[dramatic music]
- HI, FOLKS. WELCOME TO "NASA LAUNCHPAD."
I'M YOUR HOST, VINCE WHITFIELD.
THE YEAR WAS 1969.
THE ANTICIPATION WAS HIGH.
THE IMPOSSIBLE HAD BECOME POSSIBLE.
THE WORLD WAS UNITED WITH A FOOTSTEP AND A SINGLE PHRASE.
- THAT'S ONE SMALL STEP FOR A MAN,
ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND.
- ON JULY 16, 1969,
THE APOLLO 11 MISSION LIFTED OFF
FROM KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
CARRYING ASTRONAUTS NEIL ARMSTRONG,
EDWIN "BUZZ" ALDRIN,
AND MICHAEL COLLINS ON WHAT WOULD BECOME
ONE OF THE BIGGEST ENGINEERING FEATS OF ALL TIME,
HUMANS SETTING FOOT ON THE SURFACE OF THE MOON.
ON JULY 20, 1969, JUST FOUR DAYS LATER,
THE LUNAR MODULE, ALSO KNOWN AS THE EAGLE,
BEGAN ITS DESCENT ONTO THE MOON.
ASTRONAUTS ARMSTRONG AND ALDRIN QUICKLY REALIZED
THEY WERE PASSING LUNAR LANDMARKS
ABOUT FOUR SECONDS EARLY,
WHICH MEANT THE EAGLE WOULD LAND
KILOMETERS WEST OF ITS TARGETED LANDING POINT.
THE NEW LANDING SPOT WAS GOING TO PUT THEM ON THE EDGE
OF A HUGE CRATER.
TO COMPLICATE THINGS,
THE LUNAR MODULE'S NAVIGATION COMPUTER
SOUNDED SEVERAL UNUSUAL ALARMS, DISTRACTING THE CREW.
AN OVERLOAD HAD OCCURRED
WHEN TWO RADAR SYSTEMS WERE POWERED UP,
CAUSING THE COMPUTER SYSTEM TO GO HAYWIRE.
SO NEIL ARMSTRONG TOOK SEMIAUTOMATIC CONTROL
OF THE MODULE'S AUTO-DESCENT.
WITH BUZZ ALDRIN CALLING OUT VELOCITY DATA AND ALTITUDE,
THE EAGLE SAFELY LANDED ON THE MOON'S SURFACE,
WITH A MERE 25 SECONDS OF FUEL LEFT.
THE APOLLO 11 CREW TOUCHED DOWN IN THE SEA OF TRANQUILLITY,
A RELATIVELY SMOOTH AND LEVEL AREA--
AT LEAST FOR THE MOON-- ON THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE.
I CAN SEE THE PUZZLED LOOKS ON SOME OF YOUR FACES:
"SEA" OF TRANQUILITY?
ACTUALLY, THE NAME IS TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN
"MARE TRANQUILLITATIS."
THESE LARGE DARK AREAS OF THE MOON
HAD MISTAKENLY BEEN NAMED SEAS
BECAUSE THEY LOOKED LIKE LARGE BODIES OF WATER FROM EARTH.
THE NAME STUCK, EVEN AFTER EARLY PICTURES OF THE MOON
SHOWED NO WATER ON THE ROCKY SURFACE.
A MARE IS KIND OF LIKE A FLAT PLAIN HERE ON EARTH.
AND THIS SITE HAD BEEN CAREFULLY CHOSEN
OVER A HOST OF OTHER POSSIBILITIES.
WITH RELATIVELY FEW CRATERS AND BOULDERS,
ALLOWING FOR AN EASY DESCENT,
AND NO LARGE HILLS, HIGH CLIFFS, OR DEEP CRATERS
THAT COULD INTERFERE WITH THE LUNAR MODULE LANDING RADAR,
THE SITE SEEMED A GOOD CHOICE.
AND THE RESULTING IMAGES WERE BREATHTAKING.
AFTER THE MOON LANDING CAME THE MOST EXCITING MOMENT,
WHEN NEIL ARMSTRONG AND BUZZ ALDRIN
BECAME THE FIRST HUMANS TO WALK ON A PLANETARY BODY
OTHER THAN EARTH.
ALTHOUGH THE FIRST MOON WALK WASN'T SCHEDULED TO OCCUR
UNTIL JULY 21, 1969,
A DAY AFTER THE ASTRONAUTS HAD LANDED ON THE MOON,
THE EXCITED TEAM, UNABLE TO SLEEP
AND FEELING NO ILL EFFECTS FROM THEIR LANDING,
TOOK THAT FIRST LEAP OF FAITH ON JULY 20th
AT 10:56 P.M. EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME.
IN ORDER TO CAPTURE THE IMAGES
OF MANKIND'S FIRST STEP ON THE MOON,
ARMSTRONG PULLED A SPECIAL RING THAT AUTOMATICALLY DEPLOYED
THE TELEVISION CAMERA.
ARMSTRONG LATER REPORTED THAT THEY HAD VERY LITTLE TROUBLE,
IN FACT, MUCH LESS TROUBLE THAN THEY EXPECTED AFTER LANDING.
BECAUSE LITTLE WAS KNOWN ABOUT THE SURFACE OF THE MOON,
THE ASTRONAUTS DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT
WHEN THEY MADE THAT FIRST STEP.
WOULD THEY SINK IN SOFT DIRT UP TO THEIR KNEES?
WOULD THEY BE ABLE TO MOVE EASILY?
THEY WERE PLEASANTLY SURPRISED
TO FIND ONLY A FEW CENTIMETERS OF DUSTY SOIL
ON TOP OF A HARD SURFACE.
AND BY LEARNING TO USE WHAT ALDRIN WOULD LATER CALL
A "STANDARD LOPING TECHNIQUE OF ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER"
AND PLANNING THEIR STEPS BEFORE ACTUALLY TAKING THEM,
MOVING ACROSS THE LUNAR LANDSCAPE
WASN'T AS HARD AS THEY HAD ANTICIPATED EITHER.
BUT IT WASN'T JUST A CASUAL STROLL THROUGH IN THE PARK--
OR RATHER, THE MOON.
THE CREW HAD A TIMELINE
AND SEVERAL IMPORTANT TASKS TO COMPLETE.
ONE OF THEIR MOON-WALKING MISSIONS
INCLUDED COLLECTING LUNAR SAMPLES,
AND THE CREW COLLECTED ABOUT 21 KILOGRAMS' WORTH.
ANOTHER MISSION FOR THE APOLLO 11 ASTRONAUTS
WAS TO PERFORM EXPERIMENTS,
SO THEY DUG THEIR HEELS INTO THE MOON DUST
AND GOT STARTED ON SOME SCIENCE.
THE SOIL MECHANICS INVESTIGATION
STUDIED THE PROPERTIES OF LUNAR SOIL INFORMATION,
WHICH AIDED IN FUTURE APOLLO MISSIONS.
THE CREW HAD A LIMITED TIME TO WORK ON THE LUNAR SURFACE,
SO SOME EXPERIMENTS WERE SIMPLY DEPLOYED
AND THEN LATER MONITORED FROM EARTH BY RADIO TELEMETRY.
THE LASER RANGING RETROREFLECTOR WAS ANOTHER EXPERIMENT
THAT ENABLED SCIENTISTS TO ACCURATELY MEASURE
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE EARTH AND MOON,
WHICH, BY THE WAY, IS AN AVERAGE OF 384,403 KILOMETERS
FROM THE CENTER OF THE EARTH TO THE CENTER OF THE MOON.
THE LUNAR DUST DETECTOR WAS AN EXPERIMENT
THAT WAS DEPLOYED TO SEE HOW MUCH LUNAR DUST ACCUMULATED
ON THE OTHER EXPERIMENTS OVER TIME
AND HOW RADIATION AFFECTED THEM.
THIS WAS CONSIDERED MORE OF AN ENGINEERING EXPERIMENT
RATHER THAN A SCIENCE ONE.
DURING THEIR 21 HOUR, 38 MINUTE, AND 21 SECOND VISIT TO THE MOON,
THE TWO MEN SPENT JUST 2 1/2 HOURS
WALKING ON THE LUNAR SURFACE,
AND WHEN THEIR TIME WAS UP, IT WAS TIME FOR A LUNAR LIFTOFF.
BEFORE LEAVING THE LUNAR SURFACE,
BUZZ ALDRIN TOSSED INTO THE MOON DUST
A TINY CLOTH SACK CONTAINING A GOLD REPLICA
OF AN OLIVE BRANCH, AN APOLLO 1 MISSION PATCH,
AND A SILICON DISC INSIDE AN ALUMINUM CAPSULE.
ROUGHLY THE SIZE OF A HALF DOLLAR,
THE DISC CONTAINED MESSAGES OF PEACE AND GOODWILL
FROM LEADERS AND RESPECTED PEOPLE FROM AROUND THE GLOBE.
ALSO LEFT BEHIND,
AN AMERICAN FLAG AND THIS PLAQUE.
IT SAYS, "HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH
"FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON JULY 1969 A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND."
AND SO HISTORY WAS MADE.
THANKS FOR WATCHING "NASA LAUNCHPAD."
I'M VINCE WHITFIELD.
UNTIL NEXT TIME, CHEERS.