ARMSTRONG’S FIRST STEPS, REPORTED LIVE
It was 10.56pm at mission control in Houston, United States on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the moon. AFP despatched several journalists to cover the event, which was broadcast live from the moon’s Sea of Tranquility to NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Here’s taking a look at a blow-byblow account from historic day.
PARIS: It was 10.56pm at mission control in Houston, US on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the moon. AFP sent journalists to cover the event, broadcast live from the moon’s Sea of Tranquility. Here are some excerpts from the day’s reportage:
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
7.42pm (Houston time): The astronauts start preparations for the excursion. They put on double-visor helmets, boots, reinforced gloves and backpack-like life support gear, also checking that the pressure, radio communication and oxygen systems are working.
7.50pm: NASA announces the preparations will take two hours. Armstrong will not exit before 10.00pm.
9.55pm: They depressurise the spacecraft, at the same time pressurising their spacesuits.
10pm: The lunar module empties.
10.15pm: Their spacesuits are fully pressurised.
10.20pm: Everything is going smoothly. The lunar module remains depressurised. The astronauts now rely entirely on their life support systems.
10.56pm: Armstrong puts his left foot on the surface of the moon and declares: “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.”
Before fully putting his foot down, the commander had carefully felt out the surface with his boot to check its solidity.
“I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles,” he says, surprised, taking his first steps... Armstrong uses a bag on a telescopic stick that he takes from a pocket to scoop up the soil.
11.15pm: Armstrong has already spent 19 minutes alone on the moon, 19 minutes during which, in the indefinable solitude of the dead planet, he has demonstrated perfect composure. At that moment, (Buzz) Aldrin makes a bounding appearance... The two men, in an act of patriotism, plant the US flag into the moon. They then read aloud from a plaque, fixed to the spacecraft’s front landing gear, that is inscribed: “Here Men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind.”