Page 75 - All About History - Issue 70-18
P. 75
After all, once you’ve been to the Moon and back, how can
you beat that?
His life after Apollo 11 was distinctly more low key than his life
before the mission, as he stayed out of the limelight.
For eight years he taught aeronautical engineering at
the University of Cincinnati. He also served on the accident
investigation boards for both Apollo 13 and the Challenger
disaster in 1986.
Away from NASA and teaching, Armstrong served as a
director for several companies. He divorced his first wife,
Janet, in 1994 and married his second wife, Carol Knight, that
same year. Although he seldom drew too much attention to President Richard Nixon
himself, he often spoke publicly at NASA events, right up until welcomes the Apollo 11
astronauts, who are pictured
his death on 25 August 2012 at the age of 82 as the result of aboard recovery ship, the
complications following a heart bypass. USS Hornet. Left to right: Neil
Armstrong (commander),
Even now it is still a shock that he is no longer with us, but a Michael Collins (Command
1,000 years from now, everybody will still remember the name Module pilot) and Edwin Aldrin © Alamy, NASA
of Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon. Jr (Lunar Module pilot)
‘Neil Armstrong took control’
Buzz Aldren reveals how disaster almost struck the Apollo 11 mission
Apollo 12 almost Were you worried? We touched down safely in the
became the mission These codes were disturbing Sea of Tranquillity. There had
to land men on the and distracting, but Mission been just 15 seconds of fuel spare.
Moon, rather than Control didn’t know what
Apollo 11. What the alarms meant either. Neil Were there any other
happened? Armstrong, who was paying teething troubles?
Originally it was scheduled for more attention than I was We then had a problem with
Apollo 11 to be the first lunar since he was looking out of the the hatch. The pressure inside
landing, then evidently window, took manual control. had to be low, but when we
without notifying the nation There were craters drifting tried to pull the hatch down it
and the crew, it slipped to by, but not many of them wouldn’t come open.
being Apollo 12 because of the were identifiable. Neil said I bent the door back and
overweight condition in Apollo he thought we may be a little equalised the pressure. I
11′s original design. long – the Eagle had overshot its watched out the window to see
It needed to be light planned landing site. Neil go down the ladder. When
enough to land, so they kept The fuel tank was running it was my turn to back out, I
kind of working on it and not low and Neil understood this. remember the checklist said to
disclosing until a final decision By experience, there were two reach back carefully and close
was made. And so history was minutes of fuel remaining and the hatch, being careful not to
gonna play out a different way. ahead was a crater that looked lock it. It would have been very
And that again had a major dangerous with giant rocks difficult to open it from the
impact on my life and career, around it. outside if I had.
and Neil Armstrong’s career, if The easiest thing to do was The Moon’s surface can
it had remained too heavy to just slow the rate of descent be best described as utter
make a landing attempt. and fly over whatever it was, desolation, with no signs of
but that would take longer life whatsoever. There were a
You and Armstrong and burn more fuel and make few hours to collect precious
ran into some fuel quantity at touchdown a rock samples and carry out
problems during the little less. We were just over experiments.
Apollo 11 mission, 30 metres (100 feet) from Once we were ready, I looked
could you tell us more the surface, and Neil had to around at some of the lunar
about that? land somewhere. dust on the ground and saw
About four minutes into the the broken end of a circuit
landing sequence of Apollo 11, What happened next? breaker. One of the spacesuits
the display on the computer I could see the shadow getting had knocked it out, but it was
read 1201 and 1202. bigger because the Sun was needed to start the engine and
They were error codes, behind us, and we were getting get us back home. The broken
the number of the alarm, closer and closer to the shadow parts that were still on the
and whatever information of the lander. inside had to be pushed in, and
was displayed before – The dust began kicking up only two people could fix this.
whether it was velocity and, without trying to disturb So, in the countdown
or movement over Neil’s concentration, I gave him procedure, I used a pen to push
the ground – was not a little body language to get on the circuit breaker in. This
there any more. the ground as soon as possible. worked and the engine started.
And then it happened. We could go home.
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