Not Because it is Easy, but Because it is Hard

"We Choose To Go To The Moon!"

 "We choose to go to the moon!" In my opinion, were the most transformative words spoken in the early 1960's. They were part of a speech given by John F Kennedy, announcing the United States of America's ambition to be the first country to put a man on the moon. This wasn't an easy task, by any stretch of the imagination. There were ten preliminary missions to test the functions and procedures required for the first man to set foot on the moon. The total cost of the Apollo program would end up being over 20 billion USD, which now would cost 109 billion USD.



Here is a little comparison to help you understand what the technology they were dealing with was like back then. If you would pull out your smartphone... If you have an iPhone 5 or newer, that little box in your hand is 1,270 times as fast as the navigation computer on the Lunar module. It has 250,000 times the amount of RAM (Random Access Memory), and it has 2,000,000 times the amount of storage space.

Putting a man on the moon wasn't an easy thing. It was a hard thing. It was a very hard thing. In fact, there are many people that believe it was a conspiracy, that putting a man on the moon is SO hard that it is actually impossible. "We choose to go to the moon." That was a tall order. And the USA did it.

When actually on the moon Neil Armstrong raised his hand towards the earth, and closed one eye, and he could blot out the earth behind his thumb. That must have been an incredible surreal experience, one that John F Kennedy could have only imagined seven years earlier.

Don't you see the power of a vision? "We choose to go to the moon." The impossible becomes possible. But how? NASA didn't try to put armstrong on the moon in the first rocket. Do you see why goals are so important??

Perfect Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

There were ten missions or stepping stones to get Armstrong onto the moons surface. If I asked you about Apollo VII What would you be able to tell me (Without google)? Who was on the mission? What was the purpose of the mission? Why was Apollo VII important? When would it launch? These are some very basic questions you would have to ask yourself. What kind of rocket did they use? What about Apollo 8? 9? 10? Other than the fact they landed on the moon, what do you know about Apollo 11? Why did it work? Without a plan, achieving your goals is absolutely impossible, and the impossible remains impossible.

Did the apollo missions include failures? Yes. Tragedies? Unfortunately. If something doesn't go quite according to plan, it's okay. Review, revise, adapt, and try again. The eagle still landed. They had to adapt, and learn, and grow. That was the whole point of going to the moon. Not because it was easy, but because it was hard.

This is Part 3 of 3, Click here if you missed Part 1, and here if you missed Part 2!!