AFP, Houston :
Houston’s Space Center counted down Saturday night to the exact moment 50 years ago that Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon, marking one of humanity’s greatest achievements.
Thousands celebrated the “Moonversary” with fireworks and music as a giant screen showed footage of the era-defining moment.
After spending a few moments at the foot of the ladder of lunar module Eagle, where he and Buzz Aldrin had landed six hours earlier, Armstrong stepped onto the surface of our natural satellite at 10:56 pm (0256 GMT) on July 20, 1969.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
In Houston, thousands of space enthusiasts descended upon the visitor area of the NASA Johnson Space Center, where military personnel put on a parachute display and held musical performances.
“I got to actually go out to the launchpad … and got to see when it blasted off,” said Darla Van Dyke. “So I have a lot of great memories.”
The White House meanwhile issued a statement announcing it was “committed to reestablishing our Nation’s dominance and leadership in space for centuries to come.”
But Trump is not the first president to make such promises: 30 years ago today, in 1989, the late president George HW Bush pledged to create a permanent base on the Moon and then send a crewed mission to Mars.
His son, president George W Bush, vowed the same in 2004 – but their ambitions came up short against budgetary realities.
The future of Artemis rests therefore on the willingness of Congress to substantially increase NASA’s current budget of $21 billion – and possibly on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
