I was only a few months old when the Eagle landed on the moon, so I don’t remember it. I do remember growing up immersed in the space program, because of my grandfather. As an engineer, he worked on guidance and/or communication systems (I can’t remember which…) for all the different space missions, up until the day he died. We’ve got lots of great swag from those days (we used to bring it regularly to school, for show and tell), but this is one of my favorites. On the back of the medal it reads:

This Medallion contains metal from spacecrafts Columbia and Eagle, that took Astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins on their historic Apollo 11 mission that resulted in the first landing of man on the moon.

It was an amazing accomplishment, and I’m proud to have this small connection to it. I hope, someday, another group of people with the same vision and drive as my grandfather and his colleagues will come together, and take us even further.

(Still here!)