Apollo led to cosmic shift in human condition

Forty years ago, mankind's most daunting frontier was boldly overcome when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.

One of the many legacies of the Apollo space programme was the way it caused an extraordinary, enduring and, for some, troubling change in how we perceive the Universe and our place in it.

Before, the Moon was distant and aloof, a symbol of everything that is unattainable, a place of dreams, an object of superstition and veneration.

After being explored by Apollo 11 on July 20 1969, the Moon's enigma was stripped away.

Human willpower and the rigour of science revealed it to be an arid, airless, inhospitable rock for which there was little use.

"When we went there, we kind of demythologised, demystified the Moon," said Roger Launius, senior curator at the division of space history at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

Apollo not only brought the Moon, almost literally, down to earth, it also opened up a perspective of space and humanity that would thrill, disappoint or isolate. Arguably the most famous photograph of the 20th century is "Earthrise," showing the blue planet floating in inky darkness. For the first time, we could see our home from the outside, a place of heart-wrenching beauty, a haven of life in the chill infinity of space.

Some would see the image as a confirmation of God's gift to humanity, proof that Man had been singled out for divine benediction. They included two Apollo astronauts, James Irwin and Charles Duke.

Others would see it as a daunting sign of our solitude. It showed how primitive we were, how very far we still had to advance before we could really travel in space, rather than make a risky lunar hop.