By July 20th, 1969 the Apollo 11 mission was fulfilling the promise U.S. President Kennedy had done in its May, 25th 1961 address: 'I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.' As the Lunar Module Eagle had safely landed at the Sea of Tranquility on July, 20th 1969, 4:18 p.m. EDT, Neil Armstrong was the first man ever to set foot on a celestial object other than the Earth. At 10:56 p.m. EDT he left the module ladder. 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.' Both astronauts sojourned 2½ h at the surface of the Moon and safely ascended back to the Command Module. Mission eventually splashed down the Pacific Ocean on July, 24th. Six more Apollo missions followed, the last taking place in December 1972. Those first steps of mankind on the Moon were broadcasted live worldwide, with half a billion of people watching. The Chinese officials, at the time, just forbade the new to be even released to their people, as the Breznevian USSR just allowed the pictures and videos to be released some hours later only! In an interview years later, Armstrong praised the 'hundreds of thousands' of people behind the project. 'Every guy that's setting up the tests, cranking the torque wrench, and so on, is saying, man or woman, 'If anything goes wrong here, it's not going to be my fault.'' and in a post-flight press conference, Armstrong called the flight 'a beginning of a new age,' while Collins talks about future journeys to Mars
| Neil Armstrong descending LM ladder to the Moon on July, 20th 1969. picture courtesy NASA |
Apollo 11 lifted off on July, 16th 1969 from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The three-stage 363-foot tall Saturn V cleared the tower at 9:32 a.m. EDT and placed the crew in Earth's orbit. A estimated one million people gathered on the beaches of central Florida to witness first-hand the launch of Apollo 11, while more than 500 million people around the world watched the event live on television. The astronauts’ day on July 16, 1969, had began with a 4 AM wake-up call from Chief of the Astronaut Office Donald K. 'Deke' Slayton. After the traditional prelaunch breakfast with Slayton and backup CMP William A. Anders, the crewmembers donned their spacesuits and took the Astrovan to Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Launch Pad 39A. Workers in the White Room assisted them into their seats in the Command Module (CM) Columbia, Armstrong into the left hand couch, Collins into the right, and finally Aldrin into the middle. After the pad workers closed the hatch to the capsule, the astronauts settled in for the final two hours of the trouble-free countdown. As Armstrong noted just before liftoff, 'It’s been a real smooth countdown.' After launch, engineers in KSC’s Firing Room 1 who had managed the countdown handed over control of the flight to the Mission Control Center (MCC) at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now the Johnson Space Center in Houston, as soon as the rocket cleared the launch tower. In MCC, the Green Team led by Flight Director Clifford E. Charlesworth took over control of the mission. The Saturn V's three stages performed flawlessly and successfully placed Apollo 11 into low Earth orbit. For the next two and a half hours, as the Apollo spacecraft still attached to its S-IVB third stage orbited the Earth, the astronauts and MCC verified that all systems were functioning properly. McCandless then called up to the crew, 'Apollo 11, you’re go for TLI,' the Trans Lunar Injection, the second burn of the third stage engine to send them on their way to the Moon. Two hours and 44 minutes after liftoff, the third stage engine ignited for the six-minute TLI burn, increasing the spacecraft’s velocity to more than 24,000 miles per hour, enough to escape Earth’s gravity. A little over three hours after launch, and already more than 3,000 miles from Earth, the Command and Service Module (CSM) separated from the spent third stage to begin the transposition and docking maneuver. Collins flew the CSM Columbia out to a distance of about 100 feet and turned it around to face the now exposed LM Eagle still tucked into the top of the third stage. He slowly guided Columbia to a docking with Eagle, then extracted it from the third stage which was sent on a path past the Moon and into orbit around the Sun. During the maneuver, the spacecraft had traveled another three thousand miles away from Earth. During the rest of their first day in space, MCC informed the crew that because the launch and TLI had been so precise, the planned first midcourse correction would not be needed. The astronauts were finally able to remove the spacesuits they’d been wearing since before launch. In MCC, Flight Director Eugene F. Kranz’s White Team of controllers took over, with astronaut Charles M. Duke as the new Capcom. The astronauts provided a pleasant surprise with an unscheduled 16-minute color television broadcast, treating viewers on Earth with spectacular scenes of their home planet. They then placed their spacecraft in the Passive Thermal Control (PTC) or barbecue mode, rotating at three revolutions per hour, to evenly distribute temperature extremes. Finally, about 13 hours after launch and a very long day, the crew began its first sleep period, with Apollo 11 about 63,000 miles from Earth. By the time the astronauts awoke, they had reached now almost 110,000 miles from the Earth. They had a update about the status of the Soviet Luna 15 robotic spacecraft that had launched three days before and was still on its way to the Moon. The crew conducted the only midcourse correction needed during the coast to the Moon, a three-second burn of the Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine to lower the closest point to the Moon from 200 miles to 69 miles. McCandless informed the astronauts that Luna 15 had entered an elliptical orbit around the Moon, but that its objectives were still not clear. The crew conducted a scheduled TV broadcast from about 150,000 miles, showing views of a much smaller Earth with Armstrong providing a detailed description of the planet. He then turned the camera inside the cabin for views of the astronauts. The broadcast lasted 35 minutes. The crew soon after settled down for its second night’s sleep in space, which MCC extended since another midcourse correction the next morning was not needed as their trajectory remained very precise. In Houston, astronaut Frank Borman and Christopher C. Kraft, Director of Flight Crew Operations, held a press conference about Luna 15. NASA managers were concerned that with Luna 15 now in orbit around the Moon and its objectives still not clear, it might interfere in some way with Apollo 11. Borman had visited Moscow earlier in July and taking advantage of this new acquaintance with a Russian academician, Keldysh, he telephoned him and expressed NASA’s concerns. Keldysh assured Borman that Luna 15 would not interfere with Apollo 11 and in an unprecedented action in American-Soviet space relations he telegraphed Luna 15’s precise orbital parameters to Borman. The Soviets didn’t divulge Luna 15’s true intentions, stating only that it would stay in lunar orbit for two days. The major activity for Apollo 11’s third day in space was the first activation and inspection of the LM Eagle, which the crew televised to the ground from about 201,000 miles away. Armstrong described the status of the docking mechanism, 'Mike must have done a smooth job in that docking. There isn't a dent or a mark on the probe' – a compliment of Collins’ excellent piloting skills. When they opened the hatch to Eagle, the lights came on automatically. The broadcast lasted one hour and 36 minutes, after which Aldrin and Armstrong returned to Columbia and closed the hatches. Soon after, Apollo 11 passed into the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence, 214,086 miles from Earth and 38,929 miles from the Moon. The crew settled down for its third sleep period of the flight. While the crew slept, MCC decided that a planned midcourse correction that day would also not be required and they extended the crew’s rest. Shortly after they woke for their fourth day in space, Apollo 11 crossed into the Moon’s shadow and they could observe the solar corona. They could see the Moon’s surface lit by Earthshine, and for the first time they could see stars and constellations clearly. Houston read up the morning news to the crew as a item of interest was that in its reporting of the mission, the Soviet newspaper Pravda called Armstrong the 'Czar of The Ship.' The Soviet press was indicating that Luna 15 would accomplish everything that all previous Luna spacecraft had done, the first public hint that it might be trying to return samples from the Moon. Armstrong provided the following description of the Moon, which the astronauts were seeing for the first time. Moon then was filling about three-quarters of the hatch window, a part of it is in complete shadow and part of it's in Earthshine
The first lunar orbit insertion maneuver occurred on July 19, after Apollo 11 flew behind the Moon and out of contact with Earth. Nearly 76 hours into the flight, a retrograde firing of the propulsion system placed the spacecraft into an initial, elliptical lunar orbit. A second burn of the propulsion system placed the docked vehicles into lunar orbit about 70 miles above the surface. Landing in the Sea of Tranquility was the next day as the area was still in darkness. By the time of the landing, the Sun would have risen at the landing site, the low angle illumination providing optimal lighting for the landing. During an interview on Sept. 19, 2001, Armstrong said: 'I was certainly aware that this was a culmination of the work of 300,000 or 400,000 people over a decade and that the nation’s hopes and outward appearance largely rested on how the results came out. It seemed the most important thing to do was focus on our job as best we were able to and try to allow nothing to distract us from doing the very best job we could'
Aldrin and Armstrong re-activated the Lunar Module (LM) Eagle, including deploying its landing gear, and donned their pressure suits as they undocked the vehicle as Apollo 11 was behind the Moon at the start of its 13th revolution. Three landing sites had been planned for the Apollo 11 mission, function of the launch date and time. The actual site, the Landing Site 2 was to be used if Apollo 11 launched on July 16, 1969 as scheduled. It was located at 23 degrees 42 minutes 28 seconds east longitude and 0 degrees 42 minutes 50 seconds north latitude in southwestern Sea of Tranquility. The Descent Orbit Insertion (DOI) burn, a 30-second firing of the LM’s Descent Propulsion System (DPS) engine took place behind the Moon, lowering the low of Eagle’s orbit to about 50,000 feet, as close as Apollo 10 had got to the Moon’s surface. When both craft now flying separately reappeared from behind the Moon on their 14th orbit, the Powered Descent Initiation (PDI), began, the beginning of the landing maneuver. Eagle’s antenna repeatedly lost lock on the Earth but a reliable radio link was eventually re-established. The LM was flying engine first and windows facing down toward the Moon’s surface and was about 300 miles east of the landing site in the Sea of Tranquility. Based on passing landmarks about two to three seconds early, Armstrong predicted that they would land about three miles further downrange than planned. At a altitude of 40,000 feet, Armstrong maneuvered Eagle to a windows up orientation, and the pitch-over maneuver placed windows facing forward in the direction of flight, and also positioned the landing radar so it could see the lunar surface. It was the LM computer that was to control the entire landing sequence, since the separation from the control module. Another reason Armstrong took over the controls was that the computer was leading the LM into an area of a rocky chaos and a slope. He pitched Eagle to a more vertical orientation, which slowed the descent. The computer displayed the error code 1202 a few times during the descent. Controllers in Houston scanned their notes trying to figure out what that was as time was running short! Some tense conversation took place between Armstrong and Houston as the code was heralding a reboot of the capsule's computer, which did not occur however. The descent of the LEM had begun albeit some trouble had occurred with the radio link to Earth. The Guidance Officer at Mission Control called to his support, Jack Garman had made a list of all of the computer alarms in preparation for the landing. He knew immediately that a 1202 was just a warning that the guidance computer was temporarily overloading, thence the landing could continue. Garman’s preparation and clarity under pressure prevented a abort and allowed for the success of the first Moon landing mission. The 1202 alarm had already occurred during a training. Mission Control head, Gene Kranz, decided to continue however as enough informations reached to him. Coms just faded in and out along the descent. As long the computer alarm was intermittent, it was as dangerous to abord the landing that to carry on and the Mission Control considered it was 'go' with that alarm. The 1202 alarm let everyone indeed know that the guidance computer was shedding less important tasks (like rendezvous radar) to focus on steering the descent engine and providing landing information to the crew. In fact, the Apollo guidance software was so robust that no software bugs were found on any crewed Apollo missions, and it was adapted for use in Skylab and the Space Shuttle. Some minutes later a other code, the 1201, was triggered as it was equivalent to the first one, or at last meaning that the computer ignored the execution of some tasks. At that moment Armstrong decided to put the computers into a semi-automatic mode and the LM into manual control operation. Aldrin kept calling the numbers for altitude, speed and other critical data from the instruments and Armstrong eventually took over manual control for landing. It look like also that the lumpy lunar gravity and some extra speed when undocking from the Command Module brought the LEM to actually have overshot the forecast landing area and both astronauts were flying now over a crater and boulders field. Armstrong leveled off at 400 ft and searched for a plot to land! With fuel running low, on a other hand, a 60-second mark would call for a abort. At that altitude however the maneuver could have failed altogether. As two minutes of fuel were expected to be left, the 60-second marked was reached and called as the 30-second one came after that as the LEM had reached a altitude of 10 feet only. The fuel level gauges on the other hand, were giving false flags as the fuel running low oscillated at the level of the tanks' sensors. The LEM eventually landed among dust kicked by the descent engine with some shadow and a few boulders emerging out like the sole landmarks the pilot could use. When the rod extending from the landing legs made contact, that triggered a blue ligth on the console inside. Mission Control head saw that a continued silence had settled in the control room then the controllers broke into cheering. 30 seconds of fuel were remaining when Eagle touched down. 'Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed,' did he radio. Mission control erupted in celebration as tension broke, and a controller told the crew 'You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue, we're breathing again.' Armstrong later confirmed that landing was his biggest concern, saying 'the unknowns were rampant,' and 'there were just a thousand things to worry about,' as Aldrin later pointed out that the computer trouble 'unfortunately [...] came up when we did not want to be trying to solve these particular problems.'
The moonwalk also was endangered as the cold of the Moon's surface had permeated a fuel line minutes after landing, untold to the astronauts as the engine's heat eventually melted it. A faulty pressure evacuation of the capsule at last hampered the hatch opening, or Armstrong backpack, when he headed out had broken off the ascent engine arming switch. The switch by departure was actioned with a ballpoint pen. At precisely 3:17:40 PM Houston time on July 20, 1969, Aldrin had called out 'Contact light,' indicating that at least one of the three 67-inch probes hanging from the bottom of three of the LM’s footpads had made contact with the Moon. Eagle drifted to the left when three seconds later, Armstrong called out, “Shutdown,' followed by Aldrin’s, 'Okay. Engine stop,' indicating the DPS engine was shut off. They were on the Moon. In Houston, they noted via telemetry that the engine had shut down, and called to Armstrong and Aldrin, “We copy you down, Eagle.' Armstrong responded with the historic words, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.' The landing event was a purely non-visual and telemetry one as no live broadcast was planned. Both astronauts decided to forego any rest time before exiting, and they began preparations for their historic spacewalk, including donning their Portable Life Support Systems (PLSS), the backpacks that provided oxygen, removed carbon dioxide, and enabled communications, reconfigured Eagle’s cabin for depressurization, donned their helmets, visors, and gloves, and then opened the valve that vented the cabin. All that occurred under the surveillance of the Green team of controlers which had took position in Mission Control. Armstrong was helped to the LM front porch by Aldrin and once on the ladder he pulled a lanyard that released the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) on the side of Eagle’s Descent Stage, on which was mounted a black and white TV camera, allowing hundreds of millions to see him descent and reach the lunar surface. Armstrong stepped onto the Moon's surface, quoting his famed 'That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind.' Half a billion people were watching on their TVs -the largest audience ever at the time- when Neil Armstrong descended the module ladder and set foot on Moon. Armstrong's landing quote was first heard at NASA's Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex (MDSCC) in Robledo de Chavela, near Madrid as the station was more advantageous than the Australian, and U.S., California one. As a precaution, he had practiced the three-foot jump back up to the ladder’s first rung, made easier in the one-sixth lunar gravity. Armstrong immediately began his first tasks and was followed by Aldrin unto
Both astronauts unveiled the Apollo 11 commemorative plaque and they set the TV camera from the MESA about 60 feet from the LM, and mounted on a tripod so the world audience could watch their subsequent activities. They unfolded the Solar Wind Collector and set up the American flag (the metal rod did not extend all the way, which gave it the appearance of waving in a non-existent lunar breeze. Both astronauts then talked to President Nixon in the White House’s Oval Office, who offered the nation’s congratulations on their historic accomplishment. The astronauts kept their tasks afterwards, like deploying the 'Early Apollo Surface Experiment Package' (EASEP). At this point, they were running about 30 minutes behind the timeline, but their consumables were within limits so Mission Control called to tell them that they had given them a 15-minute extension on the Moon. After Moon samples had been collected, astronauts gathered the film magazines and closed up rock boxes. Aldrin was the first back into the LEM as he helped to get materials into. He also tossed to Armstrong a small package of commemorative items that they wanted to leave on the surface, including a silicon disc etched with goodwill greetings from 73 world leaders, an Apollo 1 patch commemorating astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White, and Roger B. Chaffee lost in the 1967 fire, two Soviet medals honoring cosmonauts Vladimir M. Komarov killed in the Soyuz 1 accident and Yuri A. Gagarin, the first man in space killed in an airplane crash in 1968, and a small gold olive branch, identical to ones the astronauts carried to the Moon and back for their wives. Armstrong then also got back into the cabin and they had the hatch closed and began repressurizing the LM, and ate a well-earned meal. Aldrin realized that probably while he was removing his PLSS, he broke the circuit breaker that armed the ascent stage engine, critical for their departure the next day. Fortunately, they were able to use a felt tip pen to depress the breaker button. They then depressurized the LM cabin and threw their PLSS backpacks out the hatch along with a jettison bag containing their lunar boots and other items no longer necessary, which freed up space in the cramped cabin and reduced the weight of the LM at liftoff. The TV camera on the surface was still transmitting. They then repressurized the cabin for the final time, turned the TV camera off and they turned in for a well-deserved albeit restless night’s sleep, having been awake for 21 hours. Aldrin curled up on the floor of the LM while Armstrong devised a hammock and slept on the ascent stage engine cover. The only visual record of the historic Apollo 11 landing is from a 16mm time-lapse at 6 frames per second, movie camera mounted in Buzz Aldrin’s window (right side of Lunar Module Eagle or LM). Due to the small size of the LM windows and the angle at which the movie camera was mounted, what mission commander Neil Armstrong saw as he flew and landed the LM was not recorded. Moon at the historical time of the landing, as seen from the Earth, was nearing First Quarter, with the Sea of Tranquillity already bathed by Sun. At the site of the landing, in the Sea of Tranquillity, Sun was rising, East as the Earth was seen at its Last Quarter, high, West. Venus was a remarkable star, in Taurus, the Bull!
After resting for about seven hours, 'Tranquility Base, Tranquility Base, Houston' by Capcom Ronald E. Evans on July 21, 1969, awoke Apollo 11 astronauts after their night’s sleep on the Moon. Armstrong responded with a crisp, 'Good morning Houston. Tranquility Base.' Both had slept with their suits, helmets, and gloves on since the temperature in the cabin was a chilly 61° F. Neither man had slept too soundly, partly from the excitement of the previous day’s activities, and partly from the unusual sleeping arrangements. Evans eventually called up, 'You’re cleared for takeoff.' Aldrin responded, 'Understand. We’re number one on the runway.' Armstrong and Aldrin fired the LM ascent stage to reach an initial orbit of 55 miles above the Moon on July 21, 13 miles below and slightly behind the CSM. Subsequent firings of the reaction control system helped the LM to reach an orbit of 72 miles above the Moon and to catch up with Columbus. The LM docked with the CSM on the CSM’s 27th revolution, less than 4 hours after takeoff. When the LEM docked back with Collins in the Columbia CSM, Collins later says that 'for the first time,' he 'really felt that we were going to carry this thing off.' Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the CSM with Collins for the trip back to Earth, transfering the items brought from the Moon into and avoiding Moon dust a much as possible. The LM was jettisoned four hours later and remained in lunar orbit, until it crashed on the Moon several months later. As a historical side note, as Armstrong and Aldrin were preparing for their departure from the Moon, the Soviet Luna 15 robotic spacecraft, launched three days before Apollo 11, fired its retrorocket after completing 52 lunar orbits. Signals with the craft were lost four minutes later and it is believed to have crashed in the Mare Crisium approximately 500 miles from Tranquility Base, traveling at an estimated 300 miles per hour
Apollo 11 orbited the Moon for another five hours after the LM rendezvous, then while behind the Moon fired the Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine for the two-and-one-half-minute Trans Earth Injection (TEI) burn at the end of Columbia’s 30th lunar orbit to send the astronauts homeward. The astronauts took a series of photographs of the receding Moon and placed their spacecraft into the Passive Thermal Control (PTC) back, or barbecue mode. After that, they were cleared for ther first sleep period of the Earthbound journey. Shortly after the astronauts awoke from a 10-hour rest period, they passed out of the Moon’s sphere of influence and into the Earth’s, and began accelerating toward their home planet. At a distance of 194,500 miles from Earth, they conducted an 11-second midcourse maneuver using the Service Module’s RCS thrusters to refine their trajectory for entry into Earth’s atmosphere. The astronauts treated Earth-bound viewers with a 15-minute television broadcast, beginning with a view of the receding Moon. They eventually settled in for another 10-hour rest period, about 163,000 miles from home. When they awoke for their final full day in space, they had closed the distance to Earth to 131,000 miles as they continued to accelerate. Without any mid-course trajectory correction needed, they soon passed the halfway point between Earth and Moon, 118,424 miles from each. During a 12-minute TV broadcast, the astronauts provided their reflections on the mission as, like a closing scene, the astronauts zoomed in on the Earth, now 105,000 miles away. Shortly before they retired for their last night in space, the Capcom informed the astronauts that due to a weather system approaching their nominal end-of-mission splashdown point, a new area 250 miles to the northeast would be targeted. No midcourse maneuvers were necessary however as the CM used its lift capability to extend the entry trajectory. USS Hornet was already speeding toward the new location. President of the United States Richard M. Nixon then departed on his journey to meet the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard Hornet
 | Moon as seen from orbit. picture courtesy NASA |
On July 24, 1969, at 47,000 miles from Earth and rapidly accelerating, astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. 'Buzz' Aldrin, and Michael Collins awoke for their last day in space, preparing for their splashdown in the Pacific Ocean 950 miles southwest of Hawaii. Overcast skies had made stellar navigation impossible for the recovery ship USS Hornet, so they used the ancient mariner's technique of dead reckoning to arrive on time and at the proper position. President Richard M. Nixon had flown aboard Air Force One from San Francisco via Hawaii to Johnston Island, an atoll 825 miles west-southwest of Honolulu, accompanied by NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine, Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman, and other dignitaries. From Johnston Island, they flew aboard Marine helicopters to the communications relay ship USS Arlington, where they spent the night before helicoptering to Hornet early on splashdown day. At a altitude of about 4,500 miles, Apollo 11 passed into the Earth's shadow and 12 minutes later, the Command Module (CM) separated from the Service Module that performed an evasive maneuver to avoid interfering with the reentry process. Hornet was still steaming toward the splashdown point but it had launched recovery helicopters already approaching their operational stations. The CM turned around to point its heat shield in the direction of flight as its velocity increased to more than 24,700 miles per hour. At an altitude of 400,000 feet, the point called Entry Interface, Apollo 11 encountered the first tendrils of the Earth's atmosphere. About four minutes of radio blackout followed as ionized gases created by the heat of reentry surrounded the spacecraft. Aldrin filmed the entry through Columbia's right hand window with a 16-mm camera. The CM's computer like planned to reach the new splash location, had the capsule execute a small skip maneuver to lengthen the reentry trajectory. The astronauts experienced a peak deceleration of about 6.5Gs, as one of the deployed aircraft made visual contact with the descending capsule being about 65,000 feet altitude. Three minutes later Hornet made a transient visual contact through the mostly overcast skies. At a altitude of about 24,000 feet, the spacecraft's apex cover was jettisoned, followed less than two seconds later by the two drogue parachutes to slow and stabilize the capsule. At 10,000 feet, the three main 83-foot diameter orange and white parachutes deployed, and Hornet established radio contact with Apollo 11 as it descended through the predawn sky. At precisely 195 hours and 18 minutes after lifting off from Florida, Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. The USS Hornet was still 13 miles away but rapidly closing the distance as recovery helicopters were either on station or rapidly approaching
->More About The Weather Forecast at Apollo 11 Splashdown!
Weather for Apollo 11's splasdown had been calculated by the U.S. Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service), whose Spaceflight Meteorology Group (SMG) had been providing specialized weather forecasting decision support services since the days of Project Mercury. Tropical storm Claudia in the forecasted area was dissipating and controllers eventually moved to another aim point down-range due to scattered thunderstorms, which could threaten the parachuted landing. The Fleet Weather Central Pearl Harbor was in charge of forecasting weather for the crew's recovery, as its manager had a top-secret clearance to view imagery from a classified military weather satellite program that eventually became the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). NASA's Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) also provided imagery of the recovery area. Weather conditions at the time of the new splashdown site were excellent, with a visibility of 12 miles, wind speeds of 17 knots (19.5 mph) and 3 to 5 foot waves. There was about six-tenths cloud cover above 1,500 feet with no precipitation however
Initially, Columbia assumed the 'Stable 2 position' in the water, with the spacecraft's apex pointing downward. Within a few minutes, three flotation bags inflated to right the spacecraft. Unlike previous recoveries, Apollo 11's was more complicated due to the back-contamination prevention measures that had to be strictly adhered to. Frogmen of the US Navy's Underwater Demolition Team (UDT), wearing scuba gear to minimize any exposure to possible lunar microorganisms entered action. Once the capsule righted itself, the first swimmer in the water attached a sea anchor to the spacecraft to stabilize it in the rough seas. He was followed by two other swimmers as the three of them attached a flotation collar around the capsule. A helicopter dropped the first raft into the water, which the three inflated and attached to the flotation collar. A second raft was inflated upwind from the capsule to protect the frogmen from any Moon germs. A decontamination officer was next in the water and climbed into the second raft. A helicopter lowered the Biological Isolation Garments (BIGs) as well as the canisters containing decontamination solutions for the crew and the capsule. Decontamination operations were performed at the capsule, or BIGs were handed to the crew. Astronauts then emerged from the capsule and climbed aboard one raft, first Armstrong, then Collins and finally Aldrin. Decontamination of the capsule and astronauts kept on. The recovery helicopter one by one retrieved the three astronauts from the raft using a rescue net. A NASA flight surgeon gave them a brief medical evaluation and the helicopter flew to the Hornet, landing theree 63 minutes after Apollo 11's splashdown. From there, sailors placed it on an elevator, took it below decks, and towed it toward the reception area near the prime Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) as a second MQF was held in reserve in case problems arose with the first, or in case any of the ship's crew was inadvertently exposed to the astronauts or spacecraft. Three astronauts and NASA's surgeon entered the MQF and they staid into until their arrival at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now the Johnson Space Center in Houston, two days later. A NASA engineer who filmed the entry of the astronauts into also had to kept inside. At the Mission Control in Houston, once the recovery team safely delivered the astronauts aboard Hornet, everyone lit cigars and waved American flags amid a cacophony of cheers. One screen displayed the words of President John F. Kennedy from his May 1961 message to Congress that committed the nation to the lunar goal while another showed the Apollo 11 patch with the words 'Task Accomplished – July 1969.' In a short speech at astronauts in the MQF, U.S. President Nixon recognized the tremendous accomplishment of the Moon landing and invited the astronauts and their wives to a state dinner in Los Angeles on August 13, once they were out of quarantine. Hornet's chaplain provided a prayer and the service ended with the playing of the National Anthem. As far as the Apollo 11 capsule was concerned, it was hauled aboard the USS Hornet and transfered to the hangar deck next to the MQF. After that the Hornet set sail for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Without breaking the biological barrier, the NASA engineer in the MQF used a flexible plastic tunnel to the capsule to retrieved the mission samples, films and spacesuits and so on. He then transfered samples and films outside the MQF through a transfer lock, which included a decontamination wash. All those were flown to Houston where they were examined and processed in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) facility within 48 hours of splashdown
The U.S. government in 1969 had prepared for the possibility of failure of the Apollo 11, and the White House had a speech prepared. That speech had been written by Nixon’s speechwriter William Safire. It addressed the would-be widows of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin personally and the rest of the nation in general. Should the LM have failed to lift both astronauts back to the orbiting Apollo capsule, they would have been doomed to death by starvation, and their only option suicide, Safire said in 1999. Command Module Pilot Michael Collins would have had to return to Earth alone. President Nixon never had to use the speech and he instead congratulated the three Apollo 11 astronauts, adding that 'because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world.' Here follows the text:
'IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind for their sacrifice. These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send tow of her sons into the unknown. In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Other will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.
PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT:
The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be
AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN:
A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to 'the deepest of the deep,' concluding with the Lord's Prayer'
Back to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) in Houston, astronauts kept a 21-day quarantine into special quarters. Six additional employees were brought into the quarantine due to breaches in the biological barrier in the sample processing area. Two representatives from the World Health Organization visited and inspected the facility and declared it to be well-run and organized. The astronauts' routine was modified on Aug. 5, when workers in the LRL threw a surprise birthday party for Armstrong who turned 39 that day. The first Moon rocks arrived at the LRL on July 25, teams of scientists and technicians began examining them. Initial examination of the Moon rocks revealed that many contained bubbles or cavities, likely formed by gases trapped in the molten rocks as they cooled. The lunar dust contained a large proportion of tiny glass spheres, likely contributing to the slippery nature noted by the astronauts during their spacewalk. Chemical analyses revealed that some of the samples contained a high concentration of the element titanium – up to six percent in one sample – an element that is relatively rare on Earth. Scientists, on a other hand, used instruments astronauts had left on the lunar surface, especially the lunar laser range. Researchers continue to use the LRRR, as well as two others instruments left on the Moon by later Apollo missions and a similar instrument on the Soviet Lunokhod 2 lunar rover. The quarantine was terminated by the evening of Aug. 10, 1969. Astronauts then held a presser and participated later in the state dinner President Nixon had invited them in Los Angeles, aboard the USS Hornet. Before that, on Aug. 13 they flew from Houston to New York City and whisked by helicopter to the Wall Street heliport. From there, the Apollo 11 astronauts were treated to the largest, longest, and loudest tickertape parade in the city's history. An estimated four million people lined the parade route. Another ticker parade occurred that same day in Chicago, Illinois followed by two million. By September, astronauts appeared at the dedication ceremony of a new postage stamp that honored their mission. Astronauts had carried the stamp’s master die to the Moon aboard the Lunar Module Eagle. At last, on Sep. 16, Apollo 11 astronauts addressed a joint session of the US Congress, in the same chamber in which in May 1961 President John F. Kennedy committed the nation to land a man on the Moon. After that, the Apollo astronautes rode a long worldwide goodwill tour. They traveled to six continents, crossed the Equator six times, met with Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings and Queens, and ambassadors, received numerous medals, accolades, and gifts, rode in countless motorcades, and gave 22 press conferences
The Apollo 11 landing was putting an end to the space race which had been initiated by the USSR in the 1950s. Although the Russians had performed all the first premieres in space (first satellite, first man in space, first spacewalk), the Apollo 11 landing allowed USA to win the race due to a surpassing technology. for more details about the whole of the Apollo program, check our tutorial 'Apollo Program: Man on Moon'. By July 1969, in an unusual episode of warm relations between the two superpowers still very much in competition for dominance in space, Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman was invited by of the Union of Soviet Societies of Friendship and the Institute of Soviet-American Relations to tour Russia. Borman became the first American astronaut to visit Star City on July 5. He also met with Academician Mstislav V. Keldysh, President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and one of the founders of the Soviet space program. The Soviets at the time were still very much in the race to the Moon with their N-1 Moon rocket but a unpiloted orbital lunar mission failed on July 3 as the N-1 exploded shortly after launch (that accident followed a first launch failure in February 1969, and set the N-1 program back by about two years). Undeterred by the N-1 explosion, the Soviets made one more attempt to upstage Apollo 11 – a robotic lunar sample return mission, launching their Luna 15 on July 13 on a Proton rocket (after a failure in June). Four days later, as Apollo 11 was headed toward the Moon, Luna 15 entered an elliptical lunar orbit. Initially planned for a July 20 landing, Soviet controllers concerned about the ruggedness of the planned landing site in the Mare Crisium kept Luna 15 in orbit an extra day. Finally, on July 21 after 52 orbits around the Moon, Luna 15 began its descent toward the surface as Armstrong and Aldrin had already completed their walk on the Moon and were preparing to lift off. Transmissions with Luna 15 ceased early however, and it is estimated that it crashed at excessive speed and its attitude off by several degrees. It was not before September 1970 that the Soviets managed a automatic lander at Moon, with the Luna 16 returning lunar soil samples from the Mare Fecunditatis
A NASA-funded project, from the New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, is aiming to make the Apollo 11 Landing site on the Moon a National Historic Landmark. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will be used to take pictures from the early space age and the Apollo program missions still standing on the Moon. The project deems that the Sea of Tranquillity landing site deserves preservation after the LRO will have assess their condition. Moon, now, on the other hand, is a renewed target of many nations as newly incoming space nations like India, or China are aiming at a manned Moon landing. The USA, as far as they are concerned, were engaged by President Bush, since 2004, into a new, bold, vision of the aims of the USA in space are to be, with a new space vehicle and new launchers -known like the Constellation program- are to be built at the effect of bringing US astronauts back to the Moon by 2015 and no latter than 2020, with the astronauts performing a permanent presence at a Moon base, ISS-style. This new US program too is then aiming at a manned journey to Mars. As far as the conspiracy theories about the Moon landings are concerned, they mostly originate from Russia, where the sentiment of the spatial defeat still is well alive
->The Apollo Missions Imaged by the LRO Orbiter!
 | Apollo missions landing sites as seen by the LRO orbiter in 2009. picture courtesy NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University |
NASA, for the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, hold a series of special events, like rewamped videos of the mission or like the audio 'Time Capsule' of Apollo 11, with the entire Apollo 11 mission replayed and streamed on the Internet at exactly the same time and date it was broadcast in 1969. check more from the NASA site!
At the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landmark landing on the Moon, NASA has endeavoured to restore the video footage of the sojourn on the Moon. Here is a sample of what could have been watched, live in 1969 (left), and how the video now is looking like, once restored (right). see more about the Apollo 11 videos and NASA restoration project! Data from the Apollo 11 mission were sent from the spacecraft to three ground stations, one in California and two in Australia, which retransmitted it to the Manned Space Flight Center in Houston. The ground stations also recorded the data on special 1-inch, 14-track tapes, one track of which was for video. The video footage was recorded in 'slow scan' -- 10 video frames per second -- which meant it couldn't be directly broadcast over commercial television. The video was converted for broadcast and uplinked to a satellite, then downlinked to Houston, from which it was sent out to the world. In early 2005, responding to inquiries from NASA retirees and others, NASA began a search for the 14-track data tapes. Ultimately, the agency couldn't find the tapes and determined that they had most likely been erased and used again, which was standard practice at the time. The team though came across video that had been converted to broadcast which was much higher quality than what they had been seeing. Portions of the video were restored and enhanced it for viewing in high definition and released like HD Apollo 11 videos in July 2009
 | a still of the NASA-restored Apollo 11 video footage. picture courtesy NASA |
The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 by 2019, mostly was illustrated with two sites: one about following the whole mission, the other displaying a series of pano views constructed from photos taken by astronauts on the Moon
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