It’s July 20 1969. Apollo 11 is orbiting around the Moon. On board are Mission Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin. Armstrong and Aldrin transfer to the Lunar Module “Eagle”, while Collins stays in the Command Module “Columbia”. When everything is ready, Eagle separates from Columbia and begins its descent on the surface of the Moon.
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Earth Rise. The shot was taken by Bill Anders, Apollo 8. |
Collins stays in orbit and will rendezvous with Eagle when they are coming back up. At 6000 feet above the surface, during the descent, the computer attracts the attention of the crew with a program alarm, “1202″. Neither Armstrong nor Aldrin know the meaning of it. Everybody is holding their breath and fears the crew will have to abort the mission, while computer engineer Jack Garman, on the ground in Houston, is looking up the reading of the alarm. Garman tells the guidance officer that is safe to continue the descent. The alarm means that the computer is overloaded with too much data. Shortly after that, program alarm “1201″ appears on the screen, and the ground crew confirms that the alarm type is the same as “1202″. The two alarms come up several times during the descent stage.
Closer to the surface, Armstrong looks outside and sees that the guidance system landing target is a crater 400 meter wide. He doesn’t value it as a safe spot for the landing and takes semi-automatic control.
In the mean while, Charles Duke, the CapCom communicator, the only person on the ground who is allowed to communicate directly with the crew, announces that the fuel level is critical. By mission rule, that means that Eagle has only 60 seconds to land otherwise the mission will have to be aborted. With Aldrin providing the altitude and velocity data, Armstrong lands on Sea of Tranquillity at 20:17 UTC, with about 25 seconds left of fuel. Here Armstrong pronounces the famous words: “Engine arm is off. Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.” The two astronauts become the first human beings to land on the Moon.
Unfortunately I can’t say I remember, I wasn’t born yet, but man, would have I loved to live that moment! I hope human beings will go back to the Moon and maybe to Mars in my lifetime, I really do. But in the meantime, it’s always nice to look back and relive such a significant event in human history.
In 2007 Discovery Films released In the Shadow of the Moon, a very interesting documentary about the Apollo missions. It includes a lot of actual footage and interviews with many of the surviving astronauts who tell the story of the missions in their own words. I really liked it. It describes the political background that led to the creation of the program and gives a nice personal touch with recollections and anecdotes from the astronauts. The music is beautiful and fits extremely well. The movie has a nice pace, is never boring and gives a great overview of the Moon landings. I was hoping to find a release with subtitles in Italian, but I didn’t find any yet. If I do, I’ll post a link here. Below is the trailer. Rent it! You won’t be disappointed…
