Mode control - both auto. Descent engine command override off. Engine arm - off. 413 is in.
Thirty-nine years ago this month, the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Earth's Moon imprinting in history what many consider one of the greatest achievements of mankind. The mission launched on July 16, 1969 under command of Neil Armstrong. Four days later, Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin stepped foot on the surface of the moon completing an eight-year competition between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The lunar module, the Eagle, separated from the command module and overshot their landing spot by miles. When control was certain it was safe, they continued the landing however, Armstrong took partial guidance control to avoid landing on an assortment of inconveniently placed rocks.
After landing, the climatic and well-remembered phrase was spoken by the first human voice on the lunar service:
"Mode control - both auto. Descent engine command override off. Engine arm
- off. 413 is in."
As if that wasn't noteworthy and exciting enough, Armstrong piped in, "Houston, Tranquility Base is here. The Eagle has landed."
NASA was instructed not to be religious in space so Aldrin carefully chose words acknowledge religion without actually doing so, "I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every
person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment
and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or
her own way."
Then he took communion.
Armstrong was the first on the moon and delivered his famous line, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Aldrin noted that the view was "magnificent desolation".
Before leaving many hours later, they left a plaque that read "Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot
Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind."
There is an honest humility in the undertone of this story. Armstrong and Aldrin were driven by a force of international vanity where the only prize was that one country outdid another in an interplanetary lawnjump. But in spite of that engine, when they did the deed and stepped foot in that alien world they did not embrace the fact they were the first. They embraced the hopeful future of mankind.
Some things supercede government, politics and personal position. Landing on the moon, it can be supposed, is one of them.
