One giant leap for mankind. On this 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 moon landings, chase washington journal along with cspan American History tv, will focus on this historic event and its influence on modern spaceflight. For the next three hours we are live at the national air and space musician museum in washington, where well talk about apollo 11 with historians, the module pilot collins, and you. You can let us know you impression of the moon landing, and you want to talk about that day, you impressions of, it tool to 7000, two or two seven assions of the 50th 202 7488000. For all will be based here from the national air and space museum. A couple of facts about the 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 mission. It was Neil Armstrong, buzz aldrin, and Michael Collins the team for that day. The launch took place july 16, 1969. The moon landing on july 20, 1969. The first step by Neil Armstrong at about 10 4 56 p. M. On july 20. At about 10 56 p. M. On july 20. Astronauts returning to earth on july 24, 1969. We will talk more about the historical significance and what it means for spaceflight today. We will hear from you too. If you watched the moon landing, 202 7488000. 202 7488001 for all others this morning. We want to let you know that this program is being done in conjunction with our colleagues at American History tv. Cspan3 on the weekends turns into that channel with historical programming from interviews, and lectures. They have programming, interviews, and lectures. You can talk about the apollo 11 mission, participate on twitter. There is a poll there. Ahtv all weekend long will give you programming specifically related to apollo 11. You can watch that on cspan3. Go to our website. If you go to their website page, you can find all the programming they have planned and information for you specifically about apollo 11 as well. Some interesting facts when it comes to apollo 11. The astronauts carried science experiments and the like. Some of the other things they carried, a plaque commemorating the landing. That was on one of the arms on the lunar module. That would stay behind. They carried two large American Flags. Also the flags of certain nations. As you have seen pictures of people walking on the moon, that came courtesy of a tv camera that went on board the module as well. We will talk about those things during the course of the morning. We want to hear from you during these three hours as we have a new location. We are usually at our washington journal set. Jack in rhode island starts us off this morning on impressions for those who watched the moon landing. Go ahead. Thank you. I am showing my age because i did watch it with my father. He is no longer here. Whats not really publicized because its not politically correct, the key people that got us to the moon were the technological geniuses that were germans. Von braun lead it the project. That was also otto rudolph. There were she engineers and scientists from he engineers key engineers and scientists from operation paperclip that the u. S. Government led t in after world war ii. From the time you watched it, what are your impressions of the apollo 11 mission itself . Extremely successful, absolutely amazing, and it was because of those men and also those astronauts were amazing. Their bravery was astounding. I am a little proud of myself because my ancestry is german. A couple of them were nazis. Maybe they did that to protect themselves. Lets hear from martha in virginia beach, also watched the men landing. Go ahead. I wanted to thank you all for covering this from the beginning. My husbands cousin james shay was in charge of that unfortunate accident where they burned before they even got out of a lot of pressure was put on them out of space. A lot of pressure was put on them. Maybe some corners were cut. I have been fascinated. Are you talking about the events of apollo 1 . Yes. There was a gentleman the other day talking about that from the beginning to this point. Thank you. Have a good day. Before you go, what is a specific memory you have about the landing itself . My mother and i were fascinated with it. She died in 1976. We watched that thing. We watched it go on. My husband had to go to work the next day. That is how fascinated with it. I worked as a research chemist. I have always been fascinated in signs of any kind. That is martha in virginia beach. 202 7488000 if you want to call in and have specific memories of that time. 202 7488001. Mark in the bronx on our i was in the navy at the time, and we were in vietnam. I was on the uss boston. I was on the signal bridge, where we did flash lights and signal flags. When the word came from the bridge, the call goes out that says stand by your bag, meaning the signal bacg. Once the message is brought to the leading petty officer, the call is signal in the air. At which point george hung up the flag that said usa man on moon, and we wastedhoisted it up to the yardarm. That was it. That is what we did. What was the reaction for those on board . I was on the signal bridge. It was just three of us. I dont know what happened down below. We had 1200 men on the ship. I cannot answer that. For those of you who watched the landing here in the u. S. And worldwide, people in other countries reacting to it. If you go to nasa and see footage, you will see pictures of people watching all over the world as this one event became the fascination of the whole world. We will go to robert in louisiana. Good morning. Good morning. I am glad i am watching your program. I was 18 years old. I saw it on tv like most people. It is still impressive today. I have a youngest son, and he cannot really appreciate it. What i have in my hand for those who collect coins, the u. S. Mint produced a commemorative coin for the 50th anniversary of the landing. Neil armstrong was taking the picture of buzz aldrin, and when they when the film came out, it shows the picture of Neil Armstrong, you can see the Lunar Landing module. The coin is curved just like the facemask. The u. S. Mint had these. They are five ounces. They are beautiful. On the backside of the koran itself, it shows the first footprint. It is unbelievably beautiful. I am looking at it right now. I wish everybody on tv could see this thing. Like most people i ran outside to look at the moon. Im assuming a lot of people did that. It stays with me today. It is one of those moments that grabs you. Did you watch it with other family and friends . I watched it with my mother. My two brothers were there. We were glued. For three days when they would come back and forth, and of course Walter Cronkite was unbelievably great. It still sits with me today. When they landed on him moon, my brothers and i were sitting there holding our breath like everybody else. Watching Walter Cronkite smiled. It was a great event. One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. It is impressive. As the years go by, this might go down in history, but it liked to think it will go down in history as something that people will truly be there. Luckily we had film of it and everything. Kudos to everyone that is part of this thing, especially the technicians and the people who built it. That is amazing. Ok. I believe that is robert in that version. He talked about Walter Cronkite. Those of you that watched on that they come it was Walter Cronkite had a model of the lunar module one that was provided to him and used that to demonstrate what was going on with the various parts of the flight. These are historical images you can find online. This is the 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 mission. You can join in the conversation and post on our Facebook Page. You can post on the American HistoryFacebook Page as well. American history tv, cspan3 turns into American History tv on the weekend. You can see a weekend of programming. Other fulllength features as well. Go to our website for more information on that. I believe this is mark from the bronx. I believe i have taken that one. Lets go to david in chicago. David in chicago watched the moon landing. I didnt watch them landing. I was just a kid out of grade school. I want to talk about the fact that it took about 400,000 americans, practically all of them americanborn and educated to put a man on the moon. There were about 150 german refugee scientists, but this was all americanmade talent. Right now there is a bill going to the senate that would further entrench a lot of Foreign Workers and their labor force. Think about what it took to put a man on the moon and back, and this was all before the hib visa and labor dumping in our technology sector. When you think about the moon mission, apollo, i want everybody to remind their senators and congressmen that we did this, winning the cold war and sending a man to the moon and back before all of this cheap foreign labor dumping started. When it comes to apollo 11 itself, were you one of those when it was announced, were you a supporter of the mission itself . My father worked on the integral technologies as a major defense contractor that provided the position technologies to send a man to the moon and back and for the multiple nuclear deterrence. It was in my family. My father worked so many hours overtime during the 1960s. They even paid triple time back then on holidays. If you went in on christmas or thanksgiving to meet a deadline because it was such a rush to meet these deadlines for the end of the decade, they paid triple time. Companies dont do that anymore. They dont take care of their people like that. Ok. That is david in chicago calling to talk about the work aspects of the apollo 11 and the manpower that took place to make it happen. That is one of the writing things you can talk about this morning. When it comes to things that were taken from the moon, you will remember part of the purpose of the moon mission was to take samples from the surface of the moon, and those samples still being analyzed and looked at today. This is from the lunar and Planetary Institute telling us 22 kilograms of material were taken from the surface of the moon. That translates to roughly 50 pounds total. That includes lunar soil samples and they tell us two tubes of material from the moon surface was also taken. That was some of the purpose of the mission and the things taken and brought back to earth from the efforts of apollo 11. This is christie from huntsville. Good morning. You are on. Go ahead. I probably watched it, but i was only 10 years old, so i dont remember. I live in huntsville, where it all began. I used to hear the rocket tests. It was amazing. I still here rocket tests out there on the arsenal. My good friend, her grandfather was the head of operation paperclip. I just feel proud living in huntsville, alabama, where it all began. Is huntsville still a major problem when it comes to Space Exploration . How much work still goes on to this day . It is not as much space as it is army. It is a redstone arsenal. It is an army base as well. I worked for lucky in Marshall Space Flight center in the past, but my dad was with ibm. We got transferred to huntsville in 1965. Rocket testing was being done at that point. It was earth shattering to hear those rockets test. It was cool. As a kid it was very cool. That is christie from huntsville. Once president kennedy decided he wanted to send a man to the moon to put efforts across the u. S. To make that happen, alabama being one of those major locations were the work of the Apollo Mission would take place, and you can still see evidence there at that is in. James and arlington, texas. Good morning. Good morning. My dad was a Senior Engineer on the Apollo Program. He worked for north american aviation out of southern california. He basically worked on almost anything from the launch escape towers down to the first stage. How much did he talk about it . You are on. Go ahead. How much did he talk about it at home . There were certain things he did not talk about, but at the same time when apollo 7, 8, 9, and 10 when they returned to earth, we had a big event at the facility, and the astronauts would be flown in for a ceremony, so we would all see them be driven by us in cars, and then we would be allowed to look at the capsules, which had recovered and been saved, so we had what we called the dei room, which had a lot of exhibits in it, and people would get a chance to see that. Well into the 1980s in fact. I would see the Service Module, capsules, eventually the mockup of the shuttles. There were a number of things that we were aware of. When i was 10 years old, i was taken by my dad to the seal beach facility. They had a big event for the delivery of the last second stage for the saturn five. They opened up the doors on the assembly building, so i am witnessing this massive second stage being rolled out. It is quite an impression on a 10 euro. Are you in the Science Field or anything related because of those influences . My sister and i both followed my father into engineering. I worked for 11 years until 2009 in shuttle support and support for the International Space station. Initially i was a Mcdonnell Douglas employee, but we got bought by boeing. A sister worked for rockwell. Their assets were bought out by boeing. She is still working at this time, although she is about to retire. We did a recent poll from viewers in conjunction with ipsos taking a look on space issues. One of those things that were found at the top of the list people want nasa to pursue, environmental efforts. Lower on the list, efforts like going back to the moon, going to mars. What do you think of that, and he still support this idea of manned spaceflight . That color is gone. We will go to cap the ne caller is gone. We will go to kathy. I was four years old. I remember it vividly. Everyone was glued to the tv. I was worried in the astronauts down the ladder that he would sink in like in quicksand. My dad explained to me that because the lunar lander did not sink in that the astronaut would be ok. Thats a vivid memory of yours, what else do you remember . I remember everybody being very excited and thinking this is a great day and that we can do anything. Do you still think manned spaceflight should be a priority for the u. S. . Yes. Why so . I think we should start by increasing the number or size of our orbiting a stations establishing a colony on the moon, and then going to mars. That is christie in missouri. If you go to our website, that cspanipsos poll has information about the priorities nasa should pursue. A lot of Information Available at cspan. Org. We are at the national air and space museum in washington, d. C. As we talk about the 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 mission. You can follow along on her facebook feed and twitter feed. You can follow along on American History tvs facebook and twitter feeds. In virginia, personnel, george, you are on. Good morning. I remember it very well. I was in norfolk for duty for the weekend. And i was driving back on 95 on the radio. I got tears in my eyes. I guess i was 27 at the time, 28. It is part of history, and the other thing i remember, when they lost sputnik. That was impressive also. It was a great time to be alive. Do you think the historical significance of apollo 11 still resonates to this day . I think very much so. In the d. C. Area, we have a lot of government things. The significance of it is incredible. All the side benefits of all this technology, the cell phones, the gps, i guess medical devices using fancy electronics. Having a project like this accelerates all that. It may have happened, but i dont think it would have happened as quickly without this project. We will hear from jim in ohio. Hi there. Good morning, pedro. Thanks for cspan. If that were the only channel on my tv, i would keep it. I was the young man watching this with my future wife and her family in 1969. Unless my memory fails me, i think we went outside to try to look up at the moon when that happened and just sort of imagined we could see something that was going on. It is a thing a young person would do. Maybe i drink that. I think we did it. I dreamed that. I think we did it. I was an apprentice pipefitter, and i went back to college and became a Science Teacher for 38 years. I dont know if i can draw a Straight Line from the moon landing to becoming a Science Teacher, but i can at least draw a crooked line. I still get emotional when i hear the replay of the landing. I guess i was glad to hear the caller from virginia who said he got emotional. Maybe that is what drove me into the science classroom. Just as an interesting aside, my son was born nine months to the day after the moon landing. I dont know if i can draw a Straight Line on that one either. Thank you for giving us a chance to reflect on the hard point of American History. Thank you for the call. We appreciate it. Things left on the moon. A couple of things the astronauts were trying to shed some of the weight from the lunar module before it left the surface of the moon. They have a list of some of those things. It was that section of the eagle as it was known. Apparently it was nicknamed during the spaceflight itself. An American Flag. You will remember that, iconic American Flag placed on the surface of the moon. Other mementos honoring the apollo one crew. You heard another caller reference that in which the three astronauts died. A small goodwill disc. Tools, trash, and as they tell us including human waste left on the surface of the moon. You can find out more when you go to the nasa website. More available on cspan3. We will go to bobby in maryland. You are next. Good morning. Yes, i supported the apollo 11. I watched it that morning with my three children. I had no furniture. We had a 12