A space odyssey shared by all
Fifty years ago, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin set foot on another world. On Earth, people looked to the sky or tuned in transistor radios, eager to be part of the historic Moon mission. Lee Kenny looks back at how the news landed in N
In New Zealand, the announcement that the ‘‘Eagle has landed’’ was made on the morning of Monday, July 21. The lunar module’s hatch opened six hours later, at 2.30pm (NZ time).
Euan Mason, president of the Canterbury Astronomical Society, was a 15-year-old Kiwi living in Montclair, New Jersey – Buzz Aldrin’s hometown – when the Saturn V rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral.
‘‘It was very exciting. I remember hunkering down in front of a black-and-white TV and hearing the communication between the astronauts and the control room in Houston,’’ he recalls. ‘‘There was a lot of talking heads and discussion.
‘‘Then we heard about the touchdown and they showed the celebrations in the control room and . . . then we got these grainy images and I remember being so disappointed they weren’t sharper. But we could still see the astronauts and the first step on the Moon.’’
Mt John Observatory astronomer Alan Gilmore says he remembers hearing about the landing just before he went to work that day.
‘‘I took my transistor radio to work and listened to the relay through the afternoon. There was a long interval while Armstrong and Aldrin struggled into their spacesuits.
‘‘According to my diary, Armstrong stepped on to the Moon at 2.57pm. I can’t exactly recall hearing of Armstrong’s descent of the ladder or his famous words, but I must have.’’
He explains the footage had to be flown from Australia before it could be screened on New Zealand television. ‘‘The TV from the Moon was picked up by the Parks radio telescope, or similar, in Australia. An RNZAF Canberra bomber flew the film to New Zealand for broadcast on the evening TV news.
‘‘There wasn’t much to see. Just a blurry view from a camera placed on the underside of the lander with the ladder in view and lots of harsh shadows.
‘‘We saw a silhouette of Armstrong descending the ladder. Given that it was direct from the Moon we thought it was amazing at the time.’’
While most people were glued to their television sets, Ann Charlotte was being rushed to Christchurch Women’s Hospital to give birth to her daughter Rachel.
Now aged 77, she recalls the air of excitement as doctors, nurses and midwives carried portable radios to receive the latest updates. ‘‘There was so much excitement because it was such a unique thing to be happening. All of the nurses and midwives were waiting for the moment it landed.
‘‘ With all the excitement of giving birth and what was happening in space, I hardly slept at all that night. In those days babies were taken away for a few hours. I gave birth to her very quickly, then I was very interested in what was happening on the Moon.
‘‘I’ll always associate Rachel with the Moon landing. I said to her, Armstrong and Co landed on the Moon and you landed in my arms.’’
New Zealand’s evening papers
reported the news on July 21, 1969. In Wellington, The Evening
Post said ‘‘a dream of ages has come true’’, The Nelson Evening
Mail told of how ‘‘astronauts report from Tranquility Base’’ and The Auckland Star reported: ‘‘Eagle skips over rocky crater in perfect landing’’.
The next morning’s papers carried further coverage, with
The Press devoting its entire front page to the landing, while
The Timaru Herald used the headline: ‘‘Triumph on the Moon with Every Step’’. The Dominion in Wellington featured a full page image of the moonwalk, calling it ‘‘the great saga’’.
In the days that followed, newspapers carried a number of space-themed advertisements. New Zealand Railways congratulated the three Apollo astronauts and called the mission a ‘‘magnificent breakthrough for mankind’’.
Dairy chain Four Square commissioned two Apolloinspired ads. The first said savings were ‘‘not once in a Blue Moon’’ and featured tins of Wattie’s chicken soup for 21c and bars of Lux soap for 11c.
The second showed the famous Four Square Man in an Apollo-style spacesuit, standing on the Moon. The character, known as Cheeky Charlie, has appeared in ads since the 1950s.
SuperValue took out a fullpage advert to announce its ‘‘down to Earth prices’’, with savings on shampoo, Milo and marmalade, while Haines Motors said ‘‘the sky’s the limit’’ and wished ‘‘those valiant men’’ success in man’s greatest adventure. ‘‘This time the Moon, next time Mars,’’ it said optimistically.
Specialty items went on release to coincide with the Apollo 11 mission. Redferns, in Christchurch, offered a planisphere, a 27-inch Moon map and a
12-inch diameter lunar globe.
According to the advertisement, the ‘‘accurate’’ model could be used for astronomy and decoration and featured the mountains and ranges found on the Moon’s surface.
Another SuperValue ad promised shoppers a free souvenir of the ‘‘Moon flight’’.
‘‘These envelopes will become a valued memento for the future,’’ the advertisement proclaimed. ‘‘Due to limited printing, distribution will be confined to one free envelope to each of the first thousand shoppers.’’
An advert for International Harvester Company of NZ told how its ‘‘reliability contributes to Moon exploration’’.
IH-Solar, a division of the company, manufactured components for Nasa’s rocket Saturn V during the Apollo mission and the firm’s website explains how it ‘‘crafted exotic metal beryllium cases for the GE 26 System for Nuclear Auxiliary Power 70W electric generators. Five of these cases were placed on the moon by Apollo 12.’’
In the days that followed the Moon landing, a provocative Smirnoff ad asked readers if they’d ever tried the famous drink. Featuring a female cosmonaut holding a vodka-onthe-rocks, the image was published at the height of the Cold War.
Ten years before the Apollo 11 mission, the Soviet Union’s Luna-2 probe became the first manmade object to land on the Moon in September 1959. Three days before Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael Collins headed into space, Luna-15 had already been launched to bring back lunar soil. But contact was lost with the unmanned probe and it is believed it crashed into a mountain on the Moon’s surface.
With Apollo 11, America had won the Space Race and behind the sultry smile and the stylish spacesuit, the Smirnoff ad could have been a knowing nod to the geopolitics of the day. Although the primary objective of Apollo 11 was to put men on the lunar surface and propel the US ahead of the USSR in the Space Race, Mason says the mission also improved our understanding of how the Moon was formed.
‘‘They found rocks, that were returned from the Moon, that were identical in composition to crust rocks. One theory was the Moon had been formed elsewhere in the Solar System. The other one was it was a result of a collision with the Earth and because the material was so exactly like the Earth’s crust it lent a lot of weight to that second theory.
‘‘At the time, from the Americans’ point of view it was a case of beating the Russians . . . but I think many people regarded it as a human achievement.’’
The successful touchdown in the Sea of Tranquility was calculated using technology with less computing power than a modern cellphone.
But as well as being a huge scientific achievement, Apollo 11 inspired the next generation of engineers, physicists and mathematicians, many of whom are working on cutting-edge space projects today.
‘‘Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Apollo programme was pivotal in motivating me to work in space science,’’ says Dr Duncan Steel, a space scientist at Xerra Earth Observation Institute, who was 13 at the time. ‘‘Over the past 35 years I have spent much time as a Visiting Research Scientist at Nasa-Ames Research Centre in Silicon Valley.
‘‘Mostly, I have worked there on comets, planning missions to Mars, Europa and Enceladus, the analysis of meteoroids and the problem of orbiting space debris.
‘‘I have worked also for the European Space Agency, based in Sweden, on the Giotto mission to Comet Halley and also the analysis of meteoroid streams derived from asteroids and comets.’’
Tim Atkins, Nasa senior engineer and University of Canterbury Erskine Fellow 2019, also recalls his excitement as a 9-year-old boy watching the Apollo mission.
‘‘This event fuelled the flames of my interest in maths and science, leading to an enjoyable and rewarding career in engineering,’’ he says. ‘‘The Lunar Lander precariously navigated above the Moon,
gently landed, with only a few seconds of fuel to spare.’’
And UC Associate Professor Allan Scott says: ‘‘The first publications I remember in my parents’ home were of the Moon landing. That interest has led to developing a new type of concrete based on a magnesium binder system.
‘‘Once we can simulate Martian soil we can turn it into both a construction material and usable soil where – with water and oxygen – we can grow bacteria and ultimately plants on the Moon or Mars.’’
Mason says he and other volunteers at the Canterbury Astronomical Society run weekly star-gazing nights to share their love of space with the public.
‘‘We greatly enjoy that. Especially children, you see the lightbulb switch on. To see the rings of Saturn for the first time, it really captures their interest.’’
Ten lunar landings were planned as part of Apollo but that was reduced to six, with Apollo 17 being the last manned mission to the moon in 1972.
‘‘By that time the public had kind of lost interest,’’ Mason explains. ‘‘I remember looking at some of the subsequent lunar walks and being really pleased to be able to see them in more detail. But for the wider public, by the time Apollo 17 went up, they didn’t even make the news.
‘‘The cost was enormous, the risk was enormous, the mission was already accomplished. The technology was a dead-end for further exploration. I think it was probably the right decision not to send the rest of the missions up there.’’
It has been almost five decades since man last walked on the Moon but the legacy of Apollo 11 lives on. The Space Race has long since ended and 236 astronauts from 18 countries have lived aboard the International Space Station.
Private companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic plan to offer commercial space flights, while New Zealand’s Rocket Lab routinely sends satellites into orbit.
‘‘No humans have walked on the Moon since the Apollo programme. Now everyone wants to go there,’’ says University of Canterbury Emeritus Professor of astronomy John Hearnshaw. ‘‘The Americans, Chinese, Indians, Israelis, Europeans and Russians. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins certainly started something 50 years ago.
‘‘No doubt in 50 years’ time going there will seem like a fairly routine trip . . . just as we fly around the world today.’’
Looking back Mason adds: ‘‘It was a major achievement. We only just got there, with the lifesupport systems and the computers, that were so primitive, and the horrendous cost.
‘‘It was something people had anticipated for centuries, there had been books written about it in the past, and to actually live through the event was something quite special . . . I think it changed our view of our own world, to see it from a distance like that.
‘‘I think people came to realise just how far away we are from everything else, how thin our atmosphere is, and it’s really quite remarkable we exist.’’
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