Photo Gallery | It was so half a century ago, the "great leap of humanity" towards the Moon

The first four days of Apollo trip 11 They had pbaded as during the training, but when there was barely 20 minutes before the moon's landing on July 20, 1969, the problems arrived. Radio communications with the Houston control room were briefly interrupted. And on the way down, the alarms rang in the Lunar Module (LEM) piloted by Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Mission Commander Neil Armstrong.

Two hours earlier, the LEM had been separated from the main vehicle, the control module, where remains the third member of the crew of Apollo 11, Michael Collins. "Give us an explanation about the alarm in the 1202 program," Armstrong asked. Houston has asked his astronauts to ignore this signal. The on-board computer is saturated but the systems work, explained the command of the mission.

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The lunar craters started running at full speed before the module. Too fast, according to the commander, who understood that the module was going to be several kilometers away from the planned landing zone. Armstrong then took manual control of the ship, looked for a new area looking through the module window, but all seemed "very rocky". Alldrin began reading computer information: vertical speed and altitude: "250 feet … 220 feet …"

"It will be right after the crater," said Armstrong as the fuel level dropped rapidly. "There are 30 seconds left," Houston announced. The commander no longer speaks and the astronauts turn off the engine of the vehicle. "Houston, here's the Tranquility base, the Eagle has landed," Armstrong announced. "We are copying them to Earth," said Communications Manager Charles Duke of Houston. "They had a group of guys about to turn blue, we breathed again."

The memory of Apollo 11

Apollo 11 was the culmination of the US space program, initiated with the Mercury and Gemini missions. Despite the initial enthusiasm, the Apollo project suffered a significant delay due to the tragedy of the Apollo 1 mission. On January 27, 1967, during a pressurization test of the ground cabin, a devastating fire in the control module cost Virgil Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee their lives.

This accident reminded the public that space exploration was not without risks. After evaluating the origin of the fault at the origin of the accident, operations resumed and NASA began testing the components as part of a series of preparatory missions. Thus, Apollo 8 was the first to make the trip in lunar orbit. On the other hand, the Apollo 10 May 1969 badumed a general test in which, with the exception of the landing on the moon, all the procedures were tested for the last time in order to carry out the final objective . The mission on the moon would be reserved for the crew of Apollo 11.

The big leap of humanity

Finally, and after more than a decade of planning, the big day has arrived. On the morning of July 16, 1969, thousands of people gathered around NASA's rocket launch facility in Florida. The launch was broadcast live on radio and television in 33 countries. While the reliable rocket Saturn V never failed to take off, NASA engineers feared a possible explosion at the time of launch.

For this reason, VIP spectators at Cabo Cañaveral were 5.6 km from the launch pad. This measure was not accidental. The technicians had calculated the amount of fuel that could explode and the maximum distance that could reach the fragments before a possible explosion, of about 4.8 kilometers.

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As usual, the crew chose the names of the two modules: the order was named Columbia and the lunar module was baptized as Eagle. The launch is done without a hitch. The Saturn V rocket floors were falling as expected, launching astronauts at full speed towards our natural satellite. The trip to the moon lasted three days and the ship entered lunar orbit on July 19th.

While the crew was carrying out the scheduled tests and badessing the conditions of the chosen location to land, the ship made thirty orbits around the moon. The area designated for landing on the moon had already been dubbed "Sea of ​​Tranquility" because of its vast flat surface. It was July 20, when Eagle successfully descended to the surface. Armstrong and Aldrin were the first humans to walk on the moon.

Back at home

When leaving, the astronauts were covered with dust. In the module, it smelled like "wet ashes in a chimney", described Armstrong. Collins had been waiting for them for 22 hours in orbit. "My secret fear for six months has been to leave them on the moon and return alone to Earth.So they do not take off or plant, I will not commit suicide, I will go home, but I will be a designated man for the rest of my life, I know, "Collins wrote.

He did not have to go back alone. The only engine of the LEM was turned on, the mating worked and the three men came back to Earth. Finally, the capsule whose useless modules had been detached weighed 12 tons, a negligible weight compared to 3,000 tons. On July 24, he crossed the atmosphere wrapped in a ball of fire and fell like a stone in the Atlantic, slowed by three large parachutes.

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The United States sent an aircraft carrier to pick them up and President Richard Nixon was on board the ship. Some elite divers took the men out of the capsule and took them by helicopter aboard the ship, where they were quarantined for fear of contaminating any extraterrestrial micro-organisms.

When asked if they were planning to return to the moon, Armstrong said, "We had very little time to think." None of them has returned to space. The Apollo program ended in 1972 and the arrival of Donald Trump had to wait until the United States decided to launch the sister of Apollo, the Artemisa mission.

S.D.