Page 38 - All About History - Issue 09-14

Eye Witness
APOLLO 11 LUNAR LANDING

How the Moon Garman. “He was all over the simulation

landing unfolded guys for putting in a simulation that
caused an abort this close to the real
flight. And the simulation guys said:
GMT
‘Uh uh, wrongo bongo fella, you’re
17:44pm O The Lunar Module separates supposed to recover from this.’ After the
from the Command and
Service Module in lunar orbit. debriefing, oh boy, did the fur fly.”
Kranz told Garman to make sure
he knew every possible programme
19:08pm O Moon descent
Armstrong and Aldrin begin their alarm that could come up. So the young
descent to the lunar surface. computer engineer studied them all and
drew himself a cheat sheet he could
refer to during the mission. It just so
happened that Garman’s diligence in
20:04pm O The Lunar Module is now just
15,200m (50,000ft) from the doing his homework helped save the NASA Mission Control during the Apollo 11 mission – Jack
surface. mission when it was just minutes away Garman was regularly in this room during the mission
from landing.
20:10pm O The lunar During the mission, as Armstrong and
module Aldrin were descending to the lunar surface, an error still a couple of seconds when you’re going from the
descends reading came up that suggested the on-board computer Moon to Earth, and that’s the same rate at which voice
to 9,100m
(30,000ft). was running over capacity, the same 1202 alarm that had or radio transmission goes. So when the alarm happened
come up during the simulation. As had been witnessed we didn’t hear Buzz Aldrin asking what it was for several
in the simulation, such a reading was a cause to abort seconds. And then take a few seconds to give a response
20:14pm O Threat to mission the mission, as Aldrin and Armstrong would not be able and give it back to them, then for the CAPCOM [Capsule
The 1202 programme alarm
flashes up, but Jack Garman to operate the Lunar Module if the computer was not Communicator] to call up and say they were go, then
realises it is safe to continue. working. Thanks to the flight director’s insistence that add the reaction time for human beings, it was probably
he brushed up on programming alarms, Garman was [in total] 19 or 20 seconds for the crew before they got
the only person in the room who knew this alarm was a response from us, very nerve-racking. We know it’s
20:15pm O Armstrong and no reason to abort the mission, and he quickly let his one of the reasons Armstrong lost track of where he
Aldrin pick a
new landing superiors know. was [above the Moon] because he wasn’t looking out of
site having lost “I looked down at the cheat sheet, saw what [the the window. They didn’t know where they had landed
track of their
location during alarm] was and told them it was okay,” says Garman: for quite a while after they touched down, probably
the alarm. “As long as there weren’t other indications like that the in a large part due to the disturbing nature of these
computer was guiding the vehicle to turn upside down programme alarms.”
or something, we were go. And that’s the call they made. Just a few seconds later, though, Apollo 11 did indeed
20:16pm O The low-fuel quantity light Now, to be clear, the speed of light is pretty fast, but it’s land safely. As Aldrin and Armstrong celebrated, so
flashes on, meaning the crew
has just seconds’ worth of
fuel to land the Lunar Module.

20:16pm O Finally dust is kicked up by
the vehicle, meaning the
landing is just seconds away.

20:17pm O Armstrong and Aldrin
successfully land on the lunar
surface, the first humans to
land on another world.

22:12pm O For the next few hours the
crew performs checks on
the spacecraft.
23:43pm O One small step
Armstrong
prepares for
the first lunar
spacewalk and
three hours later
he becomes
the first human
to walk on the The swing arms move away
Moon. Aldrin and a plume of flame signals NASA and Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) officials celebrate
follows half an the liftoff of Apollo 11 the historic event of man successfully walking on the Moon
hour later.

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