From the archives: Apollo 11 moon landing leaves Walter Cronkite "speechless" 

This is the perfect counterpoint to Cronkite delivering the news of JFK's death. That was Cronkite struggling to hold back tears of sadness, representing the nation's grief. Here is Cronkite trying to hold back the joy, representing the nation's happiness, and both times he has to take off his glasses.

54 years later and this still gives me goosebumps like it did that night.

If those Moon landing skeptics want to see what animation and special effects were capable of in 1969, well, there it is.

I do so miss those old news anchors. True professionals.

My mom worked for McDonnel Douglas in Cocoa and was selected as part of the group that would work for NASA, assemble and solder the circuit boards that went into the landing modules and capsules in the Apollo program. I was 12 years old when she woke my sister and I in the middle of the night to watch this on TV. I knew it was important but, it wasn't until I got older that I truly understood how important. It makes me smile inside to know that although she is gone, some of her work is still sitting there on the moon.

I love how the decent talk was so casual. “That’s a slow speed for space flight” “It sure is”

Neil sent me a Letter when I became an Eagle Scout. Still have it. Showed it to him when I went to the 25th Anniversary. Had the rest of the crew sign it.

I remember my grandma was angry when they kept replaying the moon landing, and cancelled her Bonanza show. She liked little Joe 😂😂😂

I remember my grandmother saying, “I didn’t think I’d see it in my lifetime.” I was 6. We had Star Trek, and Lost in Space and other things, and I thought, don’t we do this all the time?

The peak of America's greatness. Perhaps the peak of humanity's greatness.

The era of human achievement peaked that day. Still gives me goose bumps 55 years after.

No joke, that CBS simulation setup was great.

God I wish we had people like Cronkite today, he was phenomenal.

Wally Schirra’s commentary was great. He said little but he said it all.

Mankind’s finest moment!

Thankfully when Walter Cronkite was around it was fun and interesting to watch the evening news. Even as a kid with my parents. Not today. Thanks for the memories Mr. Cronkite. Shalom

I was 11 years old back then. I am an old man now and we still have not been back. I hope I live long enough to see the return and then to Mars.

My dad worked for North American Aviation (Downey,CA) the Prime prime contractor for Apollo pgm. I recall running outside later that day looking up at the moon and realizing that I would remember this 55 years later. My first job out of school was with Rockwell Intl during shuttle era. The trifling sum and magnificent return on investment of Apollo is one of the greatest aspects of this program.

Even after all these years, this still bring tears to my eyes.

In this moment, these men were so proud to be Americans. So proud of the accomplishment. Such a great moment in history. I wish we could recapture the sentiment.

OMG, I watched this live. I was 5. Dad made me watch it. Wow, I just think back to that moment and I remember trying to comprehend how people were actually going to land on the moon. My grandparents grew up watching silent films. My dad with Buck Rodgers serials. Im sitting there watching it with them and it went from boring to the most suspenseful thing I can ever remember watching in my life. The whole "what does the moon really look like" thing was so powerfully fascinating. I got a telescope for Christmas a few years later, because I was still fascinated because of Walter's broadcast.

I watched this at home live with my mother...I was 18 then. We held on to every word Cronkite was saying as he spoke......we heard Armstrong say "The Eagle has landed!"....she & I were so proud to be Americans at that very magical moment.....that feeling can never really be put into words.....you would have had to be watching it all live just like us to know. The whole world watched it, too....Wow...what a memory I will always have to infinity.

I love watching stuff like this. One of the few times America truly came together for a goal that changed history.

Happy 54th Anniversary on the moon landing. I was only two when this happened. My mom said that they were watching this with me and thought it was amazing on having to witness this historic moment in space exploration. This is way before live cam were put on board the spacecrafts . I do remember later on in the Apollo missions like one of the astronauts golfing on the moon. That was pretty awesome to see. I'm so looking forward to see Artemis II(?) making another historic landing on the moon,.

This brought tears and a smile to my face today. I feel incredibly fortunate to have experienced this landing while watching it with my family in our living room that evening, July 20, 1969. I was 10 years old. Walter's "Oh, boy." at 0:15 says it all. He sounded absolutely mesmerized and almost disbelieving about what he was listening to.

I watched the launch at my best friend's house on Wednesday and watched the landing at home on Sunday. My dad was at work and my sister was outside playing but my mother and I were glued to the TV. Daddy was home in time to watch them actually walking on the moon though.

I'm old enough to remember the Moon landing and even watched it on CBS. I remember Walter Cronkite and Wally Shira tearing up exactly as seen here. This is the exact clip of that moment. What didn't come out until later is that the landing wasn't as perfect as it sounds here. As the LEM came close to the surface, Neil Armstrong realized they were coming close to landing on a big bolder and he had to take the controls to shift the LEM away at an angle to avoid smashing onto it. As he did so, he only had a few seconds left of fuel for the landing and the low-fuel warning light had gone on. What people forget is what a joyous moment this was not only for Mankind but for the US in particular. This landing for one happy moment helped the nation forget that the Vietnam War was raging and the US was losing scores of soldiers each day at this point. By 1969, the US was mired in the war against North Vietnam. During the same period as the Moon landing and all the previously successful US space launches, I remember having to watch each night on the 6 o'clock news -- on all three major channels in those days, America year before social media, having basically three major TV news outlets CBS, NBC, and ABC -- the nightly scrolling of the American war dead by name and rank each night at the end of the 6 o'clock news. After seeing the lists of dead for the day, I'd start my homework for the next day's classes. Nixon had become president and inherited a quagmire from Lyndon Johnson. He was committed to extricating the US from the war "peace with honor," but he was actually expanding it as negotiating leverage against the North by invading Cambodia and intensifying the B52 bombings of Hanoi and Haiphong until a peace conference was finally agreed to be convened among the US, North Vietnam, the Viet Cong, and South Vietnam in Paris. And even then, the parties haggled over the shape of the table until all sides could agree that no side was minimized by the seating (round). All this while Mankind and America was landing on the Moon.

I get the same feeling watching it now as I did when I watched this live on TV. This is great stuff.

I so miss my now late dad when I watched this. I then was a 9 year old boy in Australia and he and I spent many hours together watching it from takeoff until splashdown.

I wish we had focused on this a bit more over the last 50 years. Amazing moment.

The family watched this same broadcast. Small town British Columbia. Mum and dad liked Cronkite.

I watched this in grade school at the age of seven. It was amazing. Walter Cronkite was such a staple.

The Apollo 11 Moon Landing was such an astonishing achievement, it's quite understandable that many today are unable to actually accept that it happened ! And that mission was followed by five more (Apollo 12 14 15 16 and 17) Apollo 13 failed to complete it's mission and was a near fatal event for the crew.

Was almost 6 yrs old and was glued to my Mamaw's & Papaw's old B&W TV. Can't wait to catch the latest Manned Lunar Landing mission.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 17 and driving back from the University of Illinois that night. I had driven with my future in-laws to take my boyfriend back to school that night. We were listening to the event on the radio. When they dropped me off I ran into the house to watch it on TV. My parents were up watching. I couldn’t believe it! I walked out the front door, stood on the front porch just staring up at the moon. It was just incredible to me!

A true professional, and I remember watching him and this on our living room floor. This was and is the seminal moment of mankind. Seventy years before we had never even flew. Speechless is the only possible feeling one could have, no matter who you are. I will never see mankind surpass this, and it was all done with less power than is on a modern cell phone. Mr. Cronkite was the model of a journalist and deliverer of the news. None of the agenda of today and it was monumental when he uttered an opinion on the air. He brought us through the 1963 Assassination and 1969 Moon Landing, I could not imagine anyone else in that seat.

Awesome! and thanks Buzz Aldrin for coming to NZ in 2010 👍🇳🇿

I was watching this with my family from Southern California. I was 12 years old. I was building a plastic Revell model of the Apollo Command Module and the LEM. I never finished the LEM. Incredible moment in our history.

My husband used all the money he'd earned from his newspaper route to buy a color TV, only to discover that the first broadcast from the moon was in black-and-white. (Subsequent landings were broadcast in color, though.) What I remember is how quiet it was. We lived near an international airport, but no airplanes were flying. No vehicles were on the road. Everyone was glued to their television watching this momentous occasion. When my dad was 14, Lindbergh flew the Atlantic. When I was 14, men landed on the moon. I later worked for a NASA contractor and had the chance to see Neil Armstrong speak about Apollo 11. He was still using a slide projector with a round slide tray, which the audiovisual people were struggling to make work properly. (One of them muttered under his breath, "You can put a man on the moon, but....") Michael Collins spoke to our Squadron Officer School class. And I saw Buzz Aldrin at a local single-A baseball game. So I've laid eyes on all three of the men of Apollo 11.

What an amazing feat. Happy 54th anniversary.

Every time I see/hear this I cry. I just find this an utterly astonishing achievement even after all this time. ❤

This really brings back memories. It was almost like watching it for the first time.

It's wonderful every time Armstrong nails that landing.

11 years old an I'm still seeing the blank an white TV on our back porch..could not get enought

Truly astonishing achievement that's not been beaten ...yet!

Remember watching that broadcast live when I was a boy - still brings tears and a thrill. Also, my dad worked for Grumman and actually made parts for the LEM...made me proud...made America proud.

"Man On the Moon" was issued as a 33-1/3 7 inch single with the complete audio and Walter Cronkite at that time.

I was a very excited 11-year old watching this!

My mom and dad were yelling screaming applauding at the tv. I was a little boy, not really comprehending what was going on. It's a great memory.

I remember watching this live when i was 10. Cronkite was the man.

Thank you for rekindling such a wonderful memory. I was a 7 year old boy watching this simulation. My grandmother suddenly screamed "I can not watch this" and covered her face with her hands. She thought we were watching actual footage at the time

Mankind's greatest achievement. Armstrong had ice in his veins. I was up late sitting in front of the black and white TV trying to make sense of basic shapes as Neil set foot on the moon.

This is man's greatest achievement....especially with the technology we had then. Truly amazing....

i was 13 when we landed on the moon .. THE THOUGHT even at that age was remmebering kenedy saying we will land on the moon before the decade was out .. the one time the whole world was watching . on mostly black and white tv holding onto the rabbit ears at my home .. a time when all of 8 of us in the family were together jumped up and down .. now only five of us remain .. i hope we can all set togther for t he next landing we do .. 54 years is a long time but feels like yesterday . who would have had the vission knowing space played a big part in sitting here typing here .. ..we have come along long ways ..

So nice to see humanity at its best...

I was glued to the tv set listening, relieved that they made it safely. I didn't get to see the moon while they were on it because of a cloud cover. It was just a matter of them going outside to walk on the moon. I saw the live television picture they sent back and thought the fact that we could see them was almost as incredible as them being there.

My family was stationed at Ft. Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska at the time of the moon landing...I was 7 years old and I remember my mother waking me and my three siblings up in the early morning hours to witness the first steps of man on the moon. I didn't really appreciate it at the time, but later became grateful that she decided the moment was too important to miss. This, and the watching the safe return of Apollo 13 a little less than one year later, were the two pivotal moments of my childhood.

We were a Cape Canaveral last week, amazing place. Made you proud to be a American

I get chills watching this. Brings back so many memories. I was 7 years old and I remember my father making sure I watched it. I would not have missed it for the world anyway. Every true American was so proud that day.

My mom sat my brother and I down in front of the tv and made us watch. She said we would remember this for the rest of our lives, and I was just six-years old then and I still remember.

I wasn’t even born and it still gives me chills.

I actually remember watching this... I was 6 (that August)! Still amazing today!

I remember watching this when I was 11, I miss Walter Cronkite, Schirra, Mudd, and all the late reporters of the era. Times have changed and not all for the good, but I do like my lap top and this stupid smart phone 😁😁and all these cute emoji's.

I am so lucky to have witnessed the greatest achievement in the history of humankind on TV. We always watched CBS and Walter Cronkite. I remember seeing his reaction when they announced they had touched down on the moon...and of course, what came later...when Armstrong set foot on the moon. Something I'll never forget!!!!

4:49 does anyone know where the CBS Lunar Module replica came from or even where it is today?

I remember watching this in a hotel in Miami after watching the launch four days earlier. Still gives me chills!

I was born in 1972, but I think this is among the greatest technological achievements in human history.

I was eight years old when this happened, I remember as if it were yesterday.

I remember watching the descent to the moon the afternoon and then later that night watching mesmerized as Armstrong and Aldrin stepped onto the moon. Those days will never come back.

I was 9 months old at the time ... I wish I could remember watching this live.

I watched this as a 13 year old on my grandfather's black and white TV. A moment I will never forget.

When they fade in/out to switch between the simulated images of the LEM, it reminds me of those awkward family photo portraits with different angles of everyone's face in different places on the print.

I saw this in 1969 without the hoky animation and without the commercial. I think it was better. And what was the gizmo that looked like a combination of a Star Trek radio with a propeller?

I had the sanity of Walter Cronkite and the CBS News to listen to for the Gemini and Apollo programs - while we got through the rest of the '60s and their deep troubles. I watched the landing as a young teen with the rest of my family. My Dad was tech oriented and loved it. My Mom knew little about tech but loved that it was such an important endeavor and difficult challenge. We and my brothers watched it, and I'd never known such an excited tension. I had the over-confidence of youth that they'd make it, but still knew there was danger. Now I'm watching the Artemis Program move forward. Too slowly, but it is moving, and with the capabilities of the SpaceX Starship HLS we'll hopefully finally build that Moon Base.

An honest question here. Where was the location of that external camera view of the LEM module coming from. Not the overhead shot from the LEM, but the more distant view of the LEM showing the LEM, the moon’s surface and what I think is the sun in the background? Where exactly is that camera and how did it get there?

I remember it like it was yesterday. My father worked the night shift and took a small portable TV with him to work so he and his work buddies could also watch.

I was 9 when this happened. Apollo 11 launched on my birthday July 16, and landed on the moon no my grandfather's birthday July 20th. We watched the CBS Evening News every week day at 6 with Walter Cronkite. If Walter reported it, you counted on the truth of it. He was the 'Grandfather of America', I hated it when he retired.

I just learned about Cronkite about a passage on a test and I heard about his narration on the moon landing.R.I.P Cronkite

I still remember turning the corner on our street, while walking to my friends house, they didn't have tv. Looking up into the sky and thinking their are guys up there, standing on the moon! For a 13 year old, that was a big deal!

I was one year two months and 10 days old on that day.

I was just three years old at the time watching this on tv.

30 seconds fuel call...What balls!!

I was spending the summer with my grandparents in '69 - I was in bed when grandpa got me up "you're gonna want to see this" - 2024 now and he was right

Like all great (or tragic) historic events, anybody who was tuned in to these moments remembers exactly where they were. Cronkite was such a space nut, too… like a little kid.

None of that imagery played in the original broadcast. It took a while before they could establish any kind of recognizable picture from their external camera, and a lot of us viewers were completely confused... but still excited.

July 20, 1969 was my father's 20th birthday. He saw the landing and went to bed knowing the world would never be the same again.

I remember watching this

Just a repeat of some info from a partly disappearing string of comments in another thread: Someone in that thread wrote "Ironically, if CGI was available back then, that would have been more of a technology accomplishment than landing on the Moon." This seems to imply that CGI was not available in 1969. In response, I wrote "CGI-computer-generated images-was available then. It was used in the CBS News coverage of the Gemini missions to demonstrate features of Buzz Aldrin's favorite topic, rendezvous." In reply to me, that person wrote "1960's Animations were NOT CGI.. nor did they look real, only fools believed they were real, lol. CGI back then was absurdly low resolution, unproductive, pretty much useless." 1. After implying that CGI was not "available back then", that person wrote about how "CGI back then" was "unproductive" and "pretty much useless". 2. Animated NASA CGI from before 1969: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Uw2X8J53k2E.html 3. Animated CGI from 1963: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RocLdMyUG-4.html 4. CGI in 1962: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XAh2xont46w.html If this was "more of a technology accomplishment than landing on the Moon", why did this come seven years before the first manned moon-landing? 5. Computer-generated animation of the rendezvous of Gemini 6 and 7 on CBS News on 18 December 1965 (more than 3½ years before 20 July 1969): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FinKsrsuAaU.html Unlike the animation linked in point 2, which was generated one frame at a time and filmed one frame at a time (like cell animation), this one is animated on the fly, live on national television, at the command of the operator, right before our eyes, in 1965.

I don’t remember what documentary I was watching, but I thought it was hilarious when Charlie Duke, the CAPCOM, said he got an elbow from Deke Slayton sitting next to him and told him to “Shut up Charlie and let em’ land!”

I remember watching that live.

Back when you could trust the news without spin... when the talking head was an actual REPORTER, somebody who actually went out and legged a story.

I was a young child when this happened, young enough I didn't understand the historical significance of it. I had pretty much grown up with the space race, and the idea of going to the moon, so it wasn't a big deal to me at the time. Now 55 years later I can appreciate gravity of the situation, and the danger that they faced. To the people around me, my parents, siblings, and older friends & family members I can now see why it was a HUGE deal to them.

Today Cronkite would be considered an extreme liberal. But from my memory he delivered the straight news without bias.

Having studied the official Apollo 11 flightplan quite a lot, it's clear that Cronkite knew his stuff. He's very knowledgeable about what should be happening and when, and he uses the correct terminology to describe the "high gate" where the crew would make a decision to continue the descent and enter the P64 mode 👍🏻 Jeez they don't make 'em like Old Walt anymore. Modern newsreaders would fill the airtime with inane ramblings, talk over important messages, and have nothing of value to add.

A tape of the NBC live broadcast of the landing was found on eBay, and digitized, and uploaded to RU-vid. No copies of that newscast were previously know to exist.

What a feeling that was after eagle landed,tears of joy, all across the world😂😂😂🌎🌍🌏🙏🙏🙏,it certainly united all nations of the earth,that proves man can and is capable of achieving anything as long as we put our hearts into it.

Can only imagine what Artemis III is gonna hold. My palms will be sweaty in 2026 when we watch mans return to the moon.

These were real men, real astronauts, real leaders, real engineers, human ingenuity in its finest moments. The lessons of these amazing people I fear are getting lost in the chaos of modern times.

I was 5 years old.

I still shake my head when I come across people who don't believe we went there, regardless of the MOUNTAIN of evidence that we did. Their mentality is, "I don't believe it, therefore it's a lie". It's no coincidence that none of the people who make this claim work in any of the fields they're criticizing.