Think about what the world didn’t have in 1961.

No cell phones. No GPS. No laptops.

They provide a glimpse into how much NASA’s mission to the moon 40 years ago changed our lives today.

“Apollo taught us nothing is impossible if we apply the collective will of our nation and resources,” said John Olson, who heads NASA’s planning of the space agency’s intent to return to the moon by 2020 and ultimately reach Mars in the 2030s.

Nobody knew how to get to the moon when President John F. Kennedy issued the challenge May 25, 1961. The United States hadn’t put an American in orbit — but the Soviets had, more than a month before Kennedy’s speech. A U.S. astronaut wouldn’t orbit the planet until John Glenn accomplished the feat Feb. 20, 1962.

Yet before the end of the decade, on July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. landed the Eagle lunar module on the moon’s surface.

That accomplishment, and the Apollo program as a whole, yielded technologies many people take for granted.

Some, such as water-purification systems and freeze-dried fruit in breakfast cereals, are direct descendants from systems Apollo engineers developed. Other technologies — such as credit-card and ATM banking software and running shoes that offer better support — evolved as private-sector companies modified Apollo program designs.

“The Apollo program propelled us into the post-industrial era,” said Howard McCurdy, an American University professor who specializes in space history and science policy.

Perhaps most overlooked among Apollo’s contributions to modern life is the standard it set for large-scale systems management, McCurdy said.

“Not many people knew how to organize (400,000) workers to build a spaceship to go to the moon and back,” McCurdy said. “Today, a lot of science projects, such as electricity-generation plants fueled by nuclear power, require management techniques developed by Apollo. We couldn’t have built the International Space Station without that.”

Apollo served as a kind of “school for the post-World War II generation,” said Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in Washington, and a former NASA associate administrator.

“It was an organization of the nation’s interdisciplinary skills, drawing from every area of science and mathematics,” Pace said.

“After Apollo ended, a lot of its managers went into other technology areas in places like Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas,” he said. “The rest of the economy benefited, and it laid the foundation for the (information-technology) boom of the 1980s.”

NASA would grant a private company permission to manufacture a version of a technology it patented.

The system that enables consumers to use credit or ATM cards at stores to make purchases contains elements of Apollo software, said Dan Lockney, editor of NASA Spinoff magazine in Maryland.

“Part of that software, which made sense of reams of data, came from Apollo,” Lockney said. “Those computer programs ensured things like environmental control, electrical power, propulsion and guidance and navigational systems worked.”

Still, Roger Launius, NASA’s former chief historian, cautioned that “nothing is solely the result of space flight.”

“It’s not a straight line thing, so it’s hard to find a direct parallel,” said Launius, senior curator for space history at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. “NASA pushed technologies, and then others make modifications to end up with what we have today.”

Launius pointed to cordless-tool technology. NASA needed items such as cordless drills, so it invested in the research.

Miniaturization of things such as transistors, solid-state electronics and computers is another, said Launius and McCurdy.

“Lots of other people had an interest in doing that, but NASA saw it needed to do that with increased reliability,” Launius said. “Electronics has to withstand the abuse and shock of launch.”

“Computers were the size of lecture halls back then,” McCurdy said. “You couldn’t shoot a room-size computer to the moon. They needed one on the vehicle.”

Space forces people to do things normally they wouldn’t do, Pace said.

“To me, the 40th anniversary of the moon landing is about trying to recapture the abilities we once had and no longer have today,” Pace said. “We need to recapture those skills we once had and have abandoned.”

Armstrong uttered his famous words, “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind,” at 10:56 p.m. July 20, 1969. Then he and Aldrin spent about 2 1/2 hours exploring the Sea of Tranquility as an estimated 500 million people watched on TV.

Armstrong, who shuns publicity, during a rare interview told “60 Minutes” in 2006 how he came up with the words.

“I thought, ‘Well, when I step off, (it’s) just gonna be a little step.’ … But then I thought about all those 400,000 people that had given me the opportunity to make that step and thought ‘It’s going to be a big something for all those folks and, indeed, a lot of others that weren’t even involved in the project.’ So it was a kind of simple correlation of thoughts,” Armstrong said.

In at least one area, humans surpassed Apollo’s achievements: People have learned how to live in space long term, said astronaut and Air Force Col. Mike Fincke, who is from Emsworth.

So it’s possible to return to the moon and go beyond, he said.

“We can do it, and we will do it,” said Fincke from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. He commanded the space station during his second six-month mission from October to April.

“We’ll do it with more international cooperation, build bases on the moon and spread that same feeling to the rest of the solar system and the rest of the galaxy.”

About Apollo 11

Mission: “Perform a manned lunar landing and return.”

Crew: Neil Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot

Launch: 9:32 a.m. EDT, July 16, 1969, Kennedy Space Center

Landed on moon: 4:17:40 p.m. EDT, July 20, 1969, Sea of Tranquility

First step: 10:56:15 p.m. EDT July 20, 1969

Time spent outside of lunar module: 2 hours, 31 minutes

Lunar surface traversed: About 250 meters (820 feet)

Moon rocks collected: 21.7 kilograms (47.8 pounds)

Departed moon: 1:54:01 p.m. EDT, July 21, 1969

Returned to Earth: 12:50:35 p.m. EDT, July 24, 1969

A plaque is affixed to the leg of the lunar landing vehicle signed by President Richard M. Nixon, Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. The plaque bears a map of the Earth and this inscription:

HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH

FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON

JULY 1969 A.D.

WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND

Source: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Additional Information:

Books

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---