first soft landing on the moon.

today celebrates the 50 year anniversary of the landing of the first manned spacecraft on the moon. which would not have been possible without the success of the earlier surveyor program.

we lived in cocoa beach Florida during the mid 60s. we were there for the space program, 

my dad was in charge of the first spacecraft to soft land on the moon and send back pictures of the moons surface with the shadows of the spacecraft. dad had been a test pilot , annapolis graduate,an engineer for hughes aircraft co., (he flew howard h. around in the company jet a few times) ,a col. in the marine reserves,.he told me they used the model of a milking stool for the landing gear, as it would be the most stable not knowing the exact surface they would land on.

before the surveyor, they aimed things at the moon, and were excited if they hit it ,before exploding on impact. 

the surveyor program was the first to get a space craft to the moon, slow down,and soft land.the govt. gave it 15-20% chance of succes,s and thus gave it no mention or press. until it did succeed , then the govt immediately took credit and sent down vice president humbert humphrey to congratulate my dad in a public ceremony/ it was called at the time ’ the greatest scientific achievement to date’.

my mom always complained that the surveyor program so rarely got mentioned afterwords.once it was successful, they knew they could send manned spacecraft.even today, the #nytimes and #washingtonpost, with all the others, dont mention the surveyor program.

we had astronauts at our house for cocktails,, with their corvettes,at school we got out of class to watch rockets lift off, my jr high school yearbook was dedicated to the 3 astronauts who burned to death on the launchpad. it ‘was the full ‘right stuff era.. there was a film made about me and my classmates called growing up with rockets, about this small florida town turned boomtown because of the space program. when the space program nearly stopped, the town once again became almost a ghost town . we headed back to california where my dad continued his work with hughes aircraft. ironically, working and flying, out of the same building/headquarters. i would 50 years later do an ‘artist in residency” program at ad agency 72+Sunny, who had taken over and refurbished the old howard hughes offices.

growing up we had the original grainy black and white photos from the moon hanging in out various garages, i my dads workshop. pretty kool fotos. , they apparently took may hours to slowing arrive as a bad fax to mission control at the cape where my dad waited to receive them.

dad got me neil armstrongs autograph, tho in general the test pilots didnt much care for the astronauts.

so here is my hope that in remembering and celebrating the manned moonlanding, we dont forget what came before.