OUR ‘GIANT LEAP’

IN 1961, then United States president John F. Kennedy set the nation a mission. That mission was to perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth “before this decade is out”.

And so it came to pass. On July 16, 1969, about a million people lined the beaches and roads around the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

There were hippies with long hair, and squares.

Men in suits and uniforms, wellcoiffured women in big sunglasses. They were all there to see the Saturn V rocket take off with commander Neil Armstrong, command module pilot Michael Collins and lunar module pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on board.

The engines fired on the 110m tall rocket, creating plumes of smoke and a roar. At 9.32am it took off from Earth and 12 minutes later it was in orbit.

(At which point a few wonks got to relax; earlier, NASA engineers had estimated that if it exploded it would create a fireball 420m wide. That would have been a lot of dead hippies).

The rocket dropped two stages, their fuel used up, leaving the Apollo spacecraft to go on – now it was made of the third stage, the command module and the lunar module.

It orbited Earth one-and-a-half times, before the next stage of the rocket propelled it towards the moon.

The astronauts had a few days to explore their modules and equipment. They ate soup, cheese, meat spreads. They had a brief scare that the Russians might beat them.

After three days they got just beyond the moon and fired the Apollo’s engines to get into lunar orbit. On July 20, the final checks were done.

Armstrong and Aldrin climbed into the lunar module, the Eagle. Collins stayed in the command module, Columbia. He would spend the next 20 hours on his own, floating around the moon. The lunar module separated and descended.

It landed in the Sea of Tranquillity – about 6km away from where they’d expected. Things didn’t go as smoothly as they’d hoped; Armstrong had to steer past big rocks and they started running out of time.

The computer started beeping. They landed, though with only 30 seconds of fuel left. Later Armstrong would say the “unknowns were rampant”. But, now, they were down.

Armstrong radioed the famous words: “Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

In the drama of the landing, Houston had been holding its breath. “You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again,” a controller responded.

After a few hours, at 2.56am US time, Armstrong emerged from the module, and spoke the immortal words: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

(There are some who think he forgot the “a”, but he insists it was there.)

And Australia was watching – the Parkes radio telescope and NASA’S antenna at Honeysuckle Creek near Canberra were tuning in, as were Australian television sets.

Armstrong was followed about 20 minutes later by Aldrin, who took communion as he waited his turn.

He had brought bread, wine, a chalice, and the Bible with him.

An estimated 650 million earthlings watched as they raised the American flag, bounced around in slow motion, exploring and collecting moon rocks, took photos and talked to the President. By then JFK had been assassinated and Richard Nixon was on the line. They had a sleep.

Just over 20 hours later, they took off again, the Eagle docking with Columbia, the two reuniting with Collins.

They took with them about 22kg of samples, and left behind medallions with the names of astronauts and cosmonauts who had died, as well as a small disc with goodwill messages from 73 countries. They also had to leave their trash, including their own waste.

The American flag stayed behind, as did a plaque that reads: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”

On July 24, 1969 the three splashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Hawaii at 12.50pm.

They bobbed around in the water for a while before they were picked up by divers from the USS Hornet.

The astronauts were put into biological isolation garments, in case they brought moon flu, and hoisted into a life raft.

Then, they sailed towards land. That was just the beginning of another story. They were quarantined for 21 days in accordance with the Extraterrestrial Exposure Law. But they had better food, films, their own underwear, and even some whiskey.

And Buzz famously filled out an expense claim for $33.31, for the trip.

Once they were cleared, they started a 38-day world tour.