'Pretty Good Day': Denver Man Recalls Historic Capsule Recovery Of Apollo 11 Mission

DENVER (CBS4)- This week the nation is celebrating the 50th anniversary of NASA's mission to the moon, man's first steps on the moon and technology that brought American astronauts back to earth.

One of the most important pieces of the successful Apollo 11 mission was the recovery and a Denver man was there as it happened.

Navy veteran Jim Cowell even caught some rare footage of the historic moment with his fellow aircrew.

"I flew on a target plane 001," he said.

A plane that called the USS Hornet home. The Hornet was the ship tasked with retrieving the Columbia module after it crashed into the Pacific Ocean, four days after traveling to the moon.

"It was really a race for us to beat the Russians so to most people it was a big deal," Cowell said.

Cowell remembers standing just feet from Pres. Richard Nixon, who was on the ship watching as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were brought aboard.

"It was just amazing to me, I was standing there and there was the president standing right above me," he said.

Cowell also remembers seeing the Columbia, the command module, up close for the first time.

"You could just see how much heat was on the bottom of that," he said.

"It was covered in gold foil for heat so guys were trying to steal pieces of it and when I tried to go get my piece there was a bunch of marines around it with flat hats standing guarding it," Cowell laughed.

What he did come back with was video of the module and those three astronauts in airstream turned quarantine facility for 21 days.

His footage is part of history and most have never seen it until now.

"It was kind of like 'Gee whiz, that was a pretty good day,'" Cowell said with a smile.