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IN AMERICA, IT was 20 July, but in Ireland and much of the world, it had bled into the small hours of the morning.
At 2.56am on 21 July, television audiences witnessed man’s first steps on the moon.
Here, in full, is the Associated Press report:
Two Americans landed on the moon and explored its surface for some two hours Sunday, planting the first human footprints in its dusty soil. They raised their nation’s flag and talked to their President on earth 240,000 miles away.
Both civilian Neil Alden Armstrong and Air Force Col. Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. reported they were back in their spacecraft at 1:11 a.m. EDT Monday. “The hatch is closed and locked,” Armstrong reported.
Millions on their home planet watched on television as the pair saluted their flag and scoured the rocky, rugged surface.
The first to step on the moon was Armstrong, 38, of Wapakoneta, Ohio. His foot touched the surface at 10:56 p.m. EDT and he remained out for two hours and 14 minutes.
His first words standing on the moon were, “That’s one small step for man, a giant leap for mankind.”
Twenty minutes after he stepped down, Aldrin followed. “Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,” he said. “A magnificent desolation.”
He remained out for one hour and 44 minutes.
Their spacecraft Eagle landed on the moon at 4:18 p.m., and they were out of it and on the surface some six hours later.
At the end, mission control granted them extra time on the lunar surface. Armstrong was given 15 extra minutes, Aldrin 12.
Even while they were on the surface, the seismometer they installed to study the moon’s interior was picking up the shudders created by Aldrin as he hammered tubes into the lunar crust to take soil samples.
Earlier, mission control reported that a laser beam shot from earth to the moon had been reflected back by a small mirror set on the surface by the astronauts. But scientists at Lick Observatory in California later said the initial test had failed because the beam was 50 miles off target.
There were humorous moments in the awkward climbing out and in the spacecraft. When Aldrin backed out of the hatch, he said he was “making sure not to lock it on the way out.”
Armstrong, on the surface, laughed. “A pretty good thought,” he said.
Once back in the spaceship they began immediately to repressurize the cabin with oxygen. They stowed the samples of rocks and soil.
“We’ve got about 20 pounds of carefully selected, if not documented samples,” Armstrong said, referring to the contents of one of two boxes filled with lunar material.
The minutes behind were unforgettable for them, and for the world.
The moments ahead were still full of hazard. Monday, at 1:55 p.m., they are scheduled to blast off from the moon to catch up with their orbiting mothership above for the trip home.
President Nixon’s voice came to the ears of the astronauts on the moon from the Oval Room at the White House.
“This has to be the most historic telephone call ever made,” he said. “I just can’t tell you how proud I am… Because of what you have done the heavens have become part of man’s world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquillity, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquillity to man.
“All the people on earth are surely one in their pride of what you have done, and one in their prayers that you will return safely…”
Aldrin replied, “Thank you Mr. President. It is a privilege to represent the people of all peaceable nations.” Armstrong added his thanks.
Armstrong’s steps were cautious at first. He almost shuffled.
“The surface is fine and powdered, like powdered charcoal to the soles of the foot,” he said. “I can see my footprints of my boots in the fine sandy particles.” Armstrong read from the plaque on the side of Eagle, the spacecraft that had brought them to the surface. In a steady voice, he said, “Here man first set foot on the moon, July, 1969. We came in peace for all mankind.” As in the moments he walked alone, Armstrong’s voice was all that was heard from the lunar surface.
He appeared phosphorescent in the blinding sunlight. He walked carefully at first in the gravity of the moon, only one-sixth as strong as on earth. Then he tried wide gazelle-like leaps.
Aldrin tried a kind of kangaroo-hop, but found it unsatisfactory. “The so-called kangaroo-hop doesn’t seem to work as well as the more conventional pace,” he said. “It would get rather tiring after several hundred.”
In the lesser gravity of the moon, each of the men, 165 pounders on Earth, weighed something over 25 pounds on the moon.
Armstrong began the rock picking on the lunar surface. Aldrin joined him using a small scoop to put lunar soil in a plastic bag.
Above them, invisible and nearly ignored, was Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Collins, 38, keeping his lonely patrol around the moon for the moment when his companions blast off and return to him for the trip back home. Collins said he saw a small white object on the moon, but didn’t think it was the spacecraft. It was in the wrong place.
Back in Houston, where the nearly half-moon rode the sky in its zenith, Mrs. Jan Armstrong watched her husband on television. “I can’t believe it is really happening,” she said.
Armstrong surveyed the rocky, rugged scene around him. “It has a stark beauty all its own,” he said. “It’s different. But it’s very pretty out here.”
They took pictures of each other, and Aldrin shot views of the spacecraft against the lunar background.
In a world where temperatures vary some 500 degrees, from 243 degrees above zero in sunlight, to 279 below in shadow, the men in the spacesuits felt comfortable.
Aldrin reported, “In general, time spent in the shadow doesn’t seem to have any thermal effects inside the suit. There is a tendency to feel cooler in the shadow than out of the sun.”
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Cue Frank,
Ha,just thinking that.
Frank got a big slap down over the weekend with his comments.
He may be laying low.
I am sorry I missed it. I’ve been waiting for someone to smack him hard enough to make him shut up for a bit.
I thought Frank put up a good fight. In fairness it was 20 against poor oul Frank at one stage.
20-1 are fairly good odds for Frank. If the population as a whole were polled it would be more like 100,000-1. Come to think of it, it could even be 5 million-1 : Frank is definitely one of a kind! :-D
Glen, defending the indefensible.
It was recorded on a beach in Connemara. I swear……..
Cashla East – exact location specified…..don’t tell anyone.
I don’t believe this happened at all
Well it is only a claim, not fact
Just Apollo 11 or all six times Niall?
If the USSR had claimed to have landed on the moon first you can bet the west would have denied it as a hoax
For apollo 13 they decided a plot twist was in order to embarrass themselves.
The USSR had a lot of firsts, first sattelite, first man in space, first woman in space, first spacewalk. Don’t think there were hoax claims as far as I know.
oh yeah nevermind the mirrors they left on the moon that you can point a laser at and have it bounce back to calculate how far the moon is, that’s also just a claim
They didn’t deny Sputnik.
Nor Belka and Strelka.
They didn’t deny the Luna probes that *landed on the moon* in 1959.
They didn’t deny Valentina Tereshkova’s 3 days of orbital spaceflight.
They didn’t deny Yuri Gagarin’s orbital spaceflight.
They didn’t deny Leonov’s first spacewalk.
They didn’t deny the Lunokhod 1 rover’s landing on the Moon.
But, according to John Stewart IF the Russians had got there first, suddenly the West would be claiming “hoax”. I’d like to know from which orifice John pulled this conspiracy theory.
“I’d like to know from which orifice John pulled this conspiracy theory.”
I know! I know!
John, they didn’t deny Sputnik!
heres how it was Reported “man Walks on moon” simpler times !
Fascinating. Would love to go to the moon.
Here is a rundown of the claims of the whack job lunar landing deniers… debunked point by point:
Gene Cernan had the best career of the lot,flew to the moon twice,made the first descent of the LM in lunar orbit,descended to the lunar surface in the LM twice,once in Apollo 10 (didn’t land) and once in Apollo 17 and was also the last man on the moon.
A fantastic achievement, especially to have been accomplished in the 60′s.
Pity nobody has been back. 45 years ago just seems ridiculous. Imagine the pictures they could take now.
People did go back, a few times.
Complete waste of time and money
We now know for a fact that a feather falls as fast as a stone or did you forget that John? So still a waste of time and money? I think not
Please list the reasons why?
Maybe the money would be better spent trying to fix things down on earth rather than spending billions sending guys to the moon on tin cans, that’s our earth’s natural satellite, stay off it
When the first organisms evolved and started to migrate out of the water and explore the land, was that a waste of time too?
In your case yes
John….you are misinformed. Space exploration which included putting a man on the moon has given us so much.
Phones, Satellites, Instant television, Medical advances such as CAT Scans, Water Filtration and Purification, Clean Energy Technology, microwaves, Navigation, Robotics…I could go on
It rapidly sped up the development of integrated circuits, the technology you are using right now to communicate your dissatisfaction. =P
They found microwave ovens and cat scanners on the moon, beside a world war 2 bomber I take it
How many kids who were enthralled by the concept of man being able to break our earthly bonds and walk upon a body no other has set foot on before? How many were inspired to go into important fields of discovery, potentially leading to scientific marvels we take for granted today. The moon landing was expensive, and it was a PR stunt. But if you truly cannot see the value in seeing if man can do something incredible just to see if it’s possible, you are a sad sad person.
We are a race of explorer’s, and the search for answers is our driving force. , to stop doing that would be un-human. And if we don’t get off this planet eventually we will be wiped out
Velcro, superglue
Gil Scott heron says, no hot water no toilets no lights but whitey on the moon
John, the money was spent right here on Earth, employing many and creating opportunity. The money wasn’t spent on the moon. I hate to burst your bubble on this subject.
John, you are being ignorant. Simple.
And john, are you critical of the Russians who also spent money going into space?
Were they solving the worlds problems?
I think that the Voyager probe is still out there travelling though stellar space 37 years after it was launched, and with its Johnny B Goode track on board, is somehow more mindlboggling and rather spooky
John I would have liked a more constructive counter-argument than “In your case yes”. You are an advanced species, after all.
That was Carlos Santana’s birthday, man.
It was a defining moment in a whole generation.
A small grainy black and white image ended our isolation as a planet, we had reached out beyond our world.
It was also the first time that the earth was photographed properly from ‘above’
have your say