Dan Parry - Moonshot: The Inside Story of Mankinds Greatest Adventure

What would the Moon be like?

While this question fascinated those back on Earth, for NeilArmstrong the Moon was playing no more than a supportingrole. Here was a chance for man to achieve something beyondcomparison. If it were successful, the Apollo 11 mission woulddemonstrate that humans, as a species, were capable of escapingfrom their planet and visiting somewhere a world away fromhome. It didn't matter much whether the Moon was made ofbrown rocks, grey dust or even green cheese. To Armstrong, allthat really counted was landing safely and then coming homeagain, without letting anyone down in the attempt to do either.

Standing in the lunar module, the most fragile manned spacecraftever built, Armstrong was flying at more than 3,000mph,five times faster than a passenger jet. There were no landing padson the Moon, no ground crew to guide him down; 50,000 feetbelow him lay nothing more than an uncharted area that waspockmarked by rocks and craters and which was believed to bea little less dangerous than other uncharted areas. If he were toreach his designated target site, Neil would have to graduallyreduce his speed to walking pace and then find a relatively benignarea to touch down before his fuel ran out. There was littlemargin for error. Landing too fast on a landscape strewn withboulders could damage the spacecraft and potentially end anyhope of returning home.

One way or the other, in the next 12 minutes it would be overand all the hand-wringing, the months of agonising expectationand the endless press questions could finally be laid to rest. Thenewspapers were fascinated by lunar landscapes. But while rocksand craters captured the media's attention, for a pilot they wereto be avoided. As far as Neil was concerned, Apollo 11 wasn'tabout boxes of stones. Exploring the surface was secondary tothe mission's prime objective. None of the early aviation pioneers,who had so inspired Neil as a boy, had regarded their greatesttriumph to be a stroll beside their aircraft. Armstrong, like theWrights, Earhart and Lindbergh before him, knew that nothingwas more significant about a test-flight than safely completing it.

Standing beside Neil was Buzz Aldrin, and together the twomen would have considered themselves to be flying horizontallyface down had they not been in weightlessness. They were alsotravelling backwards, feet first, using the engine as a brake toreduce their speed. The gleaming white surfaces of their crampedcabin were bathed in sunlight, yet somehow the aura of a brandnewspaceship was personalised by the grubby ways of people.Handwritten notes were stuck on the dull grey instrument panelsand here and there other personal items were secured by Velcroor held down by netting. Having taught himself to go to theMoon, man was bringing with him urine bags, food trays anddoodles in margins.

While Buzz monitored the instruments, Neil looked throughthe triangular window in front of him. In timing their journeyover the alien terrain below, he discovered with dismay that thecrater known as Maskelyne-W had arrived early. They were threeseconds ahead of themselves, and three seconds equated to threemiles, which would take them beyond the edge of the landingzone. They would be coming down in an area Neil knew to bestrewn with boulders, and in a spacecraft with walls so thin youcould poke a pencil through them. He knew they would be luckyto avoid any damage. Luck wasn't enough. He had the facility tooverride the computer and fly the spacecraft manually but thiscould only be done in the closing stages of the descent. For themoment he must follow the flight-plan.

At 40,000 feet, Armstrong rotated the lunar module by 180degrees so that he was no longer looking down at the Moon butstaring up into space. By repositioning the spacecraft, which wasoperating under the call-sign Eagle, Neil enabled the landingradar to get a clearer view of the surface. Now that they weredue to land long he needed as much reliable information as hecould get.

Then the yellow master alarm started to flash, a tone soundedin Neil's headset and the computer's yellow PROG light lit up.The computer would help diagnose the problem, allowingArmstrong and Aldrin to decide what action to take based onlessons learned during training. 'It's a 1202,' Neil told Houstonafter glancing at the computer display. It was a code neither henor Buzz had ever seen during training, so now they had twoproblems. The computer could be signalling an immediate needfor action, yet incapacitated by uncertainty they could do nothingbut wait for advice from home.