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N0KFQ > TODAY 20.07.14 15:42l 100 Lines 4930 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 20
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Sent: 140720/1435Z 26757@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Jul 20, 1969:
Armstrong walks on moon
At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000
miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion
people listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one
giant leap for mankind." Stepping off the lunar landing module
Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of
the moon.
The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its
origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a
special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe
this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before
this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning
him safely to Earth." At the time, the United States was still
trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era
America welcomed Kennedy's bold proposal.
In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of
scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo
mission, testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch
vehicle and spacecraft combination. Then, on January 27, 1967,
tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral,
Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of
the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were
killed in the fire.
Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged
ahead, and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo
mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the
sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and
landing. In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three
astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back, and in March
1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in
Earth orbit. Then in May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took
the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run
for the scheduled July landing mission.
At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took
off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong,
Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. Armstrong, a
38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of the
mission. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11
entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46
p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin,
separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two
hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface,
and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge
of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to
Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a famous message: "The Eagle
has landed."
At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule,
Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his
way down the lunar module's ladder, a television camera attached
to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to
Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation.
At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous quote, which he later
contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be
"that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." He
then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface, took a
cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon.
"Buzz" Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface at 11:11 p.m., and
together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S.
flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President
Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both
astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was
closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon,
and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command
module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a
plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot
on the moon--July 1969 A.D--We came in peace for all mankind."
At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and
rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began
its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at
12:51 p.m. on July 24.
There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and
one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on
the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the
Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972.
The Apollo program was a costly and labor intensive endeavor,
involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and
scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in
today's dollars). The expense was justified by Kennedy's 1961
mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was
accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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