This morning at 9:27 EDT, Buzz Aldrin crawled into the Lunar Module Eagle and began the lengthy process of powering things up for the short mission life of the module. An hour later, Neil Armstrong joined Buzz in the LM.
A little over three hours after that, 1:47 PM, they released the latches and
separated from the Command Module. At 2:12, Michael Collins fired thrusters on
the CM moving it two miles away from the LM. Except for that small altitude
difference, both vehicles remained in their initial orbit from yesterday's
lunar orbit insertion until 3:08 PM when Armstrong fired the descent engine to
lower the Eagle's orbit.
What follows is a 20 minute video depicting the landing which is easily the
best modern reconstruction of the landing that I've seen. It combines video
from the window as Armstrong would have seen it with the audio traffic from
Mission Control. The first three minutes gives a modern simulation and
animation of how it all worked; after that, it goes to the view recorded on
the LM with spacecraft communication on the left speaker and mission control
intercom on the right. Yes, I think it's worth the time.
The LM touches down at 4:18PM EDT.
At 6:00 PM, Armstrong radios down to mission control that he recommends they
start the EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) sooner than planned; at 9 PM.
Although they don't make the 9PM goal, the 10:39 beginning of the EVA is still
five hours earlier than the mission plans.
As I've mentioned before, this was the last vacation I would ever take with my parents. July of 1969 was the summer between my 9th and 10th grade years of school, and I was 15 years old. My older brother, 18, had graduated high school in June and couldn't vacation with us. Like millions of people around the world, I hung by the front of the black and white TV; this one in my uncle's house in New York City (The Bronx, for those who know). We watched intently but I don't recall exactly how much we saw or if we watched until 1:11 tomorrow morning when the EVA officially concluded. It's a sobering thought how many of the family members there on that historic day and night have passed away. Both of my parents, my uncle and aunt, and I'm simply not sure how many else. Of the people I've mentioned, only my older brother survives to this anniversary.
My grandmother was born on an Iowa farm and grew up with no electricity, a hand drawn well, no modern medicine, and a horse for transportation. She lived to see man walk on the moon...and then abandon the greatest human achievement up to that time. Literally from sod-busting to the stars in one average human lifetime. And then we quit.
ReplyDeleteAnd then we quit...
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