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Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 21, 1969. This 21st, July will embark 50 years of man on the moon and the moonwalking. Neil Armstrong said those first famous words from the surface of the moon, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin were the two astronauts who landed on the moon. They’ve been featured in so many books, movies, novels and tv drams since this historic feat. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of man on the moon, let’s sneak peek into the unheard, never told stories and some amazing facts of the historic space mission.
Whitehouse backup speech:
Very few people know that U.S President Richard Nixon’s speechwriter had also written a backup speech for a live telecast from the oval office in the case of mission failure. The speech said:
“Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.”
If you are interested in the actual speech of President Nixon, here is the transcript.
“For every American, this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world, I am sure they, too, join with Americans, in recognizing what a feat this is.”
First Words were certainly not ‘Hello Moon, How’re you?’:
There has been speculation and different versions of the first word uttered by a man on the moon. To put the record straight, Aldrin said, “Ok, engine stop.”
The landing was more important than stepping on the moon:
Armstrong said in an interview, “The emotional moment was the landing. That, in my view, was the emotional high. And, the business of getting down the ladder to me was much less significant,”
The time spent on the moon:
Armstrong and Aldrin spent nearly a day, 21 hours and 36 minutes precisely before boarding back to earth. Fairly short stay for such a long journey no?.
What did they bring from the moon?:
The astronauts brought back lunar dust and rocks for analysis, they collected 46 pounds of samples with them.
Spaceship computer power:
You will not believe, the smartphone you have in your hand and reading this blog post on has more processing power than the computers in that 60’s spaceship. It was hard working with the supercomputer and on many occasions, the pilots had to take over to conduct manual operations.
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