In the Shadow of the Moon Page #7

It was... That's the kind of response

that I think I would have had.

But he was very, very controlled

and those words came out

and they were very appropriate

and... Perfect.

Capcom:
[On radio]

That looks beautiful from here, Neil.

Armstrong:
[On radio]

It has a stark beauty all its own,

it's like much of the high desert

of the United States.

It's different

but it's very pretty out here.

We had it in our flight plan

that we'd take the first 10-15 seconds

down at the bottom of the ladder,

sort of hold on to the

edge of the landing gear

and just sort of check

our stability and so forth.

Aldrin:
[On radio]

Okay, I'm on the top steps

and it's a very simple

matter to hop down

from one step to the next.

Aldrin:

So that's when I decided

to take that period of time to, ah...

[Clears throat]

To...

Take care of a bodily function

of slightly filling up the urine bag,

so that I wouldn't be troubled

with having to do that later on.

Armstrong:
[On radio]

There you go.

So, anyway, everybody has

their firsts on the Moon.

[Chuckling]

And that one hasn't been

disputed by anybody.

[Music playing]

Bean:
The only change

that I noticed they made

prior to their flight

was they'd come to them

about a month ahead of time,

as I remember.

And they said to them,

"You're going to plant

the American flag."

So, we got the flag out

and put it in the ground

and we'd never really

practiced that one before.

[Music playing]

Aldrin:

Here we were on the surface

and I knew this was what

people were watching.

More people were watching us

than had ever watched two human beings

before in history

and yet we're further away,

not just in distance

but in things we've got to do

to get back home.

We've got to do some difficult things

to get out of this desolate place

and get back home again.

[Radio chatter]

Capcom:
[On radio]

Thank you, 13.

when you get a chance.

We'd like you to stir up your cryo tanks.

Man:
[On radio]

Stand by.

[Rumble/static]

When the explosion occurred, of course,

I didn't know what happened.

Lovell:
[On radio]

Houston, we've had a problem.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Stand by 13, we're looking at it.

Lovell:

We saw the oxygen go to zero

And then come up to the top

and then went down to zero again.

We were in serious trouble.

I thought when I saw

that oxygen system leaking down,

I figured we'd lost them.

I really did.

I didn't think we'd make it.

Lovell:

We were as calm as could be.

We didn't panic.

Uh, if we did,

we'd still be up there,

or we could have

bounced off the walls for ten minutes

and be back where we started from.

So the first thing

that went through our mind was:

"What do we have to work with

to get home? "

And of course,

we had the Lunar Module.

It was like, abandon ship,

get into the lifeboat

and we'll come back in the lifeboat.

Capcom:
[On radio]

We figure we've got about 15 minutes

worth of power left

in the Command Module

so we want you to start

getting over in the L.M.,

and getting some power in it.

And you ready to copy your procedure?

Man:
[On radio]

Okay.

I worked on the problem

of using the Lunar Module

as the prime propulsion vehicle,

as a tugboat.

and how they could fly it manually,

stick and rudder stuff,

if they'd lost the prime guidance system.

Duke:

John and l, with others,

had worked on this manoeuvre

to get them back

on what was called a

free return trajectory,

so they would come back

and come right back

into Earth's atmosphere

on the correct angle and velocity.

Man:
Apollo 13, 2 minutes away now

from scheduled time of ignition.

Lovell:

And so we used the Earth's terminator

to figure out our attitude,

we had to get the Earth in the window

of the Lunar Module.

Man:
[On radio]

Confirmed ignition.

Lovell:

I knew when that engine went on,

without an autopilot, I'd never be able

to keep the Earth in the window by myself,

so Fred-O kept the Earth

from going sideways,

I kept it from going up and down...

I had to learn to...

manoeuvre all over again

in a very short period of time.

But you'd be surprised

how quickly you learn.

Capcom:
[On radio]

Houston, you're looking good.

Duke:
My attitude went from,

"We ain't going to make it"

to, "If we don't foul up

and they don't foul up,

and we don't have any other disaster,

we're going to make it."

[Applause/whistling]

Bean:
It was NASA's greatest moment,

I'm convinced.

And that crew,

to keep calm and responsive

and do things right the first time,

that's important, it was just great.

They were great.

It was a case of survival

and certainly landing on the Moon

and surviving to see the next sunrise

are two different things.

And it wasn't until I got

comfortably back on Earth

that I became very much disappointed

in not making a landing on the Moon.

[Music playing]

Man:
[On radio]

Boy, that's a big mountain

when you're down here

looking up, isn't it?

Scott:

We all of a sudden realized

that we were below the

tops of the mountains.

Man:
[On radio]

I can't believe it. Amazing!

Bean:

And then I look out at the horizon

and I thought to myself,

"God, I hope Pete doesn't land over there

because we'll tip over."

Man:
[On radio]

Here comes the shadow.

We were blowing lunar dust everywhere.

It was like landing through the fog.

Man:
[On radio]

Well, we is here!

Man, is we here!

How's that look?

Cernan:

And if there's any one moment

in my whole flight when time stood still,

it was those first few seconds

when we touched down

and everything came to a screeching halt.

And there we were.

[Music playing]

Mitchell:

The first feelings were,

"Wow, this is, uh...

What am I doing here?

This is a different world!"

And, uh, there's a part of it of...

"You dumb ass... You've really got yourself

into something here!"

Bean:
When you land

on the Moon and you stop,

and you get out, nobody's out there.

This little L.M. and then

the two of you, you're it,

on this whole big place.

And that's a weird feeling,

it's a weird feeling to be...

Two people and that's it.

Man:
[On radio]

Oh, my golly. Unbelievable!

Unbelievable.

But is it bright in the Sun.

Oh, look at that.

Isn't that something?

We're up on a slope, Joe,

and we're looking back

down into the valley.

It's beautiful.

That is spectacular.

[Music playing]

Dad, this is really

a rock and rolling ride, isn't it?

Never been on a ride like this before.

Schmitt:

The Rover was very useful,

very comfortable ride for the most part,

but any time you hit

a bump in one-sixth gravity,

you're going to be off the surface

for a little ways.

Cernan:
I hold the world's speed record

downhill in a Rover.

I think it was

I think even Gene Cernan

with all his test pilot macho

felt that that was a little fast!

Man:
[On radio]

There are a lot of craters

and it's just sporty driving.

I've just got to keep my eye

on the road every second.

What really saves you up there

is there's nobody coming down the road

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