10 Little Known Facts About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

Eric Newill at Do You Remember posted 10 Little Known Facts About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

You’ll probably know some of the facts, but there may be a surprise or two along the way.  These were my three favorites…

The crew originally wanted to call their vessels Charlie Brown and Snoopy, but the bureaucrats in charge thought that would undermine the gravity of the mission. Snowcone andHaystack became the working names, before the more august Columbia and Eagle were decided upon as the final choices.

Armstrong carried on board a piece of wood from the 1903 airplane crafted by the Wright brothers, as well as a diamond-studded pin in honor of the deceased astronauts of the doomed 1967 Apollo 1 mission.

In covering the landing live, CBS anchor Walter Cronkite was not only overjoyed to deliver such good news in a troubled time, but was also famously at a loss for words, rubbing his hands gleefully and saying only, “Whew…boy.” In recognition of his continued enthusiastic coverage of America’s space program, NASA presented him with an Ambassador of Exploration Award in 2006; he was the only non-astronaut or non–NASA employee to receive one.

I hope that someday space flight becomes important again. I would love to live to see a manned expedition to Mars.