With Neil Armstrong’s passing on Saturday, it didn’t take long for our country and the rest of the world to begin reflecting on just what his life and the rest of those other brave astronauts that passed through Johnson Space Center meant to us. It is still unimaginable to me to conceive of the risks they took and how they did the impossible, landing on the moon. I spoke with my sister-in-law, a 25 year veteran of NASA and asked her what it was like to be around that environment, and if she met any of these astronauts. Even though she came in during the shuttle period and long after the Mercury, Gemini and other revolutionary space programs had come and gone, she still had the opportunity to meet some of these famous men and women, including former El Lago, Texas resident, Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan. She reminisced that “Cernan once told me once you walk on the moon, you can’t unwalk on the moon.” Yes, Gene, no one will ever be able to take that experience away from your legacy, nor from Neil’s or the other 10 men.

As NASA Administrator Charles Bolden stated in his message related to Armstrong’s passing, “in the words of the Armstrong family, ‘the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

Well said.