Los Angeles Times

50 years later, TV is still enamored of the Apollo 11 moonwalk

Retired astronaut Wally Schirra spoke for the world with his commentary for CBS News during the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969: "Thank you, television, for letting us watch this one."

A global audience of more than 500 million viewers tuned in for what was considered the greatest adventure in human history and the culmination of a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy in 1962 to get a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

The young sons of astronaut Neil Armstrong were in the living room of their Houston home, surrounded by friends and family, when their father descended from the lunar module onto the moon's surface.

"We saw it on our state-of-the-art 26-inch color set," Rick Armstrong said at

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