The Eagle Gets Its Wings

The insignia for Apollo 11.

There was no certainty, at the beginning of the Apollo missions, that Apollo 11 would be the mission that attempted the first manned lunar landing. At the beginning of Project Apollo, NASA simply had a list of lettered tasks they had to accomplish:

• A Mission. Unmanned test of the command and service module.
• B Mission. Unmanned Lunar Module test.
• C Mission. Manned Command Module in low earth orbit test.
• D Mission. Manned Command Module and Lunar module in low earth orbit.
• E Mission. Manned Command Module and Lunar Module elliptical earth orbit.
• F Mission. Manned Command Module and Lunar Module in lunar orbit.
• G Mission. Manned lunar landing.

Until each step had been completed, in sequence, the lunar landing would not even be attempted. By July 1969, the Apollo missions had done all of the missions apart from G. Apollo 11 thus became the first of the Apollo missions to attempt a lunar landing.

The word ‘attempt’ is notable here. There was mixed feeling within NASA as to whether the landing could be achieved on the first shot; Neil Armstrong was told by the astronaut office to do nothing risky, and if a landing wasn’t possible he was to abort the mission. He was also promised he and his crew would skip the astronaut rotation and would command the very next Apollo mission for a second try. Safety of the crew was paramount.

Three To Represent Mankind – The Crew of Apollo 11

The crew of Apollo 11: (L-R) Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.

The crew selection for the first manned landing was always going to be an interesting choice – and it was, naturally, the selection that all of those in the astronaut office wanted. Eventually, the crew of Apollo 11 was announced:

• Neil Armstrong. Armstrong was a veteran of space flight, having commanded Gemini 8. When a problem with the spacecraft on Gemini 8 caused an aborted mission, Armstrong handled the crisis well – many speculated such cool thinking made him a natural choice to command Apollo 11.
• Michael Collins. Having previously flown on the highly demanding Gemini 10 flight, Collins too was a natural selection for the first manned flight. He was to become “the loneliest man in history” during Apollo 11, as he orbited the moon in the command module while the lunar landing and moon walks took place. All command module pilots were required to have experience of rendezvous in space – essentially for docking the lunar module and command module following the moon trip – and Collins had performed two such manoevres on Gemini 2.
• Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. Aldrin, too, had flight experience – making Apollo 11 only the second all-veteran crew. The role of Lunar Module Pilot would, on subsequent landings, go primarily to rookies, but further experience was deemed necessary for the first landing. Along with Commander Jim Lovell, Aldrin had flown the final mission of Project Gemini and performed admirably when a problem occured with a docking procedure. He had also performed a spacewalk.

“Who Gets Out First?” and Other Crew Selection Nuances

Deke Slayton, NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations

Although Armstrong and Aldrin had learned they would be the first men on the moon, the question of which of them would actually be first on the surface was by no means apparent. While Armstrong was the commander of the flight and the senior astronaut, history gave Aldrin hope of being the first human on the moon.

During Project Gemini, the senior pilot had stayed inside the spacecraft while the junior pilot performed spacewalks. If that trend was to be repeated on Apollo, Aldrin would be the first to leave the lunar module for the lunar surface. Armstrong was decidedly cool about the decision, stressing time and again that all he really cared about was the technicality of the landing.

The decision fell to Deke Slayton, one of the Original 7 astronauts who had been grounded due to a heart condition; he was now Director of Flight Crew Operations. His decision, however, was based in necessity; for Aldrin to get out first, he would need to move around Armstrong as Armstrong was nearer the exit hatch. Essentially, a quirk of design meant that Armstrong was to be the first on the moon.

Jim Lovell

Another interesting point about the crew selection is that, at some point in 1968, a conversation between Armstrong and Slayton nearly made Jim Lovell – not Buzz Aldrin – the lunar module pilot for Apollo 11. Slayton offered Armstrong the chance to switch Lovell to his crew. Lovell was an experienced and talented pilot, who already had three space trips – more than anyone else – to his name. He was already on the back up crew to Apollo 11. Armstrong declined, insisting he had no problem with Aldrin, and that Lovell deserved a command of his own rather than taking what was essentially the lowest rank on an Apollo mission. Slayton agreed, and Lovell was promptly named Mission Commander of Apollo 13. (Interestingly, Armstrong’s appreciation of Lovell’s talent actually cost the latter his chance at a lunar landing, as Apollo 13 was to suffer an explosion in space and the landing was aborted.)

Slayton’s original offering came from the fact that Lovell was always intended to be on the Apollo 11 crew, though not as Lunar Module Pilot. He had served as back up crew on Apollo 8, and when Michael Collins was grounded due to a back problem, Lovell became prime crew and went on to orbit the moon for the first time in Apollo 8. When Collins had recovered, he was given Lovell’s original place on the crew of Apollo 11 as Command Module Pilot. So while the refrain of Armstrong-Aldrin-Collins is known to most, it was very nearly Armstrong-Aldrin-Lovell, or even Armstrong-Lovell-Collins. Only Neil Armstrong’s place remained certain.

Columbia and Eagle

Apollo 11 Command Module "Columbia"

All of the Apollo spacecraft flew under the banner of Apollo and then their mission number; but each spacecraft also had a “call sign”, or name. This was particularly important for use during lunar landings, when the command module and lunar module operated as two separate spacecraft.

For Apollo 11, the Command Module was named Columbia, while the lunar module – of course – became Eagle. Explaining the reasoning for Eagle is simple; the bald eagle is a recognised symbol of the United States. Columbia is a little more tricky, though it is largely assumed the name came from another word for America in songs and poetry. However, it may also have been taken from the Jules Verne novel From The Earth To The Moon, where the columbiad cannon launched moonships.

Interestingly, in some internal documents from NASA, the original call signs were Haystack and Snowcone but were changed before the launch. After all, Columbia and Eagle is a little more apposite; “the snowcone has landed” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it!

Journey to the Moon

The launch of Apollo 11.

Apollo 11 launched from Kennedy Space Centre on July 16th 1969, at 9:32am local time; there is a great video of the launch available here, or for a more technical video, this one). It became the third Apollo craft to head to the moon, and entered lunar orbit on July 19th. Everything was going smoothly. 30 full orbits of the moon followed, during which the astronauts had time to eye their landing site on the Sea of Tranquility (or Mare Tranquilitas). The Sea of Tranquility had been chosen for its characteristic smoothness, as the name suggests, which would hopefully make it an easy site to land upon. While later missions would go on to explore the extremeties of the lunar environment, for Apollo 11 it was just about the landing.

July 20th 1969 was the day of the landing; after a “go” from Mission Control, Armstrong and Aldrin separated the Eagle from Columbia. Michael Collins was to remain behind. He was to find his time in lunar orbit alone peaceful rather than lonely.

The Eagle, immediately after the separation from Columbia.

Immediately following the separation, Collins photographed and inspected the Eagle as it piroetted before him. This was the final safety check before the descent to the moon, and Collins signed Eagle off happily: “I think you’ve got a fine-looking flying machine there, Eagle! Despite the fact you’re upside down.”

Inside the Eagle, Armstrong drily replied: “somebody’s upside down!”. Collins then had a moment to say farewell to his crewmates, radioing: “You guys take care.” Armstrong, the consumate pilot, simply replied: “See you later.”

Collins later expressed that, of the three of them, he had seemed to be the most nervous about what they were trying to do. He’d already decided Apollo 11 would be his last flight, despite the likelihood of him taking his own moon walk later in the programme as a Mission Commander. Collins manoeuvred  Columbia away from the Eagle, and watched it leave; he was now the loneliest man in the history of the mankind.

“You Are Go For Landing”

By far the best way to relive the landing is with videos such as this, which is the footage from the landing itself. The video below comes in at some ten minutes before actual touchdown, and has both the radio communication between the astronauts and mission control and the video footage taken from the Eagle during the landing:

Now, a little explaining…

The Apollo 11 landing was by no means simple. The voice of Mission Control on the above video is Charlie Duke, who was the Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for the landing. Duke was a fellow astronaut, and would later become the youngest man to walk on the moon aboard Apollo 16. The main astronaut voice is Neil Armstrong’s.

Charlie Duke, the CAPCOM for Apollo 11, and later a moonwalker himself.

The landing involves a procedure known as “Powered Descent”, essentially a rocket powered assistance to force the Eagle onto the moon – which has only one sixth gravity. Power descent was the final phase of the landing, and is also the most crucial.Before the power descent began, the Eagle had been having problems with its radio communications and data transmissions with Mission Control; they continually dipped in and out. Another astronaut in mission control at the time, Pete Conrad, suggested that the Eagle yaw slightly to improve the signal strength: it worked.

The Eagle was then given a go for powered descent. Almost instantly, the communications problem resurfaced, but Aldrin switched to a different antenna and the problem smoothed again. Unfortunately, Armstrong was having his own set of problems; he’d noticed that his visual checkpoints on the moon were going past too quickly, and he realised the Eagle was coming in “a little long”. The computer hadn’t noticed the error.

Then a Programme Alarm blared; this is what the “1202″ mentioned on the video is. Aldrin pushed the alarm to stop it buzzing, but could do little else; he did not know what the problem was. The issue was radioed to mission control, who looked into it. The cause was the computer basically saying “I have too much to do, so I want to start again from the top of the list”. Mission control and the astronauts were silent as the decision was referred to Steve Bales, the lunar module computer experted, consulted with back room expert Jack Garman on the seriousness of the alarm. Eventually, Garman told Bales that providing the alarm was intermittent rather than continuous, the landing could continue. If the alarm became continuous, the computer would shut down and an abort was a certainty.

Charlie Duke radioed the information up to an impatient Armstrong: “We’re go on that alarm.”

Gene Kranz, the "Flight Director" for the landing.

At 3,000 feet, Eagle was performing as it should and had worked itself into the correct position (feet down!) for landing. Duke radioed again: “you are go for landing”. Soon, another alarm blared: 1201. At Mission Control, Bales quickly informed Gene Kranz – the flight director for the mission, essentially the man in charge – that it was the same type of alarm, and the landing continued.

Then the problems became really serious; the earlier issue with the speed had come back to concern Armstrong all the more. The Eagle was going too fast, and what’s more, the landing site looked – to Armstrong – like the place he wanted to land least; there were boulders and craters as far as he could see. It was time for a man rather than computer to take control; Armstrong did so, and aware that the balance of power had shifted, Charlie Duke softly informed his colleagues at mission control: “I think we better be quiet now.”

Armstrong flew Eagle across the moon, some 1,000 feet from the surface, in search of a better landing site. Fuel was becoming an issue. Aldrin called out the necessary data that Armstrong didn’t have time to check himself, such as altitude and velocity. The computer landing target was not ideal, but fuel was running out – less than 60 seconds was left – and Armstrong eventually decided to stop his frantic search for the perfect place, and go with the best place he could find. With Aldrin calling out the data and Armstrong at the controls, the Eagle landed on the lunar surface at 20:17 UTC. At touchdown, less than 25 seconds of fuel remained.

Mission control had been listeners rather than participants for the final moments of the landing. Aldrin called out a set of technical details; these were, officially, the first words spoken on the surface of the moon. That done, Armstrong made his famous declaraction: “Houston, this is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed.”

Mission Control were initially surprised by Armstrong’s switch from using the callsign “Eagle” to the lunar landing point “Tranquility Base”, and it took a shocked Charlie Duke a second to respond. Eventually, noticeably shaken, Duke radioed Armstrong: “Roger, Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue – we’re breathing again, thanks a lot!”

After a few more technical readouts, Armstrong and Aldrin were finally able to turn to one another. They clasped hands and Aldrin patted Armstrong on the back, while the latter exhaled the tension of the last few moments. They’d done it; man had landed on the moon.

“One Small Step”: The Tale of a Historic Misquote

Neil Armstrong stepping off the Lunar Module, Eagle.

The mission schedule actually called for the astronauts to rest following the landing. Armstrong had, on earth, agreed to the itinerary while at the same time knowing he would probably change it on the moon. With the landing complete and tasks allowing for an emergency evacuation accomplished, neither he nor Buzz Aldrin wanted to rest; they wanted to walk on the surface.

In the weeks leading up to the launch, Armstrong had been asked continually what he was going to say as his first words on the lunar surface. He’d told no one; not even Collins and Aldrin, who had asked him the same question on the journey to the moon. Armstrong deliberated over the issue, wondering how he should sum up the first step – a small one, but one that was so significant – and then he knew what he would say.

The story of the first words spoken by a man standing on the moon is an amusing one, considering the actual oft-quoted phrase does not actually make sense: “it’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” is actually a contradiction, with man and mankind actually meaning the same thing. For the phrase to make sense, it would need to be: “it’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Neil Armstrong admits he had meant to say a man, but isn’t sure if – in the moment – he actually did. He has since stipulated that the phrase should be written as “one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind”. Listening to the video recording, it very much sounds like Armstrong forgot to say a, though of course it could have been lost in the transmissions.

No matter if he forgot, it was lost in transmission or the “A” is there – Armstrong’s words captured the world. Five hours ahead of schedule, at 8pm Houston time, he began to scoot from the Eagle and down the rungs attached to one of the legs. One of his first jobs was to swing out a camera, attached to a sliding holder, to video his movements. He slowly climbed down, pausing midway to ascend again to ensure he could do so, before placing one foot on the moon and saying his much-debated statement. Armstrong was alone on the moon for some 20 minutes, after which Aldrin joined him, and they began their short stay in the Sea of Tranquility.

Before This Decade Is Out

Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface, photographed by Neil Armstrong - who is just visible, reflected in Buzz's visor.

On May 25th 1961, President Kennedy had challenged NASA to land a man on the moon “before this decade is out”. With the landing of the Eagle, NASA had made it – albeit with only five months to spare. Kennedy had been shot in 1963 and did not live to see the landing, but few at NASA forgot his dedication to the programme and the Space Centre was promptly rechristened the Kennedy Space Centre.

NASA had come a long way in just eight years. As Armstrong and Aldrin set up their science experiments on the lunar surface, it was hard for anyone watching to believe that just a few years

The American flag on the surface of the moon; it would later be blown over by the ascent engines of the Eagle.

earlier, Al Shephard’s 15 minute 22 second flight into space had caused national celebration. Now, two Americans were walking and running on the surface of the moon.

The tragedy of Apollo 1 had left the space programme in doubt, but Apollo had survived.

The time spent on the moon by Armstrong and Aldrin was to be painfully short; both expressed a wish to stay longer than their alloted two and a half hours. In terms of exploration, Apollo 11 did little compared to the later, scientific-packed missions. But Apollo 11 proved it could be done.

Returning To Earth

An emotional Neil Armstrong is photographed in the Eagle following the EVA.

The Eagle spent 21 hours on the moon in total, including the moon walk of just under three hours and a long rest period. At around 5pm on July 21st, the Eagle’s ascent engine fired, and Armstrong and Aldrin were sent into orbit to dock with Columbia.

After a successful and relatively hassle free docking, the main work of the mission was complete. The ascent stage of the Eagle was then jettisoned into lunar orbit; Collins would later said he observed almost uncharacteristic emotion from both Aldrin and Armstrong as they watched the craft float into space.

It took three days for Apollo 11 to return to earth; they splashed down as expected on July 24th, and were recovered in the Pacific Ocean. All three astronauts were immediately placed into quarantine, which would last for an uncomfortable 16 days. Following a briefing with NASA officials during the quarantine, the crew were asked if they had any other comments, to which Collins responded quietly: “I want out.”

The quarantine was seen a necessary precaution, but would later be removed after it became clear the astronauts were not bringing back any space diseases. Ironically, Dave Scott – who commanded Apollo 15 – would reflect he wished he had had a quarantine period, so he had time to soak in the achievement of his landing rather than be propelled head first into interviews and debriefings. The quarantine period had allowed Aldrin to do just that; it was there, watching footage of the public reaction to the landing, that it occured to Aldrin that the entire world had bonded together as they watched the incredible events at the Sea of Tranquility unfold. Aldrin turned to Armstrong in realisation and said simply: “Neil, we missed the whole thing.”

Apollo 11 would be the last flight of all three crew members, though all would remain involved with NASA in some capacity. Armstrong found the public attention difficult to deal with; he had been focused on the mission, not the history, and was almost bemused by people hailing him as a national hero – he had no interest in celebrity. This, of course, is one of the reasons Armstrong was the perfect selection to be the first man on the moon.

Buzz Aldrin's footprint on the surface of the moon.