In the Shadow of the Moon Page #6

is stop your rate of descent

because then you have to take time

flying level,

then you have to get

your rate of descent built up again.

All that takes gas, okay?

So when he levelled off, I thought,

"l wonder if he's going to make it."

If... If there was a

boulder field and a crater

that we wanted to avoid,

there are four things you can do.

You can land short,

you can land left, right, or land long.

All right, to land short,

you've got to pitch up like this

and you lose sight

of where you're going.

And... Either left or right

is also a pretty drastic manoeuvre.

The easiest thing to do

is to just pitch forward a little bit

and fly over and land long.

Some of these boulders

were the size of Volkswagens

and you don't want to land

with one gear on top of one

and one gear down in a hole.

That would not have been good.

So, it was a little... Iffy

right there at the very end.

[Radio chatter]

We had two calls

that we were to give from mission control.

The first was "Eagle, 60 seconds",

that meant he got

and at the end of that 60 seconds,

by mission rule, I would call abort.

Bean:
I never imagined

that he wasn't going to land by then

because I think he

would have dropped it in

from wherever the engine quit.

He wasn't coming home and saying,

"l got low on fuel

so I decided to abandon it."

I don't think any

astronaut would do that,

that wouldn't be the right stuff!

Man:
[On radio] 300 feet down.

Three and a half. 47 forward.

Aldrin:

Neil thinks things through thoroughly

and then does what he thinks is right

and usually it's the right thing to do.

I don't think anybody can come close

to touching the skills that he had.

Various:
[On radio]

Duke:

The tension mounted in mission control

and it was like you could feel it.

You couldn't see it,

but you could sense the tension.

And it was...

I remember dead silence.

[Ticking]

Man:
[On radio]

Three feet down, two and a half.

Picking up some dust.

Man:
[On radio]

Three feet, two and a half down.

[Radio chatter]

Man:
[On radio] Pull forward.

Just into the right a little.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Man:
[On radio]

Contact light.

Okay, engines stop.

[Indistinct]

Descent.

Remote control, both on.

Descent engine Command override off.

Engine arm off.

We've had shut down.

Capcom:
[On radio]

We copy you down, Eagle.

Okay, everybody, t-1,

stand by for t-1.

Armstrong:
[On radio]

Tranquillity Base here.

The Eagle has landed!

Duke:

Roger, twang... Tranquillity,

We copy you on the ground.

You've got a bunch of

guys about to turn blue.

We're breathing again,

thanks a lot.

Armstrong:
[On radio]

Thank you.

I was so excited,

I-I couldn't even get

out "Tranquillity".

It was "twang-quillity"

or something like that.

[Music playing]

Whew! Boy!

[Chuckle]

Stadium announcer:

Special announcement!

You will be happy to know

that the Apollo 11 has landed safely.

[Roaring cheer]

[Speaking foreign language]

[Music playing]

I think it's just wonderful

to be on Earth and to live

what's going on on the Moon.

It's marvellous!

And as a French woman,

how do you think about it?

Oh, I think it's wonderful.

I always trusted America

and I knew they couldn't fail.

I think we might have

gone and had a beer.

But l...

So we were real happy and it was...

Real pleased we'd done it

and so it was a great feeling

of accomplishment and pride,

For the... President Kennedy

and for the nation,

we did what we said we were going to do.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Roger. We read you five-by, Columbia.

He has landed.

Tranquillity Base.

Eagle is at

Tranquillity, over.

Collins:
[On radio]

Yeah, I heard the whole thing!

Capcom:
[On radio]

Well, it was a good show.

Collins:
[On radio]

Fantastic.

Collins:

I discovered later

that I was described as

the loneliest man ever

in the universe or something,

which really is a lot of baloney.

I mean, l...

I had mission control

yakking in my ear half the time.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Columbia, Houston. How did it go? Over.

Collins:
[On radio]

Listen, babe,

everything is going just swimmingly,

it's beautiful.

Collins:

I rather enjoyed it.

I certainly was aware of the fact

that I was by myself,

particularly when I was over

on the back side of the Moon.

You know, I can remember

thinking, "God, you look over there

and there's 3 billion people,

plus two, somewhere down there,

and then over here there's one plus...

God only knows what!"

So, l... I know I felt that strongly,

but I didn't feel it as loneliness

and I certainly didn't feel it as fear,

I felt it as awareness,

almost a feeling of exaltation.

I... I liked it.

It was a good feeling.

Everything was going well

with the command module,

I had my happy little home,

I had the bright lights on.

Everything was fine. I enjoyed that time.

They're going to probably open

the hatch of the Lunar Module

around 9:
00 o'clock

Eastern Daylight time,

just two hours from now

and shortly after that,

of Wapakoneta, Ohio,

the Commander of this

successful Moon mission

will begin to step down the nine steps

of the Lunar landing Module

to the surface of the Moon itself.

And what a moment that will be!

Capcom:
[On radio]

And we're getting a picture on the TV.

There's a great deal of contrast in it

and currently,

it's upside down on our monitor

but we can make out a fair amount of detail.

Scott:
I realised,

of all the science-fiction writers

who ever wrote about going to the Moon,

I don't believe any of them ever dreamed

about the world watching it on television.

[Mixed chatter]

Capcom:
[On radio]

Neil, this is Houston,

loud and clear.

Break, break, Buzz, this is Houston,

Uh, radio check, and

verify TV circuit breaker.

Aldrin:
[On radio]

Roger, TV circuit breaker's in.

[Music playing]

Capcom:
[On radio]

Okay, Neil,

we can see you coming

down the ladder now.

Scott:
Every place I go,

everybody I see, meet,

even people who were children,

tiny babies at the time,

watched Neil put his

first step on the Moon,

the whole world participated.

Newsreader:

... Que l'homme pour la premiere fois,

prenne pied sur la lune.

Les Russes sont loin... [Indistinct]

naturellement.

[Music playing]

Armstrong:
[On radio]

Stand by.

[Music playing]

I'm at the foot of the ladder.

The L.M. footpads are only, uh...

Depressed in the surface about...

one or two inches,

although the surface appears to be

very, very fine-grained

as you get close to it.

It's almost like a powder down there.

It's very fine.

Okay, I'm going to step off the L.M. now.

[Music playing]

That's one small step for Man...

One giant leap for Mankind.

Newsreader:

"That's one small step for Man,

One giant leap for Mankind."

[Mixed chatter]

Scott:

It was like Neil,

but deeper than I thought

that he would come up with.

I wouldn't have had the

self-control to do that.

I'd have...

To me, I'd have been

jumping up and down,

"Yahoo!" You know?

"Man, I'm here!"

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