‘Men Walk on the Moon’ is not news for us anymore because we already know the story. Not surprisingly, 53 years ago walking on the moon was incredible and unthinkable. Therefore, press flies too might have buzzed and hovered in the first flush of the Apollo-11 mission.
The New York Times
The article titled ‘Men Walk On Moon’ was published in the New York Times. “Two Americans, astronauts of Apollo 11, steered their fragile four-legged lunar module safely and smoothly to the historic landing yesterday at 4:17:40 P.M., Eastern daylight time. Neil A. Armstrong, the 38-year-old civilian commander, radioed to earth and the mission control room: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
The first men to reach the moon -- Armstrong and his co-pilot, Col. Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. of the Air Force--brought their ship to rest on a level, rock-strewn plain near the southwestern shore of the arid Sea of Tranquility. About six and a half hours later, Mr. Armstrong opened the landing craft’s hatch, stepped slowly down the ladder and declared as he planted the first human footprint on the lunar crust: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” His first step on the moon came at 10:56:20 p.m., as a television camera outside the craft transmitted his every move to an awed and excited audience of hundreds of millions of people on earth.”
The Observer
We can focus on our next article which had appeared in the Observer Newspaper on July 20, 1969. The article was titled ‘Apollo-11 Rockets
Into Moon Orbit’. Eleven minutes later the spacecraft slid behind the moon and out of contact with control for the first time since leaving Earth’s orbit on Wednesday”. The move was fraught with danger. The craft could have swung wide of the moon or gone into an unstable orbit but the crew described the action as: “like perfect.” Evidently, the above article had given a wealth of information about the moon walk.
The Sunday Sun
Have you ever heard about the world’s first newspaper which published an article on the 1969 moonlanding? The answer is The Sunday Sun newspaper which is one of the regional newspapers. The Sunday Sun went to press only a few minutes after the lunar module touched down on the Moon at 8.17pm on Sunday, July 20, 1969.
However, the journalists in the ‘Sunday Sun’ newspaper wanted to be the first to publish this most exciting news. The Editor in Chief Norman Batey suggested that the article should be published under the title of ‘The Moon is Just One Step Away’.
Their second article titled ‘Man Is On The Moon’ too was published next. That is how the Sunday Sun became the first to predict the moonwalk.
The Guardian
We can see how Anthony Tucker, one of the science correspondents had reported the news with the headline of “3 : 56 am Man Steps On To the Moon.” Men are on the moon. It was the fulfilment of a dream which men have shared since the beginning of recorded history”. One of the officials named Adam Raphael from the Space Centre in Houston quoted Neil Armstrong,
“This is one small step for man. But one giant leap for mankind”. The article has covered the scientific work done by scientists during their moon walk. If focusing on the statement made by the American President Richard Nixon, we can realize that he had appreciated the efforts made by the astronauts. American President Richard Nixon: “Because of what you have done, the heavens have become part of man’s world.”
