Thursday July 20 was the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. In Second Life, the occasion was celebrated with an event at their Tranquility Base venue at the National Space Society sim. Although this was an all-day event, there were two important times, 1PM and 7:30PM SL time. It was 1:18PM SL time on the date in 1969 that the "Eagle" lander touched down. I was among those there watching a video of CBS news footage at the time of the lander making it's approach and finally coming down.

There was more discussion, "Walter Cronkite actually teared up. Experienced newsman than he was, it still got to him." "Imagine the pressure on Armstrong. Christopher Columbus could revise his wording all the way back to Spain. Armstrong was 'live' with an audience estimated in the billions. Most-watched-show ever at the time." "They mention Neil in his heavy spacesuit only sank about 1/8" into the lunar dust. By then they knew he was in no danger of falling into a deep pool of dust, as some had theorized, due to the earlier Surveyer landers giving them, literally, 'ground truth'."

There would be another gathering at 7:30PM SL time to commemorate the first steps on the Moon at 7:56PM.
Bixyl Shuftan
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