The "Walking On The Moon!, July 20, 1969: Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading comments in an article titled "Lunar Legacy" attributed to former U.S. House of Representative Robert S. Walker.  This is the same guy who worked with me at an Acme Supermarket store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Same guy who went to Millersville State Teacher's College in nearby Millersville, Pennsylvania with me.  Same guy who presented a flag flown over the White House to Manheim Township High School where I was teaching and when he saw me at the rear of the auditorium stopped his talk, waved and told the audience that I was a friend of his since college.  Same guy with the goofy looking smile on his face all the time, just like me.  And...the same guy that one evening while working at the near empty Acme supermarket decided to see how many shoppers we could hit with grapes while working the check-out registers  In other words...he was just a normal guy at one time.  

Former Rep. Robert Walker of Lancaster, PA

Now, at the age of 75, he heads moonWalker Associates which is in Arlington, Virginia and is a lobbying firm.  At one time he was the chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.  In 2001 he was appointed to chair the Commission on the future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry.  In 2004 he served on the President's Commission on Implementation of the U.S. Space Exploration Policy.  At one time he was slated to fly aboard a space shuttle following Sen. Jake Darn of Utah and Rep. Bill Nelson of Florida, but that all ended after the Challenger crashed in 1986.   Back on July 20, 1969 he was working for U.S. Representative Ed Eshelman.  When Apollo 11 landed and the moonwalk began, he and his wife were in awe of the achievement. Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldren were good friends at the time and still remain friends.  He was going to be with them last Saturday to celebrate the anniversary of their landing.  He said the goal now is to take humans outside low-Earth orbit and back to the moon and on to Mars.  There is now a plan to have humans back on the moon by the end of 2024.  The goal is to return and remain their permanently.  A mission such as this would be an international mission, but will require American leadership.  We are now in competition with China to be the First Nation to have a permanent presence on the moon.  His new company is involved with consulting practices on space-related activities.  He is now working with a company that is tying to create a system to clean up space debris as well as another company that is looking to harvest solar power in space and then beam it down to Earth for use as base-load power.  Bob has come a long way since the early 1960s when we both went to Millersville.  His name may be noticed in the future as part of a new chapter in space exploration.  And, I'm proud that I was his friend at one time.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.