Men on the Moon

We were able to attend a great event at the Bush Library this past week. A screening was held of a new documentary entitled "The Wonder of it All" which contains interviews with 7 Apollo astronauts who walked on the moon. The event was hosted by George H.W. Bush himself, and 7 astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin (the 2nd man to walk on the moon) were in attendance.

Rather than dwelling on the historical or scientific aspect of the program, the film dealt with the experiences of the individual astronauts as they recalled their astronaut careers. One common thread that I found interesting is that the astronauts were so busy collecting samples and performing tests while on the moon that they had very little time to enjoy themselves. One of the early astronauts talked about Alan Shepard's moon golf shots and wished he'd have thought of something like that (note: there are a lot of "the moon landing was faked" morons on Youtube). I think I would have brought a baseball bat instead. The astronauts' stories made it easy to imagine being on the moon, climbing back up into the orbiter knowing that you are never coming back, and wanting to stay just a little bit longer.

The astronaut who fell over in this clip, Charlie Duke, was there. This incident is kind of funny, but it wasn't at the time for him.