Sun
Jul 19 2009
08:13 am
Giant leap for mankind
By: R. Neal


Photo courtesy of NASA

Forty years ago today, the Apollo 11 Lunar Module entered lunar orbit at 12:27:52 PM (Eastern) on July 19, 1969. It landed on the Moon at 3:17:43 PM on July 20, 1969. At 9:56:15 PM on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong set foot on the surface of the Moon. He was followed by Buzz Aldrin at 10:15:15 PM, as command module pilot Michael Collins orbited the Moon.

Here's the NASA Apollo 11 40th Anniversary page.

AUDIO: Houston, ah, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

In the above photo (cropped), Buzz Aldrin is completing deployment of a solar powered seismometer package. The photo was taken by Neil Armstrong using a modified 70mm Hasselblad 500EL camera with a Zeiss Biogon f-5.6/60mm lens and Ektachrome ASA 160 film. The camera was left on the Moon due to liftoff weight considerations. There are a total of 13 Hasselblad cameras left behind on the lunar surface.

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R. Neal's picture

View of the Earthrise from

Submitted by R. Neal on Sun, 2009/07/19 - 10:00am.

View of the Earthrise from the Command Module Columbia. (Cropped.) This picture was taken shortly after Earthrise as Columbia was passing over Mare Smythii. In looking at Earth, Australia is at the left, just above the lunar horizon. 20 July 1969. Photo courtesy of NASA.

redmondkr's picture

It's hard to believe it's

Submitted by redmondkr on Sun, 2009/07/19 - 10:50am.

It's hard to believe it's been forty years. I remember I almost cried over those Hasselblads being left behind.

I was working as an Instrument Mechanic at the old K-25 plant the evening of the landing. My boss got a call from the Plant Shift Superintendent at the first of the shift telling him that my services were required in the Central Control Room for the entire shift. I was to have no other assignment. I couldn't believe it. What was going on?

When I arrived at his office he greeted me with tea and cookies and showed me my 'job'. They planned to use the plant's Sony 1/2 inch reel-to-reel VTR to record coverage of the moon landing. I was to be there for 'technical support'. It was the first video tape recorder I had ever touched.

The machine had only recently been returned (probably from Bondurant Brothers in Knoxville) where it had been sent for head replacement. Somebody had used a ballpoint pen to assist in threading the tape around the spinning head drum, destroying the video heads.

I was there to change reels and re-thread as needed. Each seven-inch reel recorded one hour of black and white video and they wanted complete coverage. I have often wondered what happened to those tapes.

It was a wonderful night.


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R. Neal's picture

Great story. Maybe the tapes

Submitted by R. Neal on Sun, 2009/07/19 - 11:25am.

Great story. Maybe the tapes found their way here:

(link...)

It seems NASA erased and reused the originals somewhere along the way, and scrambled to find copies from other sources.

Here they are restored:

(link...)

bizgrrl's picture

I love these giant leaps for

Submitted by bizgrrl on Sun, 2009/07/19 - 12:19pm.

I love these giant leaps for mankind. Space travel is fascinating. Living in Florida really brought it close. We were watching a movie at the drive-in one time and a rocket took off from Canaveral behind the screen, satellite cargo or something. I remember that but not the movie we were watching.

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