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The Greatest Day

"Buzz" Aldrin, pilot of the Lunar module for the Apollo 11 space flight to the moon, coincided in his priest shortly before the launch of Apollo 11. Aldrin was scared that neither the Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong, nor the public would understand the social and philosophical ramifications of landing on the moon. Shortly after the Lunar Module landed at Tranquility base, on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969, Aldrin asked NASA officials and everyone else who might be listening to take a minute of personal prayer and contemplate what man had just accomplished. Aldrin then preformed he ritual of communion in the Lunar Module.
Of a Fire on the Moon, a book surrounding the events of the Apollo 11 journey to the moon, was written by Norman mailer during the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Mailer was approached to write a book about the Space program shortly after he lost a highly publicized race for the Mayor of New York City. Mailer had little or no money, and was given one million-dollars to write the book.
For Mailer the third week of July 1969 pointed toward an end"…a curious depression full of fevers, forebodings, and a general sense that the century was done-it had ended in the summer of 1969. " 1.
Mailer's apocalyptic view of 1969 and the end of a century is a reoccurring theme behind Mailer's look at the United States Space Program and the flight of Apollo 11. Mailer can only see the political goals of going to the moon, not the romanticism and spirituality that surrounded it. Mailer saw the flight of Apollo 11 as a gigantic, technological achievement, but Mailer believes the technology was developed for all the wrong reasons. 2
Throughout the first few chapter Of a Fire on the Moon, the reader becomes aware of Mailer's stance on the United States Space Program, and Mailer's own political and personal beliefs. Mailer was torn in his understanding of why man was attempting to travel to the moon:
"Intended by divine will to...