Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke interview with Walter Cronkite – Apollo 11 [video]
In a 1969 CBS News special, Walter Cronkite interviews science fiction authors Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke about the Apollo 11 moon landing, discussing its significance, the future of space exploration, and the impact on human society.
Background
This is a historic 1969 TV interview in which CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite — then America's most trusted broadcaster — discusses the Apollo 11 Moon landing with science-fiction luminaries Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, both of whom had written influential novels about space travel decades before it became reality. Heinlein (author of *Stranger in a Strange Land*, *Starship Troopers*) was a philosophical heavyweight of the genre; Clarke (author of *2001: A Space Odyssey*, which had just been released as a film) also originated the idea of geostationary communications satellites. Watching them react to the actual Moon landing offers a unique glimpse of science fiction becoming fact, and of how the era's public intellectuals made sense of that moment. Cronkite's CBS News coverage of Apollo 11 was the primary source of information for most Americans during the mission.