We come with the world from all mankind

July 20, 1969 at 20:17:39 UTC, which at that time was called Greenwich, the lunar module Eagle of the Apollo-11 spacecraft made a soft landing on the surface of the Moon. On returning to Earth on July 24, 1969, the crew (commander Neil Armstrong, pilot of the lunar module Baz Aldrin and pilot of the command / service module Michael Collins) were sent to a two-week quarantine. Right on the deck of an aircraft carrier, astronauts were subjected to complete, biological isolation in case they brought extra-terrestrial microorganisms with them. The heroes of the first lunar expedition were kept in a special box of the Moon Reception Laboratory in Houston, until it became clear that their health was in perfect order. Coming out of the glass (see photo below), on August 12, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 gave the first press conference. Lunobortsi speculate on it, claiming that the astronauts were constrained, nervous, confused, etc.

Apparently, this press conference has never been published in Russian. In addition, the original, magnetic recording was distorted before it was digitized. Therefore, the sample stored on the NASA website is not quite authentic, although it is very close to this. About a month later, on September 16, 1969, a transcript was published, which is also not quite accurate.

All this would not have the slightest value (and it did not have until recently), if in the 21st century the paranoid desire to challenge the reality of the Apollo program did not spread through the Internet, like a pandemic. Apparently, the lunar conspiracy theology is most likely to live in Russia, if you count per capita. The problem is further aggravated by the fact that the subtitles found in the video copies of the press conference contain a fatal number of errors. This may be due to machine-made speech recognition errors, but it is possible that moonbeats intentionally download corrupted subtitles.
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The crew of Apollo-11 in quarantine, Lunar Receiving Laboratory (Lunar Receiving Laboratory).

This publication provides a fully authentic Russian translation of the Apollo 11 press conference of August 12, 1969. I had to translate its English transcript, which helped Google a lot, and also listen carefully to the recording on NASA. Considering the defects noted above, it was also necessary to compare different copies of the magnetic recording with each other. The result of these efforts is presented to the attention of readers.

Those who speak the North American language freely, please do not judge too harshly, because the purpose of this publication was to expose the fantasies and lies of the moon-bosses, and not to demonstrate my (modest) knowledge of this language. The text is accompanied by comments that are in italics . Everything else (direct font), starting with the next paragraph, is taken from the official transcript www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11PostFlightPressConf.html and the Apollo-11 press conference video recordings.

At 10 am CDT, August 12, 1969, Julian Scheer, Assistant Administrator of NASA Public Relations, opened a television press conference on the flight of Apollo 11 in the audience of the Center for Manned Spaceships, Houston, Texas. Addressing about two hundred media representatives from the United States and other countries, he said:

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the Center for Manned Spaceships. This is the Apollo 11 press conference. Today’s format will consist of a 45-minute presentation from the Apollo 11 crew, followed by questions and answers. At the moment, I would like to introduce the crew of Apollo 11, the astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin Jr. ”

Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11, began a report to the whole world about the epic journey of Orel and Colombia to the Moon and back to Earth.

This flight began on July 16 at 9:32 am Eastern Coast Time, when the Saturn 5 rocket launched Apollo 11 into Earth orbit from Cape Kennedy. Having made a half turn around the Earth, the third step of Saturn V turned on the engine again to send Apollo on a trip to the Moon. Soon after, the command / service module Columbia separated from the third stage of Saturn, turned around and docked nose to nose with the lunar module Eagle, which was inside the third stage. With the Eagle attached to the bow, Colombia moved away from the third step and headed towards the Moon.

July 19, Apollo 11 approached and went beyond the moon. At 1:28 pm EDT, he turned on the engine of the service module to enter lunar orbit. After 24 hours of being in orbit, Armstrong and Aldrin separated the Eagle from Colombia to prepare for descent to the surface. On July 20, at 4:18 pm, the lunar module sat on the Moon at the Tranquility Base. Armstrong said: "Eagle sat down." And at 10:56 pm Armstrong, walking down the Eagle’s stairs and touching the surface of the Moon with one foot, announced:

"This is one small step for man and one giant leap for humanity."

Aldrin soon joined Armstrong. They carried out their scheduled tasks in front of a television camera, which was installed on the lunar surface.

The man’s first dramatic adventure on the moon ended July 21 at 1:54 in the afternoon when Armstrong and Aldrin rose from the moon on a tower of flame. They joined the Eagle to Colombia, in which Collins was waiting for them in lunar orbit. They returned to Colombia and allowed the Eagle to float freely.

Then the astronauts turned on the engine of the service module to break out of the gravitational embrace of the moon and go home. They reached the environs of the Earth at a speed of about 25,000 miles per hour, accurately entered the atmosphere so as to avoid burning or bouncing back into space, and finally, with open parachutes, they fell down in the Pacific Ocean south-west of Hawaii on July 24 at 12: 51 in the afternoon.

This text is a transcript of the Apollo 11 post-flight press conference. This is a description of the first ever trip to another celestial body made by the people who made it.

ARMSTRONG:

We were happy to participate in one great adventure. This adventure took place not so much in July, but in the last decade. All of us here and the people listening to radio today have had the opportunity to share this adventure in the process of its development and deployment in recent months and years. Today we have the honor to share with you some of the details of this final July, which has definitely become the main event of this decade for the three of us.

We are going to deviate a little from the format of past press conferences and tell you about the things that interested us the most and especially about what happened on and around the Moon. We use several films and slides, which most of you have already seen, with the intention of noting some things that we observed on the spot and which may not be obvious to those of you who look at them from the surface of the Earth.

The flight, as you know, started exactly, and I think it was typical of all the events of this flight. Saturn made one magnificent walk, to the orbit of the Earth and to the trajectory to the Moon (Photo 1). Our memories of this actually differ little from the messages that you heard about the previous flights of Saturn V, and previous flights have served us well in preparing for this, both in the take-off stage and in subsequent stages. We would like to go straight to the trans-voyage phase and recall the chain of events - the long chain of events - which actually allowed us to make this landing, starting with disconnection, permutation and docking (lunar and command / service modules) .



COLLINS:

This was our first look at the magnificent technique, which until this moment was located behind us. The rocket carrier, of course the first and second stages, had long since separated, but here LM (lunar module) located inside the third stage (S-4B) is shown after the transition to the trans-lunar orbit (Photo 2). This maneuver was an interesting combination of manual and automatic actions, which we programmed the on-board computer to do the coup. And then these final maneuvers were made entirely by hand.



While I was approaching the LM, everything was simple, because I had a docking target (Photo 3), which is not very clearly visible here, which allowed me to align the probe and the docking anchor, which is a dark spot that you see above right. During this time I also checked the correctness of the ship’s response to the controls of my joystick. Soon you will see a real dock in a somewhat accelerated form. This is the moment of contact and exactly in a second you will see ... right here ... a second indication of the retract cycle, when 12 docking locks worked.



Under the coup, Collins meant turning the command / service module 180 degrees around the transverse axis in order to dock with the lunar module in the new position (the lunar module is indicated by LM all the way further) and pull it out from the 3rd stage. After that, the ship once again turned 180 degrees.

OLDRIN:

We made two entrances to the lunar module (LM). This is our first look at it from the inside (Photo 4). The final activation was carried out on the day of controlled descent (to the moon). On the previous two days, when we entered the LM, we removed the docking probe and anchor and found that we had a rather long tunnel between the two ships. When entering the lunar module, it was necessary to perform a reverse semi-roll forward with the legs, since the lunar module, of course, is in some sense turned upside down relative to the command module.

Under the two ships Aldrin meant the lunar module "Eagle" and the command + service modules under the general name "Columbia", all together it was "Apollo 11".



COLLINS:

This is in lunar orbit ... the separation of the lunar module from the command module, as was seen from my window (Photo 5). For me it was a tense time, during which I shot this film through the right window and at the same time took photos through the left window, and also managed my ship ... probably bad (Collins jokes) and carefully watched the LM while it turned over. My most important job here was to make sure that all his landing pillars would be released and properly fixed before descending and landing.

This is his prowling maneuver ... the white specks that you see are the pillows of the landing legs. This gives you a better idea of ​​the details available on 70 millimeters. Here LM is shown in the correct position or upside down, I'm not sure which one. From this point of view, in my opinion, it looks more like a praying mantis than a first-class aircraft, but it was an excellent piece of technology. The landing legs are on top, and you can see probes that capture the moment of contact with the Moon, like thin wires running upward from the landing legs.

Speaking about the details available on 70 millimeters, Collins, apparently, was ironic about the low resolution of the 16-mm film, which was filmed lunar expeditions. But it is obvious that only such a film, moreover, specially developed by Codac, was sufficiently resistant to cosmic radiation.

OLDRIN:

Of course, before we could undock, as shown in this picture, we had to complete the activation (LM) . The day before we undocked, we entered the LM and went through a full check of the position of the switches and we practiced with different communication modes. Looking back, since we still had a slight problem with communication during a controlled descent, we would recommend that we can conduct a more thorough check of this the day before the descent.

On the day when we finally entered the LM for a landing maneuver, we went through a divided sequence of donning space suits and found that thanks to the imitations we worked here in Houston or with Houston associated with our imitations on Cape (Canaveral), we were we are quite sure that we can complete the activation of the LM in a given period of time (which was approximately 4 hours).

We managed to reduce this time by 30 minutes, and this allowed us to more accurately check the alignment of the platform at one point. After the undocking maneuver, we conducted an abbreviated radar check, and then the command module performed a removal maneuver from us at a speed of 2 feet per second so that we both could independently adjust our star-guiding systems, which we did after this separation maneuver (Photo 6).

And this happened in close proximity to the landing site, and here you can see that the command module passes right above our aiming point. He comes close to what we call the cat's paw. After the separation maneuver on the far side of the moon, we moved into descent orbit at a speed of just over 70 feet per second, which lowered our altitude to 50 thousand feet. We had two guidance systems. They behaved perfectly. Both were in complete agreement among themselves regarding the results of the maneuver. After that, we used the radar to confirm the actual removal rate from the command module.

The platform is a lunar + command + service module, but I did not understand what leveling Aldrin spoke about its alignment at one point. Maybe he meant touching the longitudinal axis of Apollo 11 with the orbit of its center of mass? Too special term.

The split sequence of donning the spacesuits, which Aldrin talks about - the staggered sequence of suiting, was as follows. First, one of the astronauts wore a spacesuit and went to the LM to activate it, and then went out of it to help put on a spacesuit to his comrade. Apparently, it was necessary to tune the radio communication between the spacesuits and the Earth, as well as to adapt to the spacesuit before separation from the command module.



ARMSTRONG:

This is the view of the area over which the descent path passes, as seen through the LM window during our activation (Photo 7). At the bottom right of the photo is Maskelin Crater, and in the center at the bottom there is a mountain called Boot Hill. Directly above the mountain, Shoe Hill is a small crater with a sharp edge, called Maskelyn W, which was the crater that we used to determine our inclined distance and transverse position error before the end of the final descent phase.

The landing pad itself is in a smooth area at the top of the image just before entering a shadow or what is called a terminator. We saw a few photos from Apollo 8 and 10, which gave us a great idea of ​​the land path, which we will pass over during the descent. Now we look at the crater Maskelyn W in the right window. He appeared about two or three seconds later and told us that we would probably be sitting down for quite a while.



After completing these position checks, we turned upside down so that the landing radar could capture the surface and confirm our actual height. This is not visible in the picture, but in this part of the trajectory we looked through the window directly at the planet Earth. At the final stages of the descent, after several programmatic alarms, we looked at the landing zone and found a very large crater (Photo 8). The camera is located in the right window and looks to the right, it slightly captures this field with boulders, over which we pass. Right now we are at a height of 400 feet, and these boulders are about 10 feet across. It was an area we decided not to enter; we increased the distance to the landing point and in the final phase of the descent we saw a crater over which we passed - this 80-foot crater, and then took a few of its shots.

Here you can see the dispersal of dust raised by the engine (Photo 9), and this caused some concern about the fact that it impaired our ability to determine not only the height and elevation in the last stage of the descent, but also, perhaps it was even more important our translational speed along the surface. It is quite important not to break your finger in the final stage of landing. The dust settled immediately after landing on the surface, and we perfectly saw the area surrounding the LM. This is the view from the left window. It shows a crater surface, dug up by craters up to 15, 20, 30 feet and many smaller craters with a diameter of up to 1 foot, and, of course, this surface was very fine-grained (Photo 10). We could say, judging by the view from the window, that there were surprisingly many stones of all sizes.

Terminator is the sharp border of the sun shadow on the surface of the moon. Speaking about not breaking a finger in the final stage of landing, Armstrong had in mind the landing support.




OLDRIN:

This is the view from the right window (Photo 11). Closer to the horizon, you see a field of boulders, which was probably formed after some blows to the craters that were behind us. You can see that most craters have rounded edges, but there is a difference in their age, as can be said, judging by the sharpness of the crater edge. Later we will see more pictures of the area immediately adjacent to us. It was a relatively flat terrain, unlike some of the more hilly areas that we could see from the front and left windows. This is a view, if you look forward to where the shadow of the LM falls on the surface (Photo 12), and we see a diffraction glow around the upper part of the LM.



The overall color of the landscape, looking from the side of the Sun, was bright golden brown. When turning his gaze in the direction of the Sun, he acquired an increasingly distinct, gray tint. In the initial period after landing, we went through various sequences of preparation for immediate interruption or recovery, if we found this necessary. It turned out that we should open the fuel and oxidation collectors a little earlier than we thought. We went through these various checks and prepared for the start, which could occur approximately 21 minutes after the start of the controlled descent (ie, approximately 8 minutes after landing) . The earth allowed us to stay during this period, and we did not have to use it.

Then we moved to a simulated, countdown, which consisted of testing our guidance systems. We used the gravity leveling function, where the inertial platform of the main guidance system resets the gravitational vector to determine the local vertical. Then we compared it with the alignments that we had before.

We also used the stars visible through the telescope, guiding it by rotating the field of view so that the crosshair overlaps the star — this will give us the angular measurements of the star in the telescope's field of view. Then we determine the distance to it, imposing another radial spiral. We applied data averaging methods implemented in the lunar module, then we loaded this information into a computer and ended up with our various spatial orientation checks.

All this was done to prepare for a possible start, which could take place approximately two hours after landing, as soon as Mike and Colombia made the first turn. The ground network allowed us to stay, and we completed the checks from the rest of the checklist in our simulated countdown, after which we disconnected and de-energized many systems on board the spacecraft and proceeded to receive food.

This fragment was difficult to translate meaningfully, since Aldrin was fascinated by technical details and terms that are understood only by specialists. Under the alignment of another radial spiral, he obviously had in mind the use of a piece in the form of a logarithmic spiral, which can be seen in photo 32. Such tools, which include a slide rule, were actively used by engineers at a time when electronic calculators were not yet available.



ARMSTRONG:

Before the flight, some experts predicted that people trying to work on the surface of the moon could face great difficulties due to the many strange atmospheric and gravitational features that they would encounter there. But it turned out that this was not the case, and after landing we felt very comfortable in the lunar gravity. In fact, this was, in our opinion, preferable to both weightlessness and terrestrial gravity. This was due to the fact that all LM systems worked perfectly - we had very few obstacles to immediately start work on the surface. We predicted that we would be ready to leave the LM by 8 o'clock, but those of you who watched us on Earth noticed that we had missed with our assessment. This was due to several factors:

1. we had to do the cleaning (food bags, flight plans, all the items we used in the previous descent, had to be removed from the road before the depressurization of the lunar module);

2. it took more time to depressurize the lunar module than we expected and ...;

3. It also took longer than we expected to get the chillers in our satchels to work.

Essentially, it took us about an hour more to prepare than we expected. When we finally descended the stairs, it turned out that it was very similar to the imitation of lunar gravity, which we performed here on Earth. When descending the stairs no difficulties arose. The last step was about 3.5 feet from the surface, and we were somewhat concerned that we might have difficulty returning to the LM at the end of the activity period. Therefore, we practiced this before doing the exercise on lowering the camera, which took subsequent shots of the surface. Here you can see the camera going down on what can be called the “Brooklyn Clothesline” (Photo 13).

I acted very carefully here, because right to my right, outside the picture was a crater six feet deep. And I was somewhat concerned about the possible loss of balance on a steep slope.



Another subject of interest in the very early stages of EVA (in case it was interrupted for some unknown reason) was the work of returning samples of lunar rocks. The photo shows the collection of these first samples in a small bag (photo 14), then this bag was kept in my pocket. It was the first of many cases when it turned out that two people are a big help. I quickly installed a television camera.

And then more leisurely Buzz and I teamed up to raise the American flag (Photo 15). We had several occasions when we could help each other on the surface in many different ways. You probably remember the moments when my leg got tangled in the TV cable, and Buzz managed to help me remove it without falling.

Under the period of activity, the Nile means being on the surface of the Moon - Extra resular Activity, abbreviated as EVA.



OLDRIN:

At first, we had some difficulties to make the flag stand remain on the surface. When penetrating the surface, we found that most objects would enter it by 5, maybe 6 inches, and then they would meet increasing resistance. At the same time, there was little support on both sides, so we had to slightly tilt the flag back so that it would maintain this position. So many people have done so much to give us the opportunity to put this American flag on the surface. For me, it was one of the proudest moments in life when I could stand there and quickly salute the flag (Photo 16).



ARMSTRONG:

The rest of the activity (EVA) seemed very hasty to us. It was necessary to do a lot of things, and it was difficult for us to finish them.

OLDRIN:

We found that mobility on the surface was generally slightly better than we might have expected. There was a slight tendency to be closer to the back of a neutral, stable position. The loss of balance seemed fairly easy to determine. With a slight tilt in one direction or another, it was very easy to determine when this loss of balance was approaching. In the process of maneuvering around (landing) , as you can see, this was one of my tasks at an early EVA stage.

I found that the standard technique of running with one foot in front of the other worked as well as we expected. You could also jump more in kangaroo style, two feet at a time. It seemed to work, but without the same degree of control of your sustainability as you moved forward. We found that we should have foreseen three or four steps ahead compared with one or two steps ahead when you walk the Earth.

ARMSTRONG:

We had very few problems on the surface, much less than expected. It was a pleasant operation. The temperature was not high. She was very comfortable. Small EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit), the combination of a spacesuit and a knapsack, which provided or supported our life on the surface, worked perfectly. We had no reason to be concerned about the operation of this equipment. The main difficulty we observed was that we had too little time to do a lot of things that we would like to do.



In earlier photographs, you could see stones and a field of boulders of 3 and 4 feet in size from Buzz's window — very likely pieces of lunar, bedrock rock. And it would be very interesting to go through it and take some samples of them. There were other craters that differed greatly among themselves, which would be interesting to explore and photograph. We had the problem of a five year old boy in a candy store. There are too many interesting things to do. The surface, as we said, was fine-grained with a large number of stones on it. She took traces very well, and traces remained in place. (Photo 17).



The LM was in good condition and there was no damage from landing or descent. Here is an image of a staircase with a famous sign at the bottom (Photo 18). There was a question about whether the LM would not sink to the knees. This is not how you can see. The soles of the supports drowned, maybe an inch or two. And the probe in this picture folded and stuck out through the sand in the lower right corner (Photo 19), showing that when we touched, we moved a little sideways.



There was a wide variety of surfaces. Here Buzz stands in a small crater (Photo 20) and this gives a very good picture of its rounded edges, which we think are very old features. The LM was located in a relatively smooth area between the craters and the boulder field (Photo 21). And we had some difficulties with the exact definition of what was straight up and down. Our ability to choose directions straight up and down was probably a few degrees less accurate than here on Earth. And this caused certain difficulties for such things as our cameras and scientific experiments to maintain the level of the situation that we expected.

Scientific experiments astronauts called devices for conducting experiments.




OLDRIN:

Those two experiments that you saw in the previous picture, were deployed in the compartment of scientific equipment. We found that lowering them down did not cause significant problems. And here you see how I transferred these two experiments to the place of deployment (Photo 22), approximately 70 feet south of the lunar module. You see very well how the depth of the upper surface layer changes. You can see that along the edge of the crater - the edge of a small crater to my left - along this, the top surface seems to be between 2 and 3 inches (depth). The subsurface layer has a slope that is rather poorly defined, and you need to be very careful when walking around these very small craters. I think that any long excursions would require considerable attention when moving,to avoid walking along or down the slope of some of these small craters.



This is the Passive Seismic Experiment (Photo 23), which was deployed and gave us good reports on the interactions of the Moon (with the bodies falling on it) .



We had a little difficulty deploying one of these panels. I had to go around it on the far side and release the retaining lever, and then the second panel came out. We had a little difficulty in defining, as Nil said, the exact local horizontal, and I think that this is due to a decrease in the signals that a person receives regarding which direction actually leads upwards. You need to lean a little more to the side before you receive a signal from the body that you are approaching a loss of balance, and, of course, the landscape in this area has varied considerably.



This second experiment is a Laser Reflector (Photo 24).



We have succeeded in reflecting laser beams from this; it consists of an array of hundreds of corner reflectors. You can see that another experiment, the Solar Wind Experiment (Photo 25), was deployed quite early in flight and was already collapsed. Just one of the last things before I entered LM again. In this picture you can see how I enter the core into the surface (Photo 26). We collected two different core samples. It was quite amazing - the resistance that we encountered in this subsurface environment, and at the same time you see that it did not support the core very well when I drove it to the surface.



ARMSTRONG:

This is a double photograph near (Photo 27). In fact, it is a stereo image of fine material on the moon. It is taken from a depth of about one to two inches from the surface and shows a shiny coating on some blocks there. It looks like molten glass, and analyzing the reason for this feature is extremely interesting for the scientific community.



The second shot taken by this science camera shows the nature of the lumps of lunar surface material (photo 28), and this photo shows the 80-foot crater that you previously observed in the film during the final descent phase (photo 29). We really hoped that this crater would be deep enough to show the lunar root formation. Its depth was about 15 or 20 feet, and although there are stones at the bottom, there are no signs or images of lunar rock on the inner walls.



OLDRIN:

We left a few items on the lunar surface. I am sure you know about them. One of them was a disc with 73 messages from world nations. There was an emblem of Apollo 1 and various medals from astronauts. We also decided, as a team, to place the symbol that represented our emblem; that is, an American eagle carrying an olive branch to the surface of the moon. We thought it was appropriate to leave this copy of the olive branch before we leave the moon.



ARMSTRONG:

After returning to LM, we could see the result of our activity on the surface (Photo 30) You will notice that in the area where most of the walks took place, the surface looks much darker. However, on the left side of this picture, where it is not so dark, there were also a lot of walks. This indicates that the footprints probably just increase your ability to notice the effects of strange lighting, which Buzz spoke of earlier, when the lighting under the oncoming sunlight is slightly darker than the lighting under the falling sunlight behind.

OLDRIN:

After EVA, we had a period of sleep, which, in a word, did not go as well as we thought. It turned out that it was quite difficult to warm up. When we pulled the curtains over the windows, we found that the environment in the cabin had cooled significantly, and after about two or three hours it became clear that it was quite difficult for us to sleep. You can see the 16 mm camera installed in the right window (Photo 31), which was installed for surface shooting.

After a period of sleep as we approached the moment of launch, we proceeded to gradually connect the power of the lunar module, which included another check of the alignment of stars. And when Mike passed us in Colombia one turn before the start, we used the radar to track him as he passed. We continued to check.



You see here one of the data books that is installed in front of the dashboard (Photo 32), which was used to record various messages sent to us (by Earth). A whole host of numbers for the various maneuvers that we have been waiting for, which we copied. We recorded them on this kind of data sheet.

ARMSTRONG:

This video shows our last look at the Tranquility Base (Photo 33) before our departure, and the take-off was a great pleasure. Everything went very smoothly. We were very pleased that the engine started. This gave us a superb view of our takeoff trajectory and the Calm Base while we were leaving it, and during the whole climb we could choose landmarks that convinced us that we were on the right path. There were no difficulties with the climb, and we enjoyed this trip, more than we could say.

OLDRIN:

Both guidance systems came together very closely when we were finally put into orbit. I suppose they were about half a mile or seven-tenths of a mile at the apogee of the resulting orbit. Following the alignment check after entering orbit, we began to collect radar data on the relative positions between the two ships (take-off stage LM and Colombia) . The solution for the first sequence of convergence maneuvers was extremely close to the value that the Earth gave us.

An unexpected feature was that many of us were expecting a rather large deviation from the plane (passing through the center of the moon and the orbit of Colombia)perhaps due to some azimuth offset on the surface. We expected somewhere, maybe up to 20 or 30 feet per second, of speed perpendicular to this plane. It turned out that we did not even have to use any special maneuver in the direction of this plane, which would be inserted between two other successive maneuvers. Compared with many launches on simulators, it turned out that it was such an ideal date, which we could only ask for.



ARMSTRONG:

If some fluctuations in this film are noticeable during takeoff, this is a real feature of the aircraft associated with a change in the center of gravity as fuel is consumed, this creates noticeable, five-degree fluctuations throughout the entire takeoff.

COLLINS:

This is the Eagle (Photo 34), or perhaps half the Eagle would be better, since the landing gear and the lower part of the landing stage, of course, remained on the surface. It was a very happy part of the flight for me. At this stage of the game, for the first time I truly felt that we were going to do all this. Although we were far from home, we were much closer to him than the net distance (to Earth) could indicate .

Neil makes initial maneuvers to roll over, and then I do the final docking again. It looks somewhat faster than in real time. The probe is a dark funnel in the upper part of the LM, and the coupling target is under it and to the left in the lighter part of the LM. As Buzz said, the meeting was absolutely beautiful. They came from below as if they were traveling by rail. During the last part of the meeting there were absolutely no problems or any unusual events.



At the top right you can see RCS QUADS, and at the bottom are various antennas and other protrusions. This gives you some idea of ​​the roughness of the lunar landscape (Photo 35).



Of course, the basalt plate on the front side is smoother, but on the whole, the back side of the moon is rather rough. I have a series of slides that I’m not going to dwell on to save time, but I would just like to point out that we did make some number of pictures.

I believe that we probably took a thousand photographs from Colombia, and some of them show very interesting surface features, various types of unusual craters, and some of them pose many mysteries that we hope geologists will eventually be able to answer for us. . This line of craters (photo 36), for example, is difficult to explain; or, at least, it was not possible to understand the meaning of this phrase. Here is the nearest crater from which the white material came out (Photo 37). And this is the image of the solar corona (Photo 38). Neal, would you like to end this?

ARMSTRONG:

During our flight to the moon, we flew through the moon shadow, in fact, the moon eclipsed the sun. We took the opportunity to try to take a few photos of her, but our film was not fast enough to catch this event. However, it still shows the brightest part of the solar corona. It extends to several lunar diameters additionally on each side. They are roughly parallel to this light, but for us, as observers, the striking thing was not the solar corona, but the Moon itself (Photo 39).

Of course, it was dark and unlit by the Sun, but it was illuminated by the Earth, and at this relatively close distance it had an indisputable, three-dimensional effect and was undoubtedly one of the most impressive sights during the flight. When we left the moon after a successful TEI, this was the kind we watched. I think that, at least at this stage of the flight, the colors that you see are pretty close to what the Moon really is when viewed from this distance. We were sorry to see the departure of the moon, but we were certainly glad to see the return of the Earth (Photo 40).



We took a large number of photos on the way there and back, and our watches were set at Houston time. This can be an interesting application. If you looked at this picture and looked at your watch, and your watch showed 7:00 pm, then you would know that in Houston around 7:00 pm, which is about an hour from sunset.

So it would be about one twenty-fourth of the Earth’s circumference from the shadow, which is only about 15 degrees, so at any time, looking at our wrist watches and looking at the Earth, we knew what was under the clouds. To some extent this helped us to distinguish what we were to see. We could see a large number of details on the surface of the Earth, definitely all the continents and islands and details, many of which you may have followed in our radio communications negotiations. But we were interested to find out how well we can observe weather patterns not only on a global scale, which you see here, but also in specific places. Specifically, this image shows the coast of North America, equatorial layers of clouds, which, in our opinion, is probably an intertropical conversion zone, and cirrus clouds over the Antarctic.

This ends the slide show, the lights come on and the astronauts go on to answer reporters' questions.

REPORTER:

How much time do you have left in your backpacks for life support when you returned to board the lunar module?

ARMSTRONG:

I have not seen the post-flight analysis of these numbers. We had about half the available supply of oxygen remaining in the knapsacks, and a slightly smaller percentage of the water that is used for cooling. Of course, especially with our first experience of using this knapsack on the lunar surface, we were interested in maintaining a good reserve in case we had difficulties with closing the hatch or restoring pressure in the lunar module, or some difficulties with returning systems inside the cabin in normal, working condition.

REPORTER:

Colonel Aldrin and Mr. Armstrong, when President Nixon telephoned you to the moon, it looked like you both suddenly stopped doing something, stood there, listened and talked to him. For a moment, it looked like you didn’t quite understand what was going on. Was there ever a time on the moon when one of you was a little enchanted by what was happening?

ARMSTRONG:

About 2.5 hours. (all time stay on the moon)



REPORTER:

I would like to ask Neil Armstrong when he began to think about what he would say when he put his foot on the lunar surface, and how long he thought about it - this statement about a small step for man, a giant leap for humanity?

ARMSTRONG:

Yes, I really thought about that. It was not an improvisation, but it was not planned. It developed during the entire flight, and I decided what these words would be for the time we were on the lunar surface just before leaving the lunar module.

THE REPORTER:

I would like to ask Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and I’m not quite sure how to ask this question. When you first stepped on the moon, were you struck, when you stepped on - that you stepped on a piece of Earth, or your inner feelings were something like that, did you feel yourself standing in the desert, or was it really a different world, or how did you feel at that moment?

OLDRIN:

Well, there was no question in our minds about where we were. Before that, we rotated around the moon for a while. At the same time, we experienced one-sixth G. We were covered to some extent, and we saw this lighting. However, in my case it was a completely alien situation with the frozen nature of the light and dark state, and, of course, at first we set foot on the moon in a dark, shaded area.



ARMSTRONG:

This is a frozen and strange place, but it looked friendly to me and it really turned out to be friendly.

REPORTER:

Some people criticized the space program as an “inappropriate item on the list of national priorities.” I would like to ask any of the astronauts: how do you feel about space exploration, as a relative priority compared to the current needs of our society and the world community as a whole?

ARMSTRONG:

Well, of course, we all recognize that the world is constantly faced with a large variety of problems, and in our opinion all these problems should be solved simultaneously. It is impossible to neglect any of these areas, and we definitely do not believe that our place is to neglect space exploration.

REPORTER:

There were a lot of radio talks during the flight - during a controlled descent - about programmed alarms and so on. I was wondering if you could describe your thoughts on this issue, how did it go and what advice would you give to Apollo 12 crews and subsequent flights about this part of the mission?

OLDRIN:

Well, I think we understand quite well what caused these worries. It was the fact that the computer was in the process of solving the landing problem, and at the same time, we had the proximity radar turned on, and this added an extra load to the computer. Now I do not think that people on earth or we ourselves expected this to happen.

This was not a serious software alarm. She simply informed us that for a short moment the computer had reached the point of software overflow or getting too many tasks for it. The computer continuously goes through the waiting list of tasks - one point after another. This list was starting to fill up and a program alarm occurred. Unfortunately, this happened when we did not want to deal with these particular problems, but wanted to be able to look out the window in order to determine the features (of the terrain) as they appear, so that we can accurately aim. And just there, inside the landing ellipse, the computer distracted us.

The landing ellipse is a computational area on the surface, having the shape of an ellipse, inside which the lunar module must sit.

ARMSTRONG:

At that moment, there was a “fire” conversation with the computer, but we really should pay tribute to the control center in this case. These people really got out, helped us and said “continue.” That was exactly what we wanted to hear.

REPORTER:

Gentlemen, you are going to make several tours. I wonder what your feelings are? Is this perhaps the hardest part of the mission, or are you looking forward to it?

ARMSTRONG:

This is definitely the part with which we are least willing to cope.

REPORTER:

What do you consider the most important advice and recommendation that you give to the Apollo 12 crew before they go to the moon in November, gentlemen?

ARMSTRONG:

I did not hear ... the first recommendations for the 12th in what?

The question was asked with a strong foreign accent, so Armstrong did not immediately understand and the reporter had to repeat

ARMSTRONG:

I think we can say that in general we will not change the plan we used or the plan they intend to use. They know that there are a large number of individual parts that, in our opinion, can be improved, and in the last couple of weeks we have had the opportunity to discuss these details with crew members and various people from the entire program (Apollo) . In general, I would say that we will not recommend any major changes in their flight plan.

THE REPORTER:

Would you recommend any changes in the procedures for walking on the moon and the research procedure, and did your costumes be mobile enough due to these changes, or would you recommend additional mobility functions for them to work on the moon?

OLDRIN:

Well, you can get used to the typical mobility that your suit gives you, and, of course, we would always like to have more dexterity with the movement of hands and fingers. These things are studied of course. The Apollo 12 mission will have two different EVA periods: one at the beginning of the mission, then a sleep period, and then another EVA after that. We generally looked at their plans and talked with them about the duration. We talked to them about the brief period at the beginning of their EVA to familiarize themselves with EVA and one-sixth Wednesday. I do not think we have any specific recommendations on how they should change their mission. This is a continuous development of EVA capabilities and the scientific research they undertake during this flight.

THE REPORTER:

I would like to ask Colonel Aldrin if he will expand a little his earlier comments on the need to foresee where you are going to go three or four steps forward, compared to one or two steps on Earth. Did you mean to avoid craters or deep holes or what?

OLDRIN:

Well, I meant the inertia that the body has when driving at a speed of five to six miles per hour, which seemed to us quite comfortable. Because of the reduced gravity, your foot does not descend so often, so you must anticipate and control your body movements, and since your foot is not on the surface for a long period of time with each step, you cannot make significant changes in an application of your strength that would allow you to slow down. Thus, in general, we found that we should have foreseen three or four steps forward, and not, perhaps, one or two, which you do on the surface of the Earth.

THE REPORTER:

Now you are national heroes, and you had a couple of weeks in the LRL to think about it. What are your first feelings about being a hero? Do you think this will change your life, and do you think that perhaps you will have another chance to go to the moon or are you going to be too busy being heroes?

ARMSTRONG:

Probably, in order to get an answer to this question, we may have to spend as much time as preparing for the Apollo 11. At the Lunar Reception Lab (LRL)we had very little time for meditation. As it turned out, all this period of time we were very busy with the same kind of things that the crews of past flights did after their flights. Graphs of debriefing and pilot reporting, as well as summarizing all the facts for use by all people who will include this in future flights.

REPORTER:

I was struck by films and photos by the difference in the very hostile appearance of the moon, when you rotate around it or at some distance from it, and in warmer colors and relatively, apparently, more friendly appearance, when you are on the surface. I would like to ask Colonel Collins if he gets the same impression from the photographs, and the two of you who were on the moon, what impression do you have in these areas?

COLLINS:

The moon changes character when the angle of sunlight falling on its surface changes. At very low angles of the Sun, close to the terminator at dawn or dusk, it has the harsh, repulsive features that you see in many photographs. On the other hand, when the sun is closer to the zenith, at noon the moon becomes more brown in color. It becomes almost a pink place — a fairly friendly place, so from dawn to noon you can run through the twilight through the whole gamut. At first, it is very repulsive, it becomes friendly, and then it becomes repulsive again when the sun disappears.

THE REPORTER:

Neil, did you have a feeling that you had little fuel when landing? At this point were you worried about the low fuel supply? And the second part of this, I suppose, is for Buzz. Based on your experience, how do you think how difficult will accurate, accurate landing on the surface of the moon be in future flights?

ARMSTRONG:

Yes, we were worried about the decrease in fuel capacity. We expanded the landing distance to avoid the field of boulders and craters. We used a significant percentage of our fuel reserves, and were pretty close to the limit.

REPORTER:

What changes will be based on your experience?

OLDRIN:

Well, I think that a very precise definition of the orbit on which the apparatus is located is required before it starts a controlled descent. This requires special care in ensuring ground tracking, because the entire descent is based on the knowledge that the earth has and places in the on-board computer the exact coordinates of the place where the spacecraft is located. And it begins a few turns earlier, and then moves forward as the computer tracks the ship’s position. Therefore, during sequences such as uncoupling, we must be extremely careful not to distort this knowledge of exactly where it is located, because this then causes the computer to lead the lunar module to a different location than where as everyone thought, we arrive.

This is what defines the error ellipse where we could probably land, aiming at the center. Now the ability to be able to control where you are, requires that you identify features (terrain) and, of course, our landing site was chosen so that it contained as few significant features as possible to give us a smoother surface. In any area like this, there are always certain distinguishing features that you can highlight — certain crater patterns — to the extent that you can use them.

If the crew sees that it is moving not exactly at the planned point, then it can force the computer to move to a slightly different place. Now this can occur in an area ranging in size from 5 to 6 thousand feet. Then, as Neil took control of our ship to increase the distance and go beyond the large crater - West Crater, it may be necessary again if identification is carried out in the vicinity of 3, 4 or 5 hundred feet (from the target point) to be able to Maneuver these last few seconds around 1000 or 2000 feet to perform an accurate landing.

Thus, much depends on the early trajectory, the possibility then to reassign (the landing site) and the final, manual control.

THE REPORTER:

For Mr. Armstrong and more about landing. Did you consider the possibility of interruption at any time, when you received alarms, and so on?

ARMSTRONG:

Well, I think - in simulations we have a large number of failures, and we are usually “spring-loaded” into the interruption position, but in this case, in real flight, we were “spring-loaded” into the landing position. We certainly were going to continue to descend until we could safely do it and not longer than software-based computer alarms manifest themselves. You understand that you may have an interruption situation with which you need to do something. But our procedure at the preparation stage was always to try to continue as long as possible, so that we were able to get around this type of problem.

OLDRIN:

During this entire period of time, the computer continued to issue control commands and control the device as it was programmed. The only thing that was missing during this time period is that we did not have some of the mappings on the computer keyboard, and we had to make several entries at this time to clear this area.

Buzz meant a computer display interfaced with a keyboard. Its size was not enough to display all the necessary data, so the astronauts took notes on paper.

THE REPORTER:

Does the crew want to consider again a mission to the moon of this kind, or do you prefer some other mission? and secondly, I think that this question was asked, but I did not receive a complete answer. How do you propose to restore some normality in your personal life in the coming years?

OLDRIN:

I would like to know the answer to the last part of your question.

ARMSTRONG:

It is up to you. But I think that landings of this type, which are currently being considered for the next few flights, correspond to the conclusions we reached as a result of our work, both during the landing and on the surface. I certainly hope that we are able to explore the different types of landing sites that they hope to complete.

THE REPORTER:

I have two short questions that I would like to ask, if I may. When you performed this incredible moon walk, did you find that the surface was equally hard everywhere or were there harder and softer spots that you could detect? And, secondly, when you looked at the sky, could you actually see the stars in the solar corona, despite the bright light?

OLDRIN:

The first part of your question. Somewhere in flat areas, the surface did vary in thickness of penetration. The footprint penetrated half an inch or a quarter of an inch and gave a very firm answer. In other areas near the edges of these craters, we could find that the foot would have sunk perhaps 2, 3, or 4 inches, and on the slope, of course, the various edges of the track could rise to 6 or 7 inches. And the compression of this material tends to produce a slight lateral movement, as it is compacted on the material located under it. Therefore, we think that you can not always say, looking at the terrain, what will be the exact resistance when your foot sinks into the place of solid contact. Therefore, you need to be very careful when moving on this rough terrain.

ARMSTRONG:

We could never see with our eyes the stars from the lunar surface or on the day side of the moon without looking through the optics. I do not remember which stars we could see in that period of time when we were photographing the solar corona.

COLLINS:

I don't remember seeing anything.

Thus, the crew of Apollo 11 clearly and unambiguously reported that he had not seen the stars on the moon. Which is completely understandable from a physical and physiological point of view. There are no grounds for conspiracy.



REPORTER:

Neil, you said that you were a little worried about what you said about the broken finger at the point of landing, because the surface was hidden by dust. Do you see any way around this problem for future moon landings?

ARMSTRONG:

I think that the modeling that we currently have to ensure that the pilot understands the moon landing problem (that is, the simulator and various training tools and simulators for landing on the moon that we have) will do this job quite well. In addition, I think that this is simply a matter of pilot experience.

THE REPORTER:

This is for Neil Armstrong. Earlier in your presentation you said that Maskelin W (the crater) appeared about three seconds later, prompting you that the landing could be quite long. That was before you got to the High Gates, so it had nothing to do with maneuvering to find a suitable place to land. I wonder what would cause this delay in three seconds. Was it somehow related to the time when you started the controlled descent or how?

The High Gate, referred to by the reporter (High Gate), is a point at an altitude of about 9,000 feet, at which the trajectory of the lunar module changed its character.

ARMSTRONG:

The time when we began a controlled descent was a scheduled time, but the question is where you are above the surface of the moon during ignition and where this point is located is largely determined by the long chain of previous events: tracking (for the lunar module) that occurred a few turns earlier, flight maneuvers that were carried out when checking speed control systems, disconnection and the ability to accurately withstand orbit without a single removal very far from the place where, according to the computer, you must yt at this time. And, of course, small variations in maneuvers, such as ignition, which I performed on the far side of the moon, which were not properly measured by the guidance system.

Each of these things will accumulate into an effect that is an error — a position error — when ignited, and there is no way to compensate for this error until you reach the last phase of this error.

REPORTER:

Based on your own experience in space, do you or any of you feel that a woman will ever have the opportunity to become an astronaut in our space program?

ARMSTRONG:

Damn it, I hope so!



REPORTER:

I would like to come back to what Neil Armstrong said some time ago, that there were so many other things he wanted to do. Be that as it may, you are a significant number of minutes behind schedule. Is it because the schedule for EVA was overloaded, or can we expect that all astronauts, when they first reach the moon, will enjoy and spend so much time on what you find (interesting) ?

ARMSTRONG:

We plead guilty to having fun. As Buzz mentioned earlier, we recommend starting future EVAs from a 15 or 20 minute period to get rid of such things, get used to the surface and what you see, adapt to 1/6 G while maneuvering around, and possibly early on we just included a bit more (tasks) than we were able to do.

THE REPORTER:

Two questions. Where did strange sounds come from, including sirens and whistles during their return to Earth? I believe that the ground control asked for an explanation, saying that it came from a spacecraft. Secondly, I understand that, although the lighting from a small angle did not cause problems when walking, while driving at high speeds, there was a problem with the timely detection of obstacles. As I understand it, this may indicate the need for the use of aircraft, and not rovers for long-distance travel on the surface of the moon. Can you explain it?

ARMSTRONG:

We are again to blame. We sent whistles and bells — we had a small tape recorder, which we used to record our comments during the flight in addition to the music during the hours of solitude. We thought we would share this with people from the Control Center. The angle of the sun was less of a problem for the things you mentioned than the curvature of the moon and local roughness. It seemed to me that it was like swimming in an ocean with 6 or 8 foot rolls and waves. In this state, you can never see very far from where you are. And this was further reinforced by the fact that the lunar curvature is much more pronounced (than Earth's) .

THE REPORTER:

This is for Mr. Armstrong. Did you plan to take a semi-manual control, or was it just your descent to the West Crater that made you do it?

ARMSTRONG:

The series of control system configurations that were used at the final stage were in fact very close to what we expected to use in the normal case, regardless of the landing zone you were in. However, we spent more time in the manual control stage than we had planned to find a suitable landing site.

REPORTER:

Many of us and many other people in many places thought about the significance of this first landing on another body in space. Would each of you want to give us an assessment of what this means for all of us?

ARMSTRONG:

You do not want to try?(to Collins)

COLLINS:

After you.



OLDRIN:

Well, I believe that what this country intended to do was something that had to be done sooner or later, whether we set a specific goal or not. I believe that from the first space flights we have demonstrated the potential for performing such missions. And again it was a matter of time when it would be achieved. I think that the relative ease with which we were able to accomplish our mission, which, of course, appeared after a very efficient and logical sequence of flights.

I think it demonstrated that we were definitely on the right track when we made a commitment to go to the moon. I think this means that many other problems may be solved in the same way, by committing themselves to solving them in the long run. I think that we have undertaken the mission to the moon on time. At this stage, it may be time to think about many other missions that could be completed.

COLLINS:

For me, there are intimate and distant aspects of this. In the short term, I think, for our country, this is a technical triumph to say what it was going to do several years ago, and then, damn it, do it exactly as we said we are going to do ... it’s not just, perhaps, purely technical, but also the triumph of the nation’s overall determination, will, economy, attention to detail, as well as thousands and one other factors that led to this. This is a short-term perspective.

In the long run, I think that we first discovered that a person has the flexibility or ability to either walk on this planet, or on some other planet, be it the Moon or Mars, or I do not know where. And I am poorly prepared to assess what this may lead us to.

ARMSTRONG:

I just see it as a start. Not only this flight, but also this program, which really became a very short piece of human history, a moment in history. The whole program is the beginning of a new era.

REPORTER:

Neil, how much fuel do you have left when you shut down?

ARMSTRONG:

My own tools would have shown less than 30 seconds, I think about 15 or 20 seconds. The analysis here on earth shows something more than that, probably more than 30 seconds or 45. It sounds like a short time, but in fact it is quite a lot.

THE REPORTER:

This is for Colonel Collins. You used a rather colorful expression when it seemed that there was some problem with the docking. Could you tell us exactly what was happening at that time? You were docked, and then ...

COLLINS:

Do you mean docking in the lunar orbit, when, after the two ships touched, there was a yaw oscillation? This wobble, perhaps 15 degrees during a jerk with a period of one or two seconds, was not normal. None of us expected this. This was not a serious problem. It was all over in an extra six or eight seconds.

The sequence of events is that the two ships are first held together by three locking locks, and then the gas cylinder, when ignited, triggers a pull-in cycle that allows the two to connect more tightly with 12 strong locks arranged in a circle on the periphery of the tunnel. It takes six or eight seconds for this cycle, between initial contact and retraction.

And it was during this period of time that I had a yaw fluctuation, or we had it. Neal and I both took manual corrective actions to bring the two ships back to a straight line. And while this was happening, the retract cycle was successfully carried out. The latches worked, and the problem was solved.

THE REPORTER:

Two questions. Colonel Aldrin, photographs taken on the surface, your full portrait, show the clear spots of the lunar soil on your lap. Did you fall on the surface or kneel? And then for Mr. Armstrong: in the last few minutes before landing, when program alarms were activated and so on, would you go ahead and land if you didn’t have ground support?

OLDRIN:

As far as I remember, at no point in time did my knees touch the surface. We did not feel that we should not do this. We felt that it would be quite natural to do to lift objects from the surface, but at the same time we felt that we didn’t want to do this unless it was absolutely necessary. We discovered quite early in the EVA course that lunar material tends to adhere strongly to any piece of clothing. He will fall on gloves and stay there. When you strike something with your foot or hand, you will shake off the outer surface of this material, but significant stains will remain. I do not know how it fell to his knees.

ARMSTRONG:

None of us fell. We would continue landing until the trajectory seemed safe. And landing is possible in these conditions, although with much less certainty than when you have information from the ground, and the computer is available to you in normal mode.

REPORTER:

For Mr. Armstrong and Colonel Aldrin. Could you tell us a little more about your feelings, your reactions, your emotions over the last few hundred feet of controlled descent? Especially when you discovered that you were heading for a crater full of boulders, and you had to change the landing site.

ARMSTRONG:

Well, first of all, I would say that I expected that we may have to make some local adjustments in order to find a suitable landing site. I thought it was very unlikely that we would be so lucky to descend into a very smooth area, and we planned to do this (adjustment). As it turned out, of course, we did significantly more maneuvering near the surface than we planned to do. And the final phase was just overflowing with my eyes, looking out the window, and Buzz looked at the computer and the information in the booth and passed it on to me. It was a full time job.

OLDRIN:

My role in the last three hundred, two hundred feet is to convey as much information as possible, available inside the cabin, in the form of height, vertical speed and speed of movement forward or sideways. And my role was to convey this information to Neela so that he could devote most of his attention to observation. What I was able to see in terms of these speeds and heights turned out to be very similar to how we performed the last two hundred and one hundred feet of landing in many of our simulations.

At this press conference is over.