Houston, TX….The following is a little something we prepared for our morning show. “On July 24th, 1969, 48 years ago today, a collective sigh of relief, triumph cheers and more rang out through Mission Control and around the world as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin & Michael Collins splashed safely down in the Pacific. With their safe return to earth after making man’s first steps on the moon Armstong’s famous words “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” could safely enter American & World History.

I remember sitting transfixed in front of the TV unable to move until the moon mission was over and safely concluded. even though it was 48 years ago I remember being that wide eyed 6 year old boy like it was yesterday. My parents had given me several books on space one had a pop-up of the Saturn rocket at it’s center. I also had model rockets, lunar modules and all the other details on the event in tangible form spread around me as I watched history unfold before me in all it’s grainy detail.

To that 6 year old boy seeing us land on the Moon life seemed to have an unlimited Horizon and it did and it does. But in scaling back or space programs, man’s exploration and constantly pushing our boundaries outward have we lost something and made all of our Lives just a little bit smaller?

America’s self-identity has always been about expansion the next horizon. First we expanding West, expanding up and outward and always looking for what was beyond our view. Of course we had problems and lots of things that needed to be improved and corrected but we always felt that we were capable of fighting any foe and soaring to any height.

Peter Thiel in his seminal work “Zero to One” lays out the case for Determinate vs Indeterminate Optimism. The book grew out of a series of lectures on startups he gave at Stanford. In it he lays out the case that for most of America’s past we had definite goals as opposed to indeterminate goals. For example to put man on the moon by a certain point in time. We did this in spectacular fashion.

Since then however we have been optimistic but in a much more indeterminate way. We have always felt things were going to get better we just didn’t know how or why. We have changed from Big goals to smaller goals now. Instead of landing on the moon it’s we want to get a 12% consistent annual return on our money. Laudable goals but it’s definitely not the stuff of Legend

With today being the 48th anniversary of the successful Apollo 11 splashdown and the ending of the Apollo 11 mission it took me back to being a 6 year old boy transfixed to a TV and grainy images. It also had me looking at the future through his eyes instead of those eyes 48 years older.

We have accomplished amazing things since then, technical innovations that those landing on the moon could only dream of. We are in the age of Robotics, self-driving cars and an era where our own physical labor will mean less and less.

But for all of these advances do we risk losing something of our Humanity? Losing what it means to be a man or woman and being able to control the basic things of our lives? I hope not.

To all of those who were part of the Apollo Programs Thank You!! Thank you for your accomplishments! Thank you for your drive and thank you for being willing to risk exploration with very uncertain outcomes. You’ve made all of our Lives bigger our Horizons broader and our possibilities endless let us never forget that.

Many of you have already left us and the rest are rapidly aging towards their next horizon. Looking through the eyes of that 6 year old boy transfixed to the accomplishments of your labors I again say Thank You!!

America and all of mankind needs to be always searching for what lies beyond the next horizon.