After Neil climbed down the ladder to take those historic first steps on the lunar surface, I remained in the Eagle Lunar Module for about 20 minutes. I had a chance to watch Neil as I performed various duties, such as sending down the Hasselblad camera on a pulley system. At the conclusion of our moonwalks, we used this same pulleys to haul up the metal boxes that contained the 40 pounds of moonrocks we had collected.

After returning to Earth, we were picked up by the U.S.S. Hornet in the Pacific Ocean, just south of Hawaii. Within hours after we boarded the aircraft carrier, they piped into our quarantine trailer and replayed broadcasts from around the world of the different news reports of our mission. As we watched those broadcasts and saw the emotion and reactions of so many people, I looked over at Neil and said, "Hey, we missed the whole thing!"

What I think I was trying to say, was that the value of that mission wasn't so much in the experiments we left on the moon or the rocks we brought back. The significance of the event was in the people back here who shared in it and were involved in it -- who witnessed it. Something happened to make that moment in their lives memorable. People come up to me and want me to know where they were when we were on the moon. They are able to connect with me and to that moment in their lives. And if you take the millions of people who had that sense of sharing... that is the value of going to moon. That is why we must continue to venture outward.

I was 16 years old, working at the Burger Chef on the late-night shift in Youngstown, Ohio. The assistant manager wouldn't let me watch the moon walk because he said I needed to clean out the shake machine. But I had planned ahead and put my whole summer's pay into buying a portable TV just so I could watch them walk on the moon! I brought my portable TV to work that night. After the Eagle landed, the assistant manager came to the back of the Burger Chef and we both watched them walk on the moon. He cried like a baby and I knew this was something special. After they walked on the moon for a while, I cleaned the shake machine.

For four years I had been teaching history, speech and debate in high school in Little Rock, Arkansas. I watched that whole moon landing with my head under my pillow - so afraid for them... hoping they would make it and be all right.

I was 14 years old and my family and I were at my grandmother's house in Orangeville, Ontario. I had just built my Revell Saturn V model rocket and the LEM lunar excursion module. To my dismay the family had planned a picnic that day and they tried to take me away from the TV. But I wouldn't budge. So I stayed and saw the whole thing... and wouldn't talk to my parents for about a year after that.

In the Ukraine, we listened intently to the words describing the first landing of man on the moon. We had our radio tuned to the Voice of America, but the Soviets kept jamming the frequency. So we would retune our radio to find the new frequency carrying the Voice of America. And when they jammed that one, we would retune again so we could hear the words of their walk on the moon. I was 14 years old at the time.

I was at La Guardia airport on my way to Harvard for a course I was taking. The timing was such that I caught their moon walk on TV while there at the airport. It was amazing. Everything and everyone stopped to watch. New Yorkers even hugged each other!

I was right in front of the TV all day and night. I slept in my sleeping bag in front of the black & white TV set at our family's home in South Wales, England. My mum and younger brother watched it with me late into the night. With my old reel to reel audio tape recorder I taped everything! I still have those tapes and they're my most prized possessions. It has all of the British commentary, like Patrick Moore and James Burke talking about it. As they actually landed, my mum said "Get Down, Get Down!" And I said, "Ssshhh! Ssshhh!" You can still hear it on the tape.

I was 15 years old -- working at the Coach House restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina as a part-time waiter/dishwasher/busboy. I came home from work that night to watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. It was one of the most exciting things I had ever seen. I was a bit of a "cadet" then, and my younger friend and I had begun building little model Estes Rockets - made out of cardboard tubing and balsa wood, and how we'd fly them! It made it all the more cool to watch the real thing.

I couldn't believe it! I actually walked outside and looked at the moon. I just stood there in amazement, staring up at the real moon - not the one on TV. I just stared and thought about how there was somebody actually up there walking on that dot in the sky. Who would know that 30 years later I would meet Buzz Aldrin in person and create a bronze sculpture of him reenacting his trip to the moon?

My family was travelling in Europe - one of those trips where you see seven countries in twelve days. We were in Norway on the day of the moonwalk - so it took place much later in the night. I was 8, and my sister was 10, and I remember my dad stayed up with us to watch it. The funny thing is that it's about the only memory I have of the whole trip - I guess since it had something to do with the United States. Some people have asked me if that made me feel nationalistic. Yet, the opposite was the case. Europe celebrated the moon landing like it was a world achievement - not just one country's achievement. This experience has always made me think of the space program as being international and global. I've viewed it not so much as an American, but as an Earthling achievement.