Category: Apollo 11

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Apollo 11’s Unspoken Plan: Preparing for Moon Mission Failure

Despite careful planning, things can still go awry, emphasizing the importance of preparing for the worst.

In 1969, as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their groundbreaking lunar landing, NASA’s main worry was whether the lunar lander could effectively leave the moon’s surface and reunite with Michael Collins aboard the lunar orbiter.

Had the liftoff been unsuccessful, Armstrong and Aldrin would have faced a harrowing fate, stranded on the moon with the world watching.

To prepare for such a disaster, President Nixon’s speechwriter, William Safire, crafted a message for Nixon to deliver. The plan included contacting the astronauts’ spouses, severing communication with the moon, and having a clergy member recite a prayer akin to a burial at sea. Nixon would then address the nation via television.

The Nixon White House prepared this letter in the event that American astronauts did not survive the Apollo 11 mission.
The Nixon White House prepared this letter in the event that American astronauts did not survive the Apollo 11 mission.

Thankfully, the somber speech was never necessary. It remains uncertain whether Nixon was aware of its existence, but the astronauts discovered it during a 1999 interview commemorating the 30th anniversary of the moon landing.

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The Apollo 11 Astronauts Had to Go Through Customs When They Came Back from the Moon

July 20 marked the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s famous moon landing. Those brave men did something no one had ever done before, uniting humanity in awe and wonder at the mysteries of the universe.

Apparently, humanity is also united in experiencing the joys of going through customs upon entering the country – even those astronauts.

Just like anyone coming off a long trip—for work no less—the men of Apollo 11 were probably ready for a beer and a nice steak dinner. Instead, a brief interaction with the local, friendly customs agent was in order.

The astronauts declared moon rock, moon dust and other moon samples on the form as they entered the United States through Honolulu Airport, Hawaii, after landing in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. Their ocean splash-down was the end of their historic voyage to the moon.

All three crewmen—Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin—signed the form. Their point of departure was recorded as Cape Kennedy, Florida, with a stopover on the moon before arrival in Honolulu.

Photo Credit: NASA

Website Space.com found the customs form on the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol site, where it went up as a commemoration for the 40th anniversary of the moon visit. NASA verified that, yes, the form is real. But it was all done in fun.

The actual return to earth happened about 920 miles southwest of Hawaii and only 12 miles from the USS Hornet, the navy ship deployed to pick up the astronauts. The trip to Honolulu would take an additional two days.

As for the declaration of health, Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin were all quarantined inside a NASA trailer on board the USS Hornet to prevent the spread of any moon diseases. They even had to wear special biohazard suits while on deck after getting pulled from the seas.

Photo Credit: NASA

The astronauts, trailer and all, were taken to Houston. Then, three weeks later they were allowed to leave isolation and go to all the parties and parades they were due.

Present day astronauts don’t have to sit in isolation. When they return from the International Space Station, they receive a quick medical checkup before they are free to move about the earth. But whenever they return, they—like the rest of us earthlings—have to go through customs.

The post The Apollo 11 Astronauts Had to Go Through Customs When They Came Back from the Moon appeared first on UberFacts.

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The Apollo 11 Astronauts Were Honored with Butter Sculptures at the Ohio State Fair

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing, the three astronauts on that mission are being honored with life-sized sculptures made out of butter at the Ohio State Fair.

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins landed on the moon and changed the course of history. The state of Ohio has a strong kinship with space travel: Neil Armstrong was an Ohio native and so was John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. Ohio also has a long history of dairy production. Combine all those factors together and you get the magnificent butter display at this year’s Ohio State Fair.

If you are lucky enough to be able to go to the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, don’t miss the traditional “cow made out of…

Posted by Suellen Brady-Nugent on Thursday, July 25, 2019

Dairy farmers donated over 2,000 pounds of butter to help create the sculptures. An artist from Cincinnati named Paul Brooke and a team of sculptors spent 400-500 hours creating the buttery tributes in a cooler set at 46 degrees to prevent the pieces from melting.

Here’s a cool time-lapse video of the butter being sculpted:

Alexander Balz, one of the artists, said, “The space suits were a real challenge, to be honest. It’s easy to sculpt things that you know. When you sculpt a human being you memorize it, so this was a challenge.”

Roughly 500,000 people are expected to have attended the State Fair in late July and early August. Here’s a video with some great footage of the display.

What a unique and cool way to honor a pivotal event in American, and human, history!

And, by the way, I’m really hoping that this butter sculpting catches on more widely because it is fabulous.

The post The Apollo 11 Astronauts Were Honored with Butter Sculptures at the Ohio State Fair appeared first on UberFacts.

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If the Apollo 11 Mission Had Failed, This Is the Speech President Nixon Would Have Given

The mission to the moon embarked upon by the crew of Apollo 11 fifty years ago is one of the greatest achievements in the history of humankind. But as the country cheered liftoff, leaders silently prepared for catastrophe.

Photo Credit: NASA

The US National Archives has released a speech written specifically for President Nixon to deliver if astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin were ultimately marooned – which would have meant that they were going to die on the moon.

Written by William Safire, the speech begins:

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

Safire, who would eventually write for the New York Times, continues poetically:

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

Photo Credit: U.S. Archives

Safire’s speech concludes:

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

Photo Credit: U.S. Archives

As beautiful and poignant as Safire’s speech is, we are grateful we never heard it. On July 20, 1969, Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Eagle on the lunar surface before returning safely to earth, June 24.

The post If the Apollo 11 Mission Had Failed, This Is the Speech President Nixon Would Have Given appeared first on UberFacts.

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While in the USSR, Neil Armstrong…

While in the USSR, Neil Armstrong collected a handful of soil from outside a Ukrainian man’s house in Siberia to acknowledge that man’s contribution to Apollo-11 Moon Mission. The gravitational trajectory adopted by Apollo-11 program to reach the Moon is named after that man – ‘The Kondratyuk Rout’.