Lizzie Fletcher: “This week we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the spacecraft that sent Americans to the Moon.…”

“This week we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the spacecraft that sent Americans to the Moon. On September 12, 1962, before a crowd of 40,000 spectators at Rice University in Houston, President John F. Kennedy announced the ambitious goal of sending Americans to the Moon before the end of the decade. On July 20, 1969, we got there. Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the surface of the Moon, and 19 minutes later Buzz Aldrin became the second. More than 600 million people around the world watched Armstrong take his first step live on television. The first words they heard on the Moon were ``Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed,'' followed by the observation, ``That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.'' As a native Houstonian and the Representative of Texas' Seventh Congressional District, these historic words are seared in my mind. The Apollo 11 mission was more than just an amazing technological advancement, it brought Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs together toward a common goal and a common purpose. It made people a part of something bigger than themselves, perhaps bigger than they had ever imagined. More than 400,000 Americans worked to make the Apollo 11 mission a success, many of them based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.…”