Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight (43 page)

“Yes, sir,” Neil answered. “Couldn’t be better, we’re just purring along,” and Buzz told him, “We’re standing by at two minutes.”

“Eagle, Houston,” Mission Control joined the conversation with assurances. “You’re looking good to us.”

“Roger,” Neil said, turning to Buzz. “At five seconds I’m going to hit Abort Stage
and
Engine Arm, and you are going to hit Proceed.”

“Right,” Buzz acknowledged.

Everyone knew if everything worked as planned, the astronauts were just along for the ride. At 5 days, 4 hours, 4 minutes, and 51 seconds elapsed time in their historic mission CapCom Ron Evans cleared Neil and Buzz for launch from the moon’s Sea of Tranquility.

“Roger, understand,” Buzz acknowledged. “We’re number one on the runway.

“Nine, eight, seven, six, five,” and Neil hit Abort Stage, Engine Arm, Ascent, and Buzz pushed the Proceed button. They waited—waited only for a moment. There was the muffled bang of pyrotechnic bolts firing and the ignition of their ascent rocket’s hypergolic fuels, and they felt themselves lifting—a steady lift like a high-speed elevator, 21 hours after landing on the lunar landscape.

Eagle had blasted free of its bottom-half launch platform. Neil watched as flames from their ascent rocket ripped into the moon. Gold foil tore away from the landing stage, showering bits and pieces outward in all directions, and he saw the American flag they’d labored to raise whipped back and forth by their ascent engine’s flames until it toppled to rest in the lunar soil.

Eagle’s ascent rocket burned perfectly and Neil reported, “Climbing 26, 36 feet per second up,” adding, “Be advised the pitch over is very smooth.”

“Eagle, Houston. One minute and you’re looking good.”

Apollo 11
’s liftoff from the moon was like this picture of
Apollo 17
. (NASA)

“Roger.”

Beneath his feet Neil could see their landing site rapidly shrinking. If they’d had their television camera working by remote as
Apollo 17
later did, their viewers could have been watching their launch and climb. They could have seen Eagle race away on its ascent rocket’s flames to become a pinpoint of light above the moon’s cratered surface. But Neil knew their viewers could only hear him report, “A very quiet ride, just a little bit of slow wallowing back and forth—not very much thruster activity.”

“Roger. Mighty fine,” acknowledged CapCom Ron Evans.

Eagle was flying over the same
Apollo 10
landmarks Neil had been looking for during his landing approach to Tranquility. He told Mission Control, “We’re going right down U.S. 1.”

“Roger, Eagle. Four minutes. Everything’s great.”

Their ascent stage needed to burn seven minutes plus and Neil and Buzz stood with braced boots looking out their windows. The moon’s landscape was growing smaller, but they had no trouble locating known craters along their track. “There’s Ritter out there,” Buzz said. “There it is, right there, there’s Schmidt, man, and that’s impressive looking, isn’t it?” Neil nodded agreement watching one landmark after the other whiz by. He told CapCom, “Looking good here. It’s a pretty spectacular ride.”

Neil and Buzz could see the lunar landscape rapidly shrinking during their climb to rejoin Mike Collins in lunar orbit. (NASA)

“Eagle, Houston. You’re still looking mighty fine.”

Eagle’s ascent rocket continued to burn, and then at the precise moment it completed its job with Buzz announcing, “Shutdown,” before pausing and reporting the lunar orbit numbers: 54.3 miles by 10.9 miles. Mission Control cheered.

“Houston, the Eagle is back in orbit, having left Tranquility Base and leaving behind a … a replica from our
Apollo 11
patch and the olive branch,” Neil said with a touch of relief.

“Eagle, we copy. The whole world is proud of you.”

“We had a lot of help down there,” Neil said with sincerity as he and Buzz settled in for the three-and-a-half hours they needed to reach their command ship and Mike Collins. The hard stuff was now behind them and they should easily reach Columbia, their ride home. All they had to do was fly the route pioneered by Snoopy with Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan two months earlier.

*   *   *

For nearly two trips around the moon Eagle chased Columbia. By flying a lower orbit taking less time to circle the lunar surface, the LM caught the command ship as planned. Eagle was about 40 miles behind and 15 miles below Columbia. Eagle could now be seen in the eyepiece of Mike Collins’s sextant—a small dot moving up from the craters that made up two-thirds of the population of the moon. It was climbing steadily toward the other third and Mike would later say “It was the happiest sight of the whole mission.”

At that very moment 27 degrees above the horizon, Neil made his move. He fired Eagle’s thrusters to complete the rendezvous, and told Collins, “We’re burning.”

Mike Collins happily watched Eagle close the distance. (NASA)

Mike Collins watches as the Earth rises over the horizon behind Eagle. (NASA)

“That-a-boy,” Mike answered as he floated back to the command pilot’s seat to watch the lunar module slowly close the distance, its thruster rockets spitting flame to cancel forward movement and complete its rendezvous.

“I see you don’t have any landing gear,” Mike told them.

They were returning with only half of Eagle, and with his movie camera rolling and his Hasselblad camera clicking, Mike captured the rendezvous on film.

Moments later, both ships moved back into radio contact with Mission Control and CapCom called immediately. “Eagle and Columbia, Houston is standing by.”

Eagle coming home, with Earth watching. (NASA)

“Roger,” Neil answered. “We’re station-keeping.”

“I’ve got the Earth coming up behind you,” Mike shouted. “It’s fantastic!”

They moved in for the docking and Mike watched Eagle drive steady as a rock down the centerline of final approach for the linkup. Minutes later the two ships were firmly docked—they were one once again.

*   *   *

Neil and Buzz floated back into the command module as all three astronauts celebrated their success and good luck knowing their flight had forever changed humankind’s view of its place in this corner of the universe.

They were all full of laughter and happiness, and Neil and Buzz transferred their lunar samples into the command ship before discarding their faithful Eagle. They left it to orbit the moon until gravity tugged it down to its final resting place among lunar craters and plains that had been there for the eons.

When it came time to fire
Apollo 11
’s big service propulsion system to come home, what Mission Control called TEI (Trans Earth Insertion), CapCom Charlie Duke was back with them. Charlie didn’t know he would go on to be the tenth astronaut to walk on the moon. He did know the firing was the next to last big concern for their flight.
Apollo 11
’s astronauts set up their main rocket engine to increase their speed to 6,188 miles per hour—far less than the speed they needed to break Earth’s gravity. Then again when they fired it they would be on the lunar far side out of radio contact with Mission Control. As they disappeared behind the lunar limb, Charlie Duke in South Carolina vernacular told them, “Go sic ’em.”

For twenty minutes Duke sweated the outcome. Then when
Apollo 11
reappeared Charlie asked, “
Apollo 11
. How did it go?”

“Time to open up the LRL (Lunar Receiving Laboratory) doors, Charlie,” Mike Collins told him.

“Roger. We got you coming home,” Duke assured them. “The LRL is well stocked.”

Neil read all the burn times and numbers, and Charlie Duke said, “Copy, Neil. Sounds good to us and all your systems look real good. We’ll keep you posted.”

“Hey, Charlie boy, looking good here, too,” said an elated Neil Armstrong loosening his demeanor a bit. “That was a beautiful burn. They don’t come any finer.”

Charlie just had to say it! “Only in Carolina,” he laughed, and Neil and crew could not feel better. They were coming home. They had fulfilled President John Kennedy’s call to land on the moon within a decade. Even more important, they had not become a permanent moon satellite. They were now down to only one real concern—penetrating Earth’s atmosphere at the correct attitude to keep from becoming toast or skipping off the atmosphere to never return. They would need about two-and-a-half days to make the return trip, and the good news was the
Apollo 11
astronauts knew the way.

Apollos 8
and
10
had locked the flight path in
11
’s computers.

*   *   *

That first night going home proved to be the best night of sleep Neil, Mike, and Buzz had had during their mission. With a loud, fire station–style clangor to wake them if needed, the flight director permitted the whole crew to sleep for eight-and-a-half hours—until noon on Tuesday, Mission Control time. When the astronauts awoke they found their ship back in the grip of Earth’s gravity, a point 44,620 miles from the moon and 200,100 miles from Earth.