The Journey of Apollo 11

Zero Hour, 9AM.

The ground rushes away from us at untold speed!

Atop this giant rocket-propelled bullet we lift from the very sky itself!

First stage disengaged!

The void will be our friends for the next day or so.

What they is true.

The silence really is deafening.

My fellow crew members and I talk and play to keep it at bay.

I guess the saying “Boy will be boys” also applies to men in space.

The day of the void has passed and that gray marble has grown much larger.

The kids back home will certainly be dismayed

to learn that the man on the moon in their imagination was made.

We decelerate into orbit around Luna then detach the command module.

Slowly we descend to the dull, gray surface.

Success! “The Eagle has landed! I repeat the Eagle has landed!”

I put on my space suit as soon as all landing procedures are completed.

With a concerted push, I force open the hatch.

As far as the eye can see, the Lunar Wasteland lies ahead.

Without trepidation I descend the steps and declare to the united citizens of Earth:

“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

The blue marble colloquially known as Earth stares into me across these thousands of miles.

I cover the gaze with my thumb only to feel even smaller than I did before.

In the absence of my planetary cradle, the only home I knew, I am face to face with the

universe and this dull, dreary rock.

Maybe one day we can go further; perhaps that star to the left of my thumb will

be the destination of future space sailors, who will boldly go where no one has gone before.