sign in sign up
<<
Home , Blue Moon (spacecraft), David Scott, Gene Kranz, Jack Garman, Mission patch, Steve Bales

Small Steps, Giant Leaps: 11 at Fifty

The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters

Citation Overholt, John, Thomas Hyry, Anne-Marie Eze, Carie McGinnis, and Mary Haegert. 2019. "Small Steps, Giant Leaps: at Fifty." Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Houghton Library. Published for the exhibition Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Apollo 11 at Fifty at the Houghton Library.

Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37367358

Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA

SMALL STEPS

GIANT LEAPS HOUGHTON LIBRARY CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 2019 CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY THOMAS HYRY (VII)

INTRODUCTION (XI)

1900–1947: THE BIRTH OF FLIGHT AND ROCKETRY (01)

1952–1968: THE PROPELS AMERICA TO THE (15)

1969: APOLLO 11 TO THE MOON! (33)

WALKING ON THE MOON (47) FOREWORD

The moon holds many paradoxes. It is constant, though variable; ubiquitous, yet unique; connected to and yet separate from the world; close by and a symbol of what lies beyond. For the entire scope of human history, the moon has served as a source of fascination, beauty, and intrigue. Civilizations throughout time and across the globe have centered the moon in their religion, mythology, and culture. Romeo swears his love to Juliet by the moon. Van Gogh, Kahlo, Monet, Debussy, Bowie, and countless others use the moon for artistic inspiration. “,” “Harvest Moon,” The Dark Side of the Moon, the man on the moon, Moon Palace, moon pies, “Moon River,” A Trip to the Moon, Goodnight Moon, “moonshot” — the moon plays an outsized role in our collective consciousness. When Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins made their epic journey in 1969, it represented the consummation of a long-held dream of humanity, while also pointing the way toward even bigger dreams for the future. At once a remarkable scientific achievement and cultural landmark, the remains a watershed moment in human history, now fifty years removed. The exhibition Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Apollo 11 at Fifty (on view in the Edison and Newman Room, April 29-August 3, 2019) presents the story of the Apollo 11 mission through an historical VIII lens unique to Houghton Library. The spectacular items on display IX of Dr. Samuel Johnson and Early Books and Manuscripts at Houghton in this exhibition document not only the feat itself, but the centuries Library, Anne-Marie Eze, our Director of Scholarly and Public Programs, of scientific discovery necessary to send a human to the moon. The Carie McGinnis, our Preservation Librarian and Registrar, and Mary exhibition allows viewers to travel through time and demonstrates Haegert, our Reproductions Coordinator. the way one discovery leads to another and how our knowledge and Beyond helping us understand and celebrate the moon landing, understanding of the world’s place in the universe is constantly Small Steps, Giant Leaps serves as an appreciation of science evolving. In addition to documenting the discoveries themselves, the itself and the scientific method. With items presented in roughly exhibition reveals how thinkers have created and presented their chronological order, it can be tempting to think of the discoveries ideas in different eras and how the preservation of books, manuscripts, that led to the Apollo 11 mission as linear and inevitable; they were and other media provides a critical foundation in our efforts to not. Throughout human history, we have seen eras where scientists understand our past. and scientific discovery have been treated with skepticism, scorn, and Like the moon landing (though much more modest in scope), even violence, requiring not only brilliance but also courage. As we an exhibition like this requires imagination, determination, and consider and appreciate the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing, collaboration. This exhibition would not have been possible without let us also use it as an to reaffirm a commitment to the generosity and vision of a private collector, a close collaborator scientific inquiry and to approaches to public policy based on evidence, of Houghton Library who wishes to remain anonymous. His intellect inspiration, and a commitment to the common good. contributed crucial curatorial , and his passion pushed the library in new directions and to new heights. For this exhibition, — Thomas Hyry, Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton Library he has loaned extraordinary materials from his private collection, items that are either unique or not already held by the library. To celebrate the occasion and honor this gesture, this commemorative publication will focus only on the loaned items. Our chief collaborator for this exhibition deserves our gratitude as he joins the ranks of many other Harvard alumni who have built private collections and partnered with us to ensure that their work could be harnessed for research, teaching, and enrichment. Many Houghton collection items featured in this exhibition were donated to the library by private collectors, and David P. Wheatland and Harrison D. Horblit made especially important contributions to the library’s holdings in the history of science. We are also indebted to the many Houghton staff members who contributed to the exhibition and this catalog, chiefly John Overholt, Curator of the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection X

INTRODUCTION

Fifty years ago, 600 million people watched descend the ’s ladder, stand on the moon, and remark, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind” (see page 49). While Armstrong indeed took but a single step onto the lunar surface, his achievement was the culmination of a series of small steps and giant leaps in human understanding and innovation, advances driven This simple diagram announces by the curiosity and wonder of countless generations who looked up a profound and highly contested at the heavens and tried to make sense of the world around them. shift in scientific understanding, with the sun replacing the Earth The story of Apollo 11 is fascinating because it involves so many as the center of the universe. interconnected developments in the history of math and science, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), De engineering and technology, and travel and exploration, driven Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium by both peaceful inquiry and military necessity. This exhibition Libri VI. Nuremberg: Johannes Petreius, 1543. highlights these connections using rare and important objects, including many carried by the during their trip to the moon, Houghton Library, Harvard to animate the stories that made Armstrong’s “small step” possible. University. WKR 13.3.5. Bequest of Although the mighty rocket carrying Armstrong, William King Richardson, 1951. , and Michael Collins lifted off on the morning of July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 can trace its origins to the beginning of the scientific revolution. In April 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published his revolutionary De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres). The successive insights of Copernicus, XII Johannes Kepler, , René Descartes, and Isaac Newton XIII moving through space) could be represented as algebraic equations, gave humanity the tools required to precisely describe — and therefore manipulated to find solutions, and graphed with precision in what is accurately predict — the motion of objects ranging from an apple now known as the Cartesian coordinate system. falling off a tree to a rocket carrying astronauts bound for the moon. The following year, Galileo, who was nearing the end of his life, In direct opposition to both conventional wisdom and Catholic under house arrest, and prohibited from publishing in Italy, had his Church doctrine, Copernicus showed that astronomical calculations final book printed in Holland. In Discorsi e Dimostrazioni Matematiche are made much simpler by assuming the Earth revolves around the Intorno a Due Nuove Scienze (Discourses and Mathematical sun, rather than sitting still at the center of the universe. In an Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences), Galileo demonstrated attempt to deflect theological criticism from this monumental, that a ball rolling down an inclined plane experiences uniform controversial insight, Copernicus’s editor, Andreas Osiander, inserted acceleration due to , its velocity increasing linearly through an unauthorized preface claiming that the work was meant purely time. Combining this observation with his formulation of the concept as a hypothetical exercise rather than as a statement of how the of inertia, whereby an object will keep moving in the same direction heavens truly behaved. unless acted on by an external force (such as air resistance or Of course, other luminaries grasped that heliocentrism was friction), Galileo concluded that the trajectory of a ball dropped off indeed a description of reality and worked on providing important the mast of a moving ship or shot from a cannon will trace out the refinements and impassioned defenses of Copernican theory. In shape of a parabola. 1609 and 1610, Kepler and Galileo published their respective works, Newton, who was born soon after Galileo died, wrote, “If I Astronomia Nova (New Astronomy) and Sidereus Nuncius (Starry have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” Messenger). Kepler’s first law of planetary motion, based on detailed a reference to the work of Descartes. Cartesian analytic geometry observational data, demonstrated that orbits were elliptical rather and Galilean mathematical physics deeply influenced Newton, who was than circular. By using one of the first telescopes, Galileo discovered able to synthesize and expand on their work in his seminal 1687 book that had four predictably orbiting , and that our own Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles moon, rather than being the perfectly smooth sphere imagined by of Natural Philosophy). Newton’s invention of calculus, which he called Aristotle, was covered in mountains and craters. These observations the method of fluxions, built directly upon Descartes’s innovations. all furthered the Copernican cause, and would be, for Galileo, the While Newton did not explicitly include calculus in Principia, instead beginning of a lifelong battle with the Church. presenting his discoveries in the more familiar language of Euclid, A few decades later, mathematical physics began to take shape it allowed him to derive stunning new results in the mechanics of with two key publications. Descartes’s 1637 La Géométrie (Geometry) motion. Newton’s law of universal gravitation and his three laws showed that Euclid’s centuries-old geometry could be combined of motion simultaneously governed Kepler’s elliptical orbits, Galileo’s with recently discovered algebraic methods to create a powerful parabolic projectiles, and, aided by advances in computing (but mathematical tool kit known as analytic geometry. In this new without any meaningful modification in the subsequent centuries), framework, geometric curves (such as those depicting an object Apollo 11’s intricate route to the moon. XIV XV

Galileo’s earliest observations of the moon through a telescope, as published in his groundbreaking work Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger) in 1610.

Houghton Library, Harvard University. *IC6.G1333.610s. Gift of Robert Wheeler Wilson, 1927. XVI While classical mechanics was more or less settled in Newton’s XVII weapon-tipped missiles led to increasingly advanced rocket technology. time, the twentieth century brought parallel advances in two In October 1957, the Soviets took the lead in the “space race” with new fields that would emerge as essential components of the Apollo the launch of Sputnik, Earth’s first artificial satellite. In April program. The first, in aviation and rocketry, took flight with 1961, they again beat the United States by sending the first person Wilbur and Orville Wright’s glider experiments in 1900 (pages to space when the Vostok 1 mission carried into orbit 3–7), and proceeded through theoretical and technical advances (pages 18–19). The United States would not match this achievement by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, and . until orbited the Earth three times in February 1962. In 1903, the same year the Wright brothers successfully flew their On May 5, 1961, the Americans responded by launching Alan first airplane, Tsiolkovsky, a reclusive Russian, conceptualized a Shepard on a suborbital flight. A few later, on May 25, that would burn and hydrogen to attain President John F. Kennedy issued an audacious challenge: “I believe great speeds and developed the analytical tools to demonstrate that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before that such a rocket could reach arbitrarily high altitudes (page 9). this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him In the United States, Goddard went about building and launching safely to the Earth.” Over the 1960s, NASA’s budget would grow from such rockets, including, in 1926, the first to use liquid fuel (pages 0.5 percent of federal spending to a peak of almost 4.5 percent. 10–11). Subsequent versions employed gyroscopic control and In today’s dollars, the decade’s total spending amounted to over $250 steerable engines, features that continued to be used in later, more billion, and an estimated 400,000 people were employed to achieve advanced launch vehicles. During World War II, von Braun appropriated Kennedy’s ambitious goal. Goddard’s concepts to build the V-2 missile as a weapon for Nazi The path to a successful lunar landing was filled with obstacles, Germany (page 13). He surrendered to American troops in May 1945 including many near misses and one tragic accident. Two of these near and was brought to the United States, where he would ultimately misses involved Neil Armstrong, whose calm demeanor in the face of oversee the design and construction of the Saturn V (pages 16–17). extreme danger led NASA to appoint him commander of the Apollo 11 mission. The second major series of advances took place in computer science, On Armstrong’s initial trip to space aboard Gemini VIII, he and unlocking new frontiers in engineering that made extraordinary fellow David Scott completed the first successful docking projects such as Apollo 11 feasible. In 1936, Alan Turing developed in space (a capability which was essential to the complicated logistics the concept of a universal computer, now known as a Turing machine, of later Apollo missions), coupling Gemini VIII with an Agena Target which he published as “On Computable Numbers.” With this paper, Vehicle (ATV). Almost immediately, the Gemini capsule began rotating Turing ushered in the era of modern computing, which later allowed at an increasing rate. Separating the two vehicles only exacerbated him to help the British break Nazi military codes at Bletchley the situation, as a malfunctioning Gemini thruster was the cause of Park and gave scientists in America the tools to perform complex the problem. With a revolution rate approaching one rotation per calculations as they designed the first nuclear weapons at Los Alamos. second and the astronauts on the verge of blacking out, Armstrong As World War II ended and the began, competition disengaged the main control system and used the reentry thrusters between the United States and the to develop nuclear- to stabilize the craft, saving his and Scott’s lives. XVIII Later, while training for the lunar landing, Armstrong had to XIX first. This feature would be decisive in enabling the Apollo 11 pilot a craft called the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV). lunar landing to continue despite a series of data errors during This unwieldy contraption had a rocket and controls that behaved Eagle’s descent. like those on Eagle, as well as a jet engine that provided the thrust In simulations that took place before the mission, necessary to cancel five-sixths of Earth’s gravity, simulating technicians presented mission control with a scenario in which conditions on the moon. On one such training mission, the LLRV certain AGC program alarms led Guidance Officer to malfunctioned. At 200 feet off the ground, Armstrong made the abort the descent. When it was later realized that the abort decision decision to eject and escaped, amazingly, without injury. had been a mistake for that type of program alarm, , Unfortunately, however, another training incident took the lives flight director during the lunar landing, asked twenty-five-year-old of all three astronauts. On January 27, 1967, just a few weeks computer specialist to write down every possible error before their scheduled launch date, Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom, Edward code, along with its likely severity and mission impact (pages 34–35). H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee were buckled into their capsule on When the Apollo 11 mission was underway, all this contingency the pad for an essential systems test when an electrical spark ignited planning proved prescient, given the difficulties Armstrong and the cabin’s pure oxygen atmosphere. Cabin pressure prevented the Aldrin encountered during Eagle’s descent to the lunar surface. crew from opening the inward-facing hatch and escaping. The tragedy Although they didn’t realize it at the time, the trouble began when prompted NASA to extensively redesign the command module and to Eagle undocked from the command module Columbia. A puff of air develop new spacesuits with a fireproof material known as “beta in the tunnel between the two spacecraft, which had not been vented cloth” (page 65). During this period of intense review, manned flights in advance, created a force that gave Eagle unexpected forward were postponed until lifted off in October 1968. One of the motion. As Galileo and Newton would have predicted, in the vacuum ways in which the Apollo 1 astronauts were memorialized involved of space such motion accumulated over the course of the descent, changing the names on navigational materials used during later leaving Eagle far downrange of the intended landing site. Apollo missions: three stars were renamed Navi (“Ivan” spelled Problems continued due to an engineering flaw in Eagle’s rendezvous backward, for Grissom), Dnoces (“Second,” for White II), and Regor radar system, which tracked Columbia and was left on during the descent (“Roger,” for Chaffee) (pages 55–56). phase in case an abort required urgent docking. The radar system After the Apollo 1 tragedy, NASA officials increased their focus began to inundate the AGC with unnecessary signals, competing with on making the countless systems on which the missions depended as other processes for scarce computing resources and resulting in robust as possible, working to simulate every imaginable contingency. a series of program alarms (numbers 1201 and 1202) that indicated Margaret Hamilton, a pioneering computer scientist working at the processor was overwhelmed. Because of Hamilton’s innovative MIT, led the team that developed software for the complex onboard operating system, however, essential tasks were still completed. (AGC). The AGC relied on a cutting-edge Thanks to Garman’s error code list, mission control quickly realized operating system that creatively handled multiple tasks at once, with that these particular alarms were unlikely to interfere with the lunar priority codes ensuring that essential calculations were completed landing and gave the “go” for Eagle’s continued descent (page 37). XX Once the program alarms were dealt with, Armstrong and Aldrin noticed they were headed toward a boulder-strewn crater rather than their intended landing site. Using his expertise from the LLRV training, Armstrong manually guided Eagle horizontally to a more suitable location, consuming precious fuel in the process. When he 1900 – 1947 landed with fewer than thirty seconds of fuel remaining, mission control breathed a sigh of relief (page 45). To help determine their location and calibrate Eagle’s guidance system, Armstrong and Aldrin used a star chart showing Navi, Dnoces, THE BIRTH OF FLIGHT and Regor, as well as planet Earth — which, for the first time in the long history of , appeared in the sky over the heads AND ROCKETRY of two humans standing on another heavenly sphere (pages 51–52). The first half of the twentieth century saw rapid technological Saturn V may have carried Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to that, for the first time, liberated humans from the bonds the moon, but they were also riding on the shoulders of giants — of of Earth’s gravity. Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, as well as the 400,000 men and women Breakthroughs included Wilbur and Orville Wright’s innovative who worked on the — giants whose revolutionary ideas control system for gliders, enabling them to successfully build and meticulous planning culminated in the realization of humanity’s and fly the first airplane; Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s path-breaking bold dream to “slip the surly bonds of Earth.”¹ theories of rocket dynamics and astronautics; and Robert Goddard’s development of liquid-fueled rockets. Refined by Wernher von Braun during World War II, these rockets were able to reach the edge of space by 1947, capturing the first photos of the Earth’s curvature.

1. Adapted from “High Flight,” a sonnet written by John Gillespie Magee Jr. in 1941. 2 3

THE WRIGHT BROTHERS

On December 17, 1903, the Wright Wilbur Wright (American, 1867–1912) inscribed in pencil in the lower margin, brothers successfully flew the first published the analysis of these early recall the famous words shouted by airplane near Kitty Hawk, North glider tests as “Some Aeronautical Wilbur to Orville (American, 1871–1948) Carolina. In the years leading up to Experiments” (December 1901). The during one of his first flights. this achievement, they perfected their article reproduced this photo showing flying machines through a series their first glider capable of carrying of experiments on successively larger a human, photographed in an unmanned gliders. flight. The words “Lemme down,” 4 6 7

As the brothers refined their work in an article titled “Experiments outdoors and in wind tunnel and Observations in Soaring Flight” experiments at their bicycle repair (August 1903). Both versions of shop in Dayton, Ohio, the ultimate the articles shown here, originally design of the airplane took shape. published in in the Journal of the They published these results, including Western Society of Engineers, were the addition of a vertical rear rudder printed separately for the authors that increased stability in flight, to distribute. 8 9

KONSTANTIN TSIOLKOVSKY AND THE ROCKET EQUATION

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (Russian, 1857– hydrogen could attain that speed, Обозрение (Science Review) no. 5 1937) discovered the equation shown known as “escape velocity,” which (May 1903): 45–75. here describing the motion of a rocket provided the theoretical underpinnings as it burns fuel, which in turn enabled for early . He published him to calculate the minimum speed these findings as “Исследование required to obtain Earth orbit. He мировых пространств реактивными further hypothesized that a multistage приборами” (“Exploration of space rocket fueled by liquid oxygen and using reactive devices”) in Научное 10

ROBERT GODDARD AND THE FIRST LIQUID-FUELED ROCKET

Robert Goddard (American, 1888–1945) was a visionary inventor responsible for developing and testing many essential components of modern rocketry, ranging from gyroscope- based control systems to steerable thrust. On March 16, 1926, Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket, opening up the frontiers of spaceflight. Goddard published many of his preliminary findings, including speculation that a rocket could reach the moon, as “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes” (1919). This copy is inscribed, “With the author’s compliments R. H. Goddard.”

12

WERNHER VON BRAUN AND THE V-2 ROCKET

Building on the work of Goddard, The US government also retrieved Ranging up to 160 Kilometers.” This Wernher von Braun (German, 1912– dozens of German V-2 rockets, many work, of which only forty-seven copies 1977) developed the V-2 rocket as a of which were subsequently launched were distributed, contains the first weapon for Nazi Germany. Near the from White Sands, New , for published images of the Earth taken end of World War II, von Braun and research purposes, including high- from space. his team surrendered to the United altitude photography. In April 1947, T. States and came to America to work A. Bergstrahl published “Photography on various government projects. from the V-2 Rocket at Altitudes 1952–1968

THE SPACE RACE PROPELS AMERICA TO THE MOON

After World War II, advances in technology helped the imagination about space exploration, while competition between the United States and the Soviet Union provided incentives to turn science fiction into reality. With the launch of Sputnik, Earth’s first artificial satellite, in 1957, and the Vostok I mission in 1961 that made Yuri Gagarin the first person to travel to space, the Soviet Union took an early lead in the space race. On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged America: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

16 17

“MAN WILL CONQUER SPACE SOON!”

In the early 1950s, Wernher von Braun published a series of essays in Collier’s magazine titled “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!” that outlined his vision for the future of space exploration. Shown here are two of Braun’s original drawings reproduced as paintings in Collier’s. The one on the left represents a three-stage rocket capable of sending people to the moon (a precursor to the Saturn V he later designed for the Apollo program). The other depicts a capsule that does not need to be aerodynamic in the vacuum of space, similar to the lunar module later flown by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

18 19

FIRST HUMAN IN SPACE

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968) became the first human to travel into space, completing a single orbit around the Earth. Upon returning, he wrote an autobiography, Дорога в космос (Road to the Stars). This copy is inscribed by both Gagarin and General Nikolai Kamanin, the director of cosmonaut training, to Kamanin’s brother. Kamanin wrote, “Let this Gagarin book remind you about our victories in Space, the importance of which will be growing year by year.” 20 21

KENNEDY WEBB APPOINTMENT

On February 9, 1961, President the Earth.” This document is signed John F. Kennedy appointed James E. by Kennedy and Secretary of State Dean Webb administrator of the National Rusk. and Space Administration. Webb, who led NASA until late 1968, was instrumental in helping Kennedy achieve his goal of “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to EARTH FROM DEEP SPACE

This is the first image of Earth from from Apollo 7 to ), including all deep space, taken by twelve people who walked on the lunar on August 23, 1966. The orbiter’s two surface, signed this photo. cameras used film, which was developed on board and then electronically scanned for transmission back to Earth. Each of the twenty-nine astronauts who flew an Apollo mission (ranging 24 25

PROJECT APOLLO

NASA selected Michael Collins at this time, just as it was impossible (American, b. 1930) as an astronaut in to foresee all the uses to which the . He would go on to pilot Wright brothers’ invention would be the Apollo 11 Command Module. In this put ...I am glad that our country is 1964 letter to a fan, he shares his continuing its pioneering tradition thoughts on space exploration: in pushing ahead with Project Apollo, “The ultimate value of our lunar landing and I think that history will prove it program cannot be outlined in detail to be a wise decision.” 26 27

BUILDING LM5 ( EAGLE)

NASA relied on an extensive network as Eagle, eventually carrying Neil launch date, “The hardware is ready to of contractors to develop and build Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the go.” Also shown is the LM5 “Operations the various components required for a surface of the moon. Documentation Handbook,” a manual with technical successful lunar landing. The created by Grumman shown here specifications for Eagle. Aircraft Engineering Corporation includes a detailed engineering was selected to oversee the Lunar “Turnover Log” and an accompanying Module (LM). Grumman built thirteen letter from a member of the Grumman lunar modules, with LM5, better known team who states that, on Apollo 11’s 28 30 1969

APOLLO 11 TO THE MOON!

At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969, the world watched as five rocket engines consuming twenty tons of fuel per second lifted a 363-foot-tall, 6.2-million-pound Saturn V rocket off the launch pad. Throughout their four-day journey to the moon, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong (American, 1930–2012), Buzz Aldrin (American, b. 1930), and Michael Collins followed the detailed outline of an extensive flight plan, with preparations culminating in an unexpectedly eventful but ultimately successful lunar landing. 34 35

KRANZ FLIGHT BOOK

As Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, the onboard guidance computer generated a worrisome series of alarms, which required a quick decision from mission control about whether or not to abort the landing. Gene Kranz, who served as flight director during this phase of the mission, had previously requested that Jack Garman, a young computer specialist, list all possible alarms, along with their severity. These precautions gave Kranz’s team confidence that, despite the alarms, the mission was still a “go.” Kranz’s “Flight Book,” a compilation of materials he used at his console at mission control, shows the section on program alarms that Garman had assembled. 36 37

“GO TO DESCENT”

After completing a final set of checks as he prepared to undock the LM from Columbia, Neil Armstrong wrote that Eagle was ready to “Go to descent” on page ACT-63 of this “LM Activation Checklist,” which he and Buzz Aldrin carried down to the lunar surface. 38 39

FLIGHT PLAN PAGES SIGNED BY ALDRIN

According to Buzz Aldrin, “The flight The Apollo 11 astronauts carried Columbia’s Inertial Measurement Unit plan was probably the single most these two pages of the flight plan to (IMU) guidance system. Page 3-35 important document related to the the moon, and they show extensive documents Armstrong’s initial inspection success of our mission. It provided annotations by Neil Armstrong. On of the lunar module Eagle, where he a time schedule of crew activities and page 3-6 (left) Armstrong records lists items to bring back to Columbia, spacecraft maneuvers to accomplish the values of star measurements used including “Surface [check] List, Mission the first lunar landing.” to calibrate the command module Rules, DPS/APS, Limit Cue Cards.” 40 41

ARMSTRONG’S SKETCH OF THE LUNAR MODULE

Armstrong made this sketch of the LM guiding Eagle down to the moon, the DPS during a visit to his home in Wapakoneta, fuel tanks were almost empty when the Ohio, to explain the upcoming Apollo 11 landing pads finally touched the lunar mission to his father, Stephen. He labeled surface. the Descent Propulsion System (DPS), the Ascent Propulsion System (APS), and their respective fuel tanks. Given the unexpected difficulties Armstrong encountered while 42

APOLLO 11 PRESS KIT

In advance of the Apollo 11 launch, NASA handed out detailed press kits that addressed numerous questions about the mission. The opening statement reads “If the mission...is successful, man will accomplish his long-time dream of walking on another celestial body.” 44 45

“THE EAGLE HAS LANDED”

When Eagle approached the lunar than thirty seconds of fuel remaining informed , “Tranquility Base surface, Neil Armstrong realized that in the Descent Propulsion System (DPS) here. The Eagle has landed,” Duke it was headed for a boulder-strewn tanks. replied, “Roger, Tranquility. We copy you crater unsuitable for landing. He This transcript of communications on the ground. You got a bunch of guys manually guided the LM to a smoother between Eagle and Mission Control in about to turn blue. We’re breathing area, consuming precious fuel in the Houston, signed by the astronauts and again. Thanks a lot.” process. When it finally touched down in “CAPCOM” Charlie Duke, is a record the Sea of Tranquility, Eagle had fewer of those tense moments. After Aldrin 47

WALKING ON THE MOON

Six and a half hours after successfully navigating Eagle through its harrowing descent, Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the moon, followed about twenty minutes later by Buzz Aldrin. While exploring the lunar surface, the astronauts planted an American flag, spoke briefly with President Nixon, deployed equipment for two scientific experiments, and collected a variety of rock samples. Twenty-one and a half hours after landing, Armstrong and Aldrin lifted off in Eagle’s ascent stage, docked with Collins, and, on July 24, returned safely to Earth. 48 49

ONE SMALL STEP

With 600 million people watching a “a,” but soon after landing, while in grainy TV feed of Neil Armstrong protective quarantine with his fellow descending Eagle’s ladder and setting astronauts and several other NASA foot on the moon, he uttered the employees, Armstrong inscribed the famous words, “That’s one small correctly worded quotation for press step for [a] man, one giant leap for officer John McLeaish. mankind.” The somewhat garbled audio transmission may have lacked the 50 51

STAR CHART

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin used of planet Earth among the stars, as this star chart to calibrate Eagle’s well as for the moon dust coating the guidance system soon after landing back of the Velcro patch. Accompanying on the surface of the moon. This was the star chart is a letter from Buzz the first time that humans performed Aldrin documenting its history. celestial navigation while standing on a heavenly body other than Earth. The star chart is notable for the presence 53 54 55

CELESTIAL NAVIGATION CARDS

Following in the tradition of centuries The constellations are shown visually PGNS-39 (page 57), entering a star’s of celestial navigation, Neil Armstrong on card S-2 (page 55) and listed on reference number and its coordinates and Buzz Aldrin relied on the stars to card PGNS-1 (page 56), with each star as observed through the Eagle’s help calibrate Eagle’s Primary Guidance assigned a specific numeric identifier. Alignment Optical Telescope (AOT), into and Navigation System (PGNS), aided While on the lunar surface, the its onboard computer. by these three lunar-surface-flown astronauts completed the “P57 Lunar checklist cards. Surface Alignment” steps listed on 56 57 58 59

ARMSTRONG’S PHOTOGRAPH OF BUZZ ALDRIN ON THE MOON

This iconic photo of Buzz Aldrin, activity (EVA), there is only one high- signed by all three Apollo 11 astronauts, quality still image of Armstrong on the was taken by Neil Armstrong, whose lunar surface. reflection can be seen, along with that of the lunar module, in Aldrin’s visor. Since Armstrong held the 70 mm Hasselblad camera during most of the time allotted to the extravehicular 60 61

SEISMIC PRINTOUT AND PHOTO

While on the lunar surface, Neil and labeled “Astronaut Activities.” The after deploying the Passive Seismic Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin deployed printout was later signed by principal Experiment on the moon. a seismometer to detect moonquakes investigator Gary Latham, four of his and meteoroid impacts. This printout collaborators, and the three Apollo 11 captures the first data transmitted astronauts. back to Earth, including vibrations The accompanying photograph, caused by the astronauts’ footsteps, also signed by the three Apollo 11 magnified up to twenty million times, astronauts, depicts Aldrin shortly 62 64 65

APOLLO 11 MISSION PATCH

NASA allowed each crew to design its deliberately left their names off the the moon by Collins in his Personal own mission patch, and for Apollo 11, patch because, as Collins explained, “We Preference Kit (PPK), where the crew Michael Collins took the lead. His wanted the design to be representative stored their mementos. original focus on America’s national of everyone who had worked toward a bird, the eagle, appeared warlike, lunar landing.” so he added an olive branch to the This patch, printed on the same bird’s talons to convey the peaceful fireproof used in the nature of the mission. The astronauts astronauts’ spacesuits, was carried to 66 67

FLOWN FLAG

Neil Armstrong carried this large one of many unsung heroes whose Apollo Program Command and Service silk American flag in his Personal engineering and management skills Modules, which carried Armstrong, Preference Kit (PPK), and upon enabled the success of America’s space Aldrin, and Collins to the moon. returning from the moon had it mounted program. on a commemorative certificate signed The two met when Armstrong was by all three Apollo 11 astronauts. a for the X-15 hypersonic Armstrong then presented it to his rocket-powered aircraft program; later, longtime friend Kenneth Kleinknecht, Kleinknecht served as manager for the 68 69

FLOWN COMMEMORATIVE STAMP COVER

Michael Collins carried this In addition to flown covers like this commemorative cover to the moon. one, the astronauts also signed Signed by all three Apollo 11 numerous “insurance covers.” Unable to astronauts, it bears the cancellation obtain life insurance, the astronauts date August 11, 1969, the day after left those covers behind for their the astronauts were released from families to sell in the event the mission protective quarantine. ended in disaster. 70 71

TWO NEWSPAPERS

These two newspapers from July 21, 1969, celebrate the achievements of the Apollo 11 mission. The Wapakoneta Daily News, from Neil Armstrong’s hometown, has the headline “Neil Steps on the Moon” over a beaming photo of his parents. Signed by Armstrong, the paper reassures local readers that “Mom, dad worries lighter after walk.” The New York Times, targeting a more general audience, simply proclaims “Men Walk on Moon.” Signed by all three Apollo 11 astronauts, the front page describes the historic accomplishments of the past twenty- four hours, accompanied by still images captured from the grainy TV feed.

72 73

A CELEBRATORY STATE DINNER

On August 13, 1969, following ticker- Supreme Court, fifty members of tape parades in New York and Chicago, Congress, forty-four governors, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins flew fourteen Cabinet members, and to Los Angeles for a state dinner, representatives from eighty-three where each astronaut received the different countries. Nixon and Presidential Medal of Freedom. Armstrong signed this menu card. President Nixon hosted the Vice President, the Chief Justice of the Small Steps, Giant Leaps: Apollo 11 This perfect-bound book was designed The NASA photographs reproduced at Fifty is typeset in Paratype's New by Alex Camlin, and 400 copies were on pages 14, 32, 33, 46, and 47 were Letter Gothic, a digital version of printed by Puritan Capital on Mohawk taken by the Apollo 11 astronauts the typewriter face designed for IBM Everyday Silk 80# text. The cover was during the mission and are in the in 1956, and URW's Futura Pro Demi, printed on Mohawk Superfine Ultrawhite public domain. based on Paul Renner's Futura (1927). Smooth 100# cover. Versions of both typefaces were used for the Apollo 11 Flight Plan in 1969. HOUGHTON LIBRARY