MY MEMORIES OF 1969 AND THE MOON LANDINGS I know that it will be a huge surprise to the pupils, students and staff of this school, but I can actually remember the 1969 Apollo 11 space flight, and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon. I was very young at the time, but I remember clearly that there seemed to be a massive interest among people, and each night on the TV there were very clever, scientific-looking people who told the viewers that a man would actually walk on the moon. I remember a man called James Burke being on TV each evening and him getting quite excited as the moon landing actually happened. We still had only a black and white TV at the time, and the footage from space was quite grainy and difficult to see, but while I couldn’t appreciate the significance of the event fully, I knew that something incredible had happened. The other reason, I remember the time so vividly was that my mum gave birth to my brother in our house on July 6th of that year. My sister and I shared a bedroom and she was still sleeping in a cot at the time. I remember my dad coming into the bedroom to tell us that he had a surprise for us. I immediately thought that we were going to get sweets, as that what a surprise usually meant. I think that I was possibly a bit disappointed when he introduced me to my baby brother in the next bedroom! Over the next few years at my primary school, rocket launches seemed to be fairly regular events. All of the pupils would be brought into the school hall, to sit on the floor, cross legged. The school TV would be wheeled in, and we would all stare as a rocket left Cape Canaveral, to go to the moon. There would be a 10 second countdown, which everyone would join in with, then a flurry of fire and smoke before the rocket would emerge and fly into the skies. I used to lose interest for a few days, until the astronauts returned to earth and we would see them float down in a small capsule into the sea, after their mission was complete. It was always a huge relief to see them emerge, safe and well. Many years later in 1986, as a student I watched in horror as the Space Shuttle Challenger took off carrying a civilian teacher and exploded killing all seven crew members. It was a reminder to us all about the dangers of space travel. Mr Conway WHY DIDN’T THEY FALL OFF? Like most of the country, in fact the world, our family, and particularly dad, were gripped by the ‘space race’. We would be dragged outside to watch the night sky at the mere mention of a satellite passing over the UK. I had just finished primary school and remember that everything had been about space: playing ‘rockets’ in the playground, making up poems and stories about going to the moon, working out ‘space sums’… We watched all the coverage (in black and white, of course) and only very reluctantly moved from our places on the sofa to get up for meals! I was woken up about an hour before the actual landing. We were awe-struck, even more than we had been when the mission departed on the 16th of July. How could such a huge thing leave the earth? Like Mr Aldrin, we were ‘buzzing’ with excitement! My Nana, however, wasn’t convinced and perhaps she was the first of the conspiracy theorists! She would look up at the moon and declare, ‘How could they have landed on the moon? They’d fall off!’ Ms Gerrard 4