Moonshot: The Inside Story of Mankind's Greatest Adventure (44 page)

The truth is that during the Apollo programme NASA achieved far more than it expected to. In putting men on the Moon, the agency sent people 240,000 miles into space. This in itself enabled astronauts to take pictures of Earth from a distance that for the first time demonstrated just how fragile our planet really is. The famous Earthrise photograph, captured by Apollo 8, looks across the arid plains of the Moon towards Earth in the distance, and shows that the planet is a lonely drop of colour surrounded by endless depths of nothingness. Pictures such as this inspired the burgeoning green movement, which today has never been more active.

Another consequence of Apollo is perhaps even more significant. In 1969, the Cold War was inflamed by conflict in Vietnam and elsewhere, but in space it was a radically different story. When NASA asked Moscow for information on Luna 15, details of the probe's trajectory were sent promptly and without question. Luna 15 itself crashed in the Sea of Crisis a day after
Eagle
reached the surface, but it served a purpose in demonstrating that the two superpowers could work together in space. The relationship was greatly extended in 1975 when an Apollo command module successfully docked with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Paving the way towards later co-operation aboard the Mir Space Station, this political breakthrough was a triumphant moment for America and Russia – and also personally for Deke Slayton. Selected as an astronaut in 1959, then grounded three years later due to a heart condition, Deke was told he would never fly in space. But after medical treatment, in 1972 he was restored to full flight status. In looking for a crew for what was known as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, he selected himself as the docking pilot. Deke retired from NASA in 1982 and went into business. He passed away in 1993.

But perhaps the most significant achievement of Apollo is that in accomplishing its goal, it redefined humanity by proving we are capable of leaving our home planet. This will permanently be a defining characteristic of our capabilities – which is why, 40 years on, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin remain household names. In landing their gold and silver spacecraft on the surface of the Moon, Neil and Buzz proved something new about us. As they loped about in the dust years of work by thousands of people culminated in a mission flown by three men, who between them possessed the 'bright stuff' necessary to pull off what many said couldn't be done. The mission was to be repeated by others, but it was Neil, Michael and Buzz who led the way.

NOTES

Chapter 1: The Bright Stuff

1
Named Cape Kennedy in 1963, in 1973 the area reverted to its original name of Cape Canaveral.

2
Dr James Hansen,
First Man, The Life of Neil Armstrong
(Simon & Schuster, 2005).

3
Ibid.

4
Ibid.

5
Ibid.

6
Ibid.

7
Ibid.

8
Ibid.

9
Ibid.

10
Ibid.

11
Ibid.

12
Ibid.

13
Ibid.

14
Ibid.

15
Ibid.

16
Ibid.

17
Ibid.

18
Interview with Dr Robert Gilruth in Glen Swanson (ed.),
Before This Decade Is Out
(University Press of Florida, 2002).

19
Ibid.

20
Hansen, op. cit.

21
Stephanie Nolen,
Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race
(Penguin Canada, Toronto, 2002).

22
Andrew Smith,
Moondust
(Bloomsbury, 2005).

23
Hansen, op. cit.

24
Deke Slayton,
Deke!
(Forge, 1994).

25
Hansen, op. cit.

26
Ibid.

27
Ibid.

28
Phone-call between author and Dee O'Hara, 18/2/08.

29
Hansen, op. cit.

Chapter 2: Carrying the Fire

1
Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, with Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin,
First on the Moon
(Little Brown and Company, 1970).

2
Of the various sources of statistics detailing the Apollo 11 spacecraft and booster, one of the most detailed is the contemporary press kit, published by NASA 6 July 1969. This is currently available online and also in print (published by Apogee Books, 1999, as
Apollo 11, The NASA Mission Reports, Volume 1
, edited by Robert Godwin. For references to propellants, Saturn V stages and construction of the stack, etc.)

3
Ibid.

4
Guenter Wendt,
The Unbroken Chain
(Apogee Books, 2001).

5
Michael Collins,
Carrying the Fire
(Cooper Square Press, 2001, originally published in 1974).

6
Ibid.

7
Ibid.

8
Ibid.

9
Ibid.

10
Dr James Hansen,
First Man
.

11
Collins, op. cit.

12
Ibid.

13
Ibid.

14
Hansen, op. cit.

15
Collins, op. cit.

16
Ibid., and Hansen, op. cit.

17
Hansen, op. cit.

18
Ibid.

19
For gifts from Armstrong and Collins given to Wendt, see Guenter Wendt, op. cit.

20
Hansen, op. cit.

21
Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, op. cit.

22
Collins, op. cit.

Chapter 3: Moving Targets

1
Michael Collins,
Carrying the Fire
.

2
Ibid.

3
Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, with Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin,
First on the Moon
.

4
Robert Godwin (ed.),
Apollo 11, The NASA Mission Reports, Volume 1
(Apogee Books, 1999).

5
Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, op. cit.

6
Buzz Aldrin and Wayne Warga,
Return to Earth
(Random House, 1973).

7
Collins, op. cit.

8
Dr James Hansen,
First Man
.

9
Ibid.

10
David Harland,
The First Men on the Moon
(Praxis Publishing, 2007).

11
Aldrin and Warga, op. cit.

12
Harland, op. cit.

13
Collins, op. cit.

14
Aldrin and Warga, op. cit.

15
For details relating to Buzz Aldrin's background, see Aldrin and Warga, op. cit., and Hansen, op. cit.

16
Aldrin and Warga, op. cit.

17
Ibid.

18
Ibid.

19
Hansen, op. cit.

20
Aldrin and Warga, op. cit.

21
Hansen, op. cit.

22
Aldrin and Warga, op. cit.

23
Ibid.

24
Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, op. cit.

Chapter 4: Finding a Way Home

1
Michael Collins,
Carrying the Fire
.

2
David Harland,
The First Men on the Moon
.

3
Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, with Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin,
First on the Moon
.

4
Collins, op. cit.

5
Interview with George Low in Glen Swanson (ed.),
Before This Decade Is Out
.

6
Dr James Hansen,
First Man
.

7
Interview with Wernher von Braun in Swanson (ed.), op. cit.

8
More than 3,000 V-2s were subsequently fired at Britain and other countries.

9
Interview with George Low in Swanson (ed.), op. cit.

10
Ibid.

11
Robert Seamans,
Project Apollo, The Tough Decisions
(NASA, 2005).

12
Interview with George Low in Swanson (ed.), op. cit.

13
Seamans, op. cit.

14
Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs Page 4, John F. Kennedy Library.

15
Interview with George Low in Swanson (ed.), op. cit.

16
Seamans, op. cit.

17
http://history.nasa.gov/monograph4/against.htm
, see note 55.

18
http://history.nasa.gov/monograph4/against.htm
, see note 48.

19
http://history.nasa.gov/monograph4/against.htm
, see note 72.

20
Seamans, op. cit.

21
Hansen, op. cit., and
http://history.nasa.gov/monograph4/against.htm
.

22
Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, op. cit.

23
Hansen, op. cit.

24
Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, op. cit.

25
David Shayler,
Disasters and Accidents in Manned Spaceflight
(Praxis, 2000).

26
Hansen, op. cit.

27
Ibid.

28
Buzz Aldrin and Wayne Warga,
Return to Earth
.

29
Collins, op. cit.

30
Ibid.

31
Ibid.

32
Aldrin and Warga, op. cit.

33
Ibid.