Fifty-one years ago, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Lunar Module the “Eagle” and took the first human steps on the lunar surface.
Hundreds of millions of viewers around the world saw history taking place. You’ve probably seen the famous pictures. And here are fifteen lesser-known facts about the historic Apollo 11 mission.
1) Moon Rocks
The astronauts collected 47.51 pounds of rocks and soil from the lunar surface. And three minerals were found from samples: Armalcolite, tranquillityite, and finally pyroxferroite.
The Moon rock named Armalcolite was first found in the Sea of Tranquility. And it was named after the crew of the Apollo 11 mission: Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. The minerals were later also found on Earth.
2) Neil Armstrong Nearly Didn’t Survive Training
Armstrong Apollo 11 commander was training as the backup commander for Apollo 9 mission. It was a year before his historic mission as Apollo 11 commander.
Neil was carrying out a simulated lunar lander landing when he lost control of the flying vehicle located at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. At 200 feet up, Neil chose to eject, and the flying “lander” crashed and burned on impact just seconds later as he drifted safely to the ground in a parachute.
Neil remembered that the simulations were exceedingly harder than the real lunar landing because tests here on Earth had to account for turbulence, wind, gusts, and other circumstances not present in the environment on the Moon.
3) A Pocket Full of Lunar Dust
After Neil began his historic first step onto the lunar surface, Armstrong took a handful of Moon soil, rocks and stowed it in the pocket of his spacesuit. It was planned as a “contingency sample.” In case the astronauts had to rush off the lunar surface. So at least scientists had some material to work with.
Neil commented on the lunar landscape: “It has a stark beauty all its own similar to the high desert of the United States.” Later in a 2001 conversation, he also displayed curiosity at the simple details in the Moon’s atmosphere: – “There was no dust when you kicked. That is a result of having an atmosphere. And when you don’t possess an atmosphere, you don’t have any vapors of dust.”
4) Flying The US Flag
The American flag that was historically planted by Armstrong and Aldrin was created so it could “fly” in the airless Moon conditions. So the designer’s deputy division chief David McCraw and Jack Kinzler, technical services division chief, stitched a hem onto the top of a 3×5 nylon US flag and slid in an aluminum rod that would keep the flag out to the side.
The US flag is likely no longer standing. Pictures in recent years display banners from later Apollo missions still is upright, but not Apollo 11. Aldrin says that as the lunar module took off from the lunar surface at the Apollo 11 expedition’s end, he noticed it being beaten by the lunar lander’s exhaust.
5) The Ladies Behind The Apollo 11 Mission
Nasa’s mathematician Katherine Johnson composed the computations for Apollo 11 trajectory to the Moon. Katherine was one of only a few African-American women chosen to work as “human computers” to verify and check engineer calculations at NACA or the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. It was the agency that preceded NASA. So she was a key contributor to numerous space milestones.
Katherine composed the trajectory for astronaut Alan Shepherd’s first flight in 1961. The first American in space and the attestation of calculations for astronaut John Glenn’s 1962 orbit. Katherine Johnson was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the year 2015, and her life story was turned into the 2016 movie “Hidden Figures.”
6) Pieces of The Wright Brother’s Very First Plane Was Onboard Apollo 11
The Air Force contacted Neil Armstrong to see if he’d be ready to take parts of the Wright Brothers’ first airplane to the Moon. And as a thank you, Neil would be permitted to keep half of the historical pieces. So Neil, who was an avid flier, was of course, very enthusiastic.
Neil’s son said in an earlier interview that first and foremost, Neil was an engineer and someone who desired to make airplanes better. That was his adolescence goal to be an aircraft designer.
7) Neil Armstrong’s Brilliant First Line
Neil pondered on his memorable first line, – “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” After stepping onto the lunar surface. In a 2001 interview for NASA, Armstrong said that he was preoccupied with more pressing tasks in the time after the lunar landing and before venturing out in his spacesuit while he ponders what to say.
So, it was a pretty simple statement, talking about stepping off something. Why it wasn’t a very complex thing, but it was what it was.
8) The Goal of Apollo 11 Was To Arrive on The Moon And Then Return to Earth
When it came to the mission’s primary objective, NASA kept it easy. “Complete a manned Moon landing and return.”
The famous Apollo program’s main goal was to send three astronauts into the Moon’s orbit, but president John F. Kennedy required more.
So when the Apollo program was announced in 1960, the initial plan was to send a small crew of astronauts into the Moon’s orbit and not to its surface.
9) Defending Against Moon Germs
So, to stop contamination on Earth with Moon pathogens, the astronauts were held in an MQF or the Mobile Quarantine Facility for three weeks.
The facility, built from a 35-foot aluminum Airstream trailer, was created by Melpar Inc. and included living and sleeping quarters, a complete kitchen, and a bathroom.
It additionally featured communication devices so the returned astronauts could talk to President Richard Nixon, and their families, who were aboard the USS Hornet to greet the crew back to Earth.
Eventually, it was learned there were no living germs on the Moon, and the quarantine procedure against “space germs” was abandoned after the Apollo 14 mission.
10) President Richard Nixon’s Contingency Speech
President Nixon had a speech made in case Neil and Buzz didn’t make it off the lunar surface, emphasizing the dangers of the famous first mission.
Speechwriter William Safire recommended the president telephone the widows to extend his condolences before a speech, in which Safire made this opening line:
Fate has made that the crew who went to the Moon to explore the Moon in peace will forever stay on the Moon to rest in peace.
Ans the prepared address also honored the two astronauts who – “know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.”
In the memorandum, Safire further suggested that after NASA stopped communication with the two astronauts, a pastor ought to commend “their souls ‘to the deepest of the deep'” and read the Lord’s Prayer.
11) The Toaster is More Advanced Than Apollo 11 Computer
Though the ACG or the Apollo Guidance Computer was cutting-edge technology for its time, when matched to the computer-based things we use every day, they were rather basic.
The Computer Weekly stated that these “ingenious computer systems” were no more powerful than a pocket calculator. And that the Apollo Guidance Computer was “more basic than the electronics in modern toasters. Those that have a computer-controlled start, stop, and defrost buttons.”
12) Anything to declare?
After their arrival in Honolulu after their extraterrestrial travels, the Apollo 11 crew jokingly filled out customs and immigration forms. And among the items declared was; “moon rock and moon dust samples.”
So, when questioned if they had any conditions on board that could lead to the spread of any disease, they filled in: “To be determined.”
13) The Welcome Committee in The Pacific
The historic Apollo 11 crew landed in the North Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, about 900 miles southwest of Hawaii. They were met by Lieutenant Clancy Hatleberg of the famous US Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team-11 at the floating capsule.
Clancy brought biological isolation garments for himself and the Apollo 11 crew members, in case they had been infected with extraterrestrial germs.
The crew put on their suits before getting on the lifeboat, and Hatleberg then sprayed down the entire capsule, the Apollo 11 crew, and himself with disinfectant before they were picked out from the Pacific and brought aboard the USS Hornet rescue ship.
The astronauts wore the suits from the moment the hatch opened until they were sealed inside a quarantine facility onboard the USS Hornet.
So, when the ship docked in Hawaii, the closed facility was loaded onto an Air Force transport plane and flown to the famous Ellington Air Force Base outside Houston, in Texas, where the three crewmembers waited out the full quarantine period of twenty-one days.
14) TV History
Around 650 million viewers worldwide watched the moon landing, and it was the most-watched TV event in the US up to that date.
Neil deployed a single TV camera thirty feet away from the “Eagle” for the transmission back to Earth. It was sending back black-and-white images of himself and Buzz bobbing around on the Moon’s landscape.
According to NASA, the data speed for the entire broadcast was 51.2 kilobits per second, which was slower than a 56K dial-up modem.
15) Global Superstars
After their return to Earth, the Apollo 11 astronauts embarked on a global goodwill tour aboard an Air Force II to twenty-seven cities, in twenty-four countries, in forty-five days.
This tour involved a ticker-tape parade down Broadway in New York City, and It stops in far-flung Japan, Pakistan, Mexico, the Canary Islands, Iran, and Congo. And meetings with the pope, royalties, and dignitaries.
Want To Know More About The Moon?
If you want to know more about our Moon and especially the most prominent crater of them all, Tycho crater? Then visit this interesting article. You will be amazed.
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The new book ‘How We Got to the Moon’ will reveal a stunning look at Apollo 11 Mission to the Moon.