The apparatgeist of the moon landing

Abstract

Fifty years ago, a decade that was revolutionary in human development in many ways was drawing to a close. This period in the world’s history was as famous for love as for war, but also for big and small technological innovations. Consumers became acquainted with acronyms such as ATM, CD, LASER, LED, and UNIX—not to mention the mind-expanding LSD or the less dramatic medical innovation marketed as Valium, the “Mother’s Little Helper” epitomized by the Rolling Stones’ song available for purchase on the recently invented cassette audio tapes. Medical care took a huge step forward when, in April 1969, a mechanical heart was transplanted into a human. And, in the nascent computer field, the first message between two computers on the ARPANET was sent. This event, a half century ago, provided the roots for technological advances that eventually led to the modern-day Internet and World Wide Web (see, e.g., Drummer, 1997, pp. 185–202; Lindop, 2010, pp. 45–54). Perhaps the most ambitious technological innovation of the 1960s was space travel, with the first human in space being cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union in 1961. The space race between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States of America made the Americans determined to go to the moon before the Soviets and by the end of the decade. That ambitious vision, placing a man on the moon, was fulfilled in July 1969. The small step that astronaut Neil Armstrong took from the lunar lander onto the surface of the moon signified the giant leap forward for human innovation—the grand finale of the 1960s’ technological progress that simultaneously closed a major chapter of the technopolitical rivalry of the Cold War. One can certainly debate the many technological advances that have made greater immediate and long-term impact on humankind (e.g., the printing press, penicillin, the contraceptive pill, the steam engine) than the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. Nevertheless, the financial challenge, logistical demands, geopolitical significance, explorative dimensions, and the sheer drama of the event made the lunar mission the technological act of the 1960s, if not of human history. For example, after the moon landing and amid all the congratulatory greetings from foreign governments and dignitaries, U. S. President Nixon enthused that it was “the greatest week since