If the astronauts had never gotten off the moon

How long would it have taken before you would have been able to look at the moon and not think of them?

Five years? Ten? Twenty? Never?

I’m sure we would still think of them now and then, even today. After all, it would be a pretty inescapable last resting place. A nightly memorial.

But memories can fade. If you are old enough to have been around for Apollo 11, you know.

We all thought this mind-blowing event would always be with us. I mean, Man on the Moon, for crying out loud.

But after a while, life moved on. The subsequent moon missions attracted less and less attention. And pretty soon, we stopped sending astronauts up there.

The first one, though. That was something.

“I’m going to step off the LEM now.”

They did make it off the moon. And they came home. Just like they had planned.