Yes, indeed. Since that day 43 years ago, we have been able to say something about the Moon that we never could say before, that in five short words says much about humanity, our aspirations and achievements, and with the right ears sounds like a shout of triumph:

There are footprints on it.

May there be many more.

66 years from Kitty Hawk to the moon. 43 years from the moon to no more manned flights and NASA looking for mythical climate doom. By now we should have had people LIVING on the moon, doing work like Antarctica.

A beautiful poem, and thank you. The last stanza sort of depresses me, because it reminded me of something Jerry Pournelle said:

"Civilization is more fragile than most believe. Note that a true dark age comes not when we lose the ability to do something, but forget that we ever had that ability: as for instance no university Department of Education seems aware that in the 1930's to the end of World War II, essentially the only adult illiterates in the United States were people who had never been to school to begin with (see the Army's tests of conscripts)...Anyway, that's what we mean by a Dark Age. As with the 5th Century peasant in France who gets a yield of perhaps 3 bushels a year on land that under Roman civilization yielded 12 -- and has not only forgotten how to get such yields, but has no idea that such yields have ever been possible."

We chose the "great society" instead of the universe.

We'll be back to the moon, and to stay. We just have to wait out the collapse of the "great society".

I think after WW2 we (western men) thought that others who looked like us and went through the same experiences (depression, dust bowls, sacrifice and war...etc) would have the same hopes and dreams for posterity. They were wrong.

Some wanted to build.

Some wanted to burn...

Those of us who aspire to be builders, have to wrap our arms around the stone cold fact that in order to actually preserve and progress.. we have to destroy the plans of the burners in life...

I watched the first moon landing when I was a small child. That memory has stayed with me my entire life. If you had told me back in 1975 that we would not only not have a moon base by 2012, but that we wouldn't have returned at all, I'd have thought that you were on some really good drugs.

Physics geek - Seconded. I was 10 on Tranquillity Day.

It's perhaps slightly comforting to know that Neil Armstrong will be remembered thousands of years after America is no more. Probably not very comforting for him.

Hey, that was good. It reminded me of Milton a bit. I guess the difference between The Fall and Tranquility is a matter of Thrust and Vector and it always will be.

I sat on the couch and watched Buzz and Neil step our of their lander on the Sea of Tranquility, sitting next to my Grandmother, who actually knew the Wright brothers when she was a child. Neil Armstrong grew up less than 50 miles from where I was born.

I remember that day so clearly. I was never so proud of my country and what we thought we stood for that day. But I was only a teenager. What did I know?

I had the priviledge of having dinner with the last man to be on the Moon, Harrison Schmidt. That was in the 80's, and he left the Moon in 1972 when Apollo wrapped up after 6 missions.

America used to stand on the shoulders of giants, but nowadays that's considered too big of a climb.

What must have it been like for Neil Armstrong to come back from the Moon, having passed into legend (and he must have known it, he is an intelligent man) and then watch his country piss his achievement away?

We'll never know. Like most people who have done something momentous, he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve.

Neil Armstrong was something of an introvert. He spoke about "The Spirit of Apollo" after he returned, and had great hopes that the achievment and moment would be a world turning event, for the better. He was disappointed, but he moved on. He taught at the University of Cincinnati for a while, got involved in another type of commercial aircraft development, which did not have much notoriety (he was an immensely skilled pilot, who flew the X-15 in the early 60's). I just missed meeting him in 2003 at a very large Air Show (the Centennial of Flight).
Buzz Aldrin had a terrible time getting over the fact he was the second man on the moon. He became an alcoholic, divorced his wife, became clinically depressed. He pulled out of it, became re-engaged with life, remarried and is now a much happier and well-adjusted person than he ever was, in his own words. he has a PhD in orbital mechanics (which is pretty hard and involves a lot of mathematics), is still pretty mentally sharp and was for a while quite engaged in commercial space flight.
They are both in their 80's now. These men are still heroes to me.

OK. Let me just explain some thing. We were driving our fucking moon-car on the fucking moon 40+ years ago. Moon-car on moon. We played golf on the moon. Golf. So as soon as the Chinese or the Russians can drive their moon-car around on the moon and hit a few golf balls and then bring everybody home safe & sound then they can say they achieved that a mere 40 years after we did.

Mars is really the only trump card -- but of course we have our second robot rover on the way -- we're just picking a nice spot for the base. By the way -- moon? US territory. Mars? Soon to be. Sorry fellows. Go up. Plant the flag. Get in your car and drive around a bit. Maybe play some golf. But we've got the moon and Mars. I hear Jupiter's nice. Give that a shot.

The last outfit I remember which thought that all they had to do was get someplace first, plant a flag, and claim the whole shebang was the Spanish Empire.

Their claim was disputed.

Why bother to walk the Sea of Tranquility when tis nobler to hand out free phones to greedy indigents? A majority of Americans now agree with that sentiment. Damn them all to hell.