The Legacy of the First Moon Landing
On 21 July 1969, Neil Armstrong opened the hatch of his spacecraft and descended a short ladder to the lunar surface. The Apollo 11 mission occurred just 66 years after Orville Wright's first successful airplane flight. Armstrong's iconic words upon stepping onto the moon captured a sense of human progress:
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Nearly 57 years have passed since then, and no human has set foot on the moon since Apollo 17’s crew in 1972.
The Artemis Missions: A New Chapter
As early as this week, that may change in a limited way. NASA plans to send four astronauts on a 10-day mission looping around the moon, called Artemis II. However, this crew will not land; the lunar landing is scheduled for Artemis IV, likely several years away.
The question arises: can NASA reignite the global enthusiasm for the moon that Apollo missions inspired? In the 1960s, hundreds of millions worldwide watched Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land at Tranquility Base, while Mike Collins orbited above. The astronauts returned to a ticker-tape parade in New York and a world tour meeting figures such as the pope and the queen—Aldrin notably described her as
“surprisingly small and buxom”—visiting cities including Mumbai, Bangkok, and Berlin.
Context of the Space Race
That era was marked by the Cold War, with the moon race serving as a critical front between the West and the Soviet Union. President John F. Kennedy famously framed Apollo as an expression of human drive to explore and overcome challenges:
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Today, however, there is little of that political or rhetorical urgency. NASA’s focus has shifted between the moon and Mars depending on presidential administrations. Donald Trump, who refocused efforts on the moon in 2017, justified Artemis with general statements about American leadership,
“lunar economic development,”and preparing for a future Mars mission.
Representation and Political Shifts
Initially, NASA highlighted Artemis’s historic nature by including the first Black astronaut, Victor Glover, and the first female astronaut, Christina Koch, to reach the moon. However, after Trump’s return to office with an
“anti-woke”agenda, the agency removed references to the historic significance of Glover and Koch’s roles from the Artemis website.
Repetition of Past Achievements
It is impossible to replicate the world-historical importance of Armstrong’s
“giant leap.”If Artemis II successfully orbits the moon and returns, it will echo Apollo 8’s 1968 mission. If Artemis IV lands on the lunar surface, it will repeat what six previous Apollo missions accomplished.
Thus, these missions may be as memorable as the seventh expeditions to the North Pole, Everest, or the Mariana Trench. Future Mars missions or uncrewed spacecraft en route to Jupiter’s moons, which might discover alien life, may generate greater public excitement.
The Moon’s Enduring Fascination
Despite this, the moon continues to hold a unique fascination, comparable to its gravitational influence on Earth’s tides. It has inspired art since Neolithic times and earlier. Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich viewed it as a symbol of longing due to its inaccessibility. Surrealists such as Salvador Dalí and René Magritte were captivated by it, as have contemporary artists like Olafur Eliasson and Luke Jerram, whose detailed 1:500,000 scale moon model has been exhibited globally.
Musicians have frequently drawn on lunar imagery, from Beethoven and Debussy to Elvis Presley, Joni Mitchell, Ezra Furman, and Phoebe Bridgers. Jorge Luis Borges wrote in 1976:
“Look at her. She is your mirror.”
Conspiracy Theories and Scientific Discoveries
The moon’s mysterious nature has also fueled conspiracy theories about the authenticity of lunar landings, which emerged soon after Apollo missions ended. Some found it more plausible that the missions were faked than that humanity had transformed the moon from a distant symbol into a reachable, tangible place by solving engineering challenges.
Historically, it is relatively recent that humans have seen the moon as a physical object. Galileo first sketched its cratered surface in the 17th century, and only in 1959 did the Soviet Luna 3 probe reveal the far side. Before Apollo 11, the moon’s origin was uncertain; the 22kg of lunar rocks brought back by Armstrong and Aldrin provided evidence that it formed from a collision billions of years ago between Earth and a Mars-sized body named Theia.
Astronauts’ Impressions of the Moon
The Apollo 11 astronauts’ reactions to the lunar surface were not exuberant but reflected caution. Aldrin described Tranquility Base as
“magnificent desolation,”Armstrong noted its
“stark beauty,”and Collins, who orbited the moon 30 times, sensed it as an
“almost a hostile place, a scary place.”
Looking Ahead to Artemis
Soon, Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen may provide new firsthand insights from the moon’s vicinity. Their journey could inspire renewed interest and perhaps a bit of lunacy on Earth.
Paul Owen is a journalist and author of the novel The Weighing of the Heart. He is currently working on a book about the moon landings.
