39 years ago
July 21st (in this country) 1969 - A human put a boot-print on a place other than Earth. The Sea of Tranquility, on our moon. Go outside and look at it. A big brilliant white ball that hangs in our skies at night. There’s a small round grey patch, just left of centre, just above the equator. That is Mare Tranquilitatis. There, 39 years ago, a man climbed down a ladder, stood, for a moment, on the one of the spacecrafts footpads - stuck the toe of one boot into the grey shadowed soil, then his whole foot, and then picked up his other foot and stood - for the first time - on another body. He and a colleague spent a few short hours walking around, taking photographs, collecting samples, before climbing back into the spacecraft, launching back into orbit, rendezvousing with their faithful friend, and coming home.