One small step for a man......

.......but one heck of a project plan.

This week (July 20th) sees the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, and if your old enough to remember you'll know what tremendous excitement that magnificent event generated.

The end of the sixties was a very positive and forward looking period when optimism knew no bounds and this was reflected in the public support the space program received from the general public.

Also hanging over the whole event was the black shadow of the "Cold War" and it could be argued that the race to the moon announced by Kennedy in 1961 was in direct response to the launch of Sputnik, the World's first artificial satellite launched by U.S.S.R in 1957.

We all know the name of the men who took those first tentative steps on another world but how many people know the name of the project manager (officially Flight Director) who led the Apollo team which put them there.

Gene Krantz, Apollo Flight Director at NASA throughout the Apollo programme (including the Apollo 11 mission) we salute you !