RC

SPACE CENTER, Houston – Apollo
11 Commander Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the
moon Sunday.
His first words as he set foot on the
lunar surface moments before

11 p.m. were:
“That’s one small step for man, one
giant leap for mankind.”
“The Eagle has landed,” were Armstrong’s first words as he and Edwin
Aldrin settled softly on the moon’s
craggy surface in their gro (Continued on Pg. 2-A, Col. 1)

Inside this 4-page special section
Flashback to 1969

Your ‘moon memories’

Why haven’t we gone back?
It’s been 47 years since Americans
walked on the moon —
but why is that?

12 more pages from the
Orlando Sentinel and
Orlando Evening Star from July 21, 1969

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Page E4

OrlandoSentinel.com/eNewspaper

Read more stories — as they
appeared — from our 1969
coverage of the moon landing

Readers reflect on their
experiences surrrounding
the historic day

Please recycle. Newsprint is a renewable resource.

eNewspaper bonus

©2019 Orlando Sentinel Communications Company

 E2  

Orlando Sentinel Sunday, July 21, 2019

APOLLO 11

50 YEARS LATER

2—A

Monday, July 21, 1969

‘One Small Step For Man – One Giant Leap For Mankind’
From Page 1
tesque spacecraft nicknamed
Eagle.
The time was 4:17 Sunday
afternoon. Touchdown was 62
miles east of Sabine Crater,
and about four miles downrange from the scheduled
landing site.
A few minutes after landing, Armstrong and Aldrin removed their helments and
gloves and, for the first time,
had a chance to look at the
moon’s surface from only a
few feet away.
ALDRIN described the
view:
“It looks like a collection of
just about every variety of
shape, angularity, granularity,
and every variety of rock you
could find.
“The color is going to vary
pretty much on how you look
at it relative to the sun. There
doesn’t appear to be much of a
general color at all.
“However, the rocks and
boulder of which ere are quite
a few in the near area look as
through they are going to have
some interesting color to
them.”
Fifteen minutes later, after
the astronauts exchanged
technical data with mission
control in Houston, Aldrin
continued:
“We landed on a relatively
level plain cratered with a

large number of craters of the
five to 50-foot variety, and
some reaches 20 to 30-feet
high. There are thousands of
little one and two-foot craters
in the area.
“WE SEE some rocks out
several hundred feet in front of
us that are probably two feed
in size and have angular edges.
There is a hill in view south of
us, about a half-mile to a mile
away.”
He also said the rocket’s engine cracked open several lunar rocks as they descended.
He described these rocks as
being chalky gray on the outside and a darker, ashen gray
on the inside.
Aldrin removed an overhead hatch and said he could
see the earth.
“IT’S BIG and bright and
beautiful,” he said.
Aldrin also paused to make
a simple request on behalf of
the astronauts.
“We ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for
a moment and contemplate
the events of the past few
hours and to give thanks in his
or her own way.”
AS THE Eagle neared the
lunar surface a few minutes
earlier, Armstrong had to take
manual control of the flight to
avoid crashing into a rocky

crater located at the site
scheduled for the landing.
He said the selected site
turned out to be “a footballfield sized crater with a large
number of boulders and rocks.
I had to fly manually over the
rock field to find a reasonably
good landing area.”
The landing site selected
was within the margin of safety.
THE ROCKET’S engines
began kicking up lunar dust at
an altitude of about 40 feed. It
smashed the rocks as the
Eagle touched down.
“You’ve got a bunch of guys
about to turn blue,” mission
control radioed. Then mission
control radioed to Michael
Collins, orbiting above in the
command module:
“He has landed as Tranquility base. He is at Tranquility
base.”
“Yea, I heard the whole
thing,” Collins said. “It was
fantastic.”
“BE ADVISED there are a
lot of smiling faces in this
room and all over the world,”
mission control told the moon
astronauts.
“And don’t forget two up
here,” Armstrong replied.
“And don’t forget one in the
command module,” Collins
said from his vantage point 60
miles above.

“YOU GUYS sounded
great,” he added. “You guys did
a fantastic job.”
Mission control positions
monitoring Armstrong’s heart
beat said it climbed from 90
beats a minute early in the descent stage of the Eagle’s flight
to 110 as he neared the moon.
At touchdown it was156.
The historic day began for
the astronauts when mission
control’s voice woke them at
the end of their ninth lunar
orbit about 6:30 a.m. Orlando
time.
THEY ATE breakfast with
a minimum of conversation
with earthbound directors,
and began getting ready for
the descent to the moon.
Aldrin entered the lunar
module at 8 a.m. and Armstrong at about 8:30. They
spent most of the morning giving the spiderlike craft its final
checkouts before the moon
journey began.
At 1:50 p.m., while the
spaceship was on the moon’s
dark side, thus out of contact
with radio monitors here, the
LEM detached itself from the
command module.
FLYING in close formation
as they whirled back to the
earth side of the moon flight
directors asked the spacemen
how they undocking went.
“The Eagle has wings,”

Armstrong replied.
A few minutes later, Collins,
now alone in the command
module, told Armstrong and
Aldrin, “You’ve got a fine looking flying machine there,
Eagle, despite the fact you’re
upside down.”
“SOMEBODY’S upside
down,” Armstrong replied.
This was a reference to the
fact the LEM was upside
down in relation to the moon
but the command module was
upside down in relation to the
earth.
Shortly after 2 p.m. Collins
began an eight-second burn of
the command module’s reaction control thrusters to begin
moving away from Eagle at a
rate of 2.5 feet per second.
He pulled about 1,100 feet
away so Armstrong and Aldrin
could perform their critical
28.5-second “descent orbit insertion” burn of the descent
state engine.
THE BURN which was
made on the backside of the
moon, dropped them into an
orbit which was 66 miles
above the moon at the highest
point and 9.8 miles at the low
point.
“Everything’s going swimmingly,” Armstrong reported.
At 4 p.m. mission control
gave Aldrin permission to turn
on the Eagle’s engine and be-

‘Tranquility Base Here —
The Eagle Has Landed’
SPACE CENTER, Houston
(UPI) — The dialogue during
man’s first landing on the
moon:
Capsule communicator
Charles M. Duke—Eagle
you’re looking great. Coming
up 9 minutes.
MISSION CONTROL –
We’re now in the approach
phase. Everything looking
good. Altitude 5,200 feet.
Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin
Jr.—Manual attitude. Control
is good.
Duke—Roger. Copy.
MISSION CONTROL –
Altitude, 4,200 feet.
Duke—Houston, you’re go
for landing. Over.
Aldrin—Roger. Understand
go for landing.
Duke – We’re Go. Think
Tight. We’re go.
Aldrin—2,000 feet. Into the
AGS (abort guidance system).
47 degrees.
Duke—Roger.
ALDRIN – 37 degrees.
DUKE – Eagle, looking
great. You’re go.
Mission Control – Altitude,
1,600
DUKE – 1,400 feet. Still
looking good.
Aldrin—35 degrees.
Duke—35 degrees.
ALDRIN – 750 coming
down to 23. 700 feet—21down,
33 degrees … feet down to 19.
540 down to 30 … 15. 400 feet
down at 9 (static).
(The figures given for forward and down by Eagle are

Apollo Astronauts
In Good Condition
SPACE CENTER, Houston
(UPI) The chief physician in
charge of the Apollo 11 crew
expressed delight Sunday with
their physical condition.
“We couldn’t be happier
with their physiological state
right now,” said Dr. Charles
Berry. “We feel they’re very
comfortable and we’ve got a
crew that is rested.”

DUKE – Roger Tranquility.
We copy. You are on the
ground. You got a bunch of
guys about to turn blue. We’re
breathing again. Thanks a lot.

‘Moon Time’
Landing 7 A.M.
HOUSTON — In “moon
time” it was about 7 a.m. when
the Apollo 11 lunar module
landed Sunday.
The lunar day if four weeks
long, with two weeks of
scorching sunlight and two
weeks of frigid darkness.
When the module landed the
sun was 10.5 degrees about the
horizon, having risen some 20
earth hours earlier.
When the module lifts off
the moon about 2 p.m. Eastern
Daylight Time Monday the
sun will have slowly climbed
to 21 degrees above the horizon. In terms of an earth day,
this would be only an hour and
a half after sunrise.

CONCERT
Orlando present: U.S. Navy Street Drum
Band, Eola Park Bandshell, 8:30 p.m.
CARDS
Orlando Bridge Club, Sunshine park,
7:30 a.m.
EXHIBITIONS
Center Street Gallery, 136 Park Ave.,
South, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Galleries Intenation, 401-B, Park Ave.,
North, Winter Park, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
KaryAnna Gallery, 342 Park Ave., North,
Winter Park, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Apollo Services
Held In Area
Several churches held
special services for the
success of the Apollo 11
mission Sunday.
Others have announced
plans for services to be
held today.
St. James Catholic
Church will hold a special
mass today at noon in honor of the occasion.
St. Luke’s Episcopal
Church will hold a service
with special prayers for
the astronauts at 7 a.m.
this morning, and held two
services Sunday including
prayers for the Apollo 11
voyagers.
The first Christian
Church has announced
that its facilities will be
open for meditation and
prayers today after 1:30
p.m.
Among other area
churches holding services
and prayers Sunday for
Apollo 11 were First Presbyterian Church, First
Baptist Church, St.
Charles Catholic Church,
Trinity Lutheran Church,
and Park Lake Presbyterian Church.

An aura of “Christmas in
July” surrounded the Sunday
landing of earth’s first men on
the moon for Mrs. Rita Bauer
of Winter Park.
“It was just like the spirit of
Christmas all over town,” she
said after the successful landing at 4:17 p.m. “A quiet kindness and peaceful atmosphere
prevailed throughout the day.”
Mrs. Bauer, her husband
Richard and Stuart Miller, a
Rollins College student, heard
details of the history-making
landing on television in the
couple’s living room at 1177
Park Avenue.

with splashdown recovery
units on earlier space flights.
“I was quite surprised that
both the older and younger
views were the same. We all
thought it was tremendous.
The venture gives us new hope
for the future.”
Bauer said he partially discounted some beliefs the
moon landing would leave directly to world peace on earth.
“But there are great implications here,” he said. “The cooperation evidenced by the
Russians with Luna 15 and the
almost worldwide efforts
within the scientific community in this field might ultimately boil over into the international diplomatic area.”

moon adventure gives to our
country.”
For the Phillip Finnigans,
4821 Vaughn Dr., Orland, the
astronauts’ celestial success
was “great” and “fantastic.” For
their French poodle, Berna, it
was just another day.
“He just sat by the door as

“WE REALLY got a twogeneration view,” said Bauer, a
retired Navy man who served

FOR THE moment, Bauer
added, “I will settle for the
huge sense of unification the

“LIKE MOST, I guess I
was a bit worried,” said Armstrong, (no relation to astro-

Sentinel Staff

AS THE Eagle covered the
last several hundred feet, the
astronauts reported several
alarm light flashed on. This
meant the on-board computer
had more work to do than it
could handle, so mission control took over some of its duties and the problem eased by
time of touchdown.
After landing, some fluid
got caught in the LEM’s descent engine and caused an
increase in fuel pressure.
However, the astronauts
vented the fluid before the
pressure increased to a dangerous level.
Another NASA official said
the “football-field sized
crater” explained why the
spacecraft did not down down
at the scheduled landing site,
but there was no explanation
immediately on why it touched down four miles away.

Sentinel Calendar

$300,000 Life Suits Protect
Astronauts On Alien Planet

SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) Staying alive on
the moon requires the
world’ most expensive
wardrobe.
The $300,000 suits donned by Apollo 11 astronauts
Neil Armstrong and Col.
Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. to protect them on the lunar surface are really an attempt to
bring their earth atmosphere with them.
ON THE moon, there is
no oxygen, water or shade.
Nor is there an atmosphere
to shield the sun’s radiation
or burn up meteorites
streaking toward the lunar
surface.
And temperatures – in
the middle of the lunar day
– range from 250 degrees
above zero in the sun to 250
degrees below zero in the
shadows only a few yards
away.
To survive, an earthman
must carry his own tiny atmosphere – oxygen, air conditioning, sun visors and a
meteorite shield.
THE ASTRONAUTS’
spacesuits are really balloons inflated with oxygen.
A plastic bubble helmet

attaches to the neck of the
suit with a metal ring. Two
visors on the helmet filter
sunlight and shield meteorites.
Gloves designed for maximum flexibility also attach
with metal rings.
OXYGEN TO inflate the
suit is from an elaborate
back pack.
The pack, called the portable life support system or
PLSS also provides electrical power for radio communications and air conditions
the suit.
Together, suit and pack
weigh a staggering 190
pounds on earth but only 30
pounds in the moon’s onesixth gravity.
THE ASTRONAUTS’
underwear has a system of
pipes next to the body
through which water circulates.
The water transfer heat
from the body to a radiator
in the back pack where it is
released into space.
Cooling also comes from
the oxygen pumped into the
suit from the back pack at a
temperature of 40-50 degrees.

Moon Landing Stirs ‘Christmas In July’ Mood
By JOE LAMBERT

THE IGNITION marked
the end of the free return portion of the trip. From this point
on, any engine malfunction on
board the LEM would mean
Armstrong and Aldrin would
be stranded on the moon with
no hope for survival.
“You’re looking great to us,
Eagle,” mission control radioed as the spidery craft passed
the1,600-foot level.
“You’re go for landing,”
control said.

“ALL WE know is that Neil
flew the Eagle until he decided
to put it down,” said Thomas
O. Payne, NASA administrator.
He said that if Armstrong
had not taken over the controls manually, or if Apollo 11
had been unmanned, the lunar
module probably would have
crashed in the rocky crater.

reports of their speed—velocity in feet per second—both
across the face of the moon
and down toward its surface.)
Aldrin—300 feet. Down 31⁄2,
47 forward. One minute, 11⁄2
down, 70. Altitude velocity
light. 15 forward. Coming
down nicely. 200 feet. 41⁄2
down, 51⁄2 down. 9 forward.
100 feet, 1⁄2 down, 9 forward. 75
feet. Looking good. Down ½. 6
forward, 60 second lights on.
Down 21⁄2. Forward. Picking
up some dust. Big shadow. For
4 forward. 4 forward drifting
to the right a little. Down 1⁄2. 30
seconds.
ASTRONAUT NEIL A.
Armstrong – contact light.
Okay, engine stopped. ACA at a
descent. Mode control both
auto. Descent engine command override off. Engine arm
off 413 is in.
(When Armstrong reported
"contract light," probes on the
lunar module’s landing pads
had touched the moon.)
Armstrong – Houston. We
uh … Tranquility Base here.
The Eagle has landed.

gin the historic descent to the
moon. He did so at 4:05 p.m.,
two minutes ahead of schedule.

• Astronauts’ Families Reactions1-C
always,” said Mrs. Finnigan.
“Berna doesn’t care much for
television.”
Twenty-two-year-old Dan
Armstrong, 504 Sunglow Dr.,
was most apprehensive as he
listened to the astronauts’ dialogue in the final four or five
minutes of the landing.

naut Neil Armstrong). “But
they know what they are doing. They must to have gotten
this far.
“It adds to the excitement to
know the first man to put his
food on the moon has the same
name I have. Something to tell
my grandchildren,” he said.
Highways and streets in the
Orlando area showed little activity as motorists were transformed to stay-at-homes for
the moon landing.
Traffic slowed to an extent
rare, even on a Sunday, according to Orlando Police Department patrolman William Krywick.

area highways.
“Everything slowed to a
bare minimum,” he said.
Deputy Roy Hancock of the
Orange County Sheriff’s office
said phone calls, usually averaging about one per minute,
“were near zero from 3:15
throughout the remainder of
the afternoon.”
Reservists on weekend with
the U.S. Army 68th Transportation Group at Orlando’s Executive Center were given time
off from regular duties to see
the moon-landing television
reports.

KRYWICK, WHO was
driving to the station from
Conway Road on a circuitous
route through Pine Hills, reported few motorists on any

Astrology 5C
Classified 7C
Comics 4C
Editorial 12A
Financial 5B
Obituaries 7C

Index
Opinion 13A
Sports 1B
Television 7B
Weather 8C
Women 1C
Movies 6B

CLUBS
Orlando Jaycees, First Federal of Orlando, noon.
High Twelve International, Trade Winds
Cafeteria, 11:30 a.m.
Winter Park Rotary Club, Villa Nova
Restaurant, 12:15 p.m.
Winter Park Kiwanis Club, Imperial
House, 6:30 p.m.
Winter Park Exchange Club, Aquino’s, 7
p.m.
Colonialtown Lions Club, Morrison’s Colonial Cafeteria, 6:30 p.m.
Orlando Toastmasters Club, 1066,
Scanda House Smorgasbord, 6:30 p.m.
Winter Park Civitan Club, S & S Cafeteria, 6:45 p.m.
Orlando Table Tennis Club, Winter Park
Recreation Center, 7:30 p.m.
Orlando Odd Fellows Lodge 20, 501 W.
Amelia St., 8 p.m.
Orlando Dog Training Club, 2323 Edgewater Drive, 8 p.m.
Central Florida Aquarium Society,
Chess Club, 7:30 p.m.
Monsignor Bishop Council 2112, Knights
of Columbus, 728 Lake Gear Ave., 8 p.m.
Central Florida Chapter, Antique Auto
Club of America, American Federal, 8
p.m.
MEETINGS
Florida Association of Realtors, Robert
Meyer Motor Inn, all day
F.A.R. Institute, Langford Hotel, 8:30
a.m.
Dale Carnegie, Robert Meyer Motor Inn,
6:30 a.m.
Florida Real Estate Exams, Park Plaza
Hotel, 9 a.m.
Tax Lawyers Association, Park Plaza,
noon.
TONIGHT’S MOVIES
BEACHAM – Krakatoa, East of Java, 2, 8
CARVER – Dracula Has Risen from the
Grave, 5:40, 9:40; The Guru, 7:28
COLONY – Doctor Dolittle, 2:30, 5:30,
8:30
PARKWOOD CINEMA – Peter Pan, 1:30,
3:50, 5:50, 7:45, 9:40
PARK EAST – Oliver!, 2, 8:30
PARK WEST – The April Fools, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10
PLAZA THEATER – See Plaza Theater ad.
SEMIOLE CINEMA – Ben Hur, 2, 8:15
VOGUE – YES, 7:30, 9:30
DRIVE-IN THEATERS
SOUTHTRAIL – Blackbeard’s Ghost, 8:30,
12:15; With Six You Get Eggroll, 10:30
COLONIAL – Angel in My Pocket, 8:40,
12:30; Second Time Around, 10:50
ORANGE AVE. – Nightmare in Wax, 8:30,
12; Blood of Dracula’s Castle, 10:30
ORLANDO – Hanibal Brooks, 8:30, 1:30;
The Great Escape, 10:40
PINE HILLS – Angel in My Pocket, 8:40,
12:30; Second Time Around, 10:50
PRARIE LAKE – Hannibal Brooks, 8:30;
The Great Escape, 10:30
RI-MAR – Blackbeard’s Ghost, 8:45,
12:15; With Six You Get Eggroll, 10:35
WINTER PARK – Nightmare in Wax, 8:37,
12:11; Blood of Dracula’s Castle, 10:29
WINTER GARDEN: STARLITE – Nightmare in Wax and Blood of Dracula’s Castle.

The Weather
Partly cloudy to cloudy, with
thundershowers likely mainly
afternoon and evening. High in
low 90s. Variable, mostly
southeast winds, 5 to 15 m.p.h.,
strong and gusty near showers.
Probability of rain Monday 60
per cent, Monday night 30 per
cent.

Sunrise 6:41, Sunset 8:22 Moonrise
12:57 p.m., Moonset 12:20 a.m.
Tuesday. Morning Stars Mercury,
Venus, Saturn. Evening Stars Mars,
Jupiter.
For 24 Hours Ended 8 p.m. Yesterday:
Temperatures, High 91, Low 75, Mean
83, Normal 83.
Relative Humidity 7 a.m. 90 per cent; 1
p.m. 60; 7 p.m. 90.
Precipitation, .77 in; Month’s Total 5.43
in; Normal for July .00 in; Year’s Total
25.29 in; deficiency through June,
1.92 in.
Highest Win Velocity, 24 m.p.h. at 3
p.m. from S.
Barometer, 7 a.m. 30,03 in; 7 p.m. 30.00
in.
(Map and Other Reports on Pg. 8C.)

 Sunday, July 21, 2019 Orlando Sentinel

APOLLO 11

  E3

50 YEARS LATER

Readers share memories of landing

We asked our readers to share
their memories of the Apollo11moon
landing and here are some of our
favorites. You can read more
Moon Memories at
OrlandoSentinel.com/Apollo11.

ran back and forth to the galley to
watch the whole landing. Well
worth the effort.
Russell Lynch Saint Cloud

Watching on a budget

I was the wife of a structural
design engineer involved with the
design of the lunar module for
Grumman in Bethpage, N.Y. He
worked long hours and never
complained. It went on for years
until1969, when they all sighed a
sigh of relief to see it land on the
moon. My husband, Henry
Pallmeyer, was one of the men
involved in the struts that were the
first things to feel the surface of
the moon. They worked, and all of
us were so happy. He died in 2010,
still proud of the years spent as an
engineer.
Julia Pallmeyer Clermont

During the time of the Apollo11
mission, my wife Cherie and I were
enrolled in graduate study at the
University of North Colorado; she
was working on her masters and I
on my doctorate. Most of our money was dedicated to apartment
rent, food, and tuition and fees. As
the excitement grew, generated by
the thought of having a man, our
man, on the moon, we decided to
stretch our budget and rent a small
TV so we could be sure not to miss
the upcoming spectacular event.
I don’t remember if we rented it
for three days or four, but we
wanted to be sure not to miss what
we anticipated to be a major event
in our lives. We invited some fellow
students to come watch on the day
of the actual landing, as long as they
brought their own beverages. Other
than completing our degrees, this
lunar landing was the most unbelievably exciting of our days in
Greeley, Colo. The ability to witness the landing and listen to men
on the moon as they described
being where no men had been
before brought a chill as we hugged
and shared the feeling. We indeed
were, and continue to be, proud
Americans!
Bill and Cherie Wienke
Orlando

A toast in Africa
In the northwest corner of Nigeria, where the land is as flat as
Kansas, the night sky is so clear and
dark that stars are visible all the
way to the horizon. My then husband and I were there in1969 as
Peace Corps volunteers, the only
American teachers in a school
staffed by a mix of Nigerians, Ghanaians, South Asians and various
European expatriates. In that remote location, most news came to
us by shortwave radio.
The night that men walked on
the moon, we took chairs outside
and sat in the starry darkness listening to the Voice of America and
marveling that we were hearing
voices speaking from the bright

Sigh of relief

NEIL ARMSTRONG/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

This July 20, 1969, photo obtained from NASA and taken by Neil Armstrong, shows astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility.

crescent overhead. Many friends
joined us as we toasted the astronauts with Star beer. To our surprise, over and over, people shook
our hands and congratulated us on
this amazing feat, as though we
were responsible for it.
Years later, I served the United
States as a Foreign Service officer,
but I have never been prouder of
representing my country than I
was that historic night.
Sarah Maxson Medvitz
Orlando

Apollo pride in Sweden
During the summer of ’69, I was
an18-year-old college kid staying
with a family in Sweden. One evening, in town, I went up to a little
stand to order some korv, which
are tasty little hot dogs. The server
asked if I was an American and
pointed to the TV. There, in black
and white, was Apollo11on the
moon. I stepped back, looked long
and hard at the actual moon in the
evening sky and was filled with
truly complex emotions.
It was the Vietnam era and I was
adamantly opposed to actions
undertaken by the Nixon administration. Over there in Europe I was
frequently criticized, regardless of
my personal stance, for my country’s war efforts. Contrast that with
seeing our men on the moon and
for a moment, immense pride in
our nation’s accomplishments
together with a powerfully strong,
heartfelt desire for peace in our
time.
Trevor Hall, Jr. Orlando

Live history lesson
My husband and I were young
and had been teaching for a few
years in a small farming town in
western New York. Students came
to us and asked us to chaperone
them to Europe for six weeks. So
July 20,1969, we found ourselves in
New York City with a long layover
for our flight to Europe with16
teenagers. We decided it would be
fun to take them to see Central
Park. And that was the night history was made. Two young teachers and16 teens from rural America
received an up-front history lesson
as we all watched on huge screens
men walk on the moon. I can see it
like it happened today.
Tina Worrell Clermont

A viewing at sea
On the night of the lunar landing
of Apollo11, I was on an offshore
fishing boat out of Port Judith, R.I.
We were on our way back to port
and it was my watch just as the
lunar module was landing on the
surface of the moon. Our boat was
a 63-foot “Eastern rig.” Fortunately,
it was a flat, calm night so I was
able to put the wheel in a becket, a
short rope with a loop, holding the
rudder somewhat on course. This
allowed me time to go forward to
the crew quarters where I could
watch the landing for about10
minutes and then go back to the
wheelhouse, check the course and
look for other boats. No other boats
in sight for my whole watch. So for
the whole watch — two hours — I

In Thailand, disbelief
In July1969, I was serving in the
U. S. Air Force at a base in northeast Thailand. When I learned that
the United States had successfully
landed men on the moon, I was
filled with pride and exhilaration. I
eagerly shared this news with the
Thai people that I knew. In virtually every case, their response was
disbelief. I continued trying to
convince them that, at the very
moment we were looking at the
moon, there were actually Americans walking on it. They continued
to look at me as if I had horns
growing from my head.
Simon Mendel Longwood

Dad missed Apollo11
Everyone has a memory of the
earth-shaking event of a human on
the moon. For me, my mind was in
a fog. My father died suddenly one
month earlier due to suicide. Our
family all shared one mindset: Dad
had missed it. How would we
revel in it without him? We consoled each other saying he was
watching from God’s dominion
and knows the elation of such
discoveries. He was a math and
science teacher and space exploration was his lifelong excitement.
He followed Apollo and knew the
plan for the moon landing. He was
just not with us for the amazing
event.
Tom Bessa Orlando

Feeling doubly blessed
The moon landing in July1969 is
doubly memorable for me: Not
only did brave astronauts land on
the moon, but my brave husband
returned safely home after almost a
year in Vietnam. Neither event was
a sure thing. But, by the grace of
God, both events transpired. Those
two events always will be associated in my mind. I am doubly
blessed.
Terri View Orlando

Scent of newsprint
The day after the moon landing,
my younger sister, Marcia, and I
drove to a newsstand in downtown
Orlando (I can still smell the scent
of tobacco and newsprint) where
we bought all the ‘Man on Moon’
newspapers. I still have all of those
newspapers.
Clyde Hennessey

From a mountaintop
I was13. We were on top of a
mountain in a pop-up tent camper
in a campground in Maine. We
never took a TV on vacation — in
those days even a “portable” TV
was challenging to carry around —
but I insisted that we take it with us
on this trip. We could not miss this
event. And so we watched from
that mountaintop. I was mesmerized and stayed awake well into the
night watching the entire thing.
Sally Andrews

1st launch to Apollo11
As a local resident all my life, I
have had the good fortune to observe the space program from its
early roots. I went to school at
Orlando High School and used to
run track with future astronaut
John Young. You could tell he was a
very smart student back then. I was
also fortunate to witness the very
first launch from the Cape, around
1949. I was working on the roof of a
small beach house in Cape Canaveral and got a great view of the
launch. I did watch the Apollo11
launch from outside the launch
site. It was a very exciting time for
any American and I was later lucky
to watch and photograph the first
shuttle launch from the camera
line.
Allen Arthur

Pence looks to NASA’s future
as he honors Apollo 11 crew
By Steven
Lemongello and
Chabeli Herrera

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER – Vice President Mike
Pence honored the men who
first landed on the moon on
the 50th anniversary of the
Apollo11landing on Saturday
— and he praised those who
plan to follow in their steps,
saying “the next man and
first woman on the moon in
the next five years will be
American astronauts.”
Pence didn’t reveal many
new details about the
Artemis program to return
to the moon by 2024 at the
Kennedy Space Center
event, other than disclosing
the Lockheed Martin-built
Orion capsule that will fly
on NASA’s first unpiloted
test flight, called Artemis1, is
ready to complete preparations for flight. The vehicle
is scheduled to perform the
test next year as one of the
precursors to the moon
landing, a mission estimated
to cost a total of $20 billion
to 30 billion.
His remarks clarified
NASA’s next steps to the
moon and onto Mars, a directive muddied by President Donald Trump’s statements — including as recently as Friday in the Oval
Office, in talking with Apollo
11 astronauts Edwin “Buzz”
Aldrin and Michael Collins
— that openly questioned a
return to the moon and calling for a direct mission to the
red planet instead.
In regard to NASA’s other
astronaut program, in which
it is partnering with SpaceX
and Boeing to return astronauts to space from American soil, Pence hedged from
earlier comments that the
program would launch with
crew by the end of the year,
changing it to “within the
next year.”
“We will once again send
American astronauts into
space on American rockets
from American soil,” Pence
said at the Neil Armstrong
Operations & Checkout
Building, named for the first
man to walk on the moon on
July 20, 1969. Armstrong’s

JOHN RAOUX/AP

Vice President Mike Pence, left, shakes hands with astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin at the Kennedy Space Center at a
Saturday event honoring the Apollo 11 anniversary.

family was at the ceremony
along with Aldrin, Gov. Ron
DeSantis and NASA Director
Jim Bridenstine.
The vice president recalled watching the landing
as “a little boy sitting in front
of our black and white television in the basement of our
home in Indiana.”
The Apollo astronauts, he
said, “made an indelible
mark, not just on my imagination but on the imagination of my generation and
every generation to come.”
He spoke about Armstrong and Aldrin running
600 simulations of the Lunar
Module landing but still facing an unexpected challenge
when an alarm suddenly
went off. But they brought in
the lander to the lunar surface with just a few seconds
of fuel left over, without the
millions watching on TV
ever knowing something
was wrong.
“And yet, how calm they
were. Working with the
team back here on Earth
they quickly resolved the
problem without betraying
the slightest anxiety,” Pence
said. “… That, my friends, is
what they used to call the
right stuff.”
Apollo 11, he said, “is the
only event in the 20th century that stands a chance of
being widely remembered in

the 30th century. A thousand
years from now, July 20,1969,
will likely be a day that will
live in the minds and imaginations of men and women,
as long as there are men and
women to remember it
across this world, across this
solar system and beyond.”
The ceremony, with its
frequent praise of Trump,
multiple
Republican
congressmen and no Democrats and even featuring
Trump’s pre-rally music,
often had the feel of a political rally. It marked the end of
anniversary commemorations for Apollo 11 and
marked the highest profile
public introduction to the
Artemis program.
But launching the first
Orion capsule by July 2020
will only take place, however,
if the Boeing-built Space
Launch System rocket, the
most powerful ever built, is
ready in time. The vehicle
has been grossly over budget
and behind schedule, also
putting into question NASA’s
timeline.
Meanwhile, NASA’s Commercial Crew program with
SpaceX and Boeing to build
astronaut capsules endeavors to allow the U.S. to again
begin sending astronauts
from American soil to space
— something pointedly referred to in Pence’s remarks.

LAST DAY
TODAY
Celebrate the 50th Anniversary
of the Moon Landing with special
activities, films, exhibits and more!
Included with general admission.

osc.org/moonfest

 E4  

Orlando Sentinel Sunday, July 21, 2019

APOLLO 11

50 YEARS LATER

WALKING
ON THE
MOON

NASA

Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong steps down from the
lunar module ladder and becomes the first man to set foot
on the moon on July 20, 1969. A huge shadow of the lunar
module is seen in the background of this photo, taken from
a 16mm movie film board the LM.

NASA

Neil Armstrong's right foot leaves a footprint in the lunar
soil as he and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to
set foot on the surface of the moon in 1969

NASA

Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin is seen standing beside the lunar module during the Apollo 11 moon landing. This photo was taken by
Neil Armstrong, as were most of the pictures from the moon on this mission. Armstrong can be see in the reflection on
Aldrin’s helmet. The two men spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the moon from July 20 to 21 in 1969

Why haven’t we gone back?

It’s been 47 years
since Americans
walked on moon
By Chabeli Herrera

In 1989, former President George
H.W. Bush had a vision: “The Apollo
astronauts left more than flags and
footprints on the moon — they also
left some unfinished business,” he
said on the moon landing’s 20th
anniversary. “…The time has come
to look beyond brief encounters. We
must commit ourselves anew to a
sustained program of manned exploration of the solar system.”
Fifteen years later, his son, former President George W. Bush,
took another stab at it: “It is time for
America to take the next steps,” he
said during a speech at NASA headquarters in 2004. “Today I announce a new plan to explore space
and extend a human presence
across our solar system.”
And just a few months ago, like a
bad case of déjà vu, Vice President
Mike Pence reiterated the mission
that administrations before him
have proposed — but failed to deliver on: “Now has come the time for
us to make the next giant leap and
return American astronauts to the
moon, establish a permanent base
there and develop technologies to
take American astronauts to Mars
and beyond,” he said at a speech in
Huntsville, Ala. “That’s the next giant leap.”
But the realities of taking that
next giant leap are the reason it
hasn’t been taken in 47 years, the
last time astronauts walked on the
moon. Financial, congressional and
public support are desperately
needed to turn dreams of the moon
into powdery, lunar-dust reality.
And for decades, those three pieces
have been absent, as have the geopolitical circumstances that made
the moon landing possible.
Going to the moon came out of
competition with the Soviet Union
and the very substantial fear of nuclear war during the Cold War, said
space historian Roger Launius.
“We believed that the Soviet
Union could take us out with nuclear weapons anytime and, of course,
they believed we could do it to
them. That was the crisis situation
you sort of lived your life under,”

JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine delivers remarks at a presentation
on plans for the moon and Mars missions at Kennedy Space Center.

said Launius, NASA’s former chief
historian. “We did duck-and-cover
exercises where we covered under
our desk — like that would protect
us from a nuclear blast. There is
nothing like that today.”
And the Soviets were ahead:
They put two satellites in space in
1957 and then the first human, Yuri
Gagarin,inorbitin1961. Knowinghe
was behind, then-President John F.
Kennedy sent a memo to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, the chairman of the National Aeronautics
and Space Council, in April 1961 to
determine what the United States
could do to get ahead in the Space
Race. “Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the
moon, or by a rocket to land on the
moon, or by a rocket to go to the
moon and back with a man,” Kennedy wrote. “Is there any other
space program which promises
dramatic results in which we could
win?”
Kennedy felt he had a good
chance of beating the Soviets to the
moon by the end of the decade, a
mission he outlined in his now
iconic 1962 speech at Rice University. And to do it, NASA would
need a massive funding boost.
“Kennedy, unlike all presidents
since, not only talked the talk, he
walked the walk,” said John Logsdon, professor emeritus of political
science and international affairs at
George Washington University.
Compared to 1960, the NASA
budget ballooned year-over-year by
84 percent in 1961, then 89 percent
in 1962 and another 101 percent in

1963. By the mid-1960s, NASA
budget took up more than 4 percent
of the total budget. Today, it makes
up less than half of1percent.
“You can solve almost any problem with enough money, and you
can also pursue multiple paths to
solving it,” Launius said. “So you’ve
got the problem of landing on the
moon with a lunar lander of some
kind, [and] there has been no opportunity to pursue more than one
path.”
After the senior Bush’s 1989
speech, NASA got about a13 percent
increase in funding, but it was short
lived. There was also little increase
in funding in 2005, and by time the
Government Accountability Office
published its scathing audit of
NASA’s Constellation program —
the younger Bush’s lunar push — in
2009 outlining the remaining challenges of getting to the moon by
2020, the program was done.
Former President Barack Obama
scraped Constellation.
“The reality is we have sort of
tried to do all of this on a shoestring,” Launius said. “We’ve now
had three presidents who have said
the same thing and every time,
Charlie Brown runs down and
wants to kick the football and Lucy
pulls it away. How many times are
we going to do this?”
The scene from Charlie Brown
has been evoked so often that current NASA Administrator Jim
Bridenstine, in discussing the agency’s renewed push for the moon,
said, “This will not be Lucy and the
football again. This time we are going to the moon.”

But the nation isn’t in remotely
the same place it was on July 20,
1969 when astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael
Collins dazzled the world. Apart
from the financial and political support that were critical then and
missing now, a journey to the moon
doesn’t draw the public support it
once did. In an Associated Press and
NORC Center for Public Affairs Research pollreleased lastmonth, only
23% of Americans said returning to
the moon was very important, compared to 68% of Americans who put
monitoring asteroids, comets or
other events that could impact
Earth as the top priority for the
nation’s space program.
Conducting scientific research
on Earth and the solar system, sending robotic probes, continuing funding for the International Space Station, searching for life in other planets and sending astronauts to Mars
all ranked higher than going to the
moon.
“It doesn’t have a resonance,”
said Roger Handberg, a University
of Central Florida political science
professor who specializes in space
policy. “It doesn’t have a pull to
people to say, ‘OK, we need to go
back to the moon because we need
to be first.’ We were already first.”
Even after the U.S. was first, public support plummeted. An estimated 650 million people watched
Neil Armstrong make “one giant
leap for mankind,” but four months
later for Apollo 12, the world “paid
significantly less attention,” Logsdon said. The world wasn’t paying
attention during Apollo 13 either —
until an oxygen tank explosion put
the mission in peril.
The final three Apollo missions
—18,19and20—focusedonscience,
were canceled. And only one scientist ever walked on the moon.
The new moon mission proposed by the current administration
calls for a trip to the lunar South
Pole, where scientists believe there
is water inside lunar craters. Some
commercial companies are building
their business models around mining the moon for its resources, including Cape Canaveral-based
Moon Express, which is building a
lunar lander.
“Water is incredibly valuable in
space, it’s like the oil of the solar
system. We can use lunar water for
sustaining life, yes, but its key economic implication is its use as rocket

fuel,” said Bob Richards, Moon Express’ founder and CEO, in an email.
“The components of water, hydrogen and oxygen, can be easily extracted with solar energy and used
to power and propel human civilization to Mars and beyond.”
The commercial industry as a
whole has pumped renewed interest in space, but it’s still to be seen
whether that interest will drive
America to the moon or to other
locations. As it stands, NASA is
working on its Orion crew capsule
and Space Launch System rocket
for its lunar return — a program
that, like its predecessor, is plagued
in cost overruns and delays. The
scheduled date for boots on the lunar surface: 2024. NASA requested
a $1.6 billion increase in its budget
for fiscal year 2020 to begin accelerating the moon mission that it’s now
calling Artemis, a reference to the
twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology and to the increased diversity in the agency.
“I think it is very beautiful that 50
years after Apollo, the Artemis program will carry the next man and
the first woman to the moon,”
Bridenstine said when he announced the program, calling on
commercial industry to support the
lunar return with landers.
But to make a 2024 landing date
feasible, the funding will have to
increase significantly in subsequent
years or else NASA will risk repeating its own history, said Logsdon,
who called the increase in funding a
“reasonable start.”
Bridenstine put the full cost of
the program between about $20
and $30 billion over the next five
years, meaning funding for NASA’s
budget would have to increase by $4
billion to $6 billion each year, on
average.
NASA says it’s critical to test its
technologies on the moon before
going to Mars. But in Launius’ view,
that may still not be enough of a
compelling reason to rally behind.
“If we could see a profit making
path on the moon, these guys would
figure out ways to do it, to go there,
and to extract that wealth. I have no
doubt about that,” Launius said.
“But we haven’t seen that clearly
yet.”
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cherrera@orlandosentinel.com
or 407-420-5660.