I almost missed the first moon landing.

It was 1969, and I was a 20-year-old college student more interested in being with my girlfriend than watching TV news. So on the fateful day that Neil Armstrong described his interplanetary touchdown as “one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind,” well, I was on a shopping spree in Santa Monica, California, with my favorite honey.

“Hey,” I remember inquiring, “why are all those people crowded around that store window?” Behind it, of course, sat a blaring television set. And that’s how I ended up watching the world’s first lunar landing amid a crowd of gawking strangers.

I don’t remember being particularly awed or impressed by what I saw. Boy, what a difference 57 years can make!

This month’s 10-day Artemas II voyage didn’t even involve walking on the moon. What it did involve, however, was four crew members—including a woman, black man, and Canadian—plunging 252,756 miles into space,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)