NASA plays back 40-year old Apollo 11 Moon landing

William Atkins
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 17:51

Science - Space

The U.S. space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will observe the fortieth anniversary of the historic first human landing on the Moon when it plays the entire audio from the Apollo 11 mission at the exact time and date it was broadcast in 1969. This time, however, it will be streamed on the Internet.


According to the July 14, 2009 NASA media brief, NASA Plays Audio “Time Capsule” of Historic Apollo 11 Mission, “The Web stream will feature the communications between the astronauts and ground teams, and commentary from Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.”

The audio begins at 6:32 a.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) on Thursday, July 16, 2009, two hours before the spacecraft was launched from Launch Complex 39A by a Saturn V rocket--forty years ago, on July 16, 1969.

Onboard was the astronaut crew of Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot.

About midway into the Webcast, the audio will recount the first landing of a manned crew on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquillity by the “Eagle” lunar lander, which was accomplished at 3:18 p.m. CDT.

Armstrong stated at that time, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle as landed.”

The ground support crew at the Mission Control Center (MCC) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas breathed a sigh of relief after the capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for the mission, astronaut Charles Duke, responded, "Roger, Twank...Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue here. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot!"

Page two continues with the Web site containing the communications of the Apollo 11 mission, from start to finish.