Moon landing's 40th: Science 'cool again'

by Mark Silva

On this 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, with President Barack Obama intent on making math and science "cool again,'' he recalled his boyhood in Hawaii and the returning moon missions splashing in the Pacific Ocean.

Standing alongside the first man to step on the moon and the astronauts who helped put him there, the president suggested that mankind still hasn't finished that giant leap that astronaut Neil Armstrong spoke of when he stepped out of his landing craft 40 years ago today.

"I think that all of us recall the moment in which mankind finally was untethered from this planet and was able to explore the stars, the moment in which we had one of our own step on the moon and leave that imprint that is there to this day,'' Obama said.

"I grew up in Hawaii, as many of you know, and I still recall sitting on my grandfather's shoulders when those capsules would land in the middle of the Pacific and they'd get brought back and we'd go out and we'd pretend like they could see us as we were waving at folks coming home,'' he said. "And I remember waving American flags and my grandfather telling me that the Apollo mission was an example of how Americans can do anything they put their minds to...

"I think it's very important for us to constantly remember that NASA was not only about feeding our curiosity, that sense of wonder, but also had extraordinary practical applications,'' he said. "And one of the things that I've committed to doing as president is making sure that math and science are cool again, and that we once again keep the goal by 2020 of having the highest college graduation rates of any country on Earth, especially in the math and science fields...

"On this 40th anniversary, we are -- all of us thank and grateful to all of you for what you've done, and we expect that there's, as we speak, another generation of kids out there who are looking up at the sky and are going to be the next Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrins. And we want to make sure that NASA is going to be there for them when they want to take their journey.''

(President Barack Obama is pictured above with the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 crewmembers Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (left) and Michael Collins (2nd from left) during a meeting on the 40th anniversary of NASA's first human landing on the moon in the Oval Office. Photo by Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images. And astronaut Aldrin, the lunar module pilot, is pictured in a photo by Neil Armstrong walking near the module during the Apollo 11 landing. NASA photo, via AP.)