Counting Down to Apollo

One American's account of watching humanity reach the Moon

Mission Log: Reflections

Looking back at what we accomplished, and where we might go from here

Reflections September 1, 1973

The Summer I Fell in Love with the Space Program

It started with a radio in 1961. A man named Gagarin. Coffee going cold. Twelve years later: twelve men on the Moon. I've been paying attention the whole time. I still am. I keep looking up. I keep thinking: next. What's next. Where do we go from here? I hope…
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Reflections August 1, 1973

What the Moon Taught Me About Earth

The Earthrise photograph from Apollo 8, and the Blue Marble from Apollo 17. Two photographs taken from beyond Earth. Both are of Earth, not the Moon. Maybe that's the real thing the Moon program gave us: a picture of home from somewhere else. A new way to see the place…
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Reflections April 1, 1973

Eleven Years of Clippings

I went through my clipping folder last weekend. Seventeen shoeboxes. Twelve years of newspaper articles, radio transcripts, magazine features, mission summaries. Betty watched me spread them across the living room floor and said, "I told you so." She was right. I have a problem. It's a wonderful problem to have.
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Reflections January 1, 1973

Where Do We Go From Here?

New Year's Day 1973. The Apollo program is over. Skylab is coming — a space station, American men in orbit for months at a time. A Space Shuttle is being designed. We'll be back on the Moon by 1985, surely. Maybe we'll be on Mars by the 1990s. (I suspect…
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