The Pulse from WHYY tells us that the retro - rockets fired two seconds late, putting the lunar landing module two miles off - base, heading straight to a "football - arena - size" crater ringed with automobile - sized boulders, "Pretty rocky area" said pilot Neil Armstrong. The computer -- less powerful than my cell phone -- was flashing an unfamiliar code that turned out to be an "executive overload" alert, warning that too many tasks threatened to overwhelm its capabilities and it would abort the mission if one more task were added to the queue. Radio communication with Mission Control broke up. And Armstrong had to get the landing right the first time; he had only enough fuel to fire for 30 seconds.
Aldrin said, "Soft touch," to describe the touchdown in lunar powder; he remembers that neither astronaut was aware that they had fully settled on the surface. No wonder Mission Control responded that they could breathe again after Armstrong said, "The Eagle has landed."
We learned how the dust, unhindered by air or gravity, shot off in all directions. We learned how the moon smells: dust in the cabin when they took off their helmets smelled like "the air after a fireworks display."
At that point, there was still the plausible horror that the lunar module would be unable to re - connect with Michael Collins' capsule, orbiting the moon, waiting to use the moon's gravity to fire them all back at earth.
[Photo, left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin]
What brought tears was the text of a speech prepared for President Nixon by his speech writer William Safire, to be delivered "in the event of a moon disaster":
Fate has ordained that the men who came to the moon to explore in peace shall stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
I have the same reaction when I re - read a terse announcement that General Eisenhower wrote in his own hand before he knew how the D - Day invasion worked out:
Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops.My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air, and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.(A photo of the paper is available at MHN: Military History Now)
The day was a horror for the men who lived it, but their work to establish bases on land made the liberation of Hitler's captive nations possible. Eisenhower had made a gamble, launching the attack in bad weather; his willingness to take responsibility fills me with admiration.
Then, there are the words that President Reagan spoke when disaster did occur, just what we needed to hear. From From Nasa's web site here, here are highlights, the parts I remember from 1987:
...The Challenger Seven... were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe. We mourn their loss as a nation together.
For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a challenge and I'll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.
...And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.
...We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.
...I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA or who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it."
...The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
P.S. for the record: Newly turned 10 years old, I was unaware of the dangers for Apollo 11, just that my dreams of space travel and friendly aliens with super powers were on the edge of reality. My family watched during a visit to the Ohio home George and Marcella, who'd been my parents helpful neighbors at the University of Illinois at the time of my birth.
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