One small step for man, a giant moment for two of the guest speakers at the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory on July 20.
Don ‘the Starman’ Hladiuk recalls watching from his Winnipeg home the first manned lunar landing and Neil Armstrong making his historic steps on the moon on July 20, 1969.
“It was a Sunday and every Sunday, my dad, my mother, the family, we would all drive out to see my Baba in Selkirk and her TV didn’t work,” Hladiuk said with a laugh. “I said I am staying home.
“They left this 12 year-old glued to the TV set because I was not going to miss that first lunar landing.”
The famed words “The Eagle has landed” was uttered by Armstrong in the afternoon of July 20.
He would step on the moon about eight hours later.
Hladiuk, the Starman for CBC Radio’s The Eyeopener, and Joel Powell will present Apollo 11: A Celebration 50 Years in the Making during a golden anniversary celebration of the event at Rothney near Millarville on July 20.
“We are both 62 years old and we remember the lunar landing quite vividly,” Hladiuk said. “We will go through the culture of the 1960s, what it was like in the 60s and then more details about the first manned lunar landing.”
Powell said the landing fuelled his interest in space travel.
“I have had a lifelong passion about the space program,” Powell said. “I have written books about it and I go to Florida with Don every year to watch launches.”
Hladiuk echoed his travelling buddy.
“Since the Mercury, the Gemini and especially the Apollo programs it inspired me to take courses on geology, astronomy, planetary geography… so like Joel it touched me. I have been talking about rocks and stars for a long-time. It inspired me for a lifetime,” he said.
The three astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Mike Collins became icons around the world.
“These guys were heroes,” Hladiuk said. “There was a quote on TV that President Kennedy was going all in on this race to the moon. It really was a race. The Russians were trying to get there first, but I don’t think we realized how far behind they really were.
“They tried to land a small robotic lander called Luna 15 to take away some of the glory but it crashed.”
He added events such as the Kennedy assassination, 9-11 and the first lunar landing standout for people of his generation.
However, Apollo 11 was different.
“This event to me, it united the world in a positive way,” Hladiuk said. “We grew up with this as kids — I remember John Glenn going up in 1962 to make a few orbits around the Earth and here we were a few years later landing on the moon.
“This was the first time our species was walking on another celestial body…This was mind-blowing to think we achieved that with some pretty old technology – some slide-rules and these old computers that filled up rooms at the time.”
They both agree space programs are pricey, but it has paid dividends.
“To me it is humans’ destiny to go over the next hill, go across the ocean and we looked up to the sky and all of a sudden we had a ways to go there,” Powell said. “It’s part of being human.”
Hladiuk said its not a case of "stuffing a rocket with billions of $1 bills. You are paying for highly-trained technical people, who have good jobs. There is spin-off — better smoke detectors, memory phone, the miniaturization of electronics, which is in people’s living room a lot of that was inspired by the space program.”
They would love a return trip or possibly one to Mars.
“In a heartbeat,” Powell said. “I’m all for it.”
The anniversary is one that Canada should celebrate, Hladiuk said.
“That spidery-looking spacecraft that took Neil and Buzz to the moon? Those landing legs were built in Quebec,” he said.
The gates will open for the 50th Anniversary of the Lunar Landing celebration at 11:30 a.m. at the Rothney, with the program starting at noon.
Family fun activities include moon music, Calgary Rocketry Club rockets, solar observing with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – Calgary Centre and more.
Food trucks will be onsite.
The cost is $10 and patrons are asked to pre-register at www.eventbrite.ca/e/50th-anniversary-of-lunar-landing-tickets-62743571712.
