Commander Neil Armstrong made history when he took a step out of Eagle onto the moon’s surface in front of millions watching on television, proclaiming with words like, “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” as his words became an international rallying cry of achievement and pride.
First time viewers of television saw real-time black and white images of Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the moon thanks to a technique known as live TV graphics.
First Humans to Walk on the Moon
After years of training in simulators, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins became the first humans to walk on the Moon. Millions watched as Eagle landed and Armstrong descended the ladder for his iconic statement: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!”
Landing was no simple task. The Eagle spacecraft had only 20 seconds left of landing fuel when Armstrong used his reaction control system to maneuver it toward Earth and eventually touched down at Sea of Tranquility on lunar surface, an area rich with shallow craters.
On the surface of the moon, astronauts performed science experiments and took photos. Additionally, they collected samples of lunar rock and dust for later analysis upon their return home. Together they spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the lunar surface before returning to their lunar module which docked with a command module still orbiting lunar orbit.
Over the next three days, the crew toured the moon conducting scientific work and planning their return home. When an impending storm threatened their intended splashdown area, the mission team made the difficult decision to modify their course by roughly 250 miles.
Armstrong found himself under pressure when piloting Apollo 11 back into space after its successful reentry from Earth orbit. A thruster malfunction caused problems with orientation during reentry and Armstrong used some of his reentry control fuel to correct for any misalignments or misalignment during landing.
On August 24, after two and a half weeks in space, the crew returned to Earth via spacecraft reentry into Earth’s atmosphere and Pacific Ocean reentry. A brief reentry burn then occurred before capsule was collected by USS Hornet for retrieval.
Armstrong then returned to Cincinnati where he taught. From 1971-1979 he served as deputy associate administrator for aeronautics at NASA headquarters; from 1982-1992 he chaired Computing Technologies for Aviation Inc. of Charlottesville Virginia until 1982; also during this time he participated on the Rogers Commission that investigated causes for Challenger disaster that killed seven astronauts.
First Orbital Docking
On March 16, 1966, Neil Armstrong and David Scott, his Gemini 8 copilot, set off from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station (now Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex) aboard a Titan II rocket from Pad 19. Moments after launch, an Atlas rocket carrying Agena target vehicle lifted off from nearby Complex 14. Mission Control at MSC (now NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston) informed them they had successfully rendezvoused with Agena target vehicle.
At MSC, both crews practiced their docking procedure in a simulator before Armstrong started closing down distance between Gemini and Agena. At 206 miles away from each other, Gemini astronauts established radar contact and visually identified their target from within their capsules – eventually reaching within two feet before Armstrong sent an order for docking to Agena.
But instead of docking perfectly, the combined Agena-Gemini spacecraft began its uncontrolled descent. All attempts at correcting its yaw with Agena thrusters proved ineffective; within 15 minutes Gemini-Agena were spinning 60 times per minute due to extreme G forces generated which threatened to tear it apart.
At Mission Control’s instruction, Armstrong undocked Gemini from Agena but it only compounded their tumbling. With no fuel left for Agena to run on, astronauts risked losing consciousness; to prevent any catastrophic explosion they jettisoned the cargo container that they no longer required and redocked both vehicles together.
After stabilization, Armstrong and Scott conducted docking experiments. Later in their mission, Mission Control awarded Armstrong and Scott with an “Exceptional Service Medal” for their brave response during an in-flight emergency.
After leaving NASA in 1971, Armstrong taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati until his death from complications stemming from heart bypass surgery in 2012. He served on the Rogers Commission that investigated Challenger disaster and was an advocate of nation’s manned space program. Armstrong’s family scattered his ashes in Pacific Ocean before they were later collected by Smithsonian Institution’s exhibit “First Man on the Moon” where an original copy of “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” can also be found. Louise Armstrong passed away before her husband who never produced any children.
First Emergency in Space
President Kennedy made it his goal to land man on the Moon within ten years after Gagarin and Shepard’s flights, selecting Armstrong as commander of the command module that orbited around it, along with Aldrin as pilot of lunar module, for this historic mission. Armstrong had extensive flight testing experience, earning high praise from NASA officials who appreciated his calm confidence and lack of ego – qualities sought for by President Kennedy’s administration and elected as commander of command module orbiting around Moon; Aldrin would pilot lunar module.
Launch of Apollo 11 on 16 July 1969 was an eventful three days. People closely tracked updates of Armstrong and Aldrin as they separated from Collins in lunar orbit and headed towards the Moon for 21 hours and 36 minutes of lunar exploration before returning back into space and rejoining Collins aboard Columbia in lunar orbit.
Armstrong became distraught upon realizing that their auto-landing program was taking them toward an unsafe landing spot within West Crater’s boulder-strewn crater, prompting him to take manual control and fly the LM like a helicopter, maneuvering towards a safer site while burning more fuel than planned; Mission Control informed them they only had about one minute’s worth of usable propellant left.
Armstrong quickly noticed that as he brought the lunar lander close to its target surface, its radar unit had stopped functioning properly and readings became irregular; should they deviate further from their usual trajectory, Armstrong and crew would need to abort the landing mission and return back to CSM immediately.
At 4:05 p.m., the lander fired its engine for powered descent initiation, or PDI. Kranz gave Armstrong the “go” call and they began their descent from an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet.
During a 12.6-minute PDI, five alarms signaled to us that our lander was overburdened with calculations. These alarms were caused by prioritizing tasks by computer to complete before starting another cycle of calculations; eventually though, these alarms subsided; but as soon as 500 feet above surface we experienced another alarm sounding off!
First Moon Landing
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 spent two years studying lunar surface photos taken by spacecraft before they made a historic first landing. To prepare, however, they undertook one final test – during the 12th lunar orbit, Armstrong and Aldrin crawled from Columbia through an interconnecting tunnel into Eagle lunar module; instantly their pilot nerves were tested when a thruster malfunctioned, sending their spacecraft spinning out of control; Armstrong quickly activated secondary thrusters in an effort to bring control back under control, ultimately managing to bring their spacecraft back under control and proceeded towards safe landing.
Armstrong and Aldrin used the final steps of their descent to deploy scientific experiments such as seismometers for moonquake measurements, laser reflectors to precisely measure distance between Earth and Moon, and instruments measuring solar wind before making history with Armstrong being first off his ladder remarking, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!”
The astronauts spent about two hours exploring the lunar surface–which looked unlike any other landscape on Earth–in a gravity force only one-sixth that of Earth. They collected 21.5 kilograms of samples and took numerous photographs that were broadcast back to 530 million viewers watching live on television.
Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the lander, and at 3:17 CDT Armstrong reported a successful landing to Mission Control. Although its computer had incorrectly guided it towards an unsafe landing near West Crater, Armstrong used his expertise as a test pilot to correct its error and land the spacecraft safely at Tranquility Base.
As Mission Control anxiously watched on, Armstrong switched off the engines of his lunar module (LM). A few minutes later he and Aldrin emerged onto the surface, gazing upon triangular windows of their ship – fulfilling President Kennedy’s challenge to put man on the moon by the end of this decade.