• Today in History - Jul 20

    From KF5JRV@21:5/101 to TODAY on Wed Jul 31 04:50:01 2019
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    At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from
    Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at
    home: ôThatÆs one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.ö
    Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first
    human to walk on the surface of the moon.

    The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a
    famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session
    of Congress on May 25, 1961: ôI believe this nation should commit itself
    to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on
    the moon and returning him safely to Earth.ö At the time, the United
    States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and
    Cold War-era America welcomed KennedyÆs bold proposal.

    In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists
    and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural
    integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination.
    Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in
    Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned
    launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three
    astronauts were killed in the fire.

    Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead,
    and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited
    Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed
    to conduct a moon journey and landing. In December of the same year,
    Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back,
    and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time
    while in Earth orbit. Then in May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10
    took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run
    for the scheduled July landing mission.

    At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off
    from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin
    Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian
    research pilot, was the commander of the mission. After traveling
    240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July
    19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by
    Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar
    surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern
    edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a famous message: ôThe Eagle has landed.ö

    At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong
    opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar moduleÆs ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous
    quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone
    and meant to be ôthatÆs one small step for a man, one giant leap for
    mankind.ö He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface,
    took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon.

    ôBuzzö Aldrin joined him on the moonÆs surface at 11:11 p.m., and
    together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran
    a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon
    via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the
    lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on
    the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent
    back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the
    moon was a plaque that read: ôHere men from the planet Earth first set
    foot on the moonûJuly 1969 A.DûWe came in peace for all mankind.ö

    At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined
    Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home,
    safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.

    There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one
    unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission,
    left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a
    costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000
    engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close
    to $100 billion in todayÆs dollars). The expense was justified by
    KennedyÆs 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the
    feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.

    73, Scott KF5JRV
    Pmail: KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
    Email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.com



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