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KF5JRV > TODAY 20.07.19 12:19z 84 Lines 4866 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 10893_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 20
Path: HB9ON<IW2OHX<IR2UBX<DB0RES<DB0OVN<DB0GOS<ON0AR<VE2PKT<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190720/1217Z 10893@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK6.0.18
At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from
Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at
home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.ö
Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first
human to walk on the surface of the moon.
The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a
famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session
of Congress on May 25, 1961: “I believe this nation should commit itself
to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on
the moon and returning him safely to Earth.ö At the time, the United
States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and
Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy’s bold proposal.
In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists
and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural
integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination.
Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in
Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned
launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three
astronauts were killed in the fire.
Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead,
and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited
Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed
to conduct a moon journey and landing. In December of the same year,
Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back,
and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time
while in Earth orbit. Then in May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10
took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run
for the scheduled July landing mission.
At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off
from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin
Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian
research pilot, was the commander of the mission. After traveling
240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July
19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by
Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins
remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar
surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern
edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission
Control in Houston, Texas, a famous message: “The Eagle has landed.ö
At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong
opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar
module’s ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his
progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions
watched in great anticipation. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous
quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone
and meant to be “that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for
mankind.ö He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface,
took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon.
“Buzzö Aldrin joined him on the moon’s surface at 11:11 p.m., and
together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran
a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon
via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the
lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on
the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent
back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the
moon was a plaque that read: “Here men from the planet Earth first set
foot on the moon–July 1969 A.D–We came in peace for all mankind.ö
At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined
Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home,
safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.
There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one
unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon,
astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission,
left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a
costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000
engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close
to $100 billion in today’s dollars). The expense was justified by
Kennedy’s 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the
feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.
73, Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.com
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