(THEME)
ANNCR:
Explorations — a program in Special English by the Voice ofAmerica.
(THEME)
(Apollo Eleven Countdown)
A rocket launch countdown. Acommon sound in the nineteen-sixties. But this was not just anotherlaunch. It was the beginning of an historic event. It was thecountdown for Apollo Eleven — the space flight that would carry mento the first landing on the moon.
(Countdown continues)
The ground shook at Cape Kennedy, Florida the morning of Julysixteenth, nineteen-sixty nine. The huge Saturn Five rocket movedslowly up into the sky. It rose perfectly. Someone on the launchcrew spoke the words, “Good luck. And Godspeed. “
Today, Steve Ember and Dick Rael tell the story of the flight ofApollo Eleven.
VOICE ONE:
In the spacecraft at the top of the speeding rocket were threeAmerican astronauts whose names soon would be known around theworld. Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins.
Neil Armstrong was the commander of the spacecraft. He was a testpilot. He had flown earlier on one of the two-man Gemini spaceflights. Armstrong was a calm person, a man who talked very little.
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin was pilot of the moon lander vehicle. Theastronauts gave it the name “Eagle.” Aldrin had flown on the last ofthe Gemini flights. He also was a quiet man, except when he talkedabout space.
Michael Collins was the pilot of the command module vehicle,”Columbia.” He also had made a Gemini flight. He would wait in orbitaround the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin landed and explored thesurface. Collins was very popular and always ready with a smile.
VOICE TWO:
Two-and-one-half minutes after the Apollo Eleven launch, thefirst-stage rocket separated from the spacecraft. Twelve minuteslater, the spacecraft reached orbit. Its speed wastwenty-nine-thousand kilometers an hour. Its orbit wasone-hundred-sixty-five kilometers above the Earth.
This was the time for the crew to test all the spacecraftsystems. Everything worked perfectly. So, the NASA flight directortold them they were “go” for the moon. They fired the third-stagerocket. It increased the speed of the spacecraft to forty-thousandkilometers an hour. This was fast enough to
escape the pull of the Earth’s gravity.
Apollo Eleven was on its way to the moon. In seventy-seven hours,if all went well, Apollo Eleven would be there.
VOICE ONE:
Halfway to the moon, the astronauts broadcast a color televisionprogram to Earth. The broadcast showed how the astronauts lived inthe spacecraft. It showed their instruments, food storage, anddetails of how they moved and worked without gravity to give themweight. The television broadcast also showed the Earth behind ApolloEleven. And it showed the moon growing larger in the blacknessahead.
As hours passed, the pull of the moon’s gravity grew stronger.Near the moon, the astronauts fired rockets to slow the spacecraftenough to put it into moon orbit.
VOICE TWO:
Apollo Eleven circled the moonwhile the crew prepared for the landing. Finally, spacecraftcommander Armstrong and NASA flight controllers agreed it was timeto separate the lander module “Eagle” from the command module”Columbia.”
Armstrong and Aldrin moved through the small opening between thetwo spacecraft. Then they moved Eagle away from Columbia. Armstrongreported, “The Eagle has wings!” The lunar module was ready. Menwere about to land on the moon.
On Earth, all activity seemed to stop. President Richard Nixongave federal government workers the day off to watch the moonlanding on television.
Around the world, five-hundred-million people watched thetelevision report. Countless millions more listened on their radios.
VOICE ONE:
Armstrong and Aldrin fired the lander rocket engine. The firingslowed the spacecraft and sent it down toward the landing place. Itwas in an area known as the “Sea of Tranquility. “
The lunar lander, controlled by a computer, dropped toward theairless surface of the moon. One-hundred-forty meters from thesurface, the astronauts took control of the lander from thecomputer. They moved Eagle forward, away from a very rocky area thatmight have caused a difficult landing.
The voices of Aldrin and Armstrong could be heard in shortmessages. “Forward. . . Forward. . . Good. Forty feet. Kicking upsome dust. Big shadow. Drifting to the right a little. Contactlight. Okay. Engine stop. “
Armstrong reported, “Tranquility base here. The Eagle haslanded!”
VOICE TWO:
NASA’s plan had called for the astronauts to test instruments,eat and then rest for four hours before leaving the Eagle. ButArmstrong and Aldrin asked to cancel the four-hour sleep period.They wanted to go out onto the moon as soon as they could get ready.
NASA controllers agreed.
It took the astronauts more than three hours to complete thepreparations for leaving the lander. It was difficult — in Eagle’ssmall space — to get into space suits that would protect them onthe moon’s surface.
VOICE ONE:
Finally, Armstrong and Aldrin were ready. They opened the door.Armstrong went out first and moved slowly down the ladder. At twohours fifty-six Greenwich Mean Time on July twentieth,nineteen-sixty-nine, Neil Armstrong put his foot on the moon.
“That’s one small step for man,”he said, “One giant leap for mankind.”
The world could see the history-making event on television. Butthe man who was closest to what was happening, Michael Collins,could only listen. He was orbiting the moon in the command moduleColumbia. It did not have a television receiver.
VOICE TWO:
Armstrong moved carefully away from the Eagle. He left the cold,black shadow of the lander and stepped into the blinding white lightof the sun.
On Earth, all was quiet. No sound came from televisions orradios. No one felt able to talk about what was happening.
Armstrong began to describe what he saw. “The surface appears tobe very, very fine grain, like a powder. I can kick it loosely withmy toes. I can see footprints of my boots in the small, fineparticles. No trouble to walk around.”
VOICE ONE:
Aldrin appeared on the ladder. Down he came, very slowly.
Soon, both men were busy placing experiments to be left behind onthe moon. They collected more than thirty kilograms of rock and soilto take back to Earth. They moved easily and quickly, because themoon’s gravity is six times less than Earth’s.
Hours passed. Too soon, it was time to return to the Eagle.Armstrong and Aldrin re-entered the lander. They rested for a while.Then they began to prepare to launch the lander for the returnflight to the orbiting command module.
VOICE TWO:
Listeners on Earth heard the countdown from Tranquility Base.”Three, two, one. . . first stage engine on ascent. Proceed.Beautiful. Twenty-six. . . thirty-six feet per second up. Verysmooth, very quiet ride.” Eagle was flying. Man had been on the moonfor twenty-one and one-half hours.
Eagle moved into the orbit of the command module. It connectedwith Columbia. Armstrong and Aldrin rejoined Collins in the commandship. They separated from Eagle and said good-bye to it. The landerhad done its job well.
VOICE ONE:
Eight days after it started its voyage to the moon, Apollo Elevensplashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Left behind on the moon were thefootprints of Armstrong and Aldrin, an American flag and scientificequipment. Also left forever on the moon is a sign with these words:
“Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon –July, nineteen-sixty-nine A. D. We came in peace for all mankind. “
(THEME)
ANNCR:
This Special English program was written by Marilyn RiceChristiano. It was produced by Caty Weaver. Your narrators wereSteve Ember and Dick Rael. This is Phoebe Zimmermann. Listen againnext week at this time to Explorations on the Voice of America as wecontinue the story of the Apollo space flight program.