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Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Forty years ago, as everyone surely knows by now, the first man, who was American, stepped on the moon: July 21 in the early hours, European time. “The first human stepped on a celestial body” was the more elegant phrase used to describe the moment, by Douglas Griffiths at a commemorative event hosted by the US Mission in Geneva Tuesday evening 20  July. Griffiths is the deputy permanent representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva and charge d’affaires, ad interim.

There were two surprises, among the declarations, reminiscenses and information shared with a community of largely sceintific people at the US Mission in Geneva Tuesday evening 20 July:

First, the evenings of 20 and 21 July 2009, you could step outside around 21:00 and, looking at the northwest sky, see the international space station crossing over Switzerland, easily visible with the naked eye.

Instrument in astronaut's hands: solar captor, designed in Bern, Switzerland

Secondly, the Swiss actually beat everyone when it came to collecting data on the moon, with a solar captor instrument, built in Bern, that was out there minutes before  the first moon dust particles or rocks were collected.

There was indeed a race to the moon, “and the pace at which milestones were reached was remarkable”, recalls William Bery, Nasa European representative. The media noise was all about the US-Soviet race, but the real effort was international, said Bery. And on the flyer about the event was a photo of astronaut Neil Armstrong holding a solar captor, the precursor to today’s solar capting instruments, developed in Bern, Switzerland.

Related:

• Editor’s Notepad, 20 July, GenevaLunch
• Nasa
• National Public Radio