing on TV and running outside to look up at the moon in the night sky thinking, "There are actually people walking on that, right now". The astronauts had the privilige of looking back and seeing the whole Earth above them, containing the whole of humanity, apart from them. They were the only members of the human race who were not on that beautiful piece of rock, floating above them.

Having spent a childhood obsessed with space, superheros, sci-fi and having also carried that into my adult life, it blows my mind sometimes.

I think I'll sign up if they ever want people to go back