In the Shadow of the Moon Page #5

Mitchell:
You get to see

the Earth receding,

you get to see the Moon

coming towards you...

And it's awe-inspiring.

And you start to identify, "Hey,

we're going to be up there pretty soon,

and, bye-bye, back there."

[Music playing]

Man:
[On radio]

This transmission is coming to you

approximately halfway

between the Moon and the Earth.

We've been 31 hours,

about 20 minutes into flight.

We have about, uh,

less than 40 hours left to go to the Moon.

We journeyed on our way.

We set up a course,

we took our suits off

at this point, stowed them,

we ate a meal and then

just went into our flight plan.

Cernan:
You know,

wasn't Grandma's cooking,

but it was worth it.

We did have hot water

on the command module

and so we took, uh...

a regular little shaving cream

and a razor and had a tissue paper,

And I can't tell you how good,

after three or four days,

it feels to shave.

Duke:

In our checklist,

it turned out that

my little boys and my wife,

had these little

greetings, if you will,

were inserted into the flight plan.

This one was from my son, Charles.

It says, just in crayon,

"From Charles. We love you."

And on the other side,

he sort of had his idea

of what the...

Lunar Module looks like.

And Tom, that was not quite five,

and he wrote "Dear Daddy,

have a safe trip home. Love, Tom."

Collins:

It's not fear, it's worry.

And I think there's a legitimate distinction

between the two.

So, it's not a question

of you're scared all the time,

but it is you're mildly worried all the time,

or at least, I was.

You know, you're not sure all these things

are going to work properly,

and there's a hell of a lot of them

coming in a very fragile daisy-chain

and you don't want any of those links

in the chain to break

because downstream from that broken link,

they're all useless.

So yes, you're worried,

you're concerned.

I always thought of myself as one

of the more fearful astronauts, really.

And when I'd look out of the window

of the spacecraft,

I would think,

"If that window blows out,

I'm going to die in about a second."

There's death right out

there about an inch away.

Capcom:
[On radio]

All your systems are looking good.

Going around the corner.

We'll see you on the other side, over.

Man:
[On radio]

Everything looks okay up here.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Roger, out.

Cernan:
We... We didn't see the Moon

until after we were there.

It's like some of these

science-fiction movies

where you see this big meteorite

just slowly moving.

You could feel the Moon's presence.

You couldn't see it.

We went into darkness,

after being in daylight the whole time

on the way to the Moon.

And then we went into darkness.

And we're in the shadow of the Moon.

[Music playing]

Collins:

When the Sun is shining on the surface

at a very shallow angle,

the craters cast long shadows

and the Moon's surface

seems very inhospitable.

Forbidding, almost.

I did not sense any great invitation

on the part of the Moon

for us to come into its domain.

I sensed more, almost a hostile place...

A... a scary place.

[Music playing]

Bean:

It was tense,

because even though

they'd practiced it in the simulator cockpit,

they didn't always make

a successful landing.

You've got to end up down there

with just the right amount of fuel.

Like, three minutes, you've got to be

at a certain altitude and air speed.

It didn't work...

Sometimes the update

from the landing radar didn't work,

and this was when

we were trying to do it right,

just to find a way to do it right.

This was a big deal.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Okay, it's go there, Capcom,

on the hot fire, okay?

All flight controllers going on the horn.

Go, no-go for undocking!

Various:
[On radio]

Retro? Go! Fido? Go! Guidance? Go!

Control? Go!

Delcom? Go! GNC? Go!

Ecom? Go! Surgeon? Go!

Capcom, we're go

for undocking.

Man:
[On radio]

Apollo 11, Houston,

We're go for undocking, over.

Duke:
Capcom was

the capsule communicator

and it was always an astronaut.

and he was the only

one that was allowed

to speak directly to the crew.

Tell him to go... [Indistinct] over.

And so I was very, very excited

to be part of that historic event.

If... we pulled it off,

was going to be

a tremendous honour.

[Music playing]

Man:
[On radio]

Capcom, we're go to continue PDI.

You're go to...

[Static]

You're go to continue

powered descent.

You're go to

continue powered descent.

Man 1 :
[On radio]

Okay, everybody. Let's hang tight,

look for landing radar.

Man 2:
[On radio]

Flight guns?

Man 1:

[Indistinct]

Man 2:
We'll meet that landing radar

by 18,000 with this down-track.

Man 1:

Rog.

Aldrin:
The landing radar

was now beginning to receive signals

and being Dr. Rendezvous,

no matter what the checklist said,

I was going to leave

the rendezvous radar on and active

so if we had to abort,

it was on and working

and we could reacquire

mic as soon as possible

if we had to go back up.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Houston, we got data dropout,

you're still looking good.

Duke:

Then we had a computer alarm.

"Computer Problem, 1202".

And well, what's 1202?

Duke:

So when the crew reported this alarm,

my heart sank, really.

"Oh no, we've got a main,

primary computer problem.

Armstrong:
[On radio]

Capcom:
[On radio]

Yeah, and same thing we had.

Aldrin:
So the landing radar

is feeding information,

the rendezvous radar is,

and evidently that combination

was not anticipated by the guys at M. I.T.

They're pretty narrow-minded.

You're making a descent,

you need the radar, landing radar!

You're making a rendezvous,

you need the rende...

But you don't need to mix the two.

[Chuckling]

But they didn't think the same way I did.

Duke:
The guidance guy,

Steve Bales, responded...

Man:
[On radio]

We're go on that flight!

Duke:
I heard him say that

to flight control

and I just voiced right up,

"We're go, we're go, Eagle."

And we were go.

Capcom:
[On radio] Eagle, Houston,

you are go for landing, over.

Man:
[On radio]

Roger, understand.

Going for landing, 3000 feet.

Look out for alarm: 1201.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Man:
[On radio]

Roger, 1201.

Same type, we're go, flight.

- Okay, we're go.

- We're go.

Same type, we're go.

Man:
[On radio]

Roger.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Descent, two fuel only.

Man:
[On radio] Fuel critical.

They didn't want to say critical.

Collins:

And then it seemed like Neil

was having a difficult time

finding a suitable spot to put it down

and I got a little worried then

because they didn't have

a lot of extra fuel.

Man:
[On radio]

I think we better be quiet, Mike.

Man 2:
[On radio]

Capcom:
[On radio]

Okay, the only call-outs from now on will be fuel.

Duke:
The guidance system

was carrying them into a big boulder field

and it wasn't suitable to land.

So we noticed the trajectory level off

and he just started

flying almost horizontal

across the Moon at a high rate of speed.

One of the worst things

you can do for gas

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