Lancaster New Era from Lancaster, Pennsylvania • 17

mm I LANCASTER, NEW ERA- MONDAY, JULY 21, 1969-17 From Has 103 3941, Will give you a hack and it will be in one hour. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger. HOUSTON: And we got about almost 3 minutes to go, Neil. Over.

I thevent timer. Drawing by Associated Press artist Ben Valdivieso shows lunar module landing on the moon. 1 Neil A. Armstrong, Shown ere in space suit, became the first man in history walk on the sur-1 face of the moon. Edwin Buzz Aldrin Jr.

is shown in a space suit similar to the one he wore while walking on the moon. 'A Very Smooth Touchdown Says Tranquility Base EAGLE (the lunar module): Houston. Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. HOUSTON: Eagle, we copy you on the ground.

Youve got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. Were breathing again. Thanks a lot. TRANQUILITY BASE; Thank you. HOUSTON: Youre looking good here.

TRANQUILITY BASE: A very smooth touchdown. HOUSTON: Eagle, you are stay for Tl. (The first step in the lunar operation.) Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger. Stay for Tl.

HOUSTON: Roger and we see you venting the ox. TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger. COLUMBIA: How do you read me? HOUSTON Columbia, he has landed Tranquility Base. Eagle is at Tranquility. I read you five by.

Over. COLUMBIA (the command and service module) Yes, I heard the whole thing. HOUSTON: Well, its a good show. COLUMBIA: Fantastic. TRANQUILITY BASE: Ill second that.

APOLLO CONTROL: The next major stay-no stay will be for the T2 event. That is at 21 minutes 26 seconds after initiation of power descent. COLUMBIA rUp telemetry command reset do reacquire on high gain. HOUSTON: Copy. Out.

APOLLO CONTROL: We have an unofficial time for that touchdown of 102 hours, 45 minutes, 42 seconds and wed-1 update that. HOUSTON: Eag you, loaded' R2 jyrong. We want 10254. j- TRANQUILITY want the horizontal HOUSTON: That APOLLO CONTROL: Were now four minutes fronjeur jjext stay-no stay. It will be for one complete revolution of the command module.

One of the ffrst things that Armstrong and Aldrin will do alter getting their next stay-no stay will be fo remove their helmets and gloves. HOUSTON Eagle, you are stay for T2. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger. Stay for T2.

We thank you. HOUSTON: Roger, sir. APOLLO CONTROL': Thats. stay for another two minutes plus. The next stay-no stay will be for one revolution, -r TRANQUILITY BASE: Houston; that may have seemed like a very long final phase but the auto targeting was taking us right into a football field-sized crater with a large number of big boulders and rocks for about one or two crater diameters around it.

And it required us to fly manually over the rock field to find a reasonably good area. HOUSTON: Roger. We copy. It was beautiful from here, Tranquility. Over.

TRANQUILITY BASE: Well get to the details of whats around here but it looks like a collection of just about every variety of shape, angularity, granularity, about every variety of rock you could find. The colors vary pretty much depending on how you are, looking relative the zero phase length. There 'doesnt appear to be too much of a general color at it looks as though some of the rocks and boul-' ders, of which there are quite a few in the near area it looks as though theyre going to have some interesting colors to them Over. HOUSTON: Roger. Copy.

Sounds good to us, Tranquility. Well let you press on through the simulated countdown and well talk to you later. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Okay, this one-sixth is just like an airplane. HOUSTON Roger, Tranquility.

Be advised there are lots of smiling faces in this room and all over the world. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: There are two of them up here. HOUSTON: Roger. It was a beautiful job, you guys.

TRANQUILITY BASE You might be interested to know that I dont think we noticed any difficulty at all in adapting to one-sixth G. It seems immediately natural to live in this environment. HOUSTON: Roger, Tranquility. We copy. Over.

APOLLO CONTROL: Neil Armstrong reporting there is no difficulty adapting to the one-sixth gravity of the moon. TRANQUILITY BASE: (Unintelligible) window, with relatively level plain cratered with fairly a large number of craters of the 5 to-50-foot variety. And some ridges, small, 20 to 30 feet high, I would guess. And literally thousands of little one-and two-foot craters around the area. We see some angular blocks out several hundred feet in front of us that are prob-' ably two feet in size and have angular edges.

There is a hill in view just about on the ground track ahead of us. Difficult to estimate, but might be a half a mile or a mile. HOUSTON: Roger, Tranquility. We copy. Over.

COLUMBIA: Sounds like it looks a lot better than it did yesterday. At that very low sun I stand by on HOUSTON Tranquility Base, on my mark dart I'bur evqnt timer, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Mark. BASE: Roger. We got it. aWyou.

HOUSTON Vi APtfKreelNTROL (5 17 P.M.): There wiRttfe a brief statement from Dr. Thomas Faine, NASA administrator, in the Building 1 audjtqpuoafLi; Fofiston time). We also updated information on the landing point. Lft appears that the spacecraft Eagle touched dovmat .799 degrees nrth or just about on the lurfajr degrees east longitude, whkfF'would have put it about four miles from the targeted landing point downrange. Were now 54 minutes or rather 27 minutes from reacquisition of the command module and of course were in constant contact with the lunar module on the surface.

At this point all LM systems continue to look very good. HOUSTON: Tranquility, Houston, We see the star angle difference. Looks good. HOUSTON: Hello Tranquility Base, Houston. Wed like you to torque that.

Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Houston, this is Tranquility. Do you want us to accept this star position? Over. HOUSTON: Tranquility, Houston. Were looking at it.

Stand by. Wed like you to pull the circuit breaker on 11 for the mission timer. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger. Ive already done that, Charlie.

HOUSTON: Okay. HOUSTON Tranquility, Houston. Wed like you to reject that RLS. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger.

HOUSTON: And Tranquility Base, Houston. Wed like you to call after this, call and give us an E-memory dump. TRANQUILITY BASE: Okay. Here comes the E-memory dump. HOUSTON: Roger.

TRANQUILITY BASE: We got 1106. HOUSTON: Roger. HOUSTON: Hello Tranquility Base, Houston. Did I copy program alarm il06 from you? Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger.

Its affirmative. HOUSTON: Okay. Stand by. TRANQUILITY BASE: Could that by any chance be due to the fact that I placed the update link switch to data while that was going on? Over. HOUSTON: Stand by.

HOUSTON: Hello Tranquility Base. Houston. The stan guys think thats conceivable. Stand by. I think we want another verb 74.

TRANQUILITY BASE: Okay. Standing by. HOUSTON: Hello Tranquility Base, Houston. Wed like another verb 74. Over.

TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger. Here it comes. HOUSTON: Tranquility Base, Houston. On my mark it will be TET 103 53 mark 103 53. Correction, 54.

TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger. HOUSTON: Hello Tranquility, Houston. We have the LM ascent pad, if youre ready to go. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Stand by.

Ready to copy the LM ascent pad. HOUSTON: Rog, Tranquilitv. PIG 104 39 47 00 55 35 8 00 32 2 plus 00 22 P47 plus 37 13 0 minus 70 615 plus 58 620 plus 56 936. Over. APOLLO CONTROL (5:29 P.M.); We will be taking the release line down briefly for a statement from Dr.

Thomas Paine, NASA administrator. We will be recording any further conversations with the spacecraft and will play those back following the statement. APOLLO CONTROL: We understand theres been a brief delay in the statement from NASA administrator Thomas Paine. We will catch up with the tape-recorded conversation that weve had with Eagle on the lunar surface at this time. TRANQUILITY BASE: Down 86 plus 0538 plus all zeros and the last one was 0012 and whats the sign of that, please? HOUSTON: Tranquility, Houston.

The delta VY is minus all zeros. The delta VZ is plus 0012. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger plus 0012. HOUSTON: Good readback.

TRANQUILITY BASE: Houston, Tranquility Base. The diskeys yours and up data link to date. HOUSTON: Roger, thank you, Tranquility. Hello, Tranquility Base. Houston.

On my mark it will be 37 minutes to T3. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Okay. HOUSTON: Stand by. Mark 37 minutes till T3.

TRANQUILITY BASE. Okay. Thank you. HOUSTON: Tranquility, this is Houston. If your computer weve got the load in you can start your P57.

MISSION CONTROL: Ladies and gentlemen, Id like at this time introduce the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Dr. Thomas O. Paine. I have a short statement then well be glad to accept questions. Dr.

Paine. DR. PAINE: Immediately after the lunar touchdown I called the White House from Mission Control and gave the following report to the President: Mr. President, it is my honor on behalf of the entire NASA team to report to you that the Eagle has landed on the Sea of Tranquility and our astronauts are sate and looking forward to starting the exploration of the moon. We then discussed the gripping excitement and wonder that has been present in the White House and in Mission Control during the final minutes of this historic touchdown.

I emphasized to the President the fact that we still had many difficult steps ahead of us in the Apollo 11 mission, but that at the same time a giant step had been made with our successful landing. President Nixon asked me to convey to all of the NASA team and its associated industrial and university associates his personal congratulations on the success of the initial lunar landing and gave us his good wishes for the continuing success of this mission. that we observed from orbit, at this sun angle about 10 degrees sun angle or that nature. Its pretty much color. Its gray and its very white as yoil.look into the zero phase line.

its considerably darker gray, 'more like an ashem-grpy, as you look ibut 90 degrees to the Some of The surface rocks in close here that have been fractured or disturbed by the rocket engine plume are coated with this light gray on the outside. But where theyve been broken, they display a dark, very dark, gray interior and it looks like it could be country basalt. HOUSTON: Tranquility, we see the now 93. Curve 34. TRANQUILITY BASE 4Roge I i assume you want it.

Roger. HOUSTON: Tranquility, -HbuStOnr Please vent fuel and ox again, Over. Its building back TRANQUILITY) (fkly going 4low. U- 4 HOUSTON: Tranquility, Houston. You can open both fuel ox ygnf TRANQUILITY4 BASE Houston; Tranquility.

Standing' by iongd AGS toHhe'Iine- and i i Its big and bright, beautiful. Buzz is going to give a try at seeing some stars through the optics. HOUSTON: Roger, Tranquility. We understand must be a beautiful sight. Over.

APOLLO CONTROL: We would like to point out that the fuel pressure problem that has been called to the attention of the Crew is in the descent system. It is apparently downstream of the tanks where a small amount of fluid has been trapped in a line and we dont expect it to cause any problem. The line should be able to take far more pressure than the fluid would exert. In the event that there was an overpressurization, we would expect that the line would spring a small leak, the pressure would drop rapidly. Again I would point out that we do not see this as a significant problem.

HOUSTON: Columbia, Houston. Two minutes to LOS (loss of signal). Youre looking great. Going over the hill. Over.

COLUMBIA: Okay. Thank you. Glad to hear it.s looking good. Do you have a suggested attitude for me? This one here seems all right. HOUSTON: Stand by.

COLUMBIA: Let me know when its lunch time, will ya? HOUSTON: Say again? HOUSTON: Columbia, Houston. You got a good attitude right there. COLUMBIA: Okay, thank you. APOLLO CONTROL: This is Apollo Control. Weve had loss of signal now from the command module.

Of course, well maintain constant communication with the lunar module on the lunar surface. We have some heart rates for Neil Armstrong during that powered descent to lunar suface. At the time the burn was initiated, Armstrongs heart rate was 110. At touchdown on the lunar surface, he had a heart rate of 156 beats per minute, and the flight surgeon reports that his heart rate is now in the 90s. We do not have biomedical data on Buzz Aldrin.

APOLLO CONTROL (5:34 p.m.): We have an update on that touchdown time on the lunar surface. This still is not the final official time, which well get from read-out data. But the refined time is 102 hours, 45 minutes, 40 seconds, which would have been 12 minutes, 36 seconds after initiating the powered descent. That was 102 hours, 45 minutes, 40 seconds for touchdown and a total time of powered descent 12 minutes, 36 seconds. And we would expect those numbers to change perhaps a little bit when we get final data readout.

HOUSTON: Tranquility Base, Houston. If you want me to, I can give you a hack on the mission time every 30 minutes. Over. HOUSTON Tranquility, Houston. Im counting down to T3 time.

If youd like to give me a hack, we can set up an event timer. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Okay. How about counting up. HOUSTON: Roger, you want it counting up? Standby.

HOUSTON: Tranquility, Houston. On my mark 6230. Mark 6230 from pass TDI. TRANQUILITY BASE: What were looking for, Charlie, is time counting up to T2 that will be equal to 60 minutes or T3 equal to 60 min- 3 HOUSTON: Roger, Well have it for you. HOUSTON Tranquility Base, Houston.

Reset the event time to 0 and on my mark at lunar line. Over. HOUSTON: Stand by. HOUSTON: go for the AGS Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger.

HOUSTON: Tranquility, Houston. Please vent the fuel. Its increasing rapidly. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: We show 30 psi in the fuel and 30 on the oxydizer.

HOUSTON: Roger, were reading somewhat different than that. Stand by. TRANQUILITY BASE: The fuel temperature is reading 64 in the descent two and the oxydizer off scale low. Descent one is showing 61 in the fuel and 65 in the oxydizer. HOUSTON: Roger, stand by.

HOUSTON: Tranquility, Houston. Please take the fuel vent switch and hold it open. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Okay. Were holding it open, indicating about 24 psi on board.

HOUSTON: Roger. TRANQUILITY BASE: Now indicating psi in fuel. HOUSTON: Roger. TRANQUILITY-BASE: And 22 in the ox. HdUs'TON (Roger, TRANQUILITY BASE: Now indicating psi in both tanks.

vri "HOUSTON': "Tranquility If you havent done so, you can release the fuel vent switch. Oyer. "Tranquility base Roger. HOUSTON: Tranquility, Houston. We have indication that weve frozen up the descent fuel helium heat exchanger and with some fuel trapped in the line between air and the valves and the pressure were looking at is increasing there Over TRANQUILITY BASE: Roger.

Understand. HOUSTON: Tranquility Base, Houston. If you have not done so, please close both fuel and ox vents now. Over. TRANQUILITY BASE: Theyre closed.

HOUSTON: Thank you, sir. TRANQUILITY BASE: From the surface we could not see any stars out the window, but on my overhead patch' Im looking at the earth. angle, it looked much as a cob then. TRANQUILITY BASE: It really was rough, Mike, over the targeted landing area. It was extremely rough, cratered and large numbers of rocks that were probably some many larger than 5 or 10 feet in size.

COLUMBIA: When in doubt, land long. TRANQUILITY BASE: Well, we did. HOUSTON Tranquility, Houston. After you HOUSTON: Tranquility, Houston. Well research this problem and be back with you mo- Lmentarilv on the correction of mission timer.

TRANQILITY BASE Okay. Id say the, eolorof theidcal surface-is very comparable to ii 1 I i i I' I 1 A A 1 -L V. 1 t- S. 1.