Man on the Moon 35th Anniversary

Thirty five years ago tomorrow, I was lying the floor watching my grandparent's color TV as Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the surface of the moon. As a teenager, I was bursting with excitement and confidently looked forward to traveling to the moon (and other planets) when I grew up. The sky was the limit.

But the 20th century's Space Age ended a little more than 3 years later when the crew from Apollo 17 splashed down on December 19, 1972. Mankind's "giant leap" fizzled out.

Government-financed moon trips were the moral equivalent of building pyramids in space. Sigh. I'm still looking forward to the day when technological advances will make human space travel economically useful. In the meantime, I may as well relive my youthful dreams by enjoying NASA's expensively acquired video of the landing.