Six and a half hours after landing on the Lunar surface on July 20th, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to step onto another celestial body. A goal set by President Kennedy back in 1961, and a dream that many cultures in humanity had had for centuries in the past had been achieved, 50 years ago to the time I write this, and I, much like the landing many hours ago, watched it in real time, in context, via apolloinrealtime.org.
Compared to the landing, this event was much more relaxed. For as incredible an occurrence as it all was, it seems to those involved almost like a “normal day at the office” as some would say.
I came in about an hour before the EVA began, just as Neil and Buzz were getting their hoses connected for their Personal Life Support System backpacks. Soon after depressurization of the LM began and then, Neil was out.
It was so by the book as to be a bit crazy to experience in raw form. Sure, they had trained for this plenty, and were certainly professionals, to say the least, but the almost stoic nature that Neil, Buzz, and Mission Control had during the actual beginnings of the EVA are something else to experience — certainly something I prefer to the over-hyped mess that is most space broadcasts these days, but I digress.
Oh, and yes, the radio traffic is, at times, just as chaotic as during the landing. Not as consistently chaotic, but it has its moments of intensity, to say the least.
Right now we’re a bit under an hour into the EVA, with President Nixon speaking to the Neil and Buzz. It’s another one of those events that’s a point of interest in the mission, yet just happened, as much as everything else did.
Getting back to the rawness of things, it’s also interesting how tense the landing naturally was to how casual the actual moonwalk is — once Neil and later Buzz were out of the LM, they began to joke more as one would expect, and an air of relaxation seemed to take over the mission. Granted there was work to be done — setting up experiments, getting samples of lunar material, taking photos, and just commenting on the experience, explaining it in human terms, as some would say. While the Apollo 11 mission was, in all reality, very rushed on the surface, the crew still took what time they could to take in the reality of the situation.
Human beings were on the surface of the Moon.
Their mission wasn’t over — not by a long shot. Neil and Buzz still needed to, once their time on the surface was done, rendezvous and dock with the Command Module, Columbia. This would have it’s own difficult when a switch in the Lunar Module broke, requiring the cap of a pen to “fix” it, and after this they still had to burn the SPS on the Service Module to begin the 3 day coast back to Earth, but for now, everything was looking good.
There was, of course, a message prepared in a worst-case scenario that the crew could not be returned to Earth, but that, thankfully, was never needed. Apollo 11 would end the following Thursday an incredible success, with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins regarded as hero’s.
I said it before, I’ll say it again — to experience it in real time, 50 years to the instant after it happened; to imagine what I would feel and think were I around 50 years ago to experience it as it actually happened is just incredible.
I’ll continue the night watching the EVA wrap up and reflecting on this moment in history and the passage of time. It’s amazing how quickly time passes, both as far as history goes, and with regard to this mission. You think of these things as isolated events, but they aren’t really that at all — nothing in life is, of course. It’s one thing after another, even for something as incredible as walking on the Moon.
If you haven’t done so, I still suggest you take some time to visit the Apollo in Real Time site and maybe check out the major events — the landing and the EVA, and experience them for yourself. Maybe.
Thank you for reading if you’ve made it this far. I wanted to take some time to capture my most honest thoughts on all of this as it was happening — raw reactions, if you will, to history from half a century ago but that I’m enjoying in real time, almost as if it was the Summer of 1969 all over again. The articles may be messes but that’s okay — they aren’t meant to be anything more than what they are, me capturing my thoughts on the events.
Again, thank you for reading.