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<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Chariots For Apollo, ch14-2</title>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<p>
<h2>The Outward Voyage</h2>
<p>
On 16 July, the weather was so hot, one observer noted, that the air
felt like a silk cloth moving across his face. Nearly a million persons
crowded the Florida highways, byways, and beaches to watch man's
departure from the earth to walk on the moon. Twenty thousand guests
looked on from special vantage points; one,<a href =
"#explanation1"><b>*</b></a> leading a poor people's protest march
against the expense of sending man to the moon, was so awed that he
forgot for a moment what he came to talk about. Thirty-five hundred
representatives of the news media from most of the Western countries and
much of the eastern hemisphere (118 from Japan, alone) were there to
record the mission in newsprint for readers and to describe the scene
for television and radio audiences, numbering according to various
estimates as many as a billion watchers.<a href =
"#source2"><b>2</b></a><p>
Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins must certainly have
realized the significance of their date with destiny, even though all
three were seasoned space travelers. But the normal launch day routine
was observed. Donald Slayton rousted the crew out of bed about 4:00 in
the morning. Nurse Dee O'Hara recorded a few physical facts, physicians
made a quick check, and the astronauts ate breakfast. Waiting to help
them into their suits when they finished was Joe Schmitt, the
astronauts' launch-day valet for the past eight years. After they
arrived at the launch complex, still another old friend and veteran from
Mercury and Gemini days, pad leader Guenter Wendt, assisted them into
the spacecraft seats. Armstrong crawled in first and settled in the
left-hand couch. Collins followed him, easing into the couch on the
right side. As they wriggled into position, were strapped in, and
checked switches and dials, Aldrin enjoyed a brief interlude outside on
the white room flight deck, letting his mind drift idly from subject to
subject, until it was time for him to slide into the center seat. When
the hatch snapped to, the threesome was buttoned up from one world,
waiting for the Saturn V to boost them to another.<a href =
"#source3"><b>3</b></a><p>
<p align=center>
<img src = "images/c350e.jpg" width=405 height=586 ALT="Apollo 11 launch"><p>
<cite>Apollo 11 lifts off for the moon.</cite>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
A Saturn V liftoff is spectacular, and the launch of <cite>Apollo
11</cite> was no exception. But it didn't give the audience any
surprises. To the three Gemini-experienced pilots, who likened the
sensation to the boost of a Titan II, it was a normal launch. The 12
seconds the lumbering, roaring Saturn V took to clear the tower on the
Florida beach did seem lengthy, however. At that point in the flight, a
four-shift flight control team in Texas, presided over by mission
director George Hage and flight director Clifford E. Charlesworth,
assumed control of the mission. The controllers, and the occupants of
the adjacent rooms crammed with supporting systems and operations
specialists, had little to worry about. Unlike the three Saturn Vs that
had carried men into space previously, this one had no pogo bounce
whatsoever. Collins and Armstrong had noticed before launch that the
contingency lunar sample pouch on Armstrong's suit leg was dangerously
close to the abort handle. If it caught on the handle, they could be
unceremoniously dumped into the Atlantic. Although Armstrong had shifted
the pouch away from the handle, they worried about it until they
attained orbital altitude. Then the crew settled down to give the
machine a good checkout. Armstrong found he could not hear the service
module's attitude thrusters firing; but Charlesworth's flight
controllers told him they were behaving beautifully.<a href =
"#source4"><b>4</b></a><p>
To Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins, the real mission would not start
until they went into lunar orbit and separated the lunar module from the
command module. To constrain their emotions and conserve their energies,
they had decided to spend the first part of the trip resting, eating,
and keeping themselves relaxed. If their matter-of-fact behavior and
conversation before they went charging off to the moon on a direct
course were any indication, they succeeded. Armstrong and Aldrin became
drowsy before the engine firing that thrust them onto the lunar path -
translunar injection - although Armstrong did murmur a mild
"Whew," when it began. Aldrin casually observed that the S-IVB
stage was a "tiny bit rattly," and Collins uneasily eyed a
camera overhead during the 1.3-g acceleration loads, even though he knew
it was fastened down securely enough not to bang him on the head. Like
their predecessors, they had the upside-down sensation for a while, and
Collins, who had to get out of his couch to work with the navigation
equipment in the lower bay, was careful to move his head slowly, to
guard against getting sick. But none of the three had any physical
problems.<a href = "#source5"><b>5</b></a><p>
The trip to the moon was quite pleasant. The crewmen ate and slept well,
lodging themselves comfortably in favorite niches about the cabin. What
work there was to do they enjoyed doing. Collins loved flying the
spacecraft - no comparison with the simulator at all, he said - when he
pulled the command module away from the S-IVB stage and then turned
around to dock with the lunar module. But he was miffed at having to use
extra gas from his thruster supply; it was like going through a bad
session on the trainer, he fumed. Armstrong was delighted that there was
not one scratch on the probe. The command module pilot had a momentary
scare when he unstowed the probe and noticed a peculiar odor in the
tunnel, like burned electrical insulation - but he could find nothing
wrong. They relaxed again and began taking off their suits. Armstrong
and Aldrin were especially careful to guard against snags; their lives
would depend on these garments in a few days.<p>
Their path to the moon was accurate, requiring only one midcourse
correction, a burst from the service propulsion engine of less than
three seconds to change the velocity by six meters per second. Not
having much to do gave the pilots an opportunity to describe what they
were seeing and, through color television, to share these sights and
life inside a lunar-bound spacecraft with a worldwide audience. They
compared the deeper shades of color their eyes could see on the far away
earth with those Houston described from the television transmission.
Aldrin, pointing the camera, once asked CapCom Charles Duke to turn the
world a bit so he could see more land and less water. After one
particularly bright bit of repartee, Duke accused Collins of using cue
cards; but the command module pilot replied firmly that there was no
written scenario - "We have no intention of competing with the
professionals, believe me," he said. The crew also received a daily
news summary, a tradition dating from the December 1965 <cite>Gemini
VII</cite> mission. During one of these sessions, the crew learned the
latest news on <cite>Luna 15,</cite> the unmanned Russian
craft launched 13 July and expected to land on the moon, scoop up a
sample, and return to the earth.<a href = "#explanation2"><b>**</b></a>
Several times thereafter the trio asked about the progress of this
flight.<a href = "#source6"><b>6</b></a><p>
On Saturday, 19 July, almost 62 hours after launch, <cite>Apollo
11</cite> sailed into the lunar sphere of influence. Earlier, television
viewers in both hemispheres had watched as the crew removed the probe
and drogue and opened the tunnel between the two craft. Aldrin slid
through, adjusted his mind to the new body orientation, checked out the
systems, and wiped away the moisture that had collected on the lunar
module windows, while the world watched over his shoulder. The pilots
were glad to get the tunnel open and the probe and drogue stowed a day
early - especially Collins, who had worried about the reliability of
this equipment ever since his first sight of it years before.<p>
As the moon grew nearer and the view filled three-quarters of the hatch
window, Armstrong discussed lunar descent maneuvers with the flight
controllers. He was glad to learn that the service module engine had
performed as well in flight as it had during ground tests. The last
kilometers on the route were as uneventful as the first. The pilots
maintained their mental ties with the earth, enjoying the newscasts
radioed to them and the knowledge that their own voyage was front page
news everywhere. Even the Russians gave them top billing, calling
Armstrong the "czar" of the mission. (At one time, when flight
control called for the commander, Collins replied that "the Czar is
brushing his teeth, so I'm filling in for him.") Had the news copy
been available to them, they could have read it without difficulty by
the light of the earthshine.<p>
A day out from the moon, the crewmen saw a sizable object out the
window, which they described variously as a cylinder, something L-shaped
like an open suitcase, an open book, or even a piece of a broken
antenna. All three believed that it had come from the spacecraft.
Collins at first said he had felt a distinct bump; after thinking it
over, he decided it must have been his imagination - the modular
equipment stowage assembly in the lunar module descent stage had not
really fallen off. Or had it? Whatever it was, it was interesting; the
crew talked quite a bit about it after returning to earth.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<a name = "explanation1"><b>*</b></a> Dr. Ralph D. Abernathy.
<p>
<a name = "explanation2"><b>**</b></a> <cite>Luna 15</cite> entered
lunar orbit 17 July and made 52 revolutions of the moon before
hardlanding on the surface. Unmanned <cite>Luna 16,</cite> launched by
the U.S.S.R. on 12 Sept. 1970, softlanded with an earth-operated drill
and returned a recovery capsule containing a cylinder of lunar soil to
the earth on 24 Sept. Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space
Sciences, <cite>Soviet Space Programs, 1971–75,</cite> Staff Report
prepared by Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, vol. 1,
30 Aug. 1976, pp. 145-49.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<a name = "source2"><b>2</b>.</a> <cite>10:56:20 PM, EDT, 7/20/69: The
Historic Conquest of the Moon as Reported to the American People by CBS
News over the CBS Television Network</cite> (New York: CBS, 1970; this
book, under 200 pages, provides an excellent cross-section of activities
around the world as related to <cite>Apollo 11</cite> events of 16
through 24 July 1969), pp. 13, 15, 20; Charles D. Benson and William
Barnaby Faherty, <a href =
"http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Moonport/cover.html"><cite>Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch
Facilities and Operations,</cite></a> NASA SP-4204 (Washington, 1978),
p. 474; MSC, "Apollo 11 Mission Commentary," 16 July 1969,
tapes 3-1, 4-1; MSC News Center, Apollo 11 Accreditation List [16 July
1969].<p>
<a name = "source3"><b>3</b>.</a> Michael Collins, <cite>Carrying the
Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys</cite> (New York: Farrar, Strauss and
Giroux, 1974), pp. 355-59; "Apollo 11 Mission Commentary,"
tape 11-2; MSC, "Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing," 2
vols., 31 July 1969, vol. 1, p. 1-3; Collins to James M. Grimwood, 13
Dec. 1976, with enc.<p>
<a name = "source4"><b>4</b>.</a> NASA, <cite>Mission Report: Apollo
11,</cite> MR-5 (Washington, 14 Aug. 1969), p. 5; George H. Hage memo,
"Mission Director's Summary Report, Apollo 11," 24 July 1969;
MSC, "Apollo 11 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transmission (GOSS
Net 1)," July 1969, p. 17; "Apollo 11 Debriefing," 1:
3-1, 3-2, 3-4, 3-8, 3-9, 3-11, 3-12; Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., memo,
"Flight Control Manning for Apollo 11," 30 June 1969, with
enc.; John P. Mayer memo, "SSR Manning for Apollo 11," 14 July
1969, with enc.; NASA, "Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Mission,"
press kit, news release 69-83K, 26 June 1969, pp. 197-99; Clifford E.
Charlesworth et al., "Flight Directors Report, Apollo 11,"
n.d., p. 3; Collins letter, 13 Dec. 1976.<p>
<a name = "source5"><b>5</b>.</a> "Apollo 11 Voice," p. 16;
MSC, "Apollo 11 Onboard Voice Transcription, Recorded on the
Command Module Onboard Recorder Data Storage Equipment (DSE),"
August 1969, pp. 19, 32, 35, 38-40, 42; "Apollo 11
Debriefing," 1: 3-10, 4-4, 4-5, 6-32, 6-33; MSC, "Apollo 11
Mission Report," MSC-00171, November 1969, pp. 1-1, 3-1, 4-1,
7-1.<p>
<a name = "source6"><b>6</b>.</a> "Onboard Voice," pp. 43,
46-50; "Apollo 11 Voice," pp. 9, 24, 30, 34, 50, 52, 66, 96,
101, 106-112, 147, 154; Charlesworth et al., "Flight Directors
Report," pp. 3-7; Hage memo, "Apollo 11 Daily Operations
Report No. 2," 18 July 1969; Hage memo, 24 July 1969; "Apollo
11 Debriefing," 1: 5-5, 5-6, 5-9, 6-19 through 6-22; <cite>10:56:20
PM, EDT, 7/20/69,</cite> pp. 53-54.
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