@@ -33,3 +33,95 @@ Armstrong found a clear patch of ground and maneuvered the spacecraft towards it
3333were now 100 feet (30 m) from the surface, with only 90 seconds of propellant remaining.
3434Lunar dust kicked up by the LM’s engine began to impair his ability to determine the
3535spacecraft’s motion.
36+
37+ A light informed Aldrin that at least one of the 67-inch (170 cm) probes hanging from
38+ Eagle’s footpads had touched the surface and he said: “Contact light!” Three seconds later,
39+ Eagle landed and Armstrong shut the engine down. Aldrin immediately said “Okay, engine
40+ stop.”
41+
42+ Eagle landed at 20:17:40 UTC on Sunday July 20 with 216 pounds (98 kg) of usable fuel
43+ remaining. Information available to the crew and mission controllers during the landing
44+ showed the LM had enough fuel for another 25 seconds of powered flight before an abort
45+ without touchdown would have become unsafe, but post-mission analysis showed that the
46+ real figure was probably closer to 50 seconds.
47+
48+ Armstrong acknowledged Aldrin’s completion of the post-landing checklist with “Engine
49+ arm is off”, before responding to the CAPCOM, Charles Duke, with the words, “Houston,
50+ Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Duke expressed the relief at Mission Control:
51+ “Roger, Twan—Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to
52+ turn blue. We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot.”
53+
54+ Preparations for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to walk on the Moon began at 23:43 UTC.
55+ These took longer than expected; three and a half hours instead of two. Six hours and
56+ thirty-nine minutes after landing, Armstrong and Aldrin were ready to go outside, and
57+ Eagle was depressurized.
58+
59+ Eagle’s hatch was opened at 02:39:33. Armstrong initially had some difficulties squeezing
60+ through the hatch with his portable life support system (PLSS). At 02:51 Armstrong began
61+ his descent to the lunar surface. Climbing down the nine-rung ladder, Armstrong pulled a
62+ D-ring to deploy the modular equipment stowage assembly (MESA) folded against Eagle’s
63+ side and activate the TV camera.
64+
65+ Despite some technical and weather difficulties, black and white images of the first lunar
66+ EVA were received and broadcast to at least 600 million people on Earth.
67+
68+ After describing the surface dust as “very fine-grained” and “almost like a powder”, at
69+ 02:56:15, six and a half hours after landing, Armstrong stepped off Eagle’s landing pad and
70+ declared: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
71+
72+ Armstrong intended to say “That’s one small step for a man”, but the word “a” is not
73+ audible in the transmission, and thus was not initially reported by most observers of the live
74+ broadcast. When later asked about his quote, Armstrong said he believed he said “for a
75+ man”, and subsequent printed versions of the quote included the “a” in square brackets.
76+
77+ About seven minutes after stepping onto the Moon’s surface, Armstrong collected a
78+ contingency soil sample using a sample bag on a stick. Twelve minutes after the sample
79+ was collected, he removed the TV camera from the MESA and made a panoramic sweep,
80+ then mounted it on a tripod. Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface. He described the view
81+ with the simple phrase: “Magnificent desolation.”
82+
83+ Armstrong said moving in the lunar gravity, one-sixth of Earth’s, was “even perhaps easier
84+ than the simulations … It’s absolutely no trouble to walk around.” Aldrin joined him on the
85+ surface and tested methods for moving around, including two-footed kangaroo hops. The
86+ PLSS backpack created a tendency to tip backward, but neither astronaut had serious
87+ problems maintaining balance. The fine soil was quite slippery.
88+
89+ The astronauts planted the Lunar Flag Assembly containing a flag of the United States on
90+ the lunar surface, in clear view of the TV camera. Aldrin remembered, “Of all the jobs I had
91+ to do on the Moon the one I wanted to go the smoothest was the flag raising.” But the
92+ astronauts struggled with the telescoping rod and could only insert the pole about 2 inches
93+ (5 cm) into the hard lunar surface. Before Aldrin could take a photo of Armstrong with the
94+ flag, President Richard Nixon spoke to them through a telephone-radio transmission, which
95+ Nixon called “the most historic phone call ever made from the White House.”
96+
97+ They deployed the EASEP, which included a Passive Seismic Experiment Package used to
98+ measure moonquakes and a retroreflector array used for the lunar laser ranging
99+ experiment. Then Armstrong walked 196 feet (60 m) from the LM to take photographs at
100+ the rim of Little West Crater while Aldrin collected two core samples. He used the
101+ geologist’s hammer to pound in the tubes—the only time the hammer was used on Apollo
102+ 11—but was unable to penetrate more than 6 inches (15 cm) deep.
103+
104+ The astronauts then collected rock samples using scoops and tongs on extension handles.
105+ Many of the surface activities took longer than expected, so they had to stop documenting
106+ sample collection halfway through the allotted 34 minutes. Aldrin shoveled 6 kilograms
107+ (13 lb) of soil into the box of rocks to pack them in tightly. Two types of rocks were found in
108+ the geological samples: basalt and breccia.
109+
110+ While on the surface, Armstrong uncovered a plaque mounted on the LM ladder, bearing
111+ two drawings of Earth, an inscription, and signatures of the astronauts and President Nixon.
112+ The inscription read: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July
113+ 1969, A. D. We came in peace for all mankind.”
114+
115+ Mission Control used a coded phrase to warn Armstrong his metabolic rates were high, and
116+ that he should slow down. As metabolic rates remained generally lower than expected for
117+ both astronauts throughout the walk, Mission Control granted the astronauts a 15-minute
118+ extension.
119+
120+ Aldrin entered Eagle first. With some difficulty the astronauts lifted film and two sample
121+ boxes containing 21.55 kilograms (47.5 lb) of lunar surface material to the LM hatch using a
122+ flat cable pulley device called the Lunar Equipment Conveyor (LEC). Armstrong then
123+ jumped onto the ladder’s third rung, and climbed into the LM. After transferring to LM life
124+ support, the explorers lightened the ascent stage for the return to lunar orbit by tossing out
125+ their PLSS backpacks, lunar overshoes, an empty Hasselblad camera, and other equipment.
126+ The hatch was closed again at 05:11:13. They then pressurized the LM and settled down to
127+ sleep.
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