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Forty years ago this morning, at 9:32 AM, Eastern Daylight Time, the Apollo 11 mission to take human beings to the moon lifted off the launch pad and began its historic journey. Like all events and projects, the mission has a story.

For all practical purposes, that story began on October 4, 1957. That's the day that the Soviet Union launched Sputnik and punched American confidence in the stomach.

Programs to improve science and engineering education suddenly were more important. Those of us at the Bronx High School of Science felt like we were on the leading edge of history.

On May 25, 1961 a young and charismatic President set the goal of sending human beings to the moon and returning them safely to earth within a decade. It was a huge challenge.

"If we can send people to the moon, why can't we …"

The space program has become the model for great goal achievement. Like most great achievements, it was both more and less than the myth.

By the time of the Apollo launch, the President who offered that challenge to the Congress had been assassinated. The Apollo mission lifted off from the re-named "Kennedy Space Center."

The president at the time was Richard Nixon and the moon mission gave Americans an opportunity to focus on something besides the biggest challenge of the time: the Viet Nam War and the protests against it. We could forget for a moment or two that both Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had been killed about a year before.

On TV, there was space travel in the form of the original Star Trek series. It was humanistic and hopeful. Real space travel was much more dangerous.

In 1966, Gemini 8 narrowly escaped disaster when the spacecraft began spinning out of control because of a misfiring rocket. Neil Armstrong managed to fly the spacecraft to a safe landing after a harrowing and nearly horrific mission.

The horror happened a year later. Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were incinerated in a fire in their cockpit. The program paused for grief, slowed, but did not stop.

It was all new and it was all potentially dangerous. No one knew what living organisms might attach themselves to astronauts on the moon or sneak a ride to earth on their spacecraft. No one knew if all the equipment would work as planned and practiced.

Prayer services were held as the astronauts lifted off and headed for the moon. Prayer vigils would continue until the safe homecoming prayed for.

Boss's Bottom Line

Every big project has a story. Always ask: "What's the story of this? How did we get to this point?"

Every big project has a context. The state of the world and your company and your team are all part of the context.

Apollo 11 had a backup crew that would have gone to the moon if any one of the primary crew had been unable to fly. Teamwork matters.

No matter how big or important a project is, there are always other important things happening. People have more than one priority.