Sad moon

Walter Cronkite has passed away.

Keeping with this week's theme of focusing on the 40th anniversary of Apollo XI, here is Walter Cronkite's legendary marathon "Walter to Walter" coverage of the moon landing, one of the highlights of his career. I've watched the video of the moon landing and Neil Armstrong's first steps onto the moon probably hundreds of times, but I hadn't seen the live CBS News coverage again (and again meaning that I was less than a year old when it happened, so, however formative that original viewing may have been for me, I obviously have no memory of it). I am a bit taken aback to realize how sterile the typical clips are, and how emotional and dramatic it really was when it happened. The moon landing has been taken for granted by my generation - it just is something that happened. We can recognize the technical brilliance, but it's hard to reflect on how big a deal launching people on the back of a giant missile and traveling to and walking on the moon and coming back to Earth was, how risky and remarkable and awe-inspiring. These clips drive that home, as well as the passion in America for even more exploration of space, the hopes for and faith in science and ingenuity, that marked that era.

And through all of that, Walter Cronkite was America's and the world's window to a new frontier. Incredible stuff. Oh boy!