With Artemis splashing down, Boomers Remember Apollo’s Historic Moment

As Artemis II returns to Earth, memories of past space flights come flooding back, especially of the first moon landing in 1969, where mostly the Baby Boomers were there to witness and remember.

Long after Apollo 11, I stood in the thick July humidity of Florida’s Space Coast in 2011, wheeling my four-month-old son in a stroller while my husband hoisted our toddler daughter onto his shoulders. My babies didn’t know it, but we were all watching the end of an era. NASA’s final space shuttle mission, STS-135, sent Atlantis to the International Space Station, closing out a program that defined American space travel for three decades.

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As both a science fiction fan and space travel enthusiast, watching that shuttle fly across gray skies felt bittersweet. I wondered if the US would become a space pioneer again in my lifetime. What was next?

For nearly a decade, the answer wasn’t clear. Private industry reignited U.S. human spaceflight in 2020, with SpaceX successfully launching astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station during a global pandemic. The mission exemplified freedom and hope, while so many people were stuck in their homes worried about the future.

Now, almost exactly 45 years after NASA launched the first-ever space shuttle, Columbia, the NASA project Artemis II brings NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hanson to the moon – at least for a drive-by.

“Like the rest of the world, that night we watched in awe and with national pride as our three astronauts made history. The buzz and hum the following morning at breakfast was all about the spectacular moon landing. Seeing it live was absolutely thrilling.”

Sandy carpenter, remebering apollo 11

‘To the far side of the moon’

Do you have any vivid space flight memories? Odd question, maybe. But it’s the sort of thing people are talking about in the wake of the Artemis II crew traveling, quite literally, further than anyone has ever gone before. On April 6, 2026, the crew of the Artemis II spacecraft reached the far side of the moon at a distance of 252,756 miles away from Earth.

In honor of the milestone, we asked several Baby Boomers to share their memories of the 1969 Apollo moon landing and their thoughts on the Artemis mission. 

Recording the moment

Fred D. from South Carolina remembers the landing vividly.

“I was 12 or 13 for the Apollo [11] landing. I had a small reel-to-reel recorder. I set the microphone by our console black and white tv and recorded the event as I watched on TV,” he shared.

“Building a base on the moon is probably the next step to go to Mars,” he said, adding that he thinks we should go.

“I’m concerned about the cost. But I’m getting old so, realistically, it’s not going to matter much [to me].”

Renting a TV in Europe

Not everyone experienced this core memory close to home. Sandy Carpenter, who was already married at the time, was in Great Britain on a two-week vacation with her husband. They were nestled in a charming, yet old, hotel in a town near Carlisle close to the Scotland border.

“After a long drive, we were eager to settle into our room at a charming, but old-fashioned hotel. We were also eager to see the historic space flight, which was being aired on TV that evening. To our dismay, there was no TV set in our room,” Carpenter said.

Her husband rushed to the front desk to ask about getting a television. “The clerk said it would be possible to have a set sent up to the room, but that the rental fee would be frightfully expensive. Pete agreed that the two-dollar fee should be added to our bill,” Carpenter shared, tongue-in-cheek.

“Like the rest of the world, that night we watched in awe and with national pride as our three astronauts made history. The buzz and hum the following morning at breakfast was all about the spectacular moon landing,” she said. “Seeing it live was absolutely thrilling.”

For Americans traveling abroad at the time, the event meant even more. “On our return to Westminster Abbey to visit some of the chapels we missed the first time, we came upon an enormous wreath set upon a stand. The wreath was festooned with a banner which read: ‘The Eagle Has Landed,’” Carpenter recalled.  

These were the historic words Neil Armstrong said as the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle touched down on the moon’s surface in the Sea of Tranquility.

“The clarity of the importance of this historic achievement simply took my breath away,” Carpenter said. “My eyes filled with tears of pride then, as they still do.”

She’s followed the Artemis adventures but her mind keeps going back to that moment in 1969.

“I watched the lift-off and now marvel at the never-before-seen photos. Craters, gullies, jagged edges, earth’s shadows all captured with incredible clarity. Truly amazing. But [nothing] compares to the first Apollo moon mission.”

“Watching it with a person who grew up with horse-and-buggy, then cars and planes, and then landing on the moon was amazing. For her, it must have been overwhelming and amazing at the same time.” — Norma G., who watched Apollo 11 with her 97-year-old grandmother

Marking the passage of time through space travel

Norma G. had a father who worked in aerospace, so her background nurtured her interest in space travel. “I watched many of the launches and landings that were televised,” she said.

The moon landing was a highlight since she was watching it as an 18-year-old with her 97-year-old Nana, she said.  

“Watching it with a person who grew up with horse-and-buggy, then cars and planes, and then landing on the moon was amazing. For her, it must have been overwhelming and amazing at the same time.”

Norma G. remains interested in space travel as we continue to explore the final frontier. “I love the current mission,” she said. “I’ve watched some live broadcasts.”

Visiting the Kennedy Space Center in March brought the astronauts’ adventures closer to home, she said, piquing her interest and adding significance to the Artemis mission.

Feel-good moments

Denise C. in Long Island, New York, remembers the ‘60s as tumultuous times, with the Apollo moon landing being a spark of positivity.

“We had gone through the Vietnam War, the riots, the [Martin Luther King, Jr.] assassination; it was bad times,” she recalled. “When the moon landing came around, it was such a positive, good feeling. We had relatives come over to watch it in front of the TV.”

Following the Artemis mission, Denise had similar feelings of hope and inspiration.

“I just got excited about this, too. They might not be landing on the moon, but they’re going around to the other side of it.”

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