The Apollo 11 mission made history with the first moon landing 55 years ago Sunday, July 20, 1969.
That day, the lunar module named Eagle slowly descended toward the lunar surface with a five-foot aluminum rod extending from the footpad of the descent stage.
When the rod’s contact sensor touched the moon, it triggered an amber light inside the lunar module crew cabin.
“Contact light. Okay. Engine stop,” announced lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin.
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Eagle Sunday, July 20, 1969, at 3:17 p.m. CDT (Minnesota time), in a region of the moon called the Sea of Tranquility.
“We copy you down, Eagle,” radioed capsule communicator (CapCom) Charlie Duke (Charles Duke Jr.) from Mission Control in Houston, TX.
“Houston. Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed,” confirmed Armstrong.
“Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You’ve got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again, thanks a lot,” answered CapCom.
“Thank you,” replied Armstrong.
“Very smooth touchdown,” Aldrin added.
Inside mission control, the flight controllers were cheering loudly.
Gene Kranz, flight director, knew that it was not the right time to be uproarious and said in a raised voice, “OK, keep the chatter down in this room,” as T1, the one-minute mark after landing, neared.
T1 was the last point at which an immediate abort was possible if conditions aboard the Eagle were unsafe.
Kranz, known for his calm demeanor and unwavering focus, depended on his team’s quick analysis of telemetry data.
He required confirmation from each flight controller’s status board that conditions in and outside the Eagle were safe enough for the astronauts to stay on the moon.
Each confirmed the lunar module’s systems were functioning correctly.
“CapCom, we’re stay for T1,” Kranz told Charlie Duke.
“Eagle, you are stay for T1,” CapCom radioed Armstrong and Aldrin.
If the “no-stay” orders were issued, the astronauts would ignite the engine on Eagle’s ascent stage (containing the crew compartment), lift off from the moon, rendezvous with the command module, and head back to Earth.
“Roger. Understand, stay for T1,” Armstrong replied.
“Eagle is at Tranquility,” Duke reported to Michael Collins, who was orbiting 60.27 miles above the moon in the command module named Columbia.
“Yes, I heard the whole thing. Fantastic!” replied Collins.
“Be advised there are a lot of smiling faces in this room, and all over the world,” CapCom told the astronauts.
“There sure are two of them up here,” Armstrong replied.
“Don’t forget the one in the command module,” quipped Collins.
I remember CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite being at a loss for words after the Eagle touched down on the moon.
“Wally. Say something; I’m speechless,” Cronkite said as he turned to Wally Schirra, a former astronaut who was co-anchoring the moon landing as a consultant.
“Kind of nice to be aboard for this one, isn’t it?” Schirra replied with a grin to a smiling Cronkite.
That evening, Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon.
With my young eyes transfixed on the living room television, I, along with 650 million others, watched the ghost-like video images of Neil Armstrong descending the ladder of the lunar module.
At approximately 8:56 p.m. CDT Sunday, July 20, 1969, Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, saying, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Nineteen minutes after Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface, Aldrin descended the ladder and described the scene as “magnificent desolation.”
After joining Armstrong on the surface, they carefully assembled the flagpole, planted it in the lunar soil, and unfurled the American flag, marking this historic moment.
From Houston, CapCom patched through a 238,855-mile long-distance call from the Oval Office of the White House to the moon.
President Nixon, speaking on an olive-green Western Electric 2500 telephone, congratulated the astronauts on their remarkable achievement.
Armstrong and Aldrin spent two hours and 31 minutes outside of the lunar module, where they collected rock and soil samples, conducted experiments, and placed measuring and sensor devices on the lunar surface.
After spending 21 hours and 36 minutes on the moon, the Eagle’s ascent stage lifted off, carrying Armstrong and Aldrin to rendezvous with Columbia for their return to Earth.
Minnesota played a significant role in the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.
Honeywell Inc., headquartered in Minneapolis, contributed through its Bendix Division by building two lunar surface experiments: the passive seismic experiment package (PSEP) and the lunar dust detector (LDD).
Additionally, Honeywell’s Aerospace Division in Minneapolis developed the stabilization and control system (SCS) for the Apollo command module, crucial for attitude control and maneuvering during the mission.
Today, several members of the Apollo 11 mission are still with us, such as Gene Kranz, who is 90, Buzz Aldrin, who is 94, and Charles Duke Jr., who is 88 and walked on the moon during the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972.
Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, died Aug. 25, 2012, at the age of 82.
Michael Collins, who piloted the Apollo 11 command module, passed away April 28, 2021, at the age of 90.
The Apollo 11 astronauts left a stainless-steel commemorative plaque on the moon, attached to the ladder on the lunar module’s descent stage.
It reads, “Here, men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”
