I was born in 1976, which means I missed the first moon landing by 7 years. It also means I missed the last moon landing by 4 years. Now, be honest, how many of you thought there was only one landing on the moon? I'm not surprised.
The Apollo moon landings is one of my favorite parts of history. I'm kind of a "space" junkie anyway (i.e. I like Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.) and I still am fascinated by the fact that we sent men to walk on the moon. Men actually walked on another planetary body. Why did NASA stop sending men there? Most likely because the Space Race was over by the time Neil Armstrong took his one small step. The idea of going to the moon was to beat the Russians there, and once that was accomplished, the idea of spending billions of dollars to send men to the moon just didn't sit well with most Americans, especially with the Vietnam War still raging.
I have read just about every book written about the Space Race, including those written by the astronauts themselves. Think you know a lot about the Apollo program? Let's find out.
1.) 12 lucky men have had the privilege of walking on the moon. There should have been 14, but Apollo 13 never landed on the moon.
2.) Did you know that President Nixon actually had a speech prepared for the nation in case Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong got "marooned" on the moon? Look it up, it's on the web somewhere.
3.) The Apollo 10 mission was a full blown "dress rehearsal" for the first landing. The crew took the lunar module down to within 50,000 feet of the surface. Many in NASA wanted the crew to just make the landing. "Why not just have them go all the way, since they're so close?" was the argument. But there were still numerous things to be tested, including the docking of the LM and CM in lunar orbit, and it was decided that there was way too many things that could go wrong without proper testing. If something tragic had happened on Apollo 10, and lives had been lost, the Apollo program might be cut right there, and how would it look to the world if astronauts came within 50,000 feet of the moon but couldn't get into the endzone? Apollo 10 was a huge success, paving the way for the Apollo 11 landing on July 20, 1969.
4.) Apollo 11 was less than 30 seconds away from aborting the landing as Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the moon. Armstrong's quick thinking and intense pilot skills secured the landing. Extremely low on fuel, a mission control worker shouted out "Someone tell Armstrong there ain't no gas stations on the moon."
5.) Immediately following the Eagle's landing, one of the first things Buzz Aldrin did on the moon was take Holy Communion. Once he stepped onto the surface, one of the first things he did was urinate into his special urine bag in his spacesuit.
6.) In an interview, Jack Swaggert, CMP (Command Module Pilot) of Apollo 13 was asked if he was sad that he would not get a chance to set foot on the moon. (CMP's stayed in orbit in the CM, while the Commander and Lunar Module Pilot went to the surface.) Swaggert said he was okay with it because his job was far more dangerous and nerve-wracking. Asked why, he said "Well, if something should go wrong, God Forbid, and my two fellow astronauts get stuck on the moon's surface, I would have to pilot the ship home by myself. Do you want to fly from the moon to the earth ALONE, knowing you left your two friends to die up there?"
7.) A lot of controversy surrounded the issue of just who would be "First man on the moon." One side claimed Neil Armstrong pulled rank and demanded to be first. (As Commander, he could have had that pull.) The other side claimed NASA officials set up the ship so that the Commander HAD to get out first, on the basis of how the Lunar Module door opened. (The only way Buzz Aldrin could go first is if he climbed over Armstrong, and the bulky equipment would have made it near-impossible to do that.) Still others claimed that NASA officials did everything they could to ensure Armstrong would be first. In the middle of the Cold War and an intense Space Race, who would you want to be the first man to set foot on the moon...a career military man or a civilian? (Armstrong was not active in the service when he walked on the moon.) Some say having Armstrong, a civilian, take the Moon's first steps, was a nice footnote in the history books.
8.) Buzz Aldrin was bitter for years about not being first on the moon. Forever known as the "second man on the moon", he could never swallow that pill just right. It is interesting to note that of all 12 moonwalkers, Aldrin actually spent the LEAST amount of time on the surface. Armstrong was the first one out of the LM, and the last one in, which means he spent 2 hours and 15 minutes on the moon. Aldrin was the second one out of the LM, and the first back in, so he was on the surface for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Each future mission after Apollo 11 stayed on the moon's surface for longer periods of time. For Apollo 17, the final Apollo flight, the two astronauts, Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan, actually spent 3 WHOLE DAYS on the lunar surface. They actually walked on the moon's surface for over 20 hours.
9.) There were supposed to be 20 Apollo missions. After the first landing of Apollo 11, Apollo 20 was cut. And after the near-tragedy of Apollo 13, Apollo 19 and 18 were cut as well. However, since Apollo 14, 15, 16 and 17 were practically already paid for, NASA allowed them to go on, with very, very little fanfare.
10.) The plan was to establish a "Moon base" on the Moon by the mid-1980s. As you can tell, that never came close to happening.
11.) During Apollo 8, the first flight around the moon, the astronauts read from the Book of Genesis.
12.) Did you know that the average desktop computer today is a more powerful machine than the ones that took astronauts to the moon?
13.) Two ships involved landing on the moon, the command module, which stayed in lunar orbit, and the lunar module, which landed on the moon. Each ship was given a unique name to make communicating with them easier. The Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) was the "Eagle", and the Command Module (CM) was "Columbia." For Apollo 13, the LM was "Aquarius" and the CM was "Odyssey." (But for Apollo 10, the LM was "Snoopy" and the CM was "Charlie Brown.")
14.) In 1967, three astronauts tragically died in the Apollo 1 fire. NASA decided to retire the name Apollo 1. The next few flights were all un-manned, until Apollo 7 was launched.
15.) Apollo 7 was plagued with problems, including sick astronauts, malfunctioning equipment, and schedules nobody seemed able to keep. Communicating with Mission Control from the ship, the Apollo 7 astronauts were sarcastic, bitter, rude and even defiant, practically telling Mission Control to piss off at times. The mission leader, Deke Slayton, decided that after this flight, the three astronauts would never fly in space again.
16.) During the Apollo 12 mission, someone stuck a little something extra into the astronauts' flight plans. What was it, you ask? The most recent Playboy Centerfold. (Houston, we have lift-off.)
17.) Neil Armstrong’s famous step onto the moon was followed by the immortal words "That’s one small step for man…one giant leap for mankind." But if you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense. The words "man" and "mankind" are really the same thing. NASA claimed for years that what Armstrong really said was "That’s one small step for A man…one giant leap for mankind." The "a" got lost in the transmission between the earth and the moon. Armstrong has been mum on this subject ever since.
