KUALA LUMPUR: Young Malaysians have been urged to explore new possibilities and follow their dreams, just like what American astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, and Malaysia’s own ‘angkasawan’ Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor did.
In making the call, United States’ (US) envoy Datuk Paul W Jones noted that Armstrong may well be an American, but his achievement and that of his Apollo 11 colleagues Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, belonged to the world.
“Mr Armstrong and his fellow astronauts have redefined our conceptions of time and space, of distance and perspective, of the moon, this universe, and our place in it,” he said at the launch of a photo exhibition on Armstrong here yesterday.
Jones said that most of all, the US space programme had given a new perspective and a greater appreciation for the planet humans lived on and shared together.
“With this greater understanding, comes a recognition of our responsibility as world citizens in a global community to forge stronger ties between countries and to work towards common, shared goals,” he said at the event which was launched by Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry deputy secretary-general (Science) Datin Paduka Dr Khatijah Mohamad Yusoff.
Titled ‘A Tribute To Neil Armstrong’, the exhibition tells the story of the astronaut from boyhood to his historic ‘small step’ on the moon through a series of photographs and scenes from his life.
Armstrong grew up in a small town in America in the 1930s, learned to fly an aeroplane by the time he was 15, and became the first person to step foot on the moon by the age of 38, in 1969. He died on Aug 25 this year.
Jones said that many of today’s technologies were shaped by the breakthroughs in technology unleased by the space programme.
The exhibition at the National Planetarium runs until Jan 7, 2013. — Bernama