Jul 20 2009
We Remember Apollo 11
“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth” President, John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961. When this announcement was made in the early 1960’s, America had already began its explorations of space, this commitment from the President fueled our determination to reach the moon and all resources of NASA and its contractors made this a reality when on July 16, 1969 – “Lift off, lift off of Apollo 11 at 32 minutes past the hour” (9:32 AM EDT).
It took four days for Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to travel from Earth to the moon with all eyes of the world watching and waiting. Today, July 20, 2009 marks the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. On July 19th, Apollo 11 arrived at the moon and as it went around the back of the moon, it fired its engine to enter it into lunar orbit. 30 orbits later, astronauts Armstrong and Adrin moved aboard the ‘Eagle’ and undocked from Columbia (with Collins remaining in Columbia).
Following the undock from Columbia, Astronaut Collins was able to give a visual inspection of Eagle as it departed to be sure there was not any damage, once the two crafts were separated, Eagle fired its engine to begin the descent to the moon. As Eagle continued its descent, it was discovered that it was running about 4 seconds ahead of schedule and that it would be overshooting its landing target, through manual command and instructions from ground control, they were able to safely navigate and perform the landing without any complications. All breathed a sigh of relief when they heard “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed”.
At 10:56 PM EDT on July 20th, Neil Armstrong began is descent from the LM, through the hatch, across the porch and down the ladder to LM footpad, resting briefly and commenting about the surface of the moon (he also at this time had activated a TV camera that was mounted in the descent stage of the LM). A few minutes later, Neil Armstrong stepped on to the surface of the moon – “That’s One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind.” Within a few minutes, Buzz Aldrin made his way out and down to the surface to join Neil Armstrong.
For 2.5 hours, the two astronauts took pictures, collected samples, performed experiments, setup scientific equipment and cameras, as well as to unveil the American flag. President Richard Nixon made a phone call to the astronauts and congratulated them and thanked them on behalf of the American people and the world for the mission they were accomplishing. 600 million people were estimated to have viewed the historic event. Towards the end of the moon walk, the astronauts unveiled a plaque that is affixed to the leg of the LM; the inscription reads “Here Men From the Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace for All Mankind”. The astronauts then returned to the cabin of Eagle, closed the hatch and settled down to some sleep.
Seven hours later, Mission Control in Houston awoke the astronauts so they could begin their preparations to depart the lunar surface. By late afternoon on July 21st, Eagle lifted off from the surface of the moon to rejoin Columbia in orbit, thus ending the moon phase of the flight. Once docked with Columbia, the astronauts transferred equipment and around 50 lbs of rock samples over to the Columbia and got everything stowed before bidding farewell to Eagle and jettisoning it into lunar orbit at 7:41 PM EDT. Within hours, Columbia fired its rockets to leave Lunar orbit and begin the trip home.
40th anniversary events of the historic landing on the moon continue through July 24th. NASA TV has special programming, as well as NASA is streaming real-time audio feed through its internet services. (www.nasa.gov). Planetariums and science centers around the country are also hosting special events.
