“they were looking for technical reasons” Ibid., p. 12.
“Look, NASA knew both these guys” Ibid.
“the same revelation” CCK to author, Houston, TX., Feb. 7, 2003, p. 16.
“‘Good God, we can’t let that happen!’” Ibid.
“‘He’s going to be a Lindbergh’” Ibid., p. 17.
“It should be Neil Armstrong” Ibid., p. 323.
“Aldrin desperately wanted the honor” Ibid.
“Not once did we criticize his strongly held positions” Ibid.
“Collectively, we said, ‘Change it’” Ibid., p. 17.
“Buzz Aldrin was crushed” Ibid., p. 323.
“That was Deke” CCK to author, Feb. 7, 2003, p. 16.
“I told him that this was a Bob Gilruth decision” George M. Low, Memorandum for Record, “Meeting with Buzz Aldrin,” Sept. 14, 1972, copy in George M. Low Papers, Box 35, RPI Archives, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
“pretty strong evidence” NAA to author, June 3, 2003, p. 16.
Chapter 26: Dialectics of a Moon Mission
“He always rose above internecine warfare” MC to author, Mar. 25, 2003, p. 15.
“surface work” NAA to author, June 4, 2003, p. 9.
“unknowns that we couldn’t simulate” Ibid.
“I was very tempted to sneak a piece of limestone up there” Ibid., p. 11.
“Jack worked diligently and endlessly” Ibid., p. 10.
“geologists in NASA” Schmitt to author, Albuquerque, NM, Mar. 16, 2003, p. 3.
“geological preparation for Apollo 11” NAA to author, June 4, 2003, p. 9.
“water for the cooling of our suits” Ibid., p. 10.
“the best…on the Moon” Schmitt to author, Mar. 16, 2003, p. 3.
“incredible machines” MC, Liftoff, p. 148.
“Here the fidelity broke down” Ibid., p. 149.
“On balance, the simulations were quite good” NAA to author, June 4, 2003, p. 1.
“simulators to be exactly like the real thing” Ibid.
“just tried to ‘win’” Ibid., p. 2.
“some of the guys were well aware of my approach” Ibid.
“Neil suddenly appeared in his pajamas” MC, CTF, p. 352.
“Mike and I sat around having a drink” BA to author, Mar. 17, 2003, p. 20.
“That wouldn’t have been Neil” Ibid.
“I don’t recall that Buzz asked me to abort—ever” NAA to author, June 4, 2003, p. 2.
“This was a chance to test the control center” Ibid., p. 3.
“I do remember that Buzz expressed his displeasure” Ibid.
“I was a little disappointed that we didn’t figure it out soon enough” Ibid., p. 4.
“Apollo 10 turned out to be very helpful there” Ibid., p. 13.
“I was very interested in additional information about the mascons” Ibid.
“we wanted to do that as accurately as we could” Ibid.
“we knew all the principal landmarks on our descent path by heart” Ibid.
“Well, Deke, it would be nice to have another month of training” Ibid., p. 19.
“Mission Rules” CCK, Flight, p. 117.
“more the observer than the participant” EFK, Failure Is Not an Option, p. 261.
“I expected him to be vocal on the mission rule strategy” Ibid., p. 262.
“I had high respect for mission rules” NAA to author, June 4, 2003, p. 5.
“Then I might have argued against it” Ibid., p. 6.
“I wondered then if he’d overrule all of us in lunar orbit” CCK, Flight, p. 314.
“‘No, Chris, we’re ready.’” NAA quoted in CCK, Flight, p. 314.
“final training for a crew” NAA, Apollo 11 Crew Press Conference, Manned Spacecraft Center, July 5, 1969, 4C/2.
“amazingly relaxed” Dr. Charles E. Berry quoted in UPI story, “Moon-Bound Trio Fit and Ready,” Dayton Journal Herald, July 2, 1969.
“potential danger from lunar contaminants” NAA to author, June 4, 2003, p. 26.
“worst word-sculptors ever assembled” NM, OFM, p. 36.
“razorback hogs” Ibid., p. 24.
“splash of derision” Ibid., p. 25.
“where laxatives ended and physics began” Ibid., p. 24.
“stay behind the ropes” Brian Duff, Public Affairs Officer, Apollo 11 Crew Press Conference, Manned Spacecraft Center, July 5, 1969, 4A/1.
“easy saunter of athletes” NM, OFM, p. 25.
“ill at ease” Ibid., p. 26.
“We’re here today to talk a little bit about the forthcoming flight” NAA, Apollo 11 Crew Press Conference, Manned Spacecraft Center, July 5, 1969, 4A/2.
“We just did our work” NAA to author, June 4, 2003, p. 18.
“We thought that Columbia was better” Ibid.
“I had certainly read the book” Ibid.
“Mike was especially thoughtful about it” Ibid.
“settled on Eagle” BA, RTE, p. 211.
“historical and memorable to say” Reporter’s question, Apollo 11 Crew Press Conference, Manned Spacecraft Center, July 5, 1969, 4B/2.
“what you’re going to say, Neil” Low quoted in CCK, Flight, p. 314.
“He’d say the right thing” CCK, Flight, p. 315.
“The most important part of the flight” NAA to author, Sept. 19, 2003, p. 6.
“we have chosen to use some unofficial names” NAA, Apollo 11 Crew Press Conference, Manned Spacecraft Center, July 5, 1969, 4C/2.
“I wouldn’t presume to question it” Ibid., 4D/1–2.
“I let other, wiser minds” NAA to SA&DB, in Quest, p. 38.
“that is precisely what we mean” NAA, Apollo 11 Crew Press Conference, Manned Spacecraft Center, July 5, 1969, 4E/2.
“only history can tell” Ibid., 4B/1.
“There are no alternatives” Ibid.
“I don’t have the numbers” Ibid., 4E/2.
“surrendered words about as happily” NM, OFM, p. 31.
“characteristic mixture of modesty and technical arrogance” Ibid., p. 32.
“sly privacy of a man whose thoughts may never be read” Ibid., p. 31.
“trapped with psyche-eaters” Ibid., p. 34.
“contend in a practical way with the necessary language” Ibid.
“extraordinarily remote” Ibid., p. 27.
“a presence in the room” Ibid., p. 33.
“the man nearest to being saintly” Ibid.
“If he had been a young boy selling subscriptions” Ibid., p. 27.
“a shining knight of technology” Ibid., p. 40.
“interpret it properly, then attack it” NAA quoted in NM, OFM, p. 40.
“computerese” NM, OFM, p. 41.
“either the end of the old or the first of the new men” Ibid., p. 40.
“large reactions, large ideas” Ibid.
“It’s their success more than ours” NAA quoted in NM, OFM, p. 40.
“he would be a hero on terms he alone would make clear” NM, OFM, p. 40.
“If I had a choice, I would take more fuel” NAA quoted in NM, OFM, p. 40.
“I think a private life is possible” Ibid., p. 46.
“spiritual neuter” NM, OFM, p. 43.
“just as salmon swim upstream” NAA quoted in NM, OFM, pp. 43–44.
“might soon prove to be prophetic” NM, OFM, pp. 46–47.
“a dream on which one might found a new theory of the dream” Ibid., p. 47.
“center of the suburban middle class” Ibid.
“enterprising beyond the limits of the imagination” Ibid.
“a new psychological constitution to man” Ibid.
“The century would seek to dominate nature” Ibid., p. 48.
“the metaphysical direction unknown” Ibid., pp. 48–49
Part Seven: One Giant Leap
E Inscription cited in MC, Liftoff, p. 160.
E JAH in private conversation to author, Hereford, AZ, Apr.
3, 2003.
Chapter 27: Outward Bound
“watching television was not high on our list” NAA to author, June 4, 2004, p. 20.
“certainly a very high-performance machine” NAA to author, Sept. 18, 2004, p. 2.
“value of the incremental approach” Ibid.
“softened the intensity” Ibid., p. 1.
“it’s a key to the Moon” Wendt, Unbroken Chain, p. 132.
“only chance we would have had” NAA to author, Sept. 18, 2004, p. 3.
“it was fortunate that the concept never had to prove itself” Ibid., p. 2.
“It was a complete concentration on getting through each phase” Ibid., p. 4.
“Neil believes God is up there with all three of those boys” VEA quoted in “Neil’s Mother Prays for Apollo 11 Crew,” Columbus [OH] Dispatch, July 18, 1969.
“I told Neil to look around and not to step out if it didn’t look good” Quoted in “Moon Advice from Grandma,” Akron Beacon Journal, July 13, 1969.
“I was kind of worried at first” Rick Armstrong quoted in “Neil Armstrong’s Wife Returns to Home in Texas,” SMEL, July 17, 1969.
“This, too, shall pass” JSA to author, Sept. 11, 2004 (morning), p. 6.
“I wish they would hurry” JSA quoted in FOM, p. 67.
“I haven’t aged a day” JSA quoted in “‘I Don’t Feel Historic,’ Armstrong Wife Says,” TB, July 17, 1969.
“I don’t feel historic” Ibid.
“I think you’re too tired” JSA to her son Rick, quoted in ibid.
“Go” for TLI At 00:02:26:38 mission elapsed time, CapCom Bruce McCandless told the Apollo 11 crew, “You are Go for TLI.” All quotations involving communications between Mission Control and the Apollo 11 spacecraft come from Apollo 11 Technical Air-to-Ground Transcription, prepared during the course of the mission by MSC’s Apollo Spacecraft Program Office. A copy of the transcript is available in the historical archives at the University of Houston–Clear Lake. On board Apollo 11, a voice recorder captured what the astronauts said to one another when they were not in communication with the ground. This transcript, Apollo 11 Onboard Voice Transcription, Recorded on the CommandModule Onboard Recorder Data Storage Equipment, was produced, naturally, after Columbia’s return to Earth. This transcript, too, can be found in its entirety in the archives at UHCL. Regrettably, there is a major gap in the onboard voice recording. All voice data between 00:03:29:21 and 03:03:39:38—three days, ten minutes, and seventeen seconds’ worth—was somehow erased during the flight, so there is no record of what the astronauts said to one another during this lengthy period of time. In the following source notes, it is noted when the quotation comes from the Onboard Recorder (OBR).
“That Saturn gave us a magnificent ride” NAA at 00:02:53:03.
“the Saturn V noise was enormous” NAA to author, Sept. 18, 2004, p. 3.
“driving a wide car down a narrow alley” MC, Lift-off, p. 2.
“small patch of blue sky” Ibid., p. 3.
“in this holding orbit” NAA to author, Sept. 18, 2004, p. 4.
“I’ve lost a Hasselblad” MC at 00:01:20:10, OBR.
“How does zero g feel?” NAA at 00:01:17:41, OBR.
“Space sickness” NAA to author, Sept. 18, 2004, p. 5.
“a rule was a rule, so we sat there, helmet and gloves on” MC, Liftoff, pp. 3–4.
“less able, less mobile, and less facile” NAA to author, Sept. 18, 2004, p. 8.
“If the separation and docking did not work” BA, RTE, p. 221.
“Mike being able to pull it off” NAA: e-mail to author, Oct. 25, 2004.
“parts and pieces floating about the cabin” BA, RTE, p. 221.
“three albino whales inside a small tank” MC, Liftoff, p. 4.
“We rubbed our behinds with a special salve” BA, RTE, p. 217.
“entering a slow-motion domain” MC, Liftoff, p. 4.
“It was a commitment to excellence” NAA to author, Sept. 18, 2004, p. 9.
“I can observe the entire continent of North America” NAA at 00:03:53:05.
“The weather was good just about everywhere” NAA at 00:04:52:19.
“I didn’t know what I was looking at, but I sure did like it” MC at 00:04:53:28.
“We were like a chicken on a barbecue spit” MC, Liftoff, p. 4.
“Great Wall of China” NAA to SA&DB, in Quest, p. 38.
“celestial onslaught” Ibid.417 “it has an almost benign quality” BA, RTE, p. 220.
“If Tang was on our flight I was unaware of it” Ibid., p. 223.
“we could have shut down our altitude-control thrusters” Ibid.
“The shrimp were chosen one by one” Ibid., p. 222.
“Ah, this salmon salad!” MC, CTF, p. 389.
“Gee, I almost went to sleep then” NAA at 00:02:09:38, OBR.
“all the Apollo 11 crew slept well” NAA: e-mail to author, Nov. 4, 2004.
“suspended by a cobweb’s light touch” MC, Liftoff, p. 5.
“The best thing to do is just ask ’em” FB, Countdown, p. 240.
“The orbit of probe Luna 15 does not intersect the trajectory of Apollo 11” Keldysch memo quoted in FB, Countdown, p. 240.
“high school football team beating the Miami Dolphin” MC, CTF, p. 387.
“I wan’t thinking about Luna 15” NAA: e-mail to author, Nov. 4, 2004.
“classified briefings on the Soviet program” Ibid., Nov. 2, 2004.
“dead animals and birds” Phrase from firsthand Soviet military eyewitness to Baikonur accident, quoted in Asif Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo, pp. 691–92.
“I don’t remember any briefings” NAA: e-mail to author, Nov. 2, 2004.
“Vice President Spiro T. Agnew has called for putting a man on Mars by the year2000” CapCom (McCandless) at 00:23:14:23.
“Right on, Spiro!” MC, CTF, p. 387.
“no recollection at all of being idle” BA, RTE, p. 224.
“much too busy to be bothered with selecting music” Ibid., p. 225.
“I can remember liking the theremin” JSA: e-mail to author, Oct. 31, 2004.
“whether Janet liked it or not” NAA: e-mail to author, Nov. 4, 2004.
“just a little more than a half Earth” NAA at 01:10:01:31.
“Okay, world, hold on to your hat” MC at 01:10:07:21.
“Neil’s standing on his head again” MC at 01:10:15:35.
“exact words were written down” BA, RTE, p. 225.
“Apollo 11 signing off” MC at 01:10:34:35.
“the crew slept rather well all night” Reported to the press by an unidentified NASA public affairs officer on the morning of July 18, 1969, at 7:00 CDT and included in the Apollo 11 Spacecraft Commentary, 16–24 July 1969, produced concurrently with the mission by MSC. This transcript is available in the UHCL archives.
“upside down” BA, RTE, p. 225.
“a mass of intelligent energy” This phrase comes from an article that appeared in the July 1977 issue of Science Digest. The author of the article, James Mullaney, a former contributing editor to Astronomy magazine, wrote, “The crew of Apollo 11, during the first moon landing, reported that their capsule was paced by what appeared to be a mass of intelligent energy.” For a comprehensive critique and rebuttal of this and other UFO sightings, see James Oberg, UFOs and Outer Space Mysteries, chap. 3.
“a bright object” In his 1976 book UFOs: The American Scene, author Michael Hervey asserted that in lunar orbit, while Aldrin was adjusting his camera, Buzz’s “attention was suddenly drawn to a bright object resembling a snowman traveling from west to east in the sky.” In fact, the only “UFO” sighted by Aldrin, Collins, and Armstrong was the Saturn LM Adapter panel, before the astronauts reached lunar orbit.
“an appetite for vicarious scientific adventure and a need to externalize fear” Walter A. McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth, p. 100.
saw the flashes “at least two or three different times” BA to author, Albuquerque, NM, Mar. 17, 2
003, tape 2, p. 3.
“fireflies” John Glenn: A Memoir, pp. 352–53.
“The food guys couldn’t have cared less” BA to author, Mar. 17, 2003, tape 2, p. 3.
“Guess what? We see them with our eyes closed!” Ibid., p. 4.
“I thought I was seeing something within the cabin” Ibid.
“six people had gone outside the Van Allen Belt” Ibid.
“whatever it was, it was only a hundred miles or so away” BA, RTE, p. 224.
“talk about it to the ground” BA to author, Mar. 17, 2003, tape 2, p. 3.
“S-VIB is about 6,000 nautical miles” CapCom (Charlie Duke) at 02:12:49:02.
“We could see it for about forty-five seconds at a time” BA, RTE, p. 224.
“We did watch a slow blinking light” NAA: e-mail to author, Oct. 25, 2004.
“their velocity along the flight path” NAA: e-mail to author, Nov. 2, 2004.
“immediately after Apollo 11 we all thought it was so, ‘No, no, no.’” BA to author, Mar. 17, 2003, tape 2, p. 3.
“lay their little pink bodies on the line” MC, Liftoff, p. 392.
“Even Pravda in Russia is headlining the mission and calls Neil ‘The Czar of theShip.’” CapCom (McCandless) at 03:00:29:46.
“She says that Neil is clever” CapCom (McCandless) at 03:00:34:02.
“cool, magnificent sphere” MC, CTF, p. 393.
“vivid contrast between the Earth and the Moon” MC, Liftoff, p. 7.
“It’s a view worth the price of the trip” NAA at 03:01:17:24.
“If just one digit slips in our computer” MC, Liftoff, p. 6.
“in orbit around the Moon” Cronkite quoted in CBS, 10:56:20 P.M., p. 43.
“It’s quiet around the world” Ibid., p. 44.
“It was like—like perfect!” NAA at 03:04:21:56.
“Ice Commander” Gene Cernan calls Armstrong “The Ice Commander” in The Last Man on the Moon, so titling his chapter on Apollo 11, pp. 231–40.
“Plaster of Paris gray to me” MC at 03:03:49:32, OBR.
“Well, I have to vote with the 10 crew” BA at 03:03:58:14, OBR.
“Looks tan to me” NAA at 03:03:58:21, OBR.
“There’s no substitute for actually being here” NAA at 03:04:34:34.
“park a baby buggy, much less a Lunar Module” MC, Liftoff, p. 7.
“as the Moon sinks slowly in the west” MC at 03:06:57:45.
“If we overburned” BA, RTE, p. 226.
First Man Page 88