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An exciting docking
Although Eagle had performed the rendezvous, it would be more convenient for Collins to undertake the act of docking since he had a better view. As Armstrong’s attention was directed through the roof window in orienting his vehicle to face its docking system towards Columbia, he did not notice that the attitude indicator on the instrument panel showed the imminent onset of ‘gimbal lock’. As this condition occurs when two or more of the three gimbals of the inertial platform become coaligned, rendering it ineffective, he switched from the PGNS to the AGS for an inertial reference. With Eagle’s drogue facing the probe on the apex of Columbia stationed 25 feet away, he engaged Attitude Hold. Collins repeated the procedure he had used during the docking manoeuvre 5 days earlier. When the capture latches had engaged the drogue he commanded the probe to retract, and was concerned to see the ascent stage, now a lightweight 5,785 pounds, rapidly swing 15 degrees to the right (as he viewed it). He promptly fired his thrusters to counteract this dynamic activity, and restored the alignment just before the 8-second pneumatic retraction drew the two collars together and triggered the 12 latches for a ‘hard’ docking.
‘‘That was a funny one,’’ Collins called to Eagle. ‘‘You know, I didn’t feel the shock and I thought things were pretty steady so I went to Retract, and that’s when all hell broke loose.’’ He had not felt the moment of contact, and was unaware that he was slightly off axis, with the probe scraping the side of the drogue. At contact, Armstrong thrusted towards Columbia. The resulting rotation prompted the flight control system, which was set in Minimum Deadband, to fire thrusters in an effort to hold attitude. To rectify this, Armstrong switched to Maximum Deadband and acted manually to re-establish the desired attitude. During the probe retraction sequence, therefore, both vehicles were actively attempting to regain a stable configuration! As Collins noted several hours afterwards, ‘‘No sooner had I fired that goddamned [gas] bottle, than wow, away we went.’’ He really ought to have waited to establish that the vehicles were in a stable configuration but, as he pointed out, ‘‘I was in the habit of, you know, as soon as contact is made, I look at it, it looks okay, and I fire the bottle right away.’’ When NASA released its latest increment of the transcript an hour after the docking, the remark ‘all hell broke loose’ had been elided; it was reinstated only when one of the reporters played his own audio tape to the Public Affairs Officer.
If the latches had failed to engage due to the collars being misaligned, Collins would have re-extended the probe, realigned, and tried again in the hope that the mechanism had not been damaged by the ‘thrashing’. If this failed, or if for some reason the tunnel could not be opened, he would have retained Eagle in the ‘soft’ docked configuration on the end of the extended probe, and Armstrong and Aldrin would have made an external transfer using their OPS (which is why these were retained after the moonwalk) with each man dragging one of the rock boxes. There was a rail on Eagle to enable them to translate from the forward hatch to a position from which they could reach across to a rail beside Columbia’s side hatch. Collins was already suited in case an external transfer proved necessary, and the centre couch was stowed to create an isle into the lower equipment bay to accommodate two suited newcomers and their cargo. There was also an external lamp on the LM to provide illumination in case the transfer was made in darkness. In the event, of course, none of these contingency measures were necessary.
Reunited
After docking, Armstrong and Aldrin released the harnesses and unstowed a small vacuum cleaner with which they were to clean the lunar dust from their suits, but the remarkable ability of the particles to adhere made this ineffective, and they instead resorted to brushing themselves by hand and then hoovering up the floating motes. Aldrin remarked that he did not think the tool would ‘‘be much of a competitor to the leading vacuum cleaner brands’’. Despite all efforts, their suits remained dark with dust. Meanwhile, Collins pumped up his cabin pressure to ensure that when the tunnel was opened the air flow would be into rather than out of Eagle’s dirty cabin. Once the tunnel had been pressurised and both hatches were open, the weary moonwalkers re-entered Columbia. As each man emerged from the tunnel with a beaming grin on his face, Collins felt like grabbing him and kissing his forehead, but refrained. As he recalled later, ‘‘We shook hands, hard, and that was it. I said I was glad to see them, and they said they were happy to be back.’’
‘‘Apollo 11, Houston,’’ called Evans just before the spacecraft went ‘over the hill’ on revolution 27. ‘‘You’re looking great. It’s been a mighty fine day.’’
‘‘Boy, you’re not kidding,’’ Collins replied.
On the far side of the Moon, Aldrin returned to Eagle to retrieve the rock boxes and the other items to be returned to Earth. As each of the 2-foot-long shiny metal sample return containers floated out of the tunnel, Collins zipped it into a white bag for stowage in a receptacle in the lower equipment bay. As he was later to recall, ‘‘I handled them as if they were absolutely jam-packed with rare jewels, which, in a sense, they were.’’
Armstrong gave Collins a small white cloth bag, ‘‘If you want to have a look at what the Moon looks like, you can open that up and look, but don’t open the other bag.’’
Collins unzipped the cloth to find a small plastic bag containing dark powder. ‘‘What’s in the bag?’’
‘‘The contingency sample.’’
‘‘Any rocks?’’
‘‘Yes there’s some rocks in it too. You can feel them, but you can’t see them, they are covered with that dark -’’ Armstrong searched for the best word for the clingy powder ‘‘- graphite.’’
Meanwhile, at home
At about this time, Jan Armstrong, who had Dee O’Hara with her, received a brief visit from NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine, who expressed his admiration for the astronauts’ achievements. “I still can’t believe they have really been there,’’ she admitted to him.
Meanwhile, Lurton Scott arrived at the Collins home with the ‘hot news’ that after their return to Earth the astronauts and their families were to receive parades in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, whereupon they would have dinner with President Nixon. Pat Collins was stunned. On suggesting that the fuss would be ‘‘all over by Christmas’’, she was told that as a result of Apollo 11 her life would never be the same.
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Table: Apollo 11 lunar orbit limb-crossing times
Source: The flight plan and mission transcript. |
EARTHWARD BOUND
While Apollo 11 was behind the Moon, Lunney handed over to Kranz to manage the transearth injection (TEI) manoeuvre. To reduce the spacecraft’s mass for this burn, the urine bags and fecal garments, food packaging and other trash, including the probe, were dumped into Eagle. By the time they reappeared around the limb on revolution 28 they had closed Columbia’s hatch and were venting the tunnel. At 129:40, shortly prior to finally departing Eagle, Aldrin, as per instructions, had switched the coolant system from the primary to the secondary loop. This left the PGNS without cooling. The PGNS and AGS had been precisely coaligned, and the high-gain antenna pointed at Earth. Eagle was left in Attitude Hold to enable the rate at which the two guidance systems diverged to be monitored, as a means of determining the degradation of the PGNS. It was an engineering experiment to find out how long the system would continue to function without coolant. Predictions ranged from 1 hour to several hours.[43] With Eagle in this state, they were eager to jettison it as soon as possible. In the flight plan this was scheduled for 131:52, but on realising that they were well ahead Duke suggested they do so at their convenience, and several minutes later, at 130:09, Collins fired the pyrotechnics to truncate the tunnel and discard the heavy docking collar with the ascent stage.
“There she goes’’, observed Armstrong appreciatively as Eagle floated away at a speed of several feet per second.
“It was a good one,’’ added Collins.
Collins then reoriented Columbia and fired its thrusters for 7 seconds to achieve a 2-foot-per-second retrograde burn to move well clear of the discarded vehicle. He discussed with Duke the possibility of advancing the TEI burn by one revolution, but the flight dynamics team wanted more Manned Space Flight Network tracking to measure the post-separation orbit as a preliminary to calculating the manoeuvre. With the matter resolved, Duke said, “It looks like it’s going to be a pretty relaxed time here for the next couple of hours.’’
“I imagine that place has cleared out a little bit since the rendezvous. You can find a place to sit down almost, huh?’’ said Collins.
“The MOCR’s about empty right now. We’re taking it a little easy. How does it feel up there to have some company?’’
“Damn good, I’ll tell you,’’ Collins assured.
“I’ll bet,’’ said Duke. “I bet you’d almost have been talking to yourself up there after 10 revolutions or so.’’
“No, it’s a happy home here,” insisted Collins. A moment later he added, “It’d be nice to have company. As a matter of fact, it would be nice to have a couple of hundred million Americans up here to let them see what they’re getting for their money.’’
“Well, they were with you in spirit anyway – at least that many. We heard on the news today that after you made your landing the New York Times came out with the largest headlines they’ve ever used in the history of the newspaper.’’
“Save us a copy,’’ said Collins.
Shortly thereafter, Apollo 11 passed ‘over the hill’. While on the far side, the crew had lunch.
‘‘If you guys want some news, I can read it up,’’ Duke offered, after they had reappeared on revolution 29.
‘‘We’d be pleased to have it,’’ replied Armstrong.
‘‘To start off, congratulatory messages on the mission have been pouring into the White House from world leaders in a steady stream all day, including one on behalf of the Soviet cosmonauts.’’ Collins hoped the celebrations would not prove to be premature! ‘‘Mrs Robert H. Goddard said today that her husband would’ve been so happy, ‘He wouldn’t have shouted or anything. He’d just have glowed. That was his dream, sending a rocket to the Moon.’ People all around the world had many reasons to be happy about the Apollo 11 mission. The Italian police reported that Sunday night was the most crime-free night of the year. And in London, a boy who had the faith to bet $5 with a bookie that a man would reach the Moon before 1970 collected $24,000; now that’s pretty good odds! You’re probably interested in the comments your wives have made. Neil, Jan said about yesterday’s activities, ‘The evening was unbelievably perfect. It is an honour and a privilege to share with my husband, the crew, the Manned Spacecraft Center, the American public, and all mankind, the magnificent experience of the beginning of lunar exploration.’ She was then asked if she considered the Moon landing the greatest moment in her life. She said. ‘No, that was the day we were married.’ And Mike, Pat said simply, ‘It was fantastically marvellous.’ Buzz, Joan apparently couldn’t quite believe the EVA. She said, ‘It was hard to think it was real until the men actually moved. After the Moon touchdown, I wept because I was so happy.’ But she added, ‘The best part of the mission will be the splashdown.’ In other news – and there was a little bit – another explorer, Thor Heyerdahl, had to give up his attempt to sail the papyrus boat, Ra, across the Atlantic. The storm-damaged boat was abandoned about 650 miles from Bermuda. The speed of the craft had been reduced to about 25 miles a day, and Heyerdahl said the object of the voyage had not been to provide an endurance test for the crew.’’
‘‘Thank you, Charlie,’’ Armstrong acknowledged.
‘‘You’re welcome.’’
With the crew of Apollo 11 reunited, Walter Cronkite drew to a conclusion the CBS network’s unprecedented 32-hour continuous coverage.
Several minutes before Apollo 11 went ‘over the hill’ for the final time, Kranz polled his flight control team and Duke relayed, ‘‘Apollo 11, Houston. You’re Go for TEI.’’
“Thank you,” acknowledged Collins.
“Go sic ’em,” Duke urged.
On passing beyond the limb, the astronauts settled down to check and recheck the configuration for the burn.
“Okay. I’m ready to proceed now,’’ Armstrong concluded.
“Do it!’’ confirmed Aldrin.
“Say, you guys,’’ Collins mused, “is there anything you want to do?’’
“We’ve got to make a star check yet,’’ Armstrong pointed out.
In attempting to take the star sighting, Collins made a mistake that prompted the computer to report Operator Error, giving rise to considerable swearing on his part and some laughter from his colleagues. At sunrise, 2 minutes prior to the burn, he visually verified their attitude with respect to the lunar horizon as a final check that the computer knew what it was doing, “Yes. I see a horizon. It looks like we are going forward.’’ This prompted further laughter.
“Shades of Gemini,’’ observed Armstrong.
“It is important that we be going forward,’’ Collins laughed. The spacecraft had to be pointing forward in order to boost out of lunar orbit. “There is just one really bad mistake you can make here.’’
“Let’s see,’’ recited Aldrin cheekily, “the motor points this way and the gases escape that way, thereby imparting a thrust that-a-way.’’
After the separation manoeuvre Columbia’s orbit was 54 by 63 nautical miles, and by TEI it was 20 nautical miles ahead of Eagle and 1 mile below it. The mass of the CSM prior to the TEI burn was 36,691 pounds. The SPS engine was to ignite at 135:23:42 and deliver 20,500 pounds of thrust for 2 minutes 28 seconds, in the process consuming 10,000 pounds of propellant. Prior to the manoeuvre Columbia was travelling at 5,355 feet per second. It was to be accelerated by 3,285 feet per second to a speed of about 8,640 feet per second, or about 5,900 nautical miles per hour. Confidence was high. Such a manoeuvre had been successfully performed by both Apollo 8 and Apollo 10, and their own engine had worked perfectly twice while settling into lunar orbit. It was a very robust configuration but if it were to make a ‘hard’ start (as had occurred to other types of engine) the astronauts would be stranded in lunar orbit at best, and possibly killed outright in an explosion.
Collins took the left couch for the manoeuvre, with Armstrong in the middle and Aldrin on the right. The thrusters of two of the quads on the service module fired for 16 seconds to settle the propellants in the main tanks, then the SPS ignited.
‘‘Burn! A good one,’’ called Collins. ‘‘Man, that feels like g, doesn’t it?’’
‘‘How is it, Mike?’’ Aldrin asked.
‘‘It’s really busy in roll, but it’s holding in its deadband. It’s possible that we have a roll-thruster problem, but even if we have, it’s taking it out; there’s no point in worrying about it,’’ Collins reported. ‘‘One minute. Chamber pressure is holding right on 100 psi.’’ ‘‘The gimbal looks good. The total attitude looks good. It’s still a little busy.’’ They passed the 2-minute mark. ‘‘When it hits the end of that roll deadband, it really comes crisply back.’’ ‘‘Chamber pressure is falling off a little bit, to 96 or so. Now it’s going back up. It’s oscillating just a tad.’’
“Ten seconds left,” called Armstrong.
“We don’t really care about the chamber pressure any more,” said Collins. “Brace yourselves. Standing by.’’
“It should be shutdown, now,” Armstrong announced.
Collins allowed the SPS to run for 2 seconds longer than the planned duration and hit shutdown – just as the computer cut the engine. On checking the residuals, which proved negligible, Collins was delighted. “Beautiful burn; SPS, I love you; you are a jewel! Whoosh!’’
On completing the post-TEI checklist, Armstrong asked, “What time’s AOS?’’
“I haven’t the foggiest,’’ Aldrin replied.
“It’s 135:34,’’ Collins indicated.
“That’s right now!’’ Armstrong noted. “Has anybody got any choice greetings they want to make to Houston?’’
“Hey,’’ said Aldrin, “I hope someone’s getting the picture of the Earth coming up.’’ Their final Earthrise was a welcome sight. All loose objects had been stowed for the manoeuvre, but they hastily retrieved the Hasselblad.
Acquisition of signal was to be handled by Honeysuckle Creek. If the burn had not occurred then the spacecraft would not appear until 135:44. The detection of the carrier signal at the scheduled time told the story, but Houston had to wait for the high-gain antenna to slew around and lock on before they could communicate.
“Hello Apollo 11,’’ Duke called. “How did it go?’’
“It’s time to open up the LRL doors, Charlie,’’ Collins replied, referring to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in which they were to be quarantined.
“Roger,’’ acknowledged Duke. “It’s well stocked.’’
Coasting
On its approach to the Moon, Apollo 11 had been within the Moon’s shadow and the astronauts been able to see only its dark leading hemisphere, but their line of departure was over the illuminated trailing hemisphere. In contrast to when they left Earth, and were preoccupied by retrieving Eagle from the spent S-IVB stage, they were now free to act as tourists and, on the basis that there was little point returning with unexposed film, they snapped away. They were amazed by the rate at which the Moon shrank before their eyes. But, as after the translunar injection manoeuvre, they slowed down as the range increased, and by the time they were 1,000 nautical miles out they had slowed to 6,698 feet per second.
“How does that tracking look?’’ Collins enquired.
“We’ve projected your onboard vector forward and it looks real good,’’ replied Duke. “We’ve only got about 24 minutes of tracking now. It’s really too early to tell on the radar.’’ The Manned Space Flight Network did not yet have sufficient data to plot an accurate course.
“Understand,’’ said Collins.
“Have you finished taking pictures?’’ Duke asked.
“We’re just finishing up, Charlie,’’ Collins reported.
The post-TEI tasks were to do a P52 to verify the alignment of the platform, upload a new state vector and switch to the REFSMMAT for the transearth coast (which, as for the translunar coast, was relative to the ecliptic) and then set up the PTC roll. As Armstrong and Aldrin had had no real sleep for 40 hours and were exhausted, Kranz wanted them to retire as soon as possible. Deke Slayton called in order to emphasise this point, “This is the original CapCom. Congratulations on an outstanding job. You guys have really put on a great show up there, but I think it’s time you powered down and got a little rest; you’ve had a mighty long day. I’m looking forward to seeing you when you get back. Don’t fraternise with any of those bugs en route except for the Hornet.” The USS Hornet was the prime recovery vessel.
“Thank you, boss,’’ Armstrong replied. “We’re looking forward to a little rest and a relaxing trip back.’’
“You’ve earned it,’’ Slayton assured.
“It’s shift change time, here,’’ Duke announced shortly thereafter. “The White Team bids you good night. We’ll see you tomorrow.’’
“Good night, Charlie,’’ Armstrong replied. “Thank you.’’
“Adios,’’ Duke signed off. “Thanks again for a great show, you guys.’’
Windler’s Purple Team took over for the ‘graveyard’ shift, and then handed over to Charlesworth’s Green Team. The flight plan allotted 10 hours to the sleep period, but because the wake-up time was not critical it was decided to let the crew sleep through and, in fact, with each man gaining 8.5 hours of solid sleep, this was the best ‘night’ of the mission. Aldrin was the first to stir, at noon on Tuesday, 22 July, with his colleagues joining him several minutes later. At that time Apollo 11 was 32,253 nautical miles from the Moon and receding at 4,303 feet per second.
‘‘Good afternoon, Houston,’’ announced Collins, making the first call of flight day 7.
McCandless responded straight away with a list of chores, and the news that they would have to make a midcourse correction. If the trajectory resulting from the TEI manoeuvre would not enter the 36-nautical-mile-wide entry corridor, the flight plan had options for three midcourse corrections. Collins would later write that returning to Earth was as demanding as ‘‘trying to split a human hair with a razor blade thrown from a distance of 20 feet’’. Midcourse correction 5 was set for TEI+ 15 hours. The only issue of concern in Mission Control was tropical storm Claudia, which was threatening to encroach on the prime recovery zone.
When at 148:07:22 Apollo 11 crossed the neutral point, 33,800 nautical miles from the Moon, Collins jokingly asked that off-duty flight dynamics officer Phil Shaffer be advised that the spacecraft ‘‘gave a little jump’’ as it left the Moon’s sphere of influence.
Collins halted PTC, oriented the spacecraft for midcourse correction 5 and then took a star sighting to verify the platform. At 150:30, when 169,000 nautical miles from Earth and travelling at 4,076 feet per second, thrusters on all four quads were fired in unison for 11 seconds for a 4.8-foot-per-second retrograde burn designed to centre the trajectory in the entry corridor. Afterwards, Collins reinstated the PTC roll and the crew settled down for lunch, during which McCandless put questions drawn up by the geologists.
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Table: Apollo 11 propulsive manoeuvres
Source: Post-Launch Mission Operation Report, 24 July 1969 (M932-69-11) |
“For $64,000, we’re still trying to work out the location of your landing site, Tranquility Base.’’ McCandless provided the coordinates of a position and asked them to check it on their charts, but as these had been stowed he described it. “The position I gave you is slightly west of that large crater – I would guess about 0.2 kilometre to the west – and we were wondering if Neil or Buzz had observed any additional landmarks during descent, lunar stay, or ascent that would confirm or disprove this.’’ Armstrong said they were sure that the descent and ascent movies would resolve it. A few minutes later, in discussing how he had collected rocks, Armstrong volunteered that after they had deployed the EASEP he had taken “a stroll to a crater behind us that was maybe 70 or 80 feet in diameter and 15 or 20 feet deep’’. On hearing this, Shoemaker’s team were certain that they had correctly identified the landing site. As Armstrong had been out of the field of view of the television camera at that time, his excursion to the crater came as a surprise to all concerned, because the plan had been for them to remain within about 100 feet of the LM. As Shoemaker noted, “Had Neil told us about the small crater behind the LM, we could have pinpointed them right then, within 40 to 60 feet.’’ The geologists were ecstatic when Armstrong said that he had taken pictures of the interior of the crater, which “had rocks in the bottom of pretty good size, considerably bigger than any that were out on the surface’’. His brief observations provided the very welcome insight that because there was no bedrock outcropping from the walls of the crater, the impact that excavated it had, as he put it, “not gotten below the regolith’’, and this set the lower limit for the thickness of the regolith on that part of the Sea of Tranquility. Although the presence of the crater undoubtedly complicated the landing, the fact that it provided a ‘window’ into the subsurface made its inspection the most significant single observation of the entire surface activity.
Charlesworth handed over to Kranz, and Duke took over the CapCom console. By design, the flight plan was sparse. The highlight, a telecast, was scheduled to start at 8 pm in Houston. The 85-foot-diameter antenna at Goldstone was used to receive the signal because the 210-foot was occupied communicating with an unmanned spacecraft that was approaching the planet Mars.
‘‘Are you picking up our television signal?’’ Armstrong enquired, as they began the transmission with a view of the Moon.
‘‘That’s affirmative,’’ said Duke. ‘‘The focus is a little bit out. We see the Earth in the centre of the screen, and see some landmasses in the centre, at least I guess that’s what it is.’’
‘‘I believe that’s where we just came from,’’ Aldrin corrected.
‘‘It is, huh?’’ said Duke, embarrassed. ‘‘Well, I’m really looking at a bad screen here. Stand by one. Hey, you’re right.’’
‘‘It’s not bad enough, not finding the right landing spot, but when you haven’t even got the right planet!’’ Collins teased.
‘‘I’ll never live that one down,’’ Duke mused.
Collins used the zoom to make the disk shrink in order to emphasise that they were leaving it behind, ‘‘We’re making it get smaller and smaller here to make sure that it really is the one we’re leaving.’’
‘‘All right. That’s enough you guys,’’ Duke insisted.[44]
‘‘That’s enough of the Moon, Charlie,’’ announced Armstrong. ‘‘We’re getting set up now for some inside pictures.’’ The camera turned to Armstrong, who showed off the rock boxes in the lower equipment bay. ‘‘We know there’s a lot of scientists from a number of countries standing by to see the lunar samples, and we thought you would be interested to see them. These two boxes are the sample return containers. They’re vacuum-packed containers that were closed in a vacuum on the lunar surface, sealed, and then brought inside the LM and put inside these fibre-glass bags, zippered, and resealed around the outside and placed in these receptacles in the side of the command module. When we get onto the ship, I’m sure these boxes will immediately be transferred for delivery to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. In them are the samples of the various types of rock, the groundmass of the soil, the particle collector for the Solar Wind Experiment and the core tubes that took depth samples of the lunar surface.’’
‘‘Well, we appreciate it,’’ Duke replied.
Next, Aldrin demonstrated the preparation in weightlessness of a sandwich with ham paste spread, and then he spun the empty can to illustrate the action of the gyroscope. Picking up this theme, Collins demonstrated for ‘‘all kids everywhere’’ the behaviour of blobs of water. After showing Duke a view of Earth, Armstrong signed off with the observation that, ‘‘No matter where you travel, it’s always nice to get home.’’
After the telecast Collins teased Duke concerning the lax schedule, “The White Team’s really got a busy one tonight, huh, Charlie?”
“Boy,” said Duke, taking the bait. “We’re really booming along here with all this activity. I can barely believe it.’’
“What are you doing? Sitting around with your feet up on the console drinking coffee?’’
Duke laughed, “You must have X-ray eyes. You sure can see a long way.’’
A few minutes later, Collins was back, “I’m just wondering how everything is going on the home front?’’
“Everything’s going fine. All the gals are having a little party tonight, as far as I know.’’
“Glad to hear it,’’ Collins said.
After another several hours, Duke announced, “Apollo 11, it’s good night from a sleepy White Team.’’
Aldrin replied, “Thank you, very much. We’re not as sleepy tonight as we were last night.’’
After the Black Team, the Green Team took over and again opted to leave the crew in peace until telemetry showed them to be active, and then Garriott, standing in for McCandless, put in the call to begin flight day 8, Wednesday, 23 July: “Are you up and at ’em yet?’’
“Well, we’re up, at least, Owen,’’ Armstrong replied.
Of course, Garriott launched straight into the flight plan updates, the main one of which was the cancellation of midcourse correction 6, which meant that they could remain in PTC, but as this had become “a little bit ragged’’ Collins was asked to refine it. Houston updated their state vector and recommended a P52 to check the platform alignment.
When communications lapsed, Garriott called, “Apollo 11, Houston.’’
“Go ahead,’’ replied Armstrong.
“I just wanted to make sure you fellows hadn’t gone back to sleep again!’’ But he continued, “I have a bit of news here if you’d like to find out what’s been happening in the last 12 to 14 hours.’’
“Go ahead,’’ Armstrong invited.
“Hot off the press: Juan Carlos was formally designated yesterday, Tuesday, to become General Franco’s successor as the Chief of State of Spain and, eventually, King. He will be sworn in today as the successor designate after taking an oath of loyalty to the law and the National Movement, which is Spain’s only legal political organisation. He’ll be called the Prince of Spain.’’ When this elicited no response Garriott went on, “Here, the House Ways and Means Committee agreed yesterday to tax changes affecting oil companies, also banks and utilities, which could add as much as 2 billion dollars per year to the federal revenue. The committee also voted tentatively to change the accounting procedures for telephone, electric, gas, and oil pipeline companies, and to reduce the tax benefits of the mutual savings and loan institutions. So, it looks as if tax reform may be on the way.’’ Garriott allowed for a response, but there was none. “South Korea’s first super highway, linking Seoul with the Port of Inchon, has been named the Apollo Highway to commemorate your trip.
I think we mentioned last night that President Nixon has already started on his round-the-world trip. Today, he’s in San Francisco on his first stop. Next he will go to the USS Hornet, from which he’ll watch the return of your spacecraft. He plans to visit seven nations during this trip.’’ He paused again, then continued, “The West Coast residents in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Vancouver, British Columbia; and San Francisco, California, all plan to make themselves visible to you by switching on their lights between 9 pm and midnight tonight. There is clear weather predicted there, so you may be able to see.’’
“Good show,’’ interjected Armstrong.
Garriott continued. “In Memphis, Tennessee, a young lady who is presently tipping the scales at 8 pounds 2 ounces was named Module by her parents, Mr and Mrs Eddie Lee McGhee. ‘It was my husband’s idea’, insisted Mrs McGhee. She said she had balked at the name ‘Lunar Module McGhee’ because it didn’t sound too good, but apparently they’ve compromised on just ‘Module’.’’ This prompted some laughter on the downlink.
When Collins said his breakfast of ‘‘sliced peaches, sausage patties, two cups of coffee and I forget what else’’ was “magnificent as usual’’, Garriott said he was ‘‘way overdue for a meal’’ himself, and soon thereafter he handed over to McCandless.
Final telecast
At 6 pm in Houston, Apollo 11, having halted its PTC roll in order to maintain the high-gain antenna pointing towards Earth, made its final telecast. Since each man wished to make a specific point, they used cue cards.
‘‘Good evening,’’ began Armstrong. ‘‘This is the Commander of Apollo 11. One hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a book about a voyage to the Moon. His spaceship, ‘Columbiad’, took off from Florida and landed in the Pacific Ocean after completing a trip to the Moon.[45] It seems appropriate to us to share with you some of the reflections of the crew as the modern-day Columbia completes its rendezvous with the planet Earth and the same Pacific Ocean tomorrow. First, Mike Collins.’’
‘‘This trip of ours to the Moon may have looked, to you, simple or easy,’’ said Collins to introduce his theme. ‘‘I’d like to assure you that that has not been the case. The Saturn V rocket which put us into orbit is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, every piece of which worked flawlessly. This computer above my head has a 38,000-word vocabulary, each word of which has been carefully chosen to be of the utmost value to us, the crew. The switch I have in my hand now has over 300 counterparts in the command module alone. In addition to that, there are myriads of circuit breakers, levers, rods and other associated controls. The SPS engine, the large rocket engine on the aft end of our service module, must have performed flawlessly or we would have been stranded in lunar orbit. The parachutes up above my head must work perfectly tomorrow or we will plummet into the ocean. We have always had confidence that all this equipment will work properly, and we continue to have confidence that it will do so for the remainder of the flight. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat and tears of a number of people. First, the American workmen who put these pieces of machinery together in the factory. Second, the painstaking work done by the various test teams during assembly and retest after assembly. And finally, the people at the Manned Spacecraft Center, both in management, in mission planning, in flight control and, last but not least, in crew training. This operation is somewhat like the periscope of a submarine. All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all of those, I would like to say: Thank you, very much.”
“Good evening,” called Aldrin. “I’d like to discuss with you a few of the more symbolic aspects of the flight of our mission, Apollo 11. As we’ve been discussing the events that have taken place over the past two or three days here on board our spacecraft, we’ve come to the conclusion that this has been far more than three men on a voyage to the Moon; more, still, than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel that this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown. Neil’s statement the other day upon first setting foot on the surface of the Moon, ‘This is a small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind’, I believe, sums up these feelings very nicely. We accepted the challenge of going to the Moon; the acceptance of this challenge was inevitable. The relative ease with which we carried out our mission, I believe, is a tribute to the timeliness of that acceptance. Today, I feel we’re fully capable of accepting expanded roles in the exploration of space. In retrospect, we have all been particularly pleased with the call signs that we very laboriously chose for our spacecraft: Columbia and Eagle. We’ve been particularly pleased with the emblem of our flight, depicting the US eagle bearing the universal symbol of peace from the Earth, from the planet Earth, to the Moon; that symbol being the olive branch. It was our overall crew choice to deposit a replica of this symbol on the Moon. Personally, in reflecting on the events of the past several days, a verse from Psalms comes to my mind, When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man that Thou art mindful of him?”
The view returned to Armstrong, ‘‘The responsibility for this flight lies first with history and the giants of science who have preceded this effort; next with the American people, who have, through their will, indicated their desire; next with four administrations and their Congresses, for implementing that will; and then, with the agency and industry teams that built our spacecraft, the Saturn, the Columbia, the Eagle, and the little EMU, the space suit and backpack that was our small spacecraft out on the lunar surface. We’d like to give a special thanks to all those Americans who built the spacecraft, who did the construction, design, the tests, and put their hearts and all their abilities into those crafts. To those people, tonight, we give a special thank you, and to all the other people that are listening and watching tonight. God bless you. Good night from Apollo 11.’’
They concluded the telecast with a brief shot out of the window showing Earth from a distance of 91,371 nautical miles.
“I thought that was a mighty fine television presentation,” said McCandless. “There’s certainly nothing I can add to it from down here.”
With the spacecraft still perpendicular to the ecliptic, Collins reinstated the roll for PTC.
Meanwhile, at home
Wednesday was a quiet day for the wives of the crew, the principal event being to attend a luncheon hosted by North American Rockwell. While there, they received a telephone call from President Nixon, who was in San Francisco on his way to the Pacific to welcome their husbands home following splashdown.