Walter Cronkite and the fear of space exploration

About 125 to 150 million Americans watched the landing on the Apollo 11 moon in 1969. Nearly half of the country's 57 million televisions were settled on CBS, on Walter Cronkite, with 39 percent of the total. former astronaut Wally Schirra at his side.

"Oh man!" Cronkite said after the eagle landed in the sea of ​​tranquility. "Wally, say something, I'm speechless!"

This moment without Walter? Inconceivable. But nothing could speak louder than his small spontaneous gesture, his fear, much more powerful than the HD hystic and the jive in the hand of today.

He was the most reliable man in America, a hard-working and skeptical journalist reporter who had cast his eyes on the death of World War II, suddenly overwhelmed by what had just happened. A substitute for you, for me.

"As these words roll easily on our lips: man on the moon, walk on the moon, and yet saying the words and stopping just a moment to think about it makes the old spine shudder all the same," he said. .

The American flag on the moon. This had to be understood in the context of the Cold War as our belated response to the Russians who first sent a satellite into space.

In 1969, we were as divided as we are now, on the Vietnam War, on civil rights. L & # 39; s moon landing? We could all celebrate.

Cronkite says, "The date is now indelible, and we will remember it as long as man survives."

To view CBS News reports on the Apollo 11 landing and the first steps of the astronauts, click on the video player below.

I now look at the old cover and find such innocence, such optimism. Where did he go? Has technology evolved so quickly in 50 years that we have forgotten the enormity of success?

Walter Cronkite has never done. He was a shameless stimulator of the space program.

Here is Walter showing a device designed to teach astronauts how to walk on the moon:

In 1985, CBS had been one of its four names at the time NASA was planning to send a journalist into space. (Mine was too!)

A year later, after the Space Shuttle Challenger crash, the project was canceled. By that time, Walter had reached the finals at the age of 70. I do not doubt that if this mission had been advanced, one way or another, Walter Cronkite would have mounted a rocket in the air.

Story produced by Amy Wall.