Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight (36 page)

Apollo 11
was about 60,000 miles from its home planet with this view of Earth. (NASA)

Mission Control thanked the crew for the television views as the fatigued astronauts realized it was time to call it a day.

A few preps later, the voice of Mission Control told the listening world:

This is Apollo Control at 11 hours, 29 minutes into the flight of
Apollo 11
. We don’t expect to hear a great deal more from the crew tonight. At about 11 hours, 20 minutes we said good-night to them from Mission Control and they’re beginning their sleep period about 2 hours early.

The early-to-bed was made possible because flight controllers found no need for firing
Apollo 11
’s thruster rockets for midcourse correction number two. The astronauts were currently on the desired course and any need to change their flight path would be handled in midcourse correction number three tomorrow. For now they busied themselves setting up their light mesh hammocks.

Two of the hammocks, much like sleeping bags, were stretched and anchored beneath the left and right seats while the center couch was folded down for the third crew member, the astronaut on call if needed.

Mike Collins took the first watch with a lap belt holding him in place in weightlessness. “It was a pleasure to doze off with no pressure points poking your body,” Collins would later say. “What could be better than just floating all the way to the moon?”

Speed: 5,400 mph

Earth Distance: 63,850 miles

Mission Elapsed Time: 11 hours, 32 minutes

Mission Control and the flight surgeon kept a close watch on the crew reporting,

At 13 hours, 27 minutes into the flight of
Apollo 11
. Our flight surgeon reported a short while ago that command module pilot Mike Collins appeared to be sleeping soundly at this time. Biomedical data on the other two crewmen indicates that they are still awake.

After some 40 minutes, Mission Control was back:

The mission is progressing very smoothly. All spacecraft systems are functioning normally at this time, and the flight surgeon reports all three crewmen appear to be sleeping. For Commander Neil Armstrong, and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin, they appear to have begun sleeping about 5 minutes ago. Command module pilot Mike Collins has been asleep for about an additional 30 minutes to an hour.

*   *   *

The crew’s sleep was uneventful for the most part with Mission Control reporting at 22 hours, 49 minutes ground elapse time. “The crew has been awake for some time according to the surgeon. Spacecraft communicator Bruce McCandless is standing by to make a call to the crew momentarily.”

“
Apollo 11
,
Apollo 11
, this is Houston, over.”

“Good morning, Houston.
Apollo 11
,” Neil answered.

“Roger,
Apollo 11
. Good morning and when you’re ready to copy,
11
, I’ve got a couple of small flight plan updates and the morning news.”

The excitement of their first day was obviously the cause for the crew only sleeping five and a half hours, but in spite of their short sleep, once they were up they were raring to go.

Speed: 3,689 mph

Earth Distance: 114,204 miles

Mission Elapsed Time: 23 hours, 22 minutes

There were fewer chores on their second day leaving them with time to listen to music and marvel at the glow of Earth as they moved deeper and deeper into space.

Neil found his music soothing and a perfect fit for the occasion. In his teens he’d played the baritone, a large, valved brass instrument shaped like a trumpet, in a quartet called the Mississippi Moonshiners.

It was when Neil found chasing girls was fun. Playing the instrument he did he soon had the reputation of being the best kisser around. He carried this reputation to Purdue where he was a member of the university’s concert band. At the moment he was listening to a recording of “Music Out of the Moon.”

Neil’s selection was very appropriate. What most on Earth could not know was that since leaving the planet
Apollo 11
had been in constant light with nothing to block the sun. It would be this way for the astronauts until they were almost to the moon.

Neil was really looking forward to their dark passage when he would have a clear, distinct view of the universe. That’s when his backup Jim Lovell called, “
Apollo 11
, is the commander on board?”

Jim Lovell, first to open the very road to the moon they were now traveling, had been there every step of the way as Neil’s backup. He was there ready to step in if for some reason Neil couldn’t make the flight.

Armstrong rolled upright from his music-listening position, and quickly answered the call. “This is Neil, Jim, what’s up?”

“I’m a little worried.”

“Worried?” a puzzled
Apollo 11
commander questioned. “Worried about what?”

“You haven’t given me the word yet,” Lovell said. “You haven’t told me to stand down. Are you Go?”

Halfway between Earth and the moon, Neil Armstrong is astonished by Jim Lovell’s call. (NASA)

“Good Lord, Jim,” Neil laughed. “We’re halfway between Earth and the moon. “You’ve lost your chance to take this one, buddy.”

“Okay,” Lovell returned the laugh. “I concede.”

Speed: 3,481 mph

Earth Distance: 123,307 miles

Mission Elapsed Time: 25 hours, 58 minutes

They sailed without the slightest bump across the halfway line in distance between Earth and the moon, but not yet across the gravity equalization point between the two bodies.

What Neil didn’t know was that 23 years later the Galileo planetary craft would snap the first-ever picture of Earth and the moon showing the mission flown by
Apollo 11
. The aerospace editor of the Associated Press, Howard Benedict, one of the best damn friends Neil and I ever had, secured three copies of the photograph and I sent them to Neil. He was so impressed he signed a copy for this writer and one for Benedict to be treasured for a lifetime.

On December 16, 1992, eight days after Galileo returned for its second pass around Earth, the planetary spacecraft captured this remarkable view of the Earth-moon system from 3.9 million miles away. (NASA)

To complete their second day on their way to the lunar surface the feel-good astronauts put on an ad-lib television show with chef Mike Collins making a chicken stew, Buzz Aldrin doing push-ups, and Neil showing off by standing on his head.

They signed off their television show with a shot of distant Earth and then got to bed late. They slept for ten hours.

Speed: 2,406 mph

Earth Distance: 184,874 miles

Moon Distance: 73,732 miles

Mission Elapsed Time: 48 hours, 00 minutes

When they awoke, the astronauts took care of their duties including a midcourse correction before getting to the main event of the day: a meticulous checkout of their lunar module Eagle.

Mike opened Eagle’s hatch and Neil squeezed through the two-and-a-half-foot-wide tunnel followed by Buzz.

Neil was looking for a scratch or any sign of damage while Buzz, the lunar module pilot, began preparing Eagle for its separation from Columbia some 45 hours later. Their inspection found nothing and they happily reported to Mission Control their lander was “immaculate” and ready to go.

With five-sixths of their flight completed, Earth’s gravity diminished, and the moon’s grip assumed dominance. Steady acceleration toward the small world required new thinking. The moon’s mass was one-sixth of that of Earth’s and it could be set down between the United States’s Pacific and Atlantic coastlines. It was in all practical sense a dead world. On its surface the moon’s horizon was much closer than on Earth and it was airless. No atmosphere or weather, and for their third sleep period,
Apollo 11
’s crew was restless. Neil, Mike, and Buzz knew what waited for them the next day. Entering lunar orbit was not a given. If their rockets did not slow their ship to the correct speed they would loop around the moon and return to the vicinity of Earth.

Speed: 2,823 mph

Moon Distance: 12,916 miles

Mission Elapsed Time: 71 hours, 31 minutes

When
Apollo 11
’s astronauts were awakened for their third and important day of entering lunar orbit, the moon’s gravity was now pulling them faster and faster to their target.

“First off, it looks like it’s going to be impossible to get away from the fact that you guys are dominating all the news back here on Earth,” CapCom Bruce McCandless told them. “Even
Pravda
in Russia is headlining the mission and calls Neil the ‘Czar of the ship.’ West Germany has declared Monday to be ‘Apollo Day.’ Schoolchildren in Bavaria have been given the day off. BBC in London is considering a special radio alarm system to call people to their TV sets. And in Italy, Pope Paul VI has arranged for a special color TV circuit at his summer residence in order to watch you, even though Italian television is still black and white.

“Back here in Houston, your three wives and children got together for lunch yesterday at Buzz’s house. And according to Pat it turned out to be a gabfest. The children swam and did some high-jumping over Buzz’s bamboo pole.”

McCandless went on to let the crew know the latest ball scores and told them, “Houston astrologer Ruby Graham says that all the signs are right for your trip to the moon. She says that Neil is clever, Mike has good judgment, and Buzz can work out intricate problems.”

Neil grinned, quickly dismissing any thoughts of an astrologer as he and the crew turned to the important day ahead.

Mission Control was feeding
Apollo 11
’s astronauts the latest numbers and star settings for entering lunar orbit in 2 hours and 57 minutes.

Speed: 2,999 mph

Moon Distance: 8,430 miles

Mission Elapsed Time: 73 hours, 6 minutes

Apollo 11
was now flying through the moon’s massive shadow and the view was testing the astronauts’ nerves.

Here our nearest neighbor was looming before them, wrapping itself in a solar corona, while earthshine bathed its dark body with such illumination it was three-dimensional. The crew grabbed their cameras and a subdued Mike Collins asked Mission Control, “What sort of settings could you recommend for the solar corona? We’ve got the sun right behind the edge of the moon now.”

“Roger.”

“It’s quite an eerie sight,” said Buzz Aldrin. “There is a very marked sun’s corona coming from behind the moon.”