On every July 20, NASA would celebrate the first step by mankind on the lunar surface. It was on July 20, 1969 at 10.56 p.m. EDT, Commander Neil Armstrong set his foot on the lunar surface after descending the ladder of Lunar Module Eagles and proclaimed "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," followed by loud cheers and applause on earth.
Mission to the moon becomes reality with the successful liftoff of Apollo 11 on the morning of July 16, 1969 with astronauts, Commander Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins sat atop Saturn V at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre, Cape Canaveral. After one and a half orbits, Apollo 11 gets a "go" for what a mission controller called "Translunar Injection" or in other words, it's time to head for the moon. Three days later the Apollo 11 was in lunar orbit. A day after that, Armstrong and Aldrin climbed into the lunar module (LM) Eagle and began the descent, while Collins orbits in the command module Columbia.
When the LM landed at 4.18 p.m. EDT only 30 seconds of fuel remain. Armstrong radio, "Houston. Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." The mission control erupted in celebration as the tension breaks.
The celebration of Apollo 11 continues for months and years. I was 8 years old then, studying at Ahmad Primary School, Pekan, Pahang in Standard 2; when the LM Eagle landed on the moon, I was unawares at that time. As any other kids, we were happily playing hide and seek, shooting the cards collection stacked in the middle of a circle with a neatly woven rubber band and throwing slipper over a bunch of rubber bands on top of tin can, not knowing that the first human had sat foot on moon. At that time not all people owned TV set and in my neighbourhood only one person owned its (I have forgotten his name but he is a headmaster). We would normally on Sundays night, congregated in front of his house to watch the P.Ramlee's movies. The neighbour would take out his TV to his verandah and switched on for the kampung folks to watch it. Together with my sisters and uncle, we would bring along the mat and tit bits. Usually we would place the mat in between the coconut trees not far from the TV set. The picture was in B&W and at that time, I can never imagined that someday we could see it in colour and sleek in size, not like those day bulky in size. The neighbour's porch filled with hyperactivity; children chasing one another to find nice spot, teenager chit-chatting at one corner while uncles aunties too squeezing in to watch the "premier show."
As we watched the news with hundred of voices around us, it's suddenly died off, as if we were in a vacuum with total silence. All eyes were sharply focused on the TV. We were equally astonished, amazed and unbelievable when we heard that a rocket called Apollo 11 piloted by humankind is orbiting the earth and then human beings called Neil Armstrong performed the moonwalk.
"Wow!!! It is true people can fly to outer space and landed on the moon," I kept saying to myself.
Every night when I gazed at the moon, I never thought that human like me can walk on it. It was just like a bomb exploding in my mind breaking the unthinkable into pieces. I suddenly realised that a lots of things around me needs to be explored. Images of people walking on the moon becomes a normal sight. The school also started to instill and cultivate the children's interests by organizing essay writing and drawing competition. Images like Aldrin saluting the American flag, Aldrin descending the LM ladder, Aldrin walking on the moon and the LM Eagle were deeply etched in our mind and this images were popularly drawn by us during the drawing competition.
The Apollo 11 event is really a paradigm shift for me. From a playful boy to a more committed student during the classes. I pay more attention and stay focus when teachers teaches us. I wanted to excel in my studies and reached the apex of knowledge. UM commonly known for University of Malaya, is the uni I wanted to enrol. No other uni could replace it and alhamdulillah, I was there for 3 years doing my first degree.
I had made a promise to myself that one day, I would step my feet at the Kennedy Space Centre, Cape Canaveral. I wanted to feel the atmosphere of the mission control room, to sight the launching pad, to touch the control panel and to learn more about the said mission to the moon.
