Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Host on this 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 moon landing, todays washington journal, in conjunction with American History tv, will focus on this historic event and its influence on modern spaceflight. For the next three hours, we are live from the national air and space museum from washington, d. C. We will talk about apollo 11. You can call us and let us know your impressions of apollo 11 if you watched the moon landing. If you want to talk about your impressions of it, 202 7488000. For all others, 202 7488001. You can post cspanwj your thoughts and impressions. You can do the same on facebook. Com cspan. Our show 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 at 9 32. The moon landing on july 20, 1969. That was at 4 17 in the afternoon. The first step by Neil Armstrong at about 10 56 p. M. On july 20. Aldrin would follow along about 20 minutes later from that. That mission, when the astronauts left the moon, july 21 of 1969, and returning to 1969. On july 24, we will talk more about the historical significance, what it means for spaceflight today. And as we hear it from astronauts, historians, and the like, 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 know, the weekends, turns into that channel with historical programming, interviews, lectures, and the like. You want to share their impressions on their specific facebook, that is cspanhistory facebook. Com. You can talk about the apollo 11 mission, participate on twitter. There is a poll there. All weekend long, we 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 all the other information for you specifically about apollo 11 and other programming they have as well. Some interesting facts when it comes to apollo 11. The things they carried on apollo 11. The astronauts carried science experiments and the like. But some of the other things they carried, a plaque commemorating the landing. Oft was on one of the arms the lunar module. That would stay behind. They carried two large American Flags. The flags of the 50 states in the u. S. Territories, also flags of certain nations and the United Nations flags too. 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 in the course of the morning. But again, to hear from you primarily during these three hours as we have a new location, usually we are on our washington journal set, not far from the space museum, but they are hosting us this morning. Jack in rhode island starts us off this morning on impressions for those who watched the moon landing. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller 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 led the project. There was also otto rudolph. And there were a lot of key engineers and scientists from operation paperclip. They were german scientists and engineers that the u. S. Government let in after world war ii because they wanted their expertise in rocket engineering. Host for all that history and background, then, from the time you watched it, what are your impressions of the apollo 11 mission itself . Caller extremely successful, absolutely amazing, and it was because, primarily, of those men, but also those astronauts were amazing. Their bravery was astounding. I have to admit 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. Host ok. Lets hear from martha in virginia beach, also watched the moon landing. Go ahead. Caller i wanted to thank you all for covering this from the very beginning. My husbands cousin james shay was in charge of that unfortunate accident where they burned before they even got out of space. A lot of pressure was put on them at that time to hurry up, we have to beat the russians. I think in hindsight, maybe there were some corners that were cut. They jumped in too soon, that may have been what happened. Host are you talking about the events of apollo 1 . Caller yes. There was a gentleman the other day talking about that from the beginning to this point. Thank you for taking my call. Have a good day. Host before you go, what is a specific memory you have about the landing itself . Caller my mother and i were fascinated with it. She died in 1976. But we sat up there at night and watched that thing, watched it go on. My husband had to go to sleep because he had to go to work the next day. But anyway, thats how fascinated i was with it. I worked as a research chemist. But i have always been fascinated with science of any kind. Host that is martha in virginia beach, giving her impressions on the moon landing. 202 7488000 if you want to call in and have specific memories of that time. 202 7488001. Mark in the bronx on our line for others. Go ahead. Caller 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 it was during the day says, call goes out that stand by your bag, meaning the signal back. Once the message is brought to the leading petty officer, the call is signal in the air. At which point george pinsky, a petty officer at the time, hoped up the flags that said, usa, man on the moon, and we hoisted it up to the yardarm. At the same time, the captains gate was dropped over the side with a photographer on it who took pictures of the ship with the flags up. That was it. That is what we did. Host what was the reaction for those on board . Do you remember anything specific about that . Caller 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. Couldnt tell you. Some of the footage, 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 baton rouge, louisiana. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am glad i am watching your program. I was 18 years old. I saw it on tv like most people. Amazing. It is still impressive today. I have a younger son who cant really appreciate it, as much as i tried to tell him about it. What i have in my hand, for those who collect coins, the United States mint produced a commemorative coin for the 50th anniversary of the landing. Neil armstrong was taking a picture of buzz aldrin, and when they when the film came out, it showed the picture of Neil Armstrong standing you can see the American Flag, the lunar. Anding module but anyway, 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 coin 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. Host did you watch it with other family and friends, or did you watch it by yourself . Caller 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 everyone else who was watching it. Cronkite took his glasses off, just smiling. It was a great event. One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. It is impressive. I guess as the years go by, this might go down in history, but it but i would like to think it will go down in history as something that people you would have to go back in the past and be there. Luckily we have 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. Host ok. Thats robert in baton rouge, i believe. He talked about Walter Cronkite. For those of you who watched on that day, it was Walter Cronkite 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. As we tell the story on this 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. All that available to you. 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. Good morning. Go ahead. I did watch the moon landing. I was just a kid out of grade school. I remember very well. 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 in their labor force. When you think about what it took to put a man on the moon and back, and this was all h1b and labor dumping in our technology sector. When you think about the moon mission and apollo, i want everybody to remind their senators and congressmen that we two major things in the 20th century, winning the cold war and sending a man to to the moon and back before all of this cheap foreign labor dumping started. Host when it comes to apollo 11 itself, were you one of those during the time when the mission was announced, were you a big supporter of the mission itself, or did you have skepticism . Caller let me tell you something. My father worked on the integral technologies as a major defense contractor that provided the precision trajectory technologies that sent 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 before the end of the decade, they paid triple time. Companies dont do that anymore. They dont take care of their people like that. Host 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 variety of 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 about 22 kilograms of material were taken from the surface of the moon. That translates to roughly 50 pounds, 50 rocks in total, including the lunar soil samples. And the lunar and Planetary Institute tells us that two tubes of material from the moon surface was also taken. Thats just some of the purposes of the mission and the things taken and brought back to earth on the efforts of apollo 11. This is christie from huntsville. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host you are on. Go ahead. Caller i probably watched it, but i was only 10 years old, so i dont remember. But what i do remember is i live in huntsville, where it all began. I used to hear the rocket tests. It was amazing. I still hear 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. Host is huntsville still a major hub when it comes to space issues . I know you have a museum out there, but how much work still goes on to this day . Caller it is not as much space as it is army. Because it is a redstone arsenal. It is an army base as well. I worked for lockheed 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 earthshattering to hear those rockets test. But it was cool. As a kid, it was very cool. Host that is christie from huntsville. Part of the efforts of Lyndon Baines johnson. 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 they are that space museum. James in arlington, texas. Good morning. Caller 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. Host how much did he talk about it . You are on. Go ahead. How much did he talk about it at home . Caller technically, there are 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 an electric cart, 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. My dad worked in downey, so i was wondering why we were going to seal beach. They had a big event for the delivery of the last second the saturn five, which is what they built at seal beach. They opened up the doors on the assembly building, so i am witnessing this massive second stage being rolled out. Its quite an impression on a 10yearold. Host are you in the Science Field or anything related because of those influences . Caller 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. 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 ended up working with me, and she is still working at this time, though she is about to retire. Host 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 that 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 do you still support this idea of manned spaceflight missions . That caller is gone. We will talk to kathy, next, from imperial, missouri. Caller i was four years old. I remember it vividly. Everyone was riveted to the tv. I was allowed to stay up past that time. 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 too. Host thats a vivid memory of yours, what else do you remember . Caller i remember everybody being very excited and thinking this is a great day and that we can do anything. Host do you still think manned spaceflight should be a priority for the United States . Caller yes. Host why so . Caller i think we should start by increasing the number or size of our orbiting space stations, establishing a colony on the moon, and then going to mars. Host that is christie in missouri. If you go to our website, that cspanipsos poll has a lot of questions, some about nasa, 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 are welcome to join us for this conversation. You can follow along on our facebook feed and twitter feed. Cspansow along on American History tv facebook and twitter feeds. More programming on apollo 11 available when you go to cspan3s American History tv. In virginia, george, you are on. Caller good morning. I remember it very well. I was endorphin for Navy Reserve Duty for the weekend. 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 launched sputnik. That was impressive also. It was a great time to be alive. Host do you think the historical significance of apollo 11 still resonates to this day . Has it waned a little bit . Caller i think very much so. In the d. C. Area, we have a lot of government things. But the sign