[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 123 (Monday, July 23, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1046-E1047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IN RECOGNITION OF 49TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST APOLLO MOON LANDING, A 
            SMALL STEP FOR MAN BUT A GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 23, 2018

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in recognition of the 49th 
anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing.
  On July 20, 1969, the spaceship was a long way from home.
  Blasting off from Cape Kennedy four days prior, Commander Neil 
Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot 
Edwin ``Buzz'' Aldrin had been hurled from the cosmic shores of our 
orbit at an escape velocity of 24,200 miles per hour.
  With them were cameras, scientific instruments, and the now famous 
three-by-five foot U.S. flag to be planted on the surface of the Moon.
  They also carried two other U.S. flags--to be brought back and flown 
over the houses of Congress--the flags of the 50 States, the District 
of Columbia and U.S. territories, the United Nations flag, as well as 
those of 136 foreign countries.
  But what they carried that fateful day was more than a collection of 
instruments and national symbols.
  They carried the faith of mankind--of going where no human had gone 
before.
  They also carried courage--not only the courage that is the absence 
of fear, but rather the resolute determination to fulfill the national 
destiny.
  And more than courage they carried hope--that despite the bloodshed 
and weapons of mass destruction that defined the Cold War, humanity 
could stand together with bated breath for this new, brave step into 
the future.
  On the afternoon of July 20, at 3:08 PM Eastern, more than 200,000 
miles away from Earth, Aldrin and Armstrong fired the lunar module's 
descent engine for the first time.
  While Armstrong flew the landing craft, Aldrin gave him altitude 
readings: ``Seven hundred and fifty feet, coming down at 23 degrees . . 
. 700 feet, 21 down . . . 400 feet, down at nine . . . Got the shadow 
out there . . . 75 feet, things looking good . . . Lights on . . . 
Picking up some dust . . . 30 feet, 2 1/2 down . . . Faint shadow . . . 
Four forward. Four forward, drifting to the right a little . . . 
Contact light. Okay, engine stop.''
  When the 68-inch probes beneath three of the spacecraft's four 
footpads touched down, Armstrong shut off the ship's engine.
  At 4:18 PM, the craft settled down at an angle of no more than four 
or five degrees on the right side of the Moon as seen from Earth.
  From Tranquility Base, Armstrong immediately radioed Mission Control: 
``Houston, the Eagle has landed.''
  At 10:56 PM, Armstrong put his left foot to the Moon.
  It was the first time in history that man has ever stepped on 
anything that has not existed on or originated from Earth.
  ``That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,'' 
Armstrong radioed.
  Mr. Speaker, we gather here today not only to chronicle the 
extraordinary voyage of Apollo 11, but also to remember the efforts of 
thousands of America's brightest who stretched the bounds of human 
imagination with this accomplishment.
  I am tremendously proud to say Houston's very own Johnson Space 
Center, then named Manned Space Center, was pivotal in guiding the 
spaceships Columbia and Eagle to their place in history.
  Even after the Gemini and Apollo Missions, Houston has been the 
international hub of manned space flight ever since.
  Johnson Space Center scientists, engineers, astronauts and other 
staff members have been tasked with controlling flights from Skylab and 
the Apollo-Soyuz missions through the Shuttle program and beyond.
  Johnson Space Center is the training base and home for our nation's 
astronauts and the site of Mission Control, where a talented cadre of 
flight controllers monitors the work of our women and men in space.
  Mr. Speaker, I remind this body that the American space flight 
program is not merely a collection of scientific achievements.
  I celebrate the legacy of Mary Jackson, NASA's first black female 
engineer who joined the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in 
1958.
  Her pioneering work not only contributed immensely to the success of 
the Mercury space program--the predecessor to Gemini and Apollo--but 
also to influenced the hiring and promotion of women and people of 
color in NASA's science, engineering, and mathematics careers.
  Not only African American women were involved, but also men and women 
of all races and trades--White, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American 
engineers, physicists, manufacturers, mathematicians, physicians, 
divers, sailors, and thousands more.
  Armstrong and Aldrin may have walked on the moon, but all of America 
was with them in spirit.
  I celebrate the legacy of President John Kennedy, who in 1961 in my 
home city of Houston declared to the world that ``We choose to go to 
the moon within the decade and do the other things, not because they 
are easy but because they are hard.''
  I invoke the words of astronomer and writer Carl Sagan, who 
eloquently wrote on the scope and audacity of the President's 
proclamation:
  ``The Moon was a metaphor for the unattainable: `You might as well 
ask for the Moon,' they used to say. For most of our history, we had no 
idea what it was.
  ``We would use rockets not yet designed and alloys not yet conceived, 
navigation and docking schemes not yet devised, in order to send a man 
to a world not yet explored--not

[[Page E1047]]

even in a preliminary way, with robots--and we would bring him safely 
back, and we would do it before the decade was over.
  ``This confident pronouncement was made before any American had even 
achieved Earth orbit.''
  To anyone who might doubt America's ability to make good on this 
commitment, President Kennedy said, ``this country of the United States 
was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind 
them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward--and so 
will space.''
  He, like the Apollo program, represented the best of America's can-do 
spirit; an idea of tomorrow, a relentless march toward achieving the 
full promise of America, and an understanding that we, the people--all 
of us--have a place in that future and a role to play in bringing it 
about.
  The Apollo program was certainly a pinnacle of American scientific 
triumph.
  In that summer of 1969, we decided to use technologies developed to 
hold humanity captive under the specter of nuclear war to capture the 
imagination of humanity.
  In that summer of 1969, we conveyed to the world an optimism about 
technology and an enthusiasm for the future.
  In that summer of 1969, we reached for the stars and three 
Americans--Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins--nearly had them in their 
grasp.
   But our best days are not behind us.
  For as long as we have been able to stand on two legs, we have been 
voyagers.
  We had emerged from the caves and come down from the trees; we 
conquered continents; weathered oceans; we have connected the world in 
no way it had ever been connected before.
  So you ask today, Mr. Speaker, what comes next?
  I urge my colleagues on this most special anniversary to continue 
supporting our space program, celebrate the sciences, and encourage 
innovation and international scientific cooperation.
  I ask that we work together, like that moment on July 20th, 1969, and 
stand together, arm in arm, to take the next small step forward--a 
giant leap for mankind.

                          ____________________