This year, we did something different that wasn’t festive. A visit to the experience that calls itself the Moonwalkers.
Narrated by Tom Hanks, this was a reminder of the Apollo missions to the moon in the 60s and the 70s. It was realised at a place called Lightroom near King’s Cross. Imagine a room the size of a small theatre with walls on three sides. Onto these walls are projected the still and moving images of the missions.
It was fabulous to be reminded about the huge challenge that this represented and how it was overcome. It began with an inspiring speech by the then-President, President JF Kennedy, who spoke of the need for mankind to quest to travel – to go forth. I found it very moving as I am old enough to remember dashing home from school to watch the transmissions from outer space direct to our TV screens. Those bright saturated colours of the 60s conveyed the excitement of the preparations, and we had close videos of the astronauts as they entered the space capsule, and then we watched the countdown, followed by the roar of the launch and then the massive thrust from the rocket blasting off to lift off. It seemed to be crawling into the sky, and then, as the fuel tanks were jettisoned.
Then we followed the journey, the conditions, and the conversations, which were much helped by surtitles above, as you could often miss what they were saying. Eventually, as we know, the capsule landed on the surface of the moon, and incredibly, they were able to climb down the steps and utter those memorable words, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” I bet they spent hours deciding on exactly what Neil Armstrong would say.
Later, there were more missions and other ways of moving about the moon, even in a buggy. How did they manage to fit that in the capsule? They carried out many scientific experiments, some of which have benefited us in different ways. It was a bold step, and we were reminded how special it was when we saw a view of our own planet from so far away. Blue and beautiful. The re-entry of the space capsule to earth was a tricky moment as it was travelling at 24,000 miles per hour – everything had to be just right. And it was, and we followed the descent as the parachutes billowed and they touched down in the sea.
If you look at the moon, it seems incredible what they did over 50 years ago. Six months after the landing, I went with my school to Queen Mary College, and there, in a case, was some actual moon rock and dust. It seemed amazing to us.
My main takeaway was what Tom Hanks said about the people who made it happen. Of course, there were many scientists, but he made the point that they needed creative people working with scientists to make it happen. We need young people to have ideas and think big if the human race is to survive.
