Apollo 11 1969 throwback lands on the week Artemis 2 launched and the comparison is impossible to resist. An estimated 600 million people crowded around televisions on one channel at one moment to watch Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon for the first time. Michael Collins circled above. Richard Nixon was president. Pierre Elliott Trudeau was prime minister of Canada.

What does it cost to understand how different the world was? The average Canadian house was $15,000. Gas was 35 cents a gallon. Weekly groceries ran about $20. Today the house is $670,000, gas is a dollar, and groceries hit $300. The moon trip looked expensive in 1969. It was not expensive compared to everything else that has happened since.

Apollo was about winning a space race against the Soviet Union. Artemis is about building a permanent presence on the moon and using it as a stepping stone to Mars. One woman texted in to say she came to Canada by boat in July 1969 and was still on the ocean when the landing happened. That is the kind of moment that stays with a person.

Topics: Apollo 11 1969 throwback, Artemis 2 versus Apollo, 1969 Canada prices, Pierre Trudeau Richard Nixon, moon landing 600 million viewers

Originally aired on2026-04-02