Images: Poignant memories from the space age

"My fondest memory of the space age was April 1972 when I was five years old. My older brother had written to NASA the year before and received some pictures and information from the Apollo 15 flight. I don't remember anything about the space program before that. But the pictures of Apollo 15 enthralled me, so when Apollo 16 launched in April, I was all over it.

"I went to kindergarten in the morning until about 1 p.m. It just happened my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Massey, lived across the street, and she would give me a ride home each day. But I had to wait for her to finish up and see the other kids off.

"What I distinctly remember was during Apollo 16, NBC would broadcast each afternoon at about 1:30 or 2:00 pm to broadcast the latest news from the flight.

"I had to get home to watch Apollo 16 on TV. My faint memories are of bugging Mrs. Massey to go home, and after we got to her house, me running across the street as fast as I could, through the front door, sitting on the floor in front of the TV, and watching John Chancellor anchor the broadcast.

"The duration of the Apollo 16 mission was less than two weeks, but it was the probably the most formative event of my life. From that point on I always had an interest in space and aviation, to the point of studying Aerospace Engineering in college."

--CNET News.com reader

At left is the launch of Apollo 16 on April 16, 1972. Mrs. Massey not shown.