That's One Small Step

For a man.... A calendar marks fifty years since an audacious mission, a rare moment of global unity, a leap forward. But there is no leap, no grand accomplishment without small steps. Before female computers slide rule math was machined into mechanical gears, then encoded in ones and zeroes, first in cards and vacuum tubes, then transistors, now microchips and nanobots. Before Saturn rolled out, behemoth pointing to the heavens, Gemini made numerous flights, orbiting our pale blue dot. Before Gemini, Mercury reached tentatively into space. From the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk to Goddard's experiments, each step expanded our knowledge and horizons, allowing Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to strap in to the world's most powerful rocket. Accelerating to seventeen thousand miles per hour to park above earth before translunar injection, navigating two hundred thirty nine thousand miles through black void, men of Apollo took a giant leap forward with one more step. Engineers turned theory into rockets. Test pilots turned astronauts flew them - and us - to the moon. And we take planes to the edge, pushing boundaries, until we turn the calendar one day and marvel at a new world, far from that first small step. - A tribute to the astronauts, scientists, engineers and workers who expanded our horizon in 1969; written for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The "we" in the poem refers to pilots who compete in the International Aerobatic Club (IAC) as well as IMAC, the International Miniature Aerobatic Club. Published in the IMAC newsletter, Vol. VII, 2019.