Real-Life Spaceplayers: Apollo 11

Well, I'm just about down with the new album, but I'll gladly take a moment to honor the original "space players," the heroic crew of Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, as well the many engineers the rocket scientists who got them there. Despite my Libertarian(ish) opposition to government programs, it was my original ambition to be an astronaut myself (I went with "musical space cadet" instead.)

What was so heroic about the first moon landing? In the words of Ayn Rand:

One knew that this spectacle was not the product of inanimate nature, like some aurora borealis, or of chance, or of luck, that it was unmistakably human—with “human,” for once, meaning grandeur—that a purpose and a long, sustained, disciplined effort had gone to achieve this series of moments, and that man was succeeding, succeeding, succeeding! For once, if only for seven minutes, the worst among those who saw it had to feel—not "How small is man by the side of the Grand Canyon!"—but “How great is man and how safe is nature when he conquers it!”

In other words,

It was the overwhelming response of people starved for the sight of an achievement, for a vision of man the hero.

For another musical tribute to the space greats, check out "Countdown" by Rush, from the album Signals. Shine on...