When I was twelve years old, I chanced to be out on our back, 2nd floor porch trying to stretch out the day, not ready to go to sleep. The moon was full. I have always had a love for it. I still do. As I watched, a red object came out from behind the moon. It seemed to take a ninety degree turn and, in an arc which took almost half an hour, it proceeded into the moon. It came to a right angle spot once more and turned into the moon. I was fascinated by it all. When it came to the middle of the moon, it seemed to pause and sink, disappearing without a trace.
As I say, I was twelve. I had an enormous fondness for ‘Buck Rogers’ as I grew up. The moon episode and further wetted my appetite for things relating to space. But that was all. I tucked it into the back of my mind and carried on with my life.
There was a news program on the television set. It showed a missile. They were talking about the Russians, how they had just launched a satellite to circle the earth. ‘Sputnik’. That name still gives me a rush. It also reached back into my mind the object I had watched. I never looked at the sky quite the same since. How exciting for a kid to know that he had seen something that most of the rest of the world had never seen.
In some strange way, I felt as if I were a part of that history. Scuttlebutt around the family was that some cousin or whatever, some distant relation was involved in early Space flight and helped design early spacesuits. Here is a crude representation of what I saw.
As I say, I was twelve. I had an enormous fondness for ‘Buck Rogers’ as I grew up. The moon episode and further wetted my appetite for things relating to space. But that was all. I tucked it into the back of my mind and carried on with my life.
There was a news program on the television set. It showed a missile. They were talking about the Russians, how they had just launched a satellite to circle the earth. ‘Sputnik’. That name still gives me a rush. It also reached back into my mind the object I had watched. I never looked at the sky quite the same since. How exciting for a kid to know that he had seen something that most of the rest of the world had never seen.
In some strange way, I felt as if I were a part of that history. Scuttlebutt around the family was that some cousin or whatever, some distant relation was involved in early Space flight and helped design early spacesuits. Here is a crude representation of what I saw.
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