Small Steps and Giant Leaps

Anthony DeCaprio

Small Steps and Giant Leaps

“Twelve, 11, 10, 9, ignition sequence start. Six, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero, all engines running. Liftoff! We have liftoff, 32 minutes past the hour. Liftoff on Apollo 11.” This was the voice of NASA launch control, Jack King on July 16, 1969. School summer recess was in full swing and as I watched that liftoff, I knew my eleven-year-old mind would be glued to the television set for the next eight days. We are finally going to walk on the moon.

My father, I would later learn, became fascinated with the inception of the NASA space program in July 1958. I was born four months earlier, so I’m sure dad knew he would have to wait a few years before bringing me up to date on the agency’s progress. And me now at age 65, I need to research the actual dates of the following events.

Having me watch television at four-years-old was not a priority of my parents. They made sure I was engaged either with my brother or sister or with neighborhood friends.  Because of my father’s interest in this young space program, he probably was watching the television broadcast of President John F. Kennedy’s “We Choose To Go To The Moon” speech on September 12, 1962 at Rice University. He probably had me at his side at that moment. I can’t recall and I never asked him if I was with him. I guess long speeches on TV, although historic, were not really appealing to a four-year-old. Only three months before JFK’s speech, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth in the space capsule Friendship 7. Again, no recollection. 

After a few years, what was really, really appealing to me in the mid-sixties was watching every launch of a NASA rocket with my dad. He said that the upcoming Gemini missions would pave the way for a future moon landing. Each launch more interesting and more informative. I could now understand some of it and it was always reassuring to know that dad would be there to explain what I couldn’t get. I had birthdays seven and eight and my ripe mind was absorbing all the information on space I could get. Between 1965 and 1966, there would be ten exciting Gemini missions and I would have a great seat with my dad in front of our television for all ten, “To explore and learn” as he would always say.

June 3, 1965, Ed White becomes the first American to walk in space on the Gemini 4 mission. Space suits were now the go-to Halloween costume. I even got to sleep in it for a few nights like the real astronauts did. 

 I remember the launch of Gemini 8 on March 16, 1966, where NASA was trying out some sort of new docking system of two necessary space vehicles that would one day enable astronauts to travel to the moon and back successfully. When I said to my dad that I didn’t understand what the docking system meant, he expertly used two tomato soup cans to demonstrate the maneuver. 

The Gemini program morphed into the Apollo program and disaster beset it on January 27, 1967. A fatal fire swept through the command capsule and killed all three astronauts on the launch pad during a test prior to the scheduled February 21 flight. I did not witness this horrific event. My dad said he would explain it all to me once the investigation completed, and the experts knew what happened. I knew I felt sad for the astronauts, but only on a nine-year-old level.

For the next two and a half years, dad and I explored and learned with each Apollo mission, each one more exciting and informative than the other. November 9, 1967 Apollo 4. Wow! Color TV!….A whole new perspective at launch time. “Thanks, dad!” It certainly was going to be fun and interesting watching the missions.

“Liftoff on Apollo 11,” came bellowing from our television set and ten eyes focused on the moment. My mom, brother and sister finally agreed to a family launch. They were amazed at the massive smoke and fireball of the launch, which was pretty much old school to me and dad. Dad and I wouldn’t see them at the TV watching space stuff for another four days, the first steps on the moon. 

My father made sure for the next four days of the mission to the moon that I would be present when they announced on TV another step in the flight. Everything we learned from the Gemini missions and the early Apollo flights was coming back to me and I was very excited about the upcoming moon landing four days later on Sunday afternoon. And then, even more adulation when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon surface six and a half hours later after landing there and spoke those infamous words. Finally, four days later and the mission was over with a pinpoint splashdown in the south Pacific. All captured on TV and, more importantly, by my father’s side.