Buzz says crew were guessing on lift-off
FIFTY years after voyaging to the moon, Buzz Aldrin recalls the first moments of the Apollo 11 launch being so smooth that he and his two crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins, were unsure precisely when they left the ground.
He remembers the whiteknuckle descent to the moon’s dusty surface in the four-legged lunar module Eagle, as Mr Armstrong took manual control of the landing craft to pilot it to a safe touchdown, just seconds from running out of fuel.
And as the second human ever to step on the moon – Mr Armstrong was first down the ladder – Mr Aldrin recounts feeling sure-footed in the onesixth gravity of the lunar surface while gazing at the “magnificent desolation” around him.
Mr Aldrin says he and his crewmates were so absorbed in doing their jobs they were oddly disconnected from how momentous the occasion was as it unfolded for hundreds of millions of people on Earth, watching it all on live television.
“I sometimes think the three of us missed ‘the big event’,” Mr Aldrin said during a 50th anniversary gala at the Ronald Reagan Library outside Los Angeles. “While we were out there on the moon, the world was growing closer together, right here.”
It was 50 years ago to the day on Tuesday that Mr Aldrin, Mr Armstrong and Mr Collins were launched into space atop a Saturn 5 rocket from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre.
“We did not know the instant of leaving the ground. We only knew it from the instruments and voice communications which confirmed lift-off,” he recalled. “We sort of looked at each other and thought, ‘We must be on our way’.”
After reaching lunar orbit, leaving Mr Collins behind as pilot of the command module, Mr Armstrong and Mr Aldrin descended to the moon’s surface in the Eagle.