by David Kubicek
I recently saw the Apollo 11 documentary which follows the first moon landing mission–through newly-discovered film and audio footage–from its launch on July 16, 1969, to its splashdown nine days later. It’s an excellent film. This is a part of history you won’t want to miss. But the documentary left out something about the first moon landing.
But the documentary left out something that I found exciting at the time, even if in the grand scope of the mission it was a minor glitch. There was one audio clip in the film that referred to that difficulty, but if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’ll miss it [the exact snippet of dialogue was Armstrong referring to a crater full of boulders, or something like that].
I was a space nerd. I followed the space program feverishly throughout my school years, and I was in high school when Apollo 11 set out for the moon. After watching the launch, I listened to coverage mostly on the radio. Our TV was in the process of having a nervous breakdown, and I was afraid it would die soon, so I wanted to conserve its energy so it would be functioning at the time of the moon walk on July 20.
I don’t remember if I heard about “the incident” on the radio while the Eagle was landing, or if I found out about it later from reading and watching news coverage. I suspect it was a little of both. But here, basically, is what happened:
Long before the launch, the NASA folks had selected what looked like a good landing site, but they didn’t have the advantages of the high-resolution photography we have today, so they couldn’t get a really close look at the area.
The computer was programmed to guide the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), nicknamed Eagle, to a soft landing on the moon’s surface. For most of the descent the Eagle was tilted so that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin couldn’t see where they were going, but as the Eagle neared touchdown, it would tilt upright so it could set down on its feet. At this time, the astronauts would get their first look at the landing site out the window.
But when the landing sight came into view, they saw an area strewn with rocks and boulders. If one of the Eagle’s footpads came down on a decent-sized rock, the spacecraft could tip over, stranding the astronauts on the lunar surface–if they survived the crash at all.
So Armstrong turned off the autopilot and took control of the Eagle, basically cruising over the landing area looking for a place to set down. He didn’t have to travel far, which was good because fuel was rationed precisely, so they didn’t have enough go-juice for extended sight-seeing. The rock-strewn area was about the size of a football field. Armstrong found a parking place on the other side, and the Eagle touched down with enough fuel remaining for only 45 seconds of flying time . [For those of you who aren’t familiar with LEM construction, it looked like a four-legged spider and had two parts; the lander would serve as the launchpad for the ascent vehicle, which would return the two astronauts and their cargo to the command module where Michael Collins was orbiting above].
I think whenever the moon landing story is told, they should tell this little tale of heroism–although the late Neil Armstrong was a modest fellow and wouldn’t have considered it heroism. But it adds a little suspense and conflict to the story, and as a writer of stories I’m a fan of suspense and conflict.
And on July 20, I did get to watch the moonwalk on TV. In fact, our TV managed to limp along for several more years before it wheezed out its last breath and succumbed to old age.
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