January 9, 2020 • 48 mins
Today is the day humans attempt to change history by stepping foot on another world. However, a series of cascading crises during the lunar descent very nearly force the crew of Apollo 11 to abort the mission and return home.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nine Days in July is a production of I Heart
Radio and trade Craft Studios in association with High five Content.
It's May sixth, nineteen sixty eight Ellington Air Force Base, Texas.
Neil Armstrong is sitting behind the controls of the Lunar
Landing Research Vehicle. This isn't a simulator like the building
(00:21):
bound trainers I described last episode. This one actually flies.
The l l r V employs a massive, downward facing
turbojet engine to counteract five six of the vehicle's weight
and better simulate how the lunar module will behave on
the mood. Two rockets and sixteen smaller thrusters provide vertical
and horizontal motion and allow for fine movements. The l
(00:44):
r V isn't pretty. It's basically a flat, square body,
four legs in each corner and an open cockpit. The
astronauts call it the flying bedstead. According to those who've
taken the stick, it is notoriously hard to fly, but
profoundly easy to correct. On this day, several hundred feet
in the air, Neil is struggling with the controls as
(01:06):
he tries to bring the machine in for a landing. Suddenly,
the rockets give out, and the l l RV begins
to plummet. Neil increases power to the turbojet, but as
he does, the vehicle makes an uncommanded pitch forward two
feet above the ground. Neil hits the jet button, his
body is instantly accelerated to fourteen g's. He's so low
(01:26):
that his parachute is open for only four seconds before
he crashes back to the earth. Across the field from him,
the ll RV dives into the ground and erupts in
a giant fireball. If he'd waited even a second longer,
he'd still have been strapped into the seat when it exploded.
(01:46):
More than any other piece of equipment NASA had, the
l l RV was the best analog for what it
would be like when Neil took the LEMBS controls and
guided it to the lunar surface. As he rises shakily
to his feet watching the l l RV burn, how
could he not be wondering if this is the fate
that awaits him and Buzz There are no ejection seats
(02:06):
in the lamb. It's July, day five of the Apollo
eleven mission. This is the day humans can make history
by stepping foot on another world. This is a follow
control ninety three hours, nine minutes ground and laps time
the follow eleven. Good morning from the black day. I
(02:34):
look like you're really sawing away all right. After having breakfast,
I'm getting all squared away. After the night's rest period,
the crew will have a rather busy day to day,
including the first man landing on the Moon. A busy day. Indeed, yesterday,
four days after they left Earth, the conjoined Command Service
(02:56):
Module and the Lunar Module arrived in orbit around the Moon. Today,
Mission commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin
will attempt to make history by landing a spacecraft on
the Moon and setting bootprints in its ash. Like service
members of the White team of flight controllers ended up
by Eugene krantz Or drifting into the control room now
(03:18):
to relieve the night watch. One of those White team
members is guidance Officer Steve Bales, who you might remember
from a previous episode. You could have cut the tension
in that room that day with a knife. Some of
the managers have been into business thirty years said they
had never seen attention that they had felt in that
room that day. But you also get this failing that
(03:39):
this is a place something's going to happen at. I mean,
this is a place started like the box where Columbus
last thing you know, and he sailed offer to America
for Gene Krantz. It's only just now beginning to sink
in that today is the day they've been working towards
for the better part of a decade. He's wearing his
wife's good luck charm, a silver and white vest. She
makes a new one for each of her husband's, but
(04:00):
today's is especially beautiful. Elsewhere in Houston, the astronauts families
are just arriving home after a morning spent at church.
Each of their homes are surrounded by ravenous press. It
isn't long before a small army of friends and family,
most bearing pot like dishes begin showing up to offer
moral support. Inside TVs and coffee pots are already hard
(04:23):
at work. It's going to be a long day. In
the corner of each living room is a squawk box,
which NASA installed shortly before Apollo eleven launched into space.
The devices allow the families to listen in on the
communications between mission control and the spacecraft. Basically what you've
been hearing throughout this podcast. Joan Aldrin finds a spot
on the couch and lights a cigarette. The nearby ashtray
(04:46):
is already in desperate need of being emptied. Chain smoking
is an unfortunate side effect of being an astronaut's wife.
Back aboard Apollo eleven, the crew has donned their bulky
pressure garments, and Neil and Buzz have powered up the
lunar module. The time has come to separate the two spacecraft.
Michael seals the hatches and begins depressurizing the airlock. He
(05:08):
is now alone in the command module. Neil and Buzz
prepared to deploy the lunar modules for landing legs, which
until now have been tucked tight against the spacecraft's ungainly body. Okay,
we're gonna put our gear down the landing here, and
by damn about ain't no doubt about that. Inside the limb,
(05:32):
Neil and Buzz conduct a series of checks confirming their
guidance system, thrusters, descent propulsion system, and rendezvous radar are
all working properly. That last bit sounds innocuous, but it's not.
Remember the rendezvous radar follow eleven. Then we'll go for
undocking over Roger understand. As Apollo eleven curls around the
(05:54):
far side of the Moon, it once again loses radio
contact with Houston, as will happen so often on this
massive and critical maneuvers are conducted without the comforting tether
of mission controls. Where are you at? Okay on a maneuver?
(06:16):
Nap to unlocking at you when you know? An't even
radarselves that is complete? Let me know and I'll check
out my fand finding there it is again. Rendezvous radar
on Buzzes checklist is the command to make sure the
radar is picking up a transponder on board the command module.
This tells the LAMB where and how far away it is.
(06:37):
Without the transponder, it will be almost impossible to find
Michael in the command module once they leave the Moon.
Thanks man, it checked out. Exagur Ago you guys. The
two spacecraft separate, Michael has to ensure that he undocks
without damaging the seals on either module. If the docking
(06:59):
ports are damnitched, Neil and buzz will have to perform
a spacewalk tomorrow to get back in. But this is
Michael we're talking about, and he makes it look easy.
There is no more Apollo eleven. The Eagle and the
Columbia are now two separate spacecraft orbiting the Moon. Michael
allows Columbia to drift a short distance away from the
(07:21):
lunar module and takes the opportunity to inspect the eagles
exterior and to ensure the landing gear is properly deployed.
The MESA is a compartment on the belly of the
Eagle's descent stage that holds the various equipment and tools
the crew will need once they land. A moment later,
(07:42):
the two spacecraft round the Moon and come back into
contact with mission control. Brock your hen and said, look,
I can find like a blant upside down. Somebody's upside
down in space. There is no upside to out. Michael
fires Columbia's thrusters and moves himself away, ensuring the Eagle
(08:05):
is free and clear to navigate. The lamb initiates its
descent orbit insertion burn. This is not the big burn
that's going to get the Eagle down to the Moon,
but rather a short one to lower them down to
about fifty feet in preparation for their final descent. Every
second of the burn removes nearly two miles from their
health team from more of it. Michael watches the eagle
(08:26):
getting smaller and smaller until it disappears from view altogether.
Once again, the maneuver occurs out of radio contact with Houston.
Back in mission control, Jean kranslights a new cigarette. He
can't even count how many he's already had this morning.
He's been writing furiously in his log book and notices
that the pages are wet and beginning to curl. He's
(08:49):
sweating a lot. But at his console, Steve Baale suddenly
has nothing to do, and we've had about fifteen minutes
to acquisition, and Jeane says, I want you flight controllers
to go to this special loop that was private. I
had to tell these kids how proud I was of
the work that they had done, and from this stay,
(09:11):
from the time that they were born, they were destined
to be here, and they're destined to do this job.
And it's the best team that has ever been assembled.
And today, without a doubt, we are going to write
in the history books and we're going to be the
team that takes an American to the moon. And do
you do not know how much that meant? For somebody
(09:31):
like myself sitting there at with do knowing what we
were going to have to do in the next few minutes.
His pep talk concluded, Jean has the doors to mission
control locked. No one can go in or out. It's
go time. We should have cut off by this time,
that should have completed the decent orbit insertion maneuver. Spacecraft
(09:55):
is now behind the Moon and the control team the
adrenal one, I mean just really was, no matter how
you tried to hide it. The fact is is that
you are really starting to pump. Might demand complaint. This
is a follow control of one hours fifty four minutes.
(10:16):
I believe. Back in the viewing room, we probably have
one of the largest assemblages of space officials that we've
ever seen in one place. Mission Control is bursting at
the seams with dignitaries and v I p s. Basically
anyone who's anyone in NASA is here. It's growing quite
quiet here in mission control. A few moments ago, Flight
Director Jane Kranz requested that everyone sit down, get prepared
(10:38):
for events that are coming, and he closed with very
remark good luck to all of you. We are now
coming up on thirty seconds to acquisition of the command module. Well,
we do get our acquisition, but it is a most
horrible sounding noise that you've ever heard. Here we're getting
ready to go to the moon and we can't even
talk to the crew directly. We have to call Mike
(11:00):
Collins and the command module to relay data down in
the lunar model. Don't get any hear right here ago
for a five datement over com fun no and as
you can hear, the calms are terrible, But that isn't
(11:22):
stopping buzz from grinning ear to ear. Five seconds after
the engine ignites, Steve Bales once again loses all data
from the moonship. When it comes back a minute or
so later, he sees something's not right. We were going
toward the moon per second fashion than we should have been.
If we get to thirty five ft per second, I've
(11:42):
got to stop the desa. I've got to call the board. Well, boy,
when you haven't even started down to the moon and
some guy comes to you and says, hey, we're halfway
to our aboard women to share, gets your attention. So
why was the lamb flying so much faster than anyone anticipated?
Gene explains the crew had not fully pressed the tunnel
between the two space crafts, so when they blew the bolt,
(12:05):
there was a little residual air in there at let
start of like pop on a cark on a bottle.
But of course no one knows this at the time.
All they know is that for some reason, the spacecraft
is traveling faster than it should be. Either that or
something's wrong with the navigational computer. Either way, the tension
in mission control has now reached suffocating levels. Luckily, the
(12:27):
calms seem to be back, but then to take down
to dealt long. Neil has just recognized what Steve Bales
and everyone in mission control already knows. The lamb is
not where it's supposed to be. Neil is watching the
terrain go by outside his window, and he realizes they
are going to overshoot their landing zone. Neil rotates the
lamb into a face up, feet forward position. This must
(12:50):
be done so that when the Eagle is put upright,
they will be facing forward during the landing. Now he
and Buzz are looking at nothing but the void of
outer space, well not quite nothing. Back in mission control,
Steve Bales continues to monitor the lemb's progress Thankfully the
mooncraft has not gained any additional speed. That a word
(13:13):
danger that everyone feared no longer seems to be an issue,
and I think my big problem for the day is over.
Twenty seconds later, we'd get a program alarm, program alarm
about two about and I was frantically scrambling, Oh my guys,
it's one of those alarms who worked on. I have
(13:33):
the cheat sheet over in my left side, but before
I can even see it, Jack Garmin is yelling in
my air Steve, Steve, Remember it's executive overflowed the program alarm.
Neil and Buzz don't recognize the alarm, and they are
too busy to go rummaging through their manuals looking for
an explanation. Communication dropouts were a nuisance more than a danger,
(13:58):
but computer problem was a show stopper. I didn't really
know the consequences of those alarm, but fortunately Stephen oas
guys on g n N console new I say to
the flight director, we're going that alarm right here. We
got you. We're going at alarm. Do you recall the
(14:19):
story from our last episode that I told you to
remember the final simulation that mission control went through the
one that would never happen in real life, the one
that made geene Krants so angry. Well, this is real
life and the exact same thing is happening right now,
except this time mission control knows exactly what's going on,
and they all remember what they were told after the simulation.
(14:41):
You should not have aboorded some person, and we've never
been able to identify with The voice loop comes up
and says, this is just like a simulation. The Eagles
computer is overloaded with tasks. It cannot process them all.
The alarm is its way of saying, hey, everybody, I've
got a lot more on my plate than I can handle,
so I'm going to concentrate on the most critical items
(15:02):
and leave the rest for later. For nine, the Lembs
computer is as cutting edge as it gets. It has
two K of RAM and thirty six K of raw memory.
If you're not a computer person like me, those numbers
likely don't mean anything to you, so let me break
it down for you. The last email you sent was
likely twice as large as that. The lemb computer had
(15:24):
less memory than a high school graphing calculator, and yet
it got us to the mood. NASA was the first
in the world to use microchips, allowing them to power
a computer the size of a briefcase rather than a
machine the size of a room. The moon landing didn't
usher in the space age. It ushered in the digital age.
And just what is if it's causing the data overflow?
(15:46):
You probably figured it out by now. The rendezvous radar
buzz left it on just in case they needed to
abort and make a quick ascent back to Michael in
the command module. It proved one item too many for
the computer to handle. Okay, i'll flight controllers and should
be throttling down. You're looking great. Neil pitches the Eagle
(16:16):
up so that the vehicle is now traveling with its
legs pointed down towards the Moon. They are over unfamiliar
territory on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility,
more than four miles beyond their target. Below them is
a deep crater the size of a football field, and
it is strew with massive boulders. Realizing that the autopilot
(16:36):
is going to try to land the spacecraft in the
middle of that crater, Neil disengages the computer and takes
control himself. He needs to find a new landing site.
His heartbeat has skyrocketed from seventy seven beats a minute
to fifty six. Okay, I'll flight comtrollers go, I'll go
for landing retro. I don't know, sorry, good Go Capcom
(17:01):
or Gopher landing, Go get the year, go for landing over.
I heard a thank go for landing three thousands three alarm.
Another alarm, this time twelve o one. It's in the
same series as the one before, and Steve Bales doesn't
even hesitate this time. Okay, we're going to go. Thank
I We're go on board the LAMB. Neil is intent
(17:23):
on landing alarms or no alarms. You're always concerned when
any kind of alarm comes on. But uh my own
heeling was that as long as everything was going well
and looked right, I would be in favor of continuing,
no matter what the computers was complaining about it. There
(17:44):
doesn't seem to be anywhere to set down and aboard.
Suddenly seems very likely to have come this far only
to abandon their prize. Now, Neil Armstrong. It was far
and away the most complex part of them, the flight.
The systems were very heavily loaded at that time. The
unknowns were rampant. The systems in this mode had only
(18:07):
been tested on Earth and never in the real environment.
There were just a thousand things to worry about in
the final descent. Nine and ninety nine of those things
are boulders the size of cars. It was a fairly
steep slope and it was covered with very big rocks.
There were some attractive areas half mile ahead or so,
(18:28):
so that's where I went. But now there's another even
more serious problem. They didn't plan for the descent to
take this long, and they are running out of fuel
fast level. While normally by the time he calls out
low level we have landed in training. Then we're not
even close to landing here. Back at her home in Houston,
(18:50):
Joan Aldrin rises to her feet, sways unsteadily for a moment,
and collapses onto the floor. She lays there for a
few moments, absolutely overwhelmed. When she rises, she braces herself
against the wall for support. Break that a far feel okay,
(19:11):
look area. You may not have been able to make
that last bit out right before. Neil said he found
an area he likes. Buzz informed him that they are
down to eight percent of their fuel it's now or never.
A lot before it got about break, I got a
good Neil just said he's got a good spot. I
(19:36):
part five quantity light. That's how much fuel they have left. Hey,
that's looking good. Down a half look forward sex day
saconds sixty seconds. Mission control is telling Neil that if
he's not on the ground in one minute, he has
(19:58):
to abort the landing or fade down at above the
lunar surface, and buzzes noticing that their descent engine is
starting to disturb the lunar dust. Far forward, Far Forward
dripped into the right level half. Neil must put down
within thirty seconds or abort the mission. There's a lot
(20:20):
of concern about coming close to running out a fuel,
But I didn't know that if I could have my
speed stabilized and attitude stabilized, I could fall from fairly
good height Propps, maybe forty feet or more, and in
the low lunar gravity, the gear would distorb that much fall.
(20:42):
That was Neil armstrong. Given that the Moon's gravity is
one six of that on Earth. Neil is planning on
letting the landers simply dropped to the surface. Here's the
thing about the lemb's legs. They were designed to get crushed.
Inside the struts is a honeycomb structure that will compress
on landing. Neil is that if they run out of
fuel and aren't too high when it happens, they can
(21:03):
simply fall in the moon significantly lower gravity, and the
legs will absorb the impact. There are only three options
that day. Either going to land, You're going to a board.
You're gonna crash. There's no more what happens. I'm not
gonna call a boar. The crew is close enough to
the surface. I'm gonna let them give it their best shot.
Carlton was just ready to say fifteen seconds and anyway
(21:25):
here the crow say contact right. Three of the four
lamb footpads are equipped with nearly six ft long probes
to alert the crew in contact with the surfaces made.
At least one of those probes has made contact with
a jolt, not unlike a passenger jet touching down on
a runaway, the lamb comes to a stop. The silence
(21:48):
is deafening. The two men glance at each other in relief.
The eagle has only forty five seconds worth of fuel
remaining because of avoiding hostile terrain, their descent has taken
your thirteen minutes longer than planned and burned roughly five
hundred and thirty unplanned pounds of fuel. Neil's heart rate
is a thunderous one and fifty beats per minute, and
(22:10):
they are approximately four miles from where they planned on landing,
but they are on the Moon. Outside Neil sees something
that takes his breath away. Was absolutely dumbfounded when I
shut the rocket engine off and the particles were going
out radially from the bottom of the engine belt all
(22:30):
the way all over the horizon and instantaneously disappeared. There
is so little atmospheric resistance on the Moon that the
lunar dust scattered by the lembs exhaust raced away from
the spacecraft at the speed of a bullet and traveled
halfway around the Moon before it finally settled. Buzz grabs
Neil's hand and whispers, we made it, and here the
(22:53):
ankle has landed. Rocket crank quiality. We caty on the ground.
You gotta fight the guys about the turn blue. We're
breathing again. So long as the spacecraft is resting on
the Moon, it will no longer be referred to as
the Eagle. Now it is Tranquility Base. I was so
excited I couldn't get out Tranquility Base. It came out.
(23:15):
So I'm like Roger Houston, Tranquility Base, and I believe
that's true. It was a true statement, was spontaneous, but
it was true. I mean we were I was holding
my breath, you know, because we were close. I don't
think any of us breathed for that last sixty seconds.
All across the Earth, time has stopped. Six d and
fifty million people are glued to their televisions, making the
(23:37):
moon landing the most watched television event in history. It's
to seventeen PM in Houston, Texas. As her friends and
family erupt into cheers, Joan Altering excuses herself and sneaks
away into her husband's study, closing the door behind her.
She wakes up several moments later, having passed out a
few feet away from her As a fall and matchbook,
(23:59):
the her limbs feel as if they are no longer
in her control. She claus for the matchbook and curls
her fingers around it, desperate for the feel of something
real and tangible. She remains in this position for several minutes,
regaining her composure before rising, smoothing out her dress and
rejoining the others in the living room. See all smiles.
(24:20):
She tells them, no more tears. But on CBS News,
Walter Krunkite is in tears. U S soldiers in Vietnam
crowd around handheld radios even as mortars fall all around them.
In New York City, the Yankees are playing the Washington Senators.
The gathered fans erupt in cheers as they're on The
Moon flashes on the scoreboard, and the game is paused
(24:42):
while the crowd spontaneously begins to seeing America the beautiful.
Ten thousand people gathered in Central Park to watch the
landing on giant screens erupt in ear splitting applause. Thousands
of travelers and airports and train stations begin applotting, and
then the air airplane passengers began running up and down
the aisles, shaking each other's hands. As a seven year
(25:05):
old child watching Apollo eleven blast off at Cape Kennedy,
I was dying to watch the landing on TV, but
my dad wanted to drive back home to Michigan, and
everybody on the interstate was pulling over to listen to
the landing on the radio. Was in Vietnam that day
(25:25):
in July, was airborne in an F one Super Saber
when someone came up on the emergency perconcide and announced
that the eagle had landed. So the year, in the
month I was born, butt Nick launched and I was
nicknamed butt Nick for the first six years of my life.
And then on my twelfth birthday, Apollo eleven launched to
(25:47):
head to the Moon. Three days later, we were sitting
in the living room watching Walter Cronkite and watching him
walk on the Moon. During the week of the landing,
I was at summer camp and the councilor in our
cabin was kind of a cool guy. And remember why
changed that on his little black and white TV with
rabbit ears. I was just a nineteen year old rookie
protocol officer. My boss said, Werner von Braun needs an
(26:09):
escort in the controls interviewing room, and as young and
inexperience as I was at nineteen, I realized exactly what
he was doing. I just stayed there until the end
of the entire moonwalk. My father was an airman station
at Office Air Force Base in Omaha. The night of Lynn,
He's getting right home from a fellow airman who was
African American. They pulled up at the bar and my
dad realized it was an African American bar. And they
(26:31):
walked in and my dad kind of feel all eyes
upon him, you know, being a six foot seven white man.
He said, in that moment when they said the words,
you know, the Eagle has landed, cheers erupted, and there
was no race in that bar. It was just this
group of Americans excited and amazed at what had just
been accomplished. Well, it was the summer of nineteen sixty
nine and he had just graduated from high school and
(26:52):
was headed to college. I was with my boyfriend who
would later become my husband, and watch the landing together.
As a young eighteen year old woman. It made me
feel anything was possible and then I could do anything.
It created an atmosphere of excitement and promise. And I
must say that all the negativity in our culture today
is so hard. And I have six grandchildren and I
(27:13):
want them to be full of hope. We could really
use an Apollo eleven experience today. Remember an episode three
when we talked about John Hubolt, the engineer who insisted
that lunar orbit rendezvous was the only way to get
us to the Moon. You may remember that one of
the men who disagreed with him at the time was
Verna von Braun, the designer of the Saturn five rocket. Well, today,
(27:35):
von Braun has invited Huboldt to mission control to witness
Apollo Levin's touchdown. As the viewing area erupts and cheers
and applause, von Braun turns to who Bolton says, thank you, John,
it is a good idea and UH for the first
time he had an opportunity within the control team to
(27:55):
just take a deep breath and say, my God, today
we just landed on the Moon with the UH be
advised lots of smiling faces in its room and all
over the world. Or threw up my fare There was
a beautiful job, you guys, and don't forget one. In
the command model. That last voice was Michael Collins in
orbit sixty miles above. You've almost forgotten about him, hadn't you.
(28:18):
On the earthword side, he has the chatter of Mission
Control and Tranquility Base to keep him company. But on
the far side of the Moon. For forty eight minutes
at a time he has utterly cut off. Michael is
well aware of what everyone is saying about him back
on Earth. Michael Collins the loneliest man in the universe,
but despite the fact that he's experiencing the most profound
(28:38):
solitude of any human being in history, he doesn't feel lonely.
That It's one of the questions I get asked him
and God, and you got so close to the moning
it didn't land. Don't not really bug it. It really
does not. Uh. I honestly felt really privileged to be
on Apollo eleven. Uh to have one of those three seats.
(29:02):
I mean, there are guys in the ast obviously put
my throat here to hear to have one of those
three seats. Okay, just keep that averybody days ready for
us up there. Now. We'll do our recommendation at this
point is planning it easy, starting at about eight o'clock
the season years some time, stand mine, give us some time.
(29:24):
Things about that quality basic Houston. We thought about it.
We will support it. We're going at that time over.
The plan was for Kneel and Buzz to begin a
sleep period once they landed on the Moon, but the
astronauts are excited they want to get out onto the
Moon's surface. Now they can sleep later, and Houston concurs.
But first Buzz wants to acknowledge the enormity of the moment.
(29:48):
I hear that in tran quiality over tranquility used to
go ahead, Roger, this is the lamp pilot. I'd like
to take this opportunity to every person listening in, whoever
wherever they may may, to pause for a moment and
contemplate the events of the past you are and to
give thanks in his or her own way. Over Buzz
(30:09):
switches off the radio and takes a moment in the
midst of the maelstrom of history to quiet himself. He
opens two small plastic containers. One contains bread, the other
contains wine. The last supper is the first meal on
the moon. We are beginning our eav a prip. Neil
and Buzz struggle into their portable life support systems. These
(30:31):
are the backpacks containing their breathable oxygen, water, coolant, and
communication systems. Tranquility based, Houston, you are go for a
cabin deep. As the men equalize the pressure inside their
cabin to match the lunar environment outside, Neil ponders what
he's going to say when he first steps on the moon.
He's had too much to concentrate on in the weeks
(30:52):
and days leading up to the mission to come up
with anything. He suddenly realizes that whatever he says is
going to be recorded in every history book for time immemorial.
No pressure. As the mission commander, Neil will be the
first one out of the vehicle. The Buzz actually petitioned
NASA to be the first. The decision came down to
(31:13):
fun hui. The Lamb's hatch swings into the cabin and
to the right, blocking Buzz behind it until Neil climbs
out of the way. Now comatic open slowly, Neil begins
making his way down the ten foot ladder. His suit
is so cumbersome that he can't even see his own feet.
On the second rung, he yanks ad ring, deploying the
(31:34):
MASA equipment and tool bay, as well as a television camera,
which automatically begins broadcasting a signal back to Earth. Well,
I look at pictures. We can see you're coming down
the ladder. Now there's that foot there down the steps.
If you've ever looked at pictures of Neil on the lamb, ladder.
You've noticed that the rung stop about three and a
(31:56):
half feet before the footbeds, forcing him to jump the
rest of the disc it's down. This is because everyone
anticipated that the legs would compress upon landing. Instead, Neil
set the eagle down so gently that the legs never
even budged. He's a victim of his own masterful flying.
At the foot of the ladder, the lamp foot beds
(32:16):
are only impressed in the surface about one or two
inches brought the lamb mount Neil steps off with his
left foot, places it on the surface, and bounces slightly
to test it. So there's a foot on the moon,
stepping down on the moon. If he's testing that first step,
he must be stepping down on the Moon at this point.
(32:37):
And just like that, for the first time in history,
a human has stepped foot on another world. Armstrong is
on the Moon. Neil Armstrong, thirty eight year old American,
standing on the surface of the Moon on this July
nineteen and sixty nine. And now the man known for
his silences must find the perfect words. In Neil's living
(33:01):
room back in Houston, his wife Janet tightly clutches their
two small sons be descriptive now, Neil, she says aloud,
at just shy of ten pm Houston time. Neil Armstrong says,
that's one man. Neil later admitted to what he'd meant
(33:22):
to say was the more consistent and grammatically correct. That's
one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
But in all of the excitement he misspoke. Thankfully the
world understood his meaning. Just fine, purpose is fine and powdery.
I can end it up loosely with my toe at here,
(33:47):
and the fine layers like potter and charcoal to the
side of my fruit. Regular, the fancy word for moon dust,
is as fine as talcum powder, but as abrasive as
sand paper. It is electrically charged by solar radiation, so
that it sticks to every surface it comes in contact with.
Seems to be no difficulty and moving around the simulations
(34:12):
of one and we performed and various simulations on the
ground on Earth during training. Neil, combined with his suit
and backpack, weighed three hundred and fifty pounds. Here, in
lunar gravity, he weighs less than sixty. Neil is inside
a wearable spacecraft that cost one thousand dollars to design
(34:33):
and manufacture. It was made by Platex. Yeah, the bra manufacturer.
They know a thing or two about making strong, flexible,
form fitting clothing. The astronauts were protected from the Moon's
extremes of heat and cold, ultra violet radiation, and micro
meteorites by twenty one layers fitted to knee preme bellows
and steel aircraft wires, which allowed the men to bend
(34:55):
in all the right places. Such joints are critical given
that each suit is inflated to about three point seven
five pounds per square inch of pure oxygen. Think about
how firm of football is when it's fully inflated. And
here's the coolest bit of all. Each suit was sown
by hand buzz lowers a hassle blab camera down to
Neil via a cable and pulley system rigged to the
(35:17):
inside of the capsule. The astronauts have dubbed it the
Brooklyn clothesline. Neil is astonished by the view all around
him and feels compelled to capture some images of the
surrounding topography. If you've seen any of the pictures from
the Moon, you know that Neil took some extraordinary images.
All the more impressive since Neil doesn't have a viewfinder
to look through. The camera is mounted to his chest
(35:43):
and at its own it's like much as the United
States Good, but it's very pretty unious. With some pictures
out of the way, Neil begins collecting some of the
soil at his feet and scooping it into a bag.
After filling it out, Neil tosses away a ring that
had been keeping the bag open in the one six gravity.
(36:04):
It sails far from him. Now it's Aldrin's turn. Are
you ready? Buzz pauses on the ladder to make sure
that the hatch doesn't close behind him. Even the slightest
pressure difference between the inside and the outside would make
the hatch profoundly difficult, if not impossible, to open again. Thought,
(36:30):
that's our home for the next couple of hours. And
two Americans on the Moon. Back in Houston, Joan Aldrin's
body shutters as she vacillates between laughter and sobs. As
her husband takes his first steps on the moon, she
begins throwing kisses towards his flickering black and white image.
(36:50):
And magnificent desolation is well a perfectly sublime way of
describing the surface of the Moon. But it's about as
close as we're going to get to either of these
guys getting emotional during their experience. They have a job
to do, and philosophical musings aren't on their checklists. The
(37:12):
first thing that is on Buzzes checklist is to get
used to walking around in the lunar environment, which terrifies
his son Andy. I was convinced that Dad was going
to trip in, you know, end up flat on his
back like a dead bug, in front of six million
people and most importantly my two hundred classmates. Those are
the kind of things that we're going through my head
(37:34):
because I'm an eleven year old kid. As Buzz continues
to get used to his new environment, Neil opens the
masa storage bay housing their tools and equipment. Beside it
is a metal plaque bolted to one of the eagles
legs airmen from the planet Earth for except for it,
upon the Moon ninety became in baseball mankind, it's time
(38:01):
to run some experiments. First off is the solar wind collector,
basically a small sheet of aluminum foil attached to a
telescoping pole and planted to face the Sun. It will
spend the duration of the mission soaking up solar wind particles,
which will in turn provide clues for how our solar
system was formed. Per his checklist, Neil takes a number
(38:21):
of photos of Buzz at work. This is a Paulo
Levin's only scandal. Well, Buzz was in possession of the camera,
which admittedly was much less time than Neil. He didn't
take a single picture of his mission commander. We have
no images of Neil Armstrong on the Moon. That famous bootprint.
That's Buzz too. Some conspiracy theorists believe that Buzz did
(38:42):
this in retaliation for not being allowed to be the
first one down the ladder, though it's far more likely
just in oversight in the excitement of the moment. Next up,
the men withdraw an American flag and erected a short
distance from the spacecraft say that end up. The top
edge of the flag is braced by a crossbar, ensuring
(39:04):
the stars and stripes are always visible on the Moon.
Without it, the flag would hang limp, as Earth flags
do on windless days. Once the flag is up, Neil
snaps one of the most famous images of the mission,
Buzz saluting the flag and the camera, just as the
guys are getting ready to move on to their next item,
they get a surprise call. Neil and Buzz. The President
(39:26):
of the United States is in his office now and
would like to say, over honor, go ahead, Mr President. Hello,
Neil and Buzz. For every American this has to be
the proudest day of our lives. And for people all
over the world. I am sure they too joined with eizing.
(39:50):
What an immense speed this is because of what you
have done, the heavens have become a part of man Borough.
Thanking about the President. It's a great honor and privates
for Earth to be here presented, not all in the
United States, but and base of all nations, and with interest, profectualiosity,
(40:15):
and with the vision for the feature. Time for some
more experiments. As Neil gathers rocks, Buzz sets up two devices.
The first is a seismic detector designed to allow scientists
on Earth to monitor for moonquakes, volcanic eruptions, or meteorite impacts.
The fatim had been bed floored manually. Next up is
(40:39):
the laser ranging retro refractor. Scientists on Earth can bounce
lasers off of it, gathering precise measurements of the distance
from the Earth to the Moon. LA factor is installed,
and the global level and alignment appears to be good.
Well Buzz collects some regular Neil ventures a few hundred
feet over to a raader, taking some time to marvel
(41:01):
at his surroundings and snap a couple of pictures. This
is the furthest that either of the astronauts will travel
during the entire e v A. In our imaginations, we
picture the Apollo eleven astronauts bounding euphorically across the lunar landscape,
far from their spacecraft. However, the total area within which
Neil and Buzz trade would fit roughly within a Major
League Baseball field. The suston you have approximately three minutes
(41:27):
and to you, let's comment a termination activity whatever? Okay, hey,
anything more before I head and I get a head
on up the ladder heads on him. Well Buzz makes
his way up the ladder. Neil uses the regular around
(41:48):
his feet to fill in the empty spaces in several
cases of moon rocks. Each case is vacuum sealed, ensuring
that when the boxes are later opened in special clean
rooms back on Earth, the atmosphere inside the case is uncontaminated.
Neil sends two cases up to Buzz via the Brooklyn clothesline.
There's one last thing the men want to do. The
(42:11):
comments you just heard are all that was said about
their final task. They didn't inform the viewing public, nor
do many admission control know what's going on. From the
open hatch, Buzz throws Neil a pouch, which he places
on the lunar soil. Inside is an Apollo one patch
honoring the three astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee,
(42:31):
who perished in the fire two years earlier, a disc
containing goodwill messages from seventy three nations, and a small
gold olive branch representing their peaceful intent. These items are
not controversial, but the pouch also contains two Soviet medals.
The first commemorates Uriga Garn, the first man in space,
who died in a plane crash in n The second
(42:53):
is a medal for Vladimir camarav, a cosmonaut who was
killed when the parachutes on his Soyu spacecraft failed to
open after a re entry. While these men were on
the other side of the space race, as well as
on the other side of America's Cold War with Soviet Russia,
This was Apaul Elevin's way of honoring fallen comrades who
didn't live long enough to see history made on the Moon.
(43:14):
There's also one other item the public wasn't aware of
inside the Eagle. Beside the astronauts during their flight to
and from the Moon were wooden and cloth fragments from
the original Right Flyer, the first successful airplane flown by
Wilbur and Orval Wright just sixty years earlier. His job
on the Moon done and his air supply running low,
(43:36):
Neil re enters the lunar module. Once inside, he and
Buzz take one last look at the lunar surface where
they spent the better part of three hours, and then
seal the hat closed and lang. Inside the spacecraft is
a new smell from all the moon dust covering their gear.
(43:56):
It smells like a spent firecracker. It reminds Buzz of
wet ashes as they struggle out of their bulky backpacks. Houston.
Let's Michael in on the news, Columbia, Columbia, that is Houston.
The crew of Tranquiality bases back inside their base, repressurized.
They're in a process of adopting the u plusses. Everything
(44:18):
went beaut to play cover. Oh yeah, with all of
those rocks and soil samples, the eagle is now too
heavy to lift off the lunar surface. To lighten the vessel,
they must now open the hatch and toss out everything
they no longer need, from their life support backpacks and
boots to empty food packages, another trash, even a spare
hassle blood camera. Remember that seismometer that Buzz set up
(44:42):
Roger's tranquility. We observe your equipment Jedison on the TV
and the pactive site and get experiment recorded docs when
each float hit the surface. Over ants get away with
anything anymore. No, indeed, they'd like to say from all
(45:02):
of us down here in Arson and early, from all
of us and all that countries and in the entire world,
we think that you've done a magnificent job up there today.
Thank you very much. It's been a long day. Yes, indeed,
get some rest there and have at it tomorrow. Neil
and Buzz have now been up for twenty one hours. Famished,
(45:25):
they eat some cocktail sausages and try to find a
place to sleep. The eagle doesn't have beds. Neil curls
up on the cover of the ascent tension while Buzz
chooses the floor, so they pull blinds down over the windows.
A lot of light still streams into the capsule, enough
to allow Buzz to see that one of the circuit
breaker switches on the control panel was broken off while
(45:46):
they struggled out of their backpacks. The switch sends electrical
power to the ascent engine that they're gonna need to
get off the Moon in the morning. Without that switch,
they're not going anywhere. That, combined with a far more
frigid spacecraft than either of anticipated, guarantees they will get
next to no sleep tonight. The race for the Moon
has been one. The exploration of space has just begun.
(46:11):
Day five is over. Day six, July one begins with
our next episode. The day Apollo eleven is to leave
the Moon, but because the lunar module is crippled, the
return home is now in doubt. Only one half of
President Kennedy's pledge has been fulfilled. Yes, the United States
has landed men on the Moon before the end of
(46:31):
the decade, but returning them safely back to Earth maybe impossible.
This podcast is a production of I Heart Radio and
trade Craft Studios. Executive producers Ashe Seroia and Scott Bernstein
in association with High five Content and executive producer Andrew Jacobs.
(46:55):
Amazing research and production assistance by associate producers Brian show
Saw and Natalie Robomed. Our incredible editor is Bill Lance.
Original music by Henry ben Wah. Special thanks to Andy
Aldrin and Mission controls Steve Bales. Thanks to Mike Dawson,
Jeff McCarthy, Terry Guvara, Greg Simpson, Adam Howard, John Rantle,
(47:19):
Paul Olmstead, and Margaret Roland for sharing their moon landing memories.
Special thanks to everyone at NASA who made this podcast possible,
especially the incredible technological wizardry of consulting producer Ben Feist,
who's responsible for organizing and cleaning the eleven thousand hours
of mission audio your hearing selections from in this podcast.
(47:41):
Special thanks also to consultant Gina Dellback Licensing rights and
clearances by Deborah Correa. This is a brand new podcast
and we're so excited to be sharing it with you.
Help us spread it far and wide, tell your friends,
leave ratings and reviews, and chat about it on social media.
Our hashtag is nine D I J. We would love
(48:02):
to hear what you think. New episodes come out each week,
so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Brandon Phipps. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll
see you next episode.
Nine Days in July is a production of I Heart
Radio and trade Craft Studios in association with High five Content.
It's May sixth, nineteen sixty eight Ellington Air Force Base, Texas.
Neil Armstrong is sitting behind the controls of the Lunar
Landing Research Vehicle. This isn't a simulator like the building
(00:21):
bound trainers I described last episode. This one actually flies.
The l l r V employs a massive, downward facing
turbojet engine to counteract five six of the vehicle's weight
and better simulate how the lunar module will behave on
the mood. Two rockets and sixteen smaller thrusters provide vertical
and horizontal motion and allow for fine movements. The l
(00:44):
r V isn't pretty. It's basically a flat, square body,
four legs in each corner and an open cockpit. The
astronauts call it the flying bedstead. According to those who've
taken the stick, it is notoriously hard to fly, but
profoundly easy to correct. On this day, several hundred feet
in the air, Neil is struggling with the controls as
(01:06):
he tries to bring the machine in for a landing. Suddenly,
the rockets give out, and the l l RV begins
to plummet. Neil increases power to the turbojet, but as
he does, the vehicle makes an uncommanded pitch forward two
feet above the ground. Neil hits the jet button, his
body is instantly accelerated to fourteen g's. He's so low
(01:26):
that his parachute is open for only four seconds before
he crashes back to the earth. Across the field from him,
the ll RV dives into the ground and erupts in
a giant fireball. If he'd waited even a second longer,
he'd still have been strapped into the seat when it exploded.
(01:46):
More than any other piece of equipment NASA had, the
l l RV was the best analog for what it
would be like when Neil took the LEMBS controls and
guided it to the lunar surface. As he rises shakily
to his feet watching the l l RV burn, how
could he not be wondering if this is the fate
that awaits him and Buzz There are no ejection seats
(02:06):
in the lamb. It's July, day five of the Apollo
eleven mission. This is the day humans can make history
by stepping foot on another world. This is a follow
control ninety three hours, nine minutes ground and laps time
the follow eleven. Good morning from the black day. I
(02:34):
look like you're really sawing away all right. After having breakfast,
I'm getting all squared away. After the night's rest period,
the crew will have a rather busy day to day,
including the first man landing on the Moon. A busy day. Indeed, yesterday,
four days after they left Earth, the conjoined Command Service
(02:56):
Module and the Lunar Module arrived in orbit around the Moon. Today,
Mission commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin
will attempt to make history by landing a spacecraft on
the Moon and setting bootprints in its ash. Like service
members of the White team of flight controllers ended up
by Eugene krantz Or drifting into the control room now
(03:18):
to relieve the night watch. One of those White team
members is guidance Officer Steve Bales, who you might remember
from a previous episode. You could have cut the tension
in that room that day with a knife. Some of
the managers have been into business thirty years said they
had never seen attention that they had felt in that
room that day. But you also get this failing that
(03:39):
this is a place something's going to happen at. I mean,
this is a place started like the box where Columbus
last thing you know, and he sailed offer to America
for Gene Krantz. It's only just now beginning to sink
in that today is the day they've been working towards
for the better part of a decade. He's wearing his
wife's good luck charm, a silver and white vest. She
makes a new one for each of her husband's, but
(04:00):
today's is especially beautiful. Elsewhere in Houston, the astronauts families
are just arriving home after a morning spent at church.
Each of their homes are surrounded by ravenous press. It
isn't long before a small army of friends and family,
most bearing pot like dishes begin showing up to offer
moral support. Inside TVs and coffee pots are already hard
(04:23):
at work. It's going to be a long day. In
the corner of each living room is a squawk box,
which NASA installed shortly before Apollo eleven launched into space.
The devices allow the families to listen in on the
communications between mission control and the spacecraft. Basically what you've
been hearing throughout this podcast. Joan Aldrin finds a spot
on the couch and lights a cigarette. The nearby ashtray
(04:46):
is already in desperate need of being emptied. Chain smoking
is an unfortunate side effect of being an astronaut's wife.
Back aboard Apollo eleven, the crew has donned their bulky
pressure garments, and Neil and Buzz have powered up the
lunar module. The time has come to separate the two spacecraft.
Michael seals the hatches and begins depressurizing the airlock. He
(05:08):
is now alone in the command module. Neil and Buzz
prepared to deploy the lunar modules for landing legs, which
until now have been tucked tight against the spacecraft's ungainly body. Okay,
we're gonna put our gear down the landing here, and
by damn about ain't no doubt about that. Inside the limb,
(05:32):
Neil and Buzz conduct a series of checks confirming their
guidance system, thrusters, descent propulsion system, and rendezvous radar are
all working properly. That last bit sounds innocuous, but it's not.
Remember the rendezvous radar follow eleven. Then we'll go for
undocking over Roger understand. As Apollo eleven curls around the
(05:54):
far side of the Moon, it once again loses radio
contact with Houston, as will happen so often on this
massive and critical maneuvers are conducted without the comforting tether
of mission controls. Where are you at? Okay on a maneuver?
(06:16):
Nap to unlocking at you when you know? An't even
radarselves that is complete? Let me know and I'll check
out my fand finding there it is again. Rendezvous radar
on Buzzes checklist is the command to make sure the
radar is picking up a transponder on board the command module.
This tells the LAMB where and how far away it is.
(06:37):
Without the transponder, it will be almost impossible to find
Michael in the command module once they leave the Moon.
Thanks man, it checked out. Exagur Ago you guys. The
two spacecraft separate, Michael has to ensure that he undocks
without damaging the seals on either module. If the docking
(06:59):
ports are damnitched, Neil and buzz will have to perform
a spacewalk tomorrow to get back in. But this is
Michael we're talking about, and he makes it look easy.
There is no more Apollo eleven. The Eagle and the
Columbia are now two separate spacecraft orbiting the Moon. Michael
allows Columbia to drift a short distance away from the
(07:21):
lunar module and takes the opportunity to inspect the eagles
exterior and to ensure the landing gear is properly deployed.
The MESA is a compartment on the belly of the
Eagle's descent stage that holds the various equipment and tools
the crew will need once they land. A moment later,
(07:42):
the two spacecraft round the Moon and come back into
contact with mission control. Brock your hen and said, look,
I can find like a blant upside down. Somebody's upside
down in space. There is no upside to out. Michael
fires Columbia's thrusters and moves himself away, ensuring the Eagle
(08:05):
is free and clear to navigate. The lamb initiates its
descent orbit insertion burn. This is not the big burn
that's going to get the Eagle down to the Moon,
but rather a short one to lower them down to
about fifty feet in preparation for their final descent. Every
second of the burn removes nearly two miles from their
health team from more of it. Michael watches the eagle
(08:26):
getting smaller and smaller until it disappears from view altogether.
Once again, the maneuver occurs out of radio contact with Houston.
Back in mission control, Jean kranslights a new cigarette. He
can't even count how many he's already had this morning.
He's been writing furiously in his log book and notices
that the pages are wet and beginning to curl. He's
(08:49):
sweating a lot. But at his console, Steve Baale suddenly
has nothing to do, and we've had about fifteen minutes
to acquisition, and Jeane says, I want you flight controllers
to go to this special loop that was private. I
had to tell these kids how proud I was of
the work that they had done, and from this stay,
(09:11):
from the time that they were born, they were destined
to be here, and they're destined to do this job.
And it's the best team that has ever been assembled.
And today, without a doubt, we are going to write
in the history books and we're going to be the
team that takes an American to the moon. And do
you do not know how much that meant? For somebody
(09:31):
like myself sitting there at with do knowing what we
were going to have to do in the next few minutes.
His pep talk concluded, Jean has the doors to mission
control locked. No one can go in or out. It's
go time. We should have cut off by this time,
that should have completed the decent orbit insertion maneuver. Spacecraft
(09:55):
is now behind the Moon and the control team the
adrenal one, I mean just really was, no matter how
you tried to hide it. The fact is is that
you are really starting to pump. Might demand complaint. This
is a follow control of one hours fifty four minutes.
(10:16):
I believe. Back in the viewing room, we probably have
one of the largest assemblages of space officials that we've
ever seen in one place. Mission Control is bursting at
the seams with dignitaries and v I p s. Basically
anyone who's anyone in NASA is here. It's growing quite
quiet here in mission control. A few moments ago, Flight
Director Jane Kranz requested that everyone sit down, get prepared
(10:38):
for events that are coming, and he closed with very
remark good luck to all of you. We are now
coming up on thirty seconds to acquisition of the command module. Well,
we do get our acquisition, but it is a most
horrible sounding noise that you've ever heard. Here we're getting
ready to go to the moon and we can't even
talk to the crew directly. We have to call Mike
(11:00):
Collins and the command module to relay data down in
the lunar model. Don't get any hear right here ago
for a five datement over com fun no and as
you can hear, the calms are terrible, But that isn't
(11:22):
stopping buzz from grinning ear to ear. Five seconds after
the engine ignites, Steve Bales once again loses all data
from the moonship. When it comes back a minute or
so later, he sees something's not right. We were going
toward the moon per second fashion than we should have been.
If we get to thirty five ft per second, I've
(11:42):
got to stop the desa. I've got to call the board. Well, boy,
when you haven't even started down to the moon and
some guy comes to you and says, hey, we're halfway
to our aboard women to share, gets your attention. So
why was the lamb flying so much faster than anyone anticipated?
Gene explains the crew had not fully pressed the tunnel
between the two space crafts, so when they blew the bolt,
(12:05):
there was a little residual air in there at let
start of like pop on a cark on a bottle.
But of course no one knows this at the time.
All they know is that for some reason, the spacecraft
is traveling faster than it should be. Either that or
something's wrong with the navigational computer. Either way, the tension
in mission control has now reached suffocating levels. Luckily, the
(12:27):
calms seem to be back, but then to take down
to dealt long. Neil has just recognized what Steve Bales
and everyone in mission control already knows. The lamb is
not where it's supposed to be. Neil is watching the
terrain go by outside his window, and he realizes they
are going to overshoot their landing zone. Neil rotates the
lamb into a face up, feet forward position. This must
(12:50):
be done so that when the Eagle is put upright,
they will be facing forward during the landing. Now he
and Buzz are looking at nothing but the void of
outer space, well not quite nothing. Back in mission control,
Steve Bales continues to monitor the lemb's progress Thankfully the
mooncraft has not gained any additional speed. That a word
(13:13):
danger that everyone feared no longer seems to be an issue,
and I think my big problem for the day is over.
Twenty seconds later, we'd get a program alarm, program alarm
about two about and I was frantically scrambling, Oh my guys,
it's one of those alarms who worked on. I have
(13:33):
the cheat sheet over in my left side, but before
I can even see it, Jack Garmin is yelling in
my air Steve, Steve, Remember it's executive overflowed the program alarm.
Neil and Buzz don't recognize the alarm, and they are
too busy to go rummaging through their manuals looking for
an explanation. Communication dropouts were a nuisance more than a danger,
(13:58):
but computer problem was a show stopper. I didn't really
know the consequences of those alarm, but fortunately Stephen oas
guys on g n N console new I say to
the flight director, we're going that alarm right here. We
got you. We're going at alarm. Do you recall the
(14:19):
story from our last episode that I told you to
remember the final simulation that mission control went through the
one that would never happen in real life, the one
that made geene Krants so angry. Well, this is real
life and the exact same thing is happening right now,
except this time mission control knows exactly what's going on,
and they all remember what they were told after the simulation.
(14:41):
You should not have aboorded some person, and we've never
been able to identify with The voice loop comes up
and says, this is just like a simulation. The Eagles
computer is overloaded with tasks. It cannot process them all.
The alarm is its way of saying, hey, everybody, I've
got a lot more on my plate than I can handle,
so I'm going to concentrate on the most critical items
(15:02):
and leave the rest for later. For nine, the Lembs
computer is as cutting edge as it gets. It has
two K of RAM and thirty six K of raw memory.
If you're not a computer person like me, those numbers
likely don't mean anything to you, so let me break
it down for you. The last email you sent was
likely twice as large as that. The lemb computer had
(15:24):
less memory than a high school graphing calculator, and yet
it got us to the mood. NASA was the first
in the world to use microchips, allowing them to power
a computer the size of a briefcase rather than a
machine the size of a room. The moon landing didn't
usher in the space age. It ushered in the digital age.
And just what is if it's causing the data overflow?
(15:46):
You probably figured it out by now. The rendezvous radar
buzz left it on just in case they needed to
abort and make a quick ascent back to Michael in
the command module. It proved one item too many for
the computer to handle. Okay, i'll flight controllers and should
be throttling down. You're looking great. Neil pitches the Eagle
(16:16):
up so that the vehicle is now traveling with its
legs pointed down towards the Moon. They are over unfamiliar
territory on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility,
more than four miles beyond their target. Below them is
a deep crater the size of a football field, and
it is strew with massive boulders. Realizing that the autopilot
(16:36):
is going to try to land the spacecraft in the
middle of that crater, Neil disengages the computer and takes
control himself. He needs to find a new landing site.
His heartbeat has skyrocketed from seventy seven beats a minute
to fifty six. Okay, I'll flight comtrollers go, I'll go
for landing retro. I don't know, sorry, good Go Capcom
(17:01):
or Gopher landing, Go get the year, go for landing over.
I heard a thank go for landing three thousands three alarm.
Another alarm, this time twelve o one. It's in the
same series as the one before, and Steve Bales doesn't
even hesitate this time. Okay, we're going to go. Thank
I We're go on board the LAMB. Neil is intent
(17:23):
on landing alarms or no alarms. You're always concerned when
any kind of alarm comes on. But uh my own
heeling was that as long as everything was going well
and looked right, I would be in favor of continuing,
no matter what the computers was complaining about it. There
(17:44):
doesn't seem to be anywhere to set down and aboard.
Suddenly seems very likely to have come this far only
to abandon their prize. Now, Neil Armstrong. It was far
and away the most complex part of them, the flight.
The systems were very heavily loaded at that time. The
unknowns were rampant. The systems in this mode had only
(18:07):
been tested on Earth and never in the real environment.
There were just a thousand things to worry about in
the final descent. Nine and ninety nine of those things
are boulders the size of cars. It was a fairly
steep slope and it was covered with very big rocks.
There were some attractive areas half mile ahead or so,
(18:28):
so that's where I went. But now there's another even
more serious problem. They didn't plan for the descent to
take this long, and they are running out of fuel
fast level. While normally by the time he calls out
low level we have landed in training. Then we're not
even close to landing here. Back at her home in Houston,
(18:50):
Joan Aldrin rises to her feet, sways unsteadily for a moment,
and collapses onto the floor. She lays there for a
few moments, absolutely overwhelmed. When she rises, she braces herself
against the wall for support. Break that a far feel okay,
(19:11):
look area. You may not have been able to make
that last bit out right before. Neil said he found
an area he likes. Buzz informed him that they are
down to eight percent of their fuel it's now or never.
A lot before it got about break, I got a
good Neil just said he's got a good spot. I
(19:36):
part five quantity light. That's how much fuel they have left. Hey,
that's looking good. Down a half look forward sex day
saconds sixty seconds. Mission control is telling Neil that if
he's not on the ground in one minute, he has
(19:58):
to abort the landing or fade down at above the
lunar surface, and buzzes noticing that their descent engine is
starting to disturb the lunar dust. Far forward, Far Forward
dripped into the right level half. Neil must put down
within thirty seconds or abort the mission. There's a lot
(20:20):
of concern about coming close to running out a fuel,
But I didn't know that if I could have my
speed stabilized and attitude stabilized, I could fall from fairly
good height Propps, maybe forty feet or more, and in
the low lunar gravity, the gear would distorb that much fall.
(20:42):
That was Neil armstrong. Given that the Moon's gravity is
one six of that on Earth. Neil is planning on
letting the landers simply dropped to the surface. Here's the
thing about the lemb's legs. They were designed to get crushed.
Inside the struts is a honeycomb structure that will compress
on landing. Neil is that if they run out of
fuel and aren't too high when it happens, they can
(21:03):
simply fall in the moon significantly lower gravity, and the
legs will absorb the impact. There are only three options
that day. Either going to land, You're going to a board.
You're gonna crash. There's no more what happens. I'm not
gonna call a boar. The crew is close enough to
the surface. I'm gonna let them give it their best shot.
Carlton was just ready to say fifteen seconds and anyway
(21:25):
here the crow say contact right. Three of the four
lamb footpads are equipped with nearly six ft long probes
to alert the crew in contact with the surfaces made.
At least one of those probes has made contact with
a jolt, not unlike a passenger jet touching down on
a runaway, the lamb comes to a stop. The silence
(21:48):
is deafening. The two men glance at each other in relief.
The eagle has only forty five seconds worth of fuel
remaining because of avoiding hostile terrain, their descent has taken
your thirteen minutes longer than planned and burned roughly five
hundred and thirty unplanned pounds of fuel. Neil's heart rate
is a thunderous one and fifty beats per minute, and
(22:10):
they are approximately four miles from where they planned on landing,
but they are on the Moon. Outside Neil sees something
that takes his breath away. Was absolutely dumbfounded when I
shut the rocket engine off and the particles were going
out radially from the bottom of the engine belt all
(22:30):
the way all over the horizon and instantaneously disappeared. There
is so little atmospheric resistance on the Moon that the
lunar dust scattered by the lembs exhaust raced away from
the spacecraft at the speed of a bullet and traveled
halfway around the Moon before it finally settled. Buzz grabs
Neil's hand and whispers, we made it, and here the
(22:53):
ankle has landed. Rocket crank quiality. We caty on the ground.
You gotta fight the guys about the turn blue. We're
breathing again. So long as the spacecraft is resting on
the Moon, it will no longer be referred to as
the Eagle. Now it is Tranquility Base. I was so
excited I couldn't get out Tranquility Base. It came out.
(23:15):
So I'm like Roger Houston, Tranquility Base, and I believe
that's true. It was a true statement, was spontaneous, but
it was true. I mean we were I was holding
my breath, you know, because we were close. I don't
think any of us breathed for that last sixty seconds.
All across the Earth, time has stopped. Six d and
fifty million people are glued to their televisions, making the
(23:37):
moon landing the most watched television event in history. It's
to seventeen PM in Houston, Texas. As her friends and
family erupt into cheers, Joan Altering excuses herself and sneaks
away into her husband's study, closing the door behind her.
She wakes up several moments later, having passed out a
few feet away from her As a fall and matchbook,
(23:59):
the her limbs feel as if they are no longer
in her control. She claus for the matchbook and curls
her fingers around it, desperate for the feel of something
real and tangible. She remains in this position for several minutes,
regaining her composure before rising, smoothing out her dress and
rejoining the others in the living room. See all smiles.
(24:20):
She tells them, no more tears. But on CBS News,
Walter Krunkite is in tears. U S soldiers in Vietnam
crowd around handheld radios even as mortars fall all around them.
In New York City, the Yankees are playing the Washington Senators.
The gathered fans erupt in cheers as they're on The
Moon flashes on the scoreboard, and the game is paused
(24:42):
while the crowd spontaneously begins to seeing America the beautiful.
Ten thousand people gathered in Central Park to watch the
landing on giant screens erupt in ear splitting applause. Thousands
of travelers and airports and train stations begin applotting, and
then the air airplane passengers began running up and down
the aisles, shaking each other's hands. As a seven year
(25:05):
old child watching Apollo eleven blast off at Cape Kennedy,
I was dying to watch the landing on TV, but
my dad wanted to drive back home to Michigan, and
everybody on the interstate was pulling over to listen to
the landing on the radio. Was in Vietnam that day
(25:25):
in July, was airborne in an F one Super Saber
when someone came up on the emergency perconcide and announced
that the eagle had landed. So the year, in the
month I was born, butt Nick launched and I was
nicknamed butt Nick for the first six years of my life.
And then on my twelfth birthday, Apollo eleven launched to
(25:47):
head to the Moon. Three days later, we were sitting
in the living room watching Walter Cronkite and watching him
walk on the Moon. During the week of the landing,
I was at summer camp and the councilor in our
cabin was kind of a cool guy. And remember why
changed that on his little black and white TV with
rabbit ears. I was just a nineteen year old rookie
protocol officer. My boss said, Werner von Braun needs an
(26:09):
escort in the controls interviewing room, and as young and
inexperience as I was at nineteen, I realized exactly what
he was doing. I just stayed there until the end
of the entire moonwalk. My father was an airman station
at Office Air Force Base in Omaha. The night of Lynn,
He's getting right home from a fellow airman who was
African American. They pulled up at the bar and my
dad realized it was an African American bar. And they
(26:31):
walked in and my dad kind of feel all eyes
upon him, you know, being a six foot seven white man.
He said, in that moment when they said the words,
you know, the Eagle has landed, cheers erupted, and there
was no race in that bar. It was just this
group of Americans excited and amazed at what had just
been accomplished. Well, it was the summer of nineteen sixty
nine and he had just graduated from high school and
(26:52):
was headed to college. I was with my boyfriend who
would later become my husband, and watch the landing together.
As a young eighteen year old woman. It made me
feel anything was possible and then I could do anything.
It created an atmosphere of excitement and promise. And I
must say that all the negativity in our culture today
is so hard. And I have six grandchildren and I
(27:13):
want them to be full of hope. We could really
use an Apollo eleven experience today. Remember an episode three
when we talked about John Hubolt, the engineer who insisted
that lunar orbit rendezvous was the only way to get
us to the Moon. You may remember that one of
the men who disagreed with him at the time was
Verna von Braun, the designer of the Saturn five rocket. Well, today,
(27:35):
von Braun has invited Huboldt to mission control to witness
Apollo Levin's touchdown. As the viewing area erupts and cheers
and applause, von Braun turns to who Bolton says, thank you, John,
it is a good idea and UH for the first
time he had an opportunity within the control team to
(27:55):
just take a deep breath and say, my God, today
we just landed on the Moon with the UH be
advised lots of smiling faces in its room and all
over the world. Or threw up my fare There was
a beautiful job, you guys, and don't forget one. In
the command model. That last voice was Michael Collins in
orbit sixty miles above. You've almost forgotten about him, hadn't you.
(28:18):
On the earthword side, he has the chatter of Mission
Control and Tranquility Base to keep him company. But on
the far side of the Moon. For forty eight minutes
at a time he has utterly cut off. Michael is
well aware of what everyone is saying about him back
on Earth. Michael Collins the loneliest man in the universe,
but despite the fact that he's experiencing the most profound
(28:38):
solitude of any human being in history, he doesn't feel lonely.
That It's one of the questions I get asked him
and God, and you got so close to the moning
it didn't land. Don't not really bug it. It really
does not. Uh. I honestly felt really privileged to be
on Apollo eleven. Uh to have one of those three seats.
(29:02):
I mean, there are guys in the ast obviously put
my throat here to hear to have one of those
three seats. Okay, just keep that averybody days ready for
us up there. Now. We'll do our recommendation at this
point is planning it easy, starting at about eight o'clock
the season years some time, stand mine, give us some time.
(29:24):
Things about that quality basic Houston. We thought about it.
We will support it. We're going at that time over.
The plan was for Kneel and Buzz to begin a
sleep period once they landed on the Moon, but the
astronauts are excited they want to get out onto the
Moon's surface. Now they can sleep later, and Houston concurs.
But first Buzz wants to acknowledge the enormity of the moment.
(29:48):
I hear that in tran quiality over tranquility used to
go ahead, Roger, this is the lamp pilot. I'd like
to take this opportunity to every person listening in, whoever
wherever they may may, to pause for a moment and
contemplate the events of the past you are and to
give thanks in his or her own way. Over Buzz
(30:09):
switches off the radio and takes a moment in the
midst of the maelstrom of history to quiet himself. He
opens two small plastic containers. One contains bread, the other
contains wine. The last supper is the first meal on
the moon. We are beginning our eav a prip. Neil
and Buzz struggle into their portable life support systems. These
(30:31):
are the backpacks containing their breathable oxygen, water, coolant, and
communication systems. Tranquility based, Houston, you are go for a
cabin deep. As the men equalize the pressure inside their
cabin to match the lunar environment outside, Neil ponders what
he's going to say when he first steps on the moon.
He's had too much to concentrate on in the weeks
(30:52):
and days leading up to the mission to come up
with anything. He suddenly realizes that whatever he says is
going to be recorded in every history book for time immemorial.
No pressure. As the mission commander, Neil will be the
first one out of the vehicle. The Buzz actually petitioned
NASA to be the first. The decision came down to
(31:13):
fun hui. The Lamb's hatch swings into the cabin and
to the right, blocking Buzz behind it until Neil climbs
out of the way. Now comatic open slowly, Neil begins
making his way down the ten foot ladder. His suit
is so cumbersome that he can't even see his own feet.
On the second rung, he yanks ad ring, deploying the
(31:34):
MASA equipment and tool bay, as well as a television camera,
which automatically begins broadcasting a signal back to Earth. Well,
I look at pictures. We can see you're coming down
the ladder. Now there's that foot there down the steps.
If you've ever looked at pictures of Neil on the lamb, ladder.
You've noticed that the rung stop about three and a
(31:56):
half feet before the footbeds, forcing him to jump the
rest of the disc it's down. This is because everyone
anticipated that the legs would compress upon landing. Instead, Neil
set the eagle down so gently that the legs never
even budged. He's a victim of his own masterful flying.
At the foot of the ladder, the lamp foot beds
(32:16):
are only impressed in the surface about one or two
inches brought the lamb mount Neil steps off with his
left foot, places it on the surface, and bounces slightly
to test it. So there's a foot on the moon,
stepping down on the moon. If he's testing that first step,
he must be stepping down on the Moon at this point.
(32:37):
And just like that, for the first time in history,
a human has stepped foot on another world. Armstrong is
on the Moon. Neil Armstrong, thirty eight year old American,
standing on the surface of the Moon on this July
nineteen and sixty nine. And now the man known for
his silences must find the perfect words. In Neil's living
(33:01):
room back in Houston, his wife Janet tightly clutches their
two small sons be descriptive now, Neil, she says aloud,
at just shy of ten pm Houston time. Neil Armstrong says,
that's one man. Neil later admitted to what he'd meant
(33:22):
to say was the more consistent and grammatically correct. That's
one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
But in all of the excitement he misspoke. Thankfully the
world understood his meaning. Just fine, purpose is fine and powdery.
I can end it up loosely with my toe at here,
(33:47):
and the fine layers like potter and charcoal to the
side of my fruit. Regular, the fancy word for moon dust,
is as fine as talcum powder, but as abrasive as
sand paper. It is electrically charged by solar radiation, so
that it sticks to every surface it comes in contact with.
Seems to be no difficulty and moving around the simulations
(34:12):
of one and we performed and various simulations on the
ground on Earth during training. Neil, combined with his suit
and backpack, weighed three hundred and fifty pounds. Here, in
lunar gravity, he weighs less than sixty. Neil is inside
a wearable spacecraft that cost one thousand dollars to design
(34:33):
and manufacture. It was made by Platex. Yeah, the bra manufacturer.
They know a thing or two about making strong, flexible,
form fitting clothing. The astronauts were protected from the Moon's
extremes of heat and cold, ultra violet radiation, and micro
meteorites by twenty one layers fitted to knee preme bellows
and steel aircraft wires, which allowed the men to bend
(34:55):
in all the right places. Such joints are critical given
that each suit is inflated to about three point seven
five pounds per square inch of pure oxygen. Think about
how firm of football is when it's fully inflated. And
here's the coolest bit of all. Each suit was sown
by hand buzz lowers a hassle blab camera down to
Neil via a cable and pulley system rigged to the
(35:17):
inside of the capsule. The astronauts have dubbed it the
Brooklyn clothesline. Neil is astonished by the view all around
him and feels compelled to capture some images of the
surrounding topography. If you've seen any of the pictures from
the Moon, you know that Neil took some extraordinary images.
All the more impressive since Neil doesn't have a viewfinder
to look through. The camera is mounted to his chest
(35:43):
and at its own it's like much as the United
States Good, but it's very pretty unious. With some pictures
out of the way, Neil begins collecting some of the
soil at his feet and scooping it into a bag.
After filling it out, Neil tosses away a ring that
had been keeping the bag open in the one six gravity.
(36:04):
It sails far from him. Now it's Aldrin's turn. Are
you ready? Buzz pauses on the ladder to make sure
that the hatch doesn't close behind him. Even the slightest
pressure difference between the inside and the outside would make
the hatch profoundly difficult, if not impossible, to open again. Thought,
(36:30):
that's our home for the next couple of hours. And
two Americans on the Moon. Back in Houston, Joan Aldrin's
body shutters as she vacillates between laughter and sobs. As
her husband takes his first steps on the moon, she
begins throwing kisses towards his flickering black and white image.
(36:50):
And magnificent desolation is well a perfectly sublime way of
describing the surface of the Moon. But it's about as
close as we're going to get to either of these
guys getting emotional during their experience. They have a job
to do, and philosophical musings aren't on their checklists. The
(37:12):
first thing that is on Buzzes checklist is to get
used to walking around in the lunar environment, which terrifies
his son Andy. I was convinced that Dad was going
to trip in, you know, end up flat on his
back like a dead bug, in front of six million
people and most importantly my two hundred classmates. Those are
the kind of things that we're going through my head
(37:34):
because I'm an eleven year old kid. As Buzz continues
to get used to his new environment, Neil opens the
masa storage bay housing their tools and equipment. Beside it
is a metal plaque bolted to one of the eagles
legs airmen from the planet Earth for except for it,
upon the Moon ninety became in baseball mankind, it's time
(38:01):
to run some experiments. First off is the solar wind collector,
basically a small sheet of aluminum foil attached to a
telescoping pole and planted to face the Sun. It will
spend the duration of the mission soaking up solar wind particles,
which will in turn provide clues for how our solar
system was formed. Per his checklist, Neil takes a number
(38:21):
of photos of Buzz at work. This is a Paulo
Levin's only scandal. Well, Buzz was in possession of the camera,
which admittedly was much less time than Neil. He didn't
take a single picture of his mission commander. We have
no images of Neil Armstrong on the Moon. That famous bootprint.
That's Buzz too. Some conspiracy theorists believe that Buzz did
(38:42):
this in retaliation for not being allowed to be the
first one down the ladder, though it's far more likely
just in oversight in the excitement of the moment. Next up,
the men withdraw an American flag and erected a short
distance from the spacecraft say that end up. The top
edge of the flag is braced by a crossbar, ensuring
(39:04):
the stars and stripes are always visible on the Moon.
Without it, the flag would hang limp, as Earth flags
do on windless days. Once the flag is up, Neil
snaps one of the most famous images of the mission,
Buzz saluting the flag and the camera, just as the
guys are getting ready to move on to their next item,
they get a surprise call. Neil and Buzz. The President
(39:26):
of the United States is in his office now and
would like to say, over honor, go ahead, Mr President. Hello,
Neil and Buzz. For every American this has to be
the proudest day of our lives. And for people all
over the world. I am sure they too joined with eizing.
(39:50):
What an immense speed this is because of what you
have done, the heavens have become a part of man Borough.
Thanking about the President. It's a great honor and privates
for Earth to be here presented, not all in the
United States, but and base of all nations, and with interest, profectualiosity,
(40:15):
and with the vision for the feature. Time for some
more experiments. As Neil gathers rocks, Buzz sets up two devices.
The first is a seismic detector designed to allow scientists
on Earth to monitor for moonquakes, volcanic eruptions, or meteorite impacts.
The fatim had been bed floored manually. Next up is
(40:39):
the laser ranging retro refractor. Scientists on Earth can bounce
lasers off of it, gathering precise measurements of the distance
from the Earth to the Moon. LA factor is installed,
and the global level and alignment appears to be good.
Well Buzz collects some regular Neil ventures a few hundred
feet over to a raader, taking some time to marvel
(41:01):
at his surroundings and snap a couple of pictures. This
is the furthest that either of the astronauts will travel
during the entire e v A. In our imaginations, we
picture the Apollo eleven astronauts bounding euphorically across the lunar landscape,
far from their spacecraft. However, the total area within which
Neil and Buzz trade would fit roughly within a Major
League Baseball field. The suston you have approximately three minutes
(41:27):
and to you, let's comment a termination activity whatever? Okay, hey,
anything more before I head and I get a head
on up the ladder heads on him. Well Buzz makes
his way up the ladder. Neil uses the regular around
(41:48):
his feet to fill in the empty spaces in several
cases of moon rocks. Each case is vacuum sealed, ensuring
that when the boxes are later opened in special clean
rooms back on Earth, the atmosphere inside the case is uncontaminated.
Neil sends two cases up to Buzz via the Brooklyn clothesline.
There's one last thing the men want to do. The
(42:11):
comments you just heard are all that was said about
their final task. They didn't inform the viewing public, nor
do many admission control know what's going on. From the
open hatch, Buzz throws Neil a pouch, which he places
on the lunar soil. Inside is an Apollo one patch
honoring the three astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee,
(42:31):
who perished in the fire two years earlier, a disc
containing goodwill messages from seventy three nations, and a small
gold olive branch representing their peaceful intent. These items are
not controversial, but the pouch also contains two Soviet medals.
The first commemorates Uriga Garn, the first man in space,
who died in a plane crash in n The second
(42:53):
is a medal for Vladimir camarav, a cosmonaut who was
killed when the parachutes on his Soyu spacecraft failed to
open after a re entry. While these men were on
the other side of the space race, as well as
on the other side of America's Cold War with Soviet Russia,
This was Apaul Elevin's way of honoring fallen comrades who
didn't live long enough to see history made on the Moon.
(43:14):
There's also one other item the public wasn't aware of
inside the Eagle. Beside the astronauts during their flight to
and from the Moon were wooden and cloth fragments from
the original Right Flyer, the first successful airplane flown by
Wilbur and Orval Wright just sixty years earlier. His job
on the Moon done and his air supply running low,
(43:36):
Neil re enters the lunar module. Once inside, he and
Buzz take one last look at the lunar surface where
they spent the better part of three hours, and then
seal the hat closed and lang. Inside the spacecraft is
a new smell from all the moon dust covering their gear.
(43:56):
It smells like a spent firecracker. It reminds Buzz of
wet ashes as they struggle out of their bulky backpacks. Houston.
Let's Michael in on the news, Columbia, Columbia, that is Houston.
The crew of Tranquiality bases back inside their base, repressurized.
They're in a process of adopting the u plusses. Everything
(44:18):
went beaut to play cover. Oh yeah, with all of
those rocks and soil samples, the eagle is now too
heavy to lift off the lunar surface. To lighten the vessel,
they must now open the hatch and toss out everything
they no longer need, from their life support backpacks and
boots to empty food packages, another trash, even a spare
hassle blood camera. Remember that seismometer that Buzz set up
(44:42):
Roger's tranquility. We observe your equipment Jedison on the TV
and the pactive site and get experiment recorded docs when
each float hit the surface. Over ants get away with
anything anymore. No, indeed, they'd like to say from all
(45:02):
of us down here in Arson and early, from all
of us and all that countries and in the entire world,
we think that you've done a magnificent job up there today.
Thank you very much. It's been a long day. Yes, indeed,
get some rest there and have at it tomorrow. Neil
and Buzz have now been up for twenty one hours. Famished,
(45:25):
they eat some cocktail sausages and try to find a
place to sleep. The eagle doesn't have beds. Neil curls
up on the cover of the ascent tension while Buzz
chooses the floor, so they pull blinds down over the windows.
A lot of light still streams into the capsule, enough
to allow Buzz to see that one of the circuit
breaker switches on the control panel was broken off while
(45:46):
they struggled out of their backpacks. The switch sends electrical
power to the ascent engine that they're gonna need to
get off the Moon in the morning. Without that switch,
they're not going anywhere. That, combined with a far more
frigid spacecraft than either of anticipated, guarantees they will get
next to no sleep tonight. The race for the Moon
has been one. The exploration of space has just begun.
(46:11):
Day five is over. Day six, July one begins with
our next episode. The day Apollo eleven is to leave
the Moon, but because the lunar module is crippled, the
return home is now in doubt. Only one half of
President Kennedy's pledge has been fulfilled. Yes, the United States
has landed men on the Moon before the end of
(46:31):
the decade, but returning them safely back to Earth maybe impossible.
This podcast is a production of I Heart Radio and
trade Craft Studios. Executive producers Ashe Seroia and Scott Bernstein
in association with High five Content and executive producer Andrew Jacobs.
(46:55):
Amazing research and production assistance by associate producers Brian show
Saw and Natalie Robomed. Our incredible editor is Bill Lance.
Original music by Henry ben Wah. Special thanks to Andy
Aldrin and Mission controls Steve Bales. Thanks to Mike Dawson,
Jeff McCarthy, Terry Guvara, Greg Simpson, Adam Howard, John Rantle,
(47:19):
Paul Olmstead, and Margaret Roland for sharing their moon landing memories.
Special thanks to everyone at NASA who made this podcast possible,
especially the incredible technological wizardry of consulting producer Ben Feist,
who's responsible for organizing and cleaning the eleven thousand hours
of mission audio your hearing selections from in this podcast.
(47:41):
Special thanks also to consultant Gina Dellback Licensing rights and
clearances by Deborah Correa. This is a brand new podcast
and we're so excited to be sharing it with you.
Help us spread it far and wide, tell your friends,
leave ratings and reviews, and chat about it on social media.
Our hashtag is nine D I J. We would love
(48:02):
to hear what you think. New episodes come out each week,
so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Brandon Phipps. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll
see you next episode.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!