40 Years After Apollo 11: July 23

Originally written on July 23th, 2009…

Neil, Buzz, and Mike are still heading home. The Earth is now bigger in the window than the Moon. As usual, Mission Control read up a few news highlights to the crew when they woke up. One of the items was about a Memphis couple whose daughter was born on Landing Day. They named her Module. Her last name is McGhee. Her name is Module McGhee. So I’m sure there’s one person out there in the world who hates Apollo. (2012 update: Module McGhee is a special-ed teacher in Georgia and loves her name. So that’s cool.)

Columbia is so perfectly on course that a scheduled mid-course correction burn has been cancelled. Everything is looking good as they prepare for splashdown tomorrow. They are the third crew in history to be returning home from lunar orbit. This is all routine now.