Starry Heavens Newsletter
July 2019  "One small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind." Everyone of a certain age remembers where they were July 20, 1969 when they heard those words from Neil Armstrong. It was a monumental moment that was preceded by many smaller steps.  A review of the time line that preceded man's first footprint on the moon gives us some perspective.

On July 20, 1969, 600 million people watched with anxious excitement as Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. took their first steps on the moon's surface. This historic achievement belongs to many more Americans than just this trio (Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin) of astronauts. Behind the scenes, more than 400,000 people worked on the mission and made it possible for them to land on the moon. All told, it was one of the greatest feats that we humans have ever pulled off. 


 
The mission, dubbed Apollo 11, was the climax of the Apollo program, which pushed human spaceflight forward faster than ever before. In October 1968, the first crewed flight of the Apollo program lifted off; less than a year later, Apollo 11 launched. Within just a few short years, a total of six missions landed twelve U.S. astronauts on the surface of the moon. A seemingly impossible goal, the first human landing on the moon was a major victory for the United States in the ongoing space race with Cold War rival, the Soviet Union.

"We choose to go to the moon," U.S. President John. F. Kennedy famously declared in 1962 to a captivated crowd at Rice Stadium in Texas. This speech invoked a new urgency in the space race, which had been going on between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The two Cold War rivals were both determined to outdo the other and land humans on the lunar surface first. The U.S. efforts in this contest included two predecessors to Project Apollo: Project Mercury, which began in 1958 and Project Gemini in 1961. Apollo 11 was successful only because of the missions that came before it. Those flights set the stage for the lunar landing and served as the testing grounds for the burgeoning technologies and strategies that were eventually used in that mission.

Apollo 1, originally named Apollo Saturn-204 or AS-204, was to be the program's first crewed mission, set to orbit Earth with three astronauts aboard.

Apollo 7, launched October 11, 1968, orbited Earth for more than a week and splashed back down on October 22. The mission also showcased how the mission-support facilities could work together with the vehicles and the crew members.

Apollo 8 launched December 21, 1968 and returned home on December 27. Apollo 8 was a major step forward in the program, as it was the first flight that took humans beyond low-Earth orbit to the moon’s orbit and back. Additionally, on this flight, astronaut Bill Anders took the famous "Earth-rise" photo, showing the planet seeming to hover above the moon's surface. It has been called the most influential environmental photograph ever taken. 



Apollo 9, launched on March 3, 1969, and splashing down just over a week later, on March 13, after orbiting Earth. During this mission, the Apollo 9 astronauts tested all aspects and functionalities of the lunar module in Earth orbit. These tests mimicked what NASA expected would happen during a lunar landing.

The Apollo 10 mission launched May 18, 1969 proved that the crew, the vehicles, and mission support at NASA were ready for a lunar landing.
All of this preparation paved the way for NASA to finally launch the Apollo 11 mission — astonishingly less than a year after the first successful crewed Apollo flight. And the rest as they say is history.

The inspiring story of the lunar landing program permeates space exploration even today. In the fifty years after Apollo 11, NASA has sent spacecraft out beyond Pluto, to the surface of Mars and to the sun. Researchers have discovered exoplanets with Earth-like qualities, and our knowledge of the solar system and the universe at large has become profoundly more detailed over the decades. But many still view the Apollo 11 lunar landing as the greatest achievement in spaceflight. People who remember watching the landing on television still recall the moment as if magic had been made real before their eyes.    
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Reservations Suggested
Due to limited seating of 84 attendees in the Imaginarium, we recommend making reservations for our programs. Call (808) 235-7433 between 8:30am - 3:30pm, Monday - Friday. Reservation phone line is not available on weekends or holidays.

Our admission prices are:

• $8 General admission
• $7 WCC students, military, seniors (65 years or older), with ID
• $6 Children (ages 4-12 years)
• Free for children under 4 years of age (1 per paying adult), and WCC faculty or staff with university ID
• CASH & CHECK ONLY.  

Please pick up and pay for reserved tickets at the Imaginarium Box Office at least 15 minutes prior to showtime. Unclaimed tickets may be sold to waiting customers on a first come, first served basis.
 

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  As always, we welcome your feedback or questions, feel free to phone (808) 235-7350 or email to dineene@hawaii.edu. If you would like information regarding our Adopt-a-Show sponsorship program please click here.
 

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Dineene O'Connor
Manager, Hōkūlani Imaginarium
Windward Community College
Hale Imiloa 135A
Office (808) 235-7350