MAN WALKS ON THE MOON
HIS FIRST WORDS: ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’
Man took his first steps on the surface of the Moon early today as a breathless world watched the climax of a staggering feat of human and scientific endeavour.
neil armstrong, the only civilian in the apollo 11 crew of three, climbed from the landing craft Eagle and walked down the nine steps of its ladder to lead humanity’s conquest of the planets.
as Edwin ‘Buzz’ aldrin filmed him and TV pictures flashed round the world, armstrong’s first words from the Moon’s surface were: ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’
It was 3.56am BST when, after opening Eagle’s hatch and clambering on to its porch, armstrong gingerly put a left foot on the Moon.
On Earth, millions of TV viewers watched tensely as the shadowy figure of the 38-year- old in his cumbersome spacesuit stepped away from the Eagle to begin his lunar tasks.
His voice shaking slightly with emotion, he described the surface as being made of fine sandy particles.
‘I can pick it up loosely with my toe,’ he said to mission control in Houston and an awestruck audience back home. ‘It’s in fine layers. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe one eighth of an inch. I can see the footprints of my boots.’
Like two children playing on the beach for the first time, armstrong and aldrin bounced up and down and armstrong said: ‘It’s fun . . . You’ve got to be careful you lean in the direction you want to go, otherwise you seem inebriated.’
aldrin reported the rocks were rather slippery, with a powdery surface, and the men tended to slide over them easily. He had found a purple rock.
He added: ‘It’s quite dark here in the shadow and quite hard for me to see where I’m stepping.’
Then he picked his way over the pitted, boulder-strewn surface to collect rock and dust samples to take to Earth.
TALKED DOWN
armstrong put his samples in the pocket of his left trouser leg and said: ‘It is a very soft surface. It appears to be very cohesive material. I’m trying to get a rock in here. It is very pretty.’
aldrin joined armstrong on the Moon at 4.16am. armstrong talked him down as he emerged backwards from the craft. aldrin looked around and said: ‘Beautiful view.’ armstrong exclaimed: ‘Isn’t that