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Updated: Jul 19, 2019 07:04 IST

The words “Houston: The Eagle has landed!” sends goosebumps up my arms — they marked the historic moon landing of Apollo 11 and man’s first steps on another celestial body. I remember listening about the mission on radio in India as a young female student and wanting to be an astronaut!

When I watched archival footage of the mission for the first time, I found the experience to be nail-biting! The little bit of explaining of various acronyms and manoeuvres was very unobtrusive but thorough. I was at the edge of my seat as we neared the end because, although I knew what happened, I couldn’t visualize the unknown at that young age.

Having seen several launches in person and on TV and the return of the modules on TV, I now have a fine appreciation of what the pioneers (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins) accomplished for an entire planet/race! As a young space fan, I recall writing to NASA (from India) and receiving a stock picture of the three astronauts with their autographs! I was thrilled to bits and my joy knew no bounds when my father (a scientist at a national lab in India) brought home an autograph of Armstrong (whom he met at a scientific meeting in Leningrad in 1970)!

Many of my contemporaries were school kids at that time; television was coming of age — what are your memories? The current generation may find it hard to believe that the black and white images of the mission are more exciting than the computer generated imagery (CGI) of today, but that reality was a watershed moment for a whole global generation!

Apollo 11 was why/how space exploration, especially via NASA, has become a gold standard for all! This mission was a pivotal event that helped me decide to study math and physics and aim for a PhD in the US.

And then — I was in the right place at the right time — I became a NASA Voyager 1 and 2 investigator to study Saturn’s rings.