It was a pivotal event of the 20th century as well as in the history of television. Forty years ago, on July 20, 1969, the first human set foot on the moon’s surface and that person, astronaut Neil Armstrong, muttered the immortal words, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Indeed, a leap forward in space exploration had been achieved with the Apollo 11 moon landing and subsequent walk on the planet’s surface; television was there to bring live moving pictures of the event to the homes and televisions of more that half a billion people.From both a technical and programming perspective television had gained much in the 40 odd years of its existence before 1969. Already color had given a TV a more realistic look. Magnetic tape recordings were rapidly replacing film “kinetoscopes,” allowing for faster and more frequent archiving of television programs. Microwave links and community antennas were providing improved reception of TV broadcasts that were then cabled into homes. The live streaming of pictures from space was a result of National Aeronautics and Space Administration developments. Communication satellites would soon be used to bounce commercial television signals from the earth and back to living rooms across the world.

But the milestones in television by 1969 were not only technical. Programming changed in the 1960s and among the most important of these innovations were those in network news. With their vast resources the news departments of CBS, NBC and ABC were bringing important stories into homes, often as they happened. The Kennedy/Nixon debates, Adolph Eichmann trial and JFK funeral are just a few examples. A group of dedicated reporters, producers, cameramen and other technicians, spearheaded by news anchors, were putting television journalism on an equal footing with print and radio news and replacing movie theater newsreels.

NASA was always a media savvy organization. Their grasp of television coverage at an early stage of the space program was vital to their success. NASA officials realized that public interest, translated into support of the race for space in the U. S. Congress, was essential to the space agency’s survival and growth. Coverage of live launches, introduction of the Houston Space Center command facility and cooperation between NASA spokespeople and on-site reporters gave the public an inside view of the accomplishments and workings of the agency. Network news producers such as NBC’s Reuven Frank recognized that public fascination with the space race was good television and programmed thorough coverage of developments. Unfortunately, this up close and immediate look also made viewers eyewitnesses to tragedies such as those that befell the crews of Apollo 1 and the Challenger shuttle.

In the minds of television viewers who watched the moon walk, the astronauts were the stars. However, the next group of people whose audiences most closely associated with this and other early space successes were not the scientists, engineers and thousands of others backing the efforts of Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (and whom Armstrong recognized in a later interview), they were the TV news anchors who set the stage for the events and oversaw the stories and images broadcast to the public. Sadly, the last of these TV icons has passed away just days before the 40th anniversary of the moon walk. Walter Cronkite was the last of a generation of network anchors who set the standard for the presentation of network news. Cronkite was an enthusiastic supporter of the space program whose great impact on perceptions of the space race cannot be overstated.

Neil Armstrong commented upon Cronkite’s passing, “For a news analyst and reporter of the happenings of the day to be successful, he or she needs three things: accuracy, timeliness, and the trust of the audience. Many are fortunate to have the first two. The trust of the audience must be earned. Walter Cronkite seemed to enjoy the highest of ratings. He had a passion for human space exploration, an enthusiasm that was contagious, and the trust of his audience. He will be missed.”

Recently restored high-definition video of Apollo 11’s mission to the moon and other anniversary stories can be found on the NASA website.

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