I was one of millions of children who stayed up late on July 20, 1969, to see Neil Armstrong become the first man to walk on the moon. My family sat in our darkened apartment on a sofa and on the floor to watch the great moment on TV.

We felt we were part of history, which we were, and we recorded the “giant leap for mankind” by taking photos of the grainy black and white coverage on our small screen using a pre-digital camera loaded with film.

Seeing this epochal event as it happened was a thrill. But looking back from the vantage point of 2026 is also an elegiac experience. One feels the loss of what was carelessly thrown away five decades ago and has been missing ever since.

Only three years after the moon landing, we as a nation decided the thrill had gone from........

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