IAN HOLM: the dream of flight is one of mankind's most enduring.
Two days stand out above all others in the history of aviation:
the first powered flight by the wright brothers,
and the journey that took man to the surface of the moon.
Extraordinary moments separated by Just 66 years.
This is a dramatisation of events, as they happened,
on two days that shook the world.
It is December 17th, 1903,
Henry Ford has launched his motorcar company.
Marie Curie has just received the Nobel Prize for her work into radiation.
Emmeline Pankhurst is campaigning for women to have the vote.
And in Kitty Hawk, North America,
two brothers are about to put four years of work to the ultimate test
Dawn. The Outer Banks.
One hundred and thirty miles of saltwater marsh and desolate sand dune,
home for the last three months for two brothers from Dayton, Ohio.
Impatient to get on with the day,
Orville Wright is already up and out on the dunes.
Before he and his brother can test their new machine,
Orville has to make one vital check.
ORVILLE: We certainly shouldn't complain of the place.
We came down here for wind and sand and we have got them.
HOLM: Orville's older brother, Wilbur, is making breakfast
in the wooden shed they've called home for the last few months.
It's the same breakfast he's made every morning:
Eggs, dried ham and hard biscuit.
And he sincerely hopes
that this is one of the last times he'll have to endure it
Both bachelors, Orville and Wilbur run a successful bicycle business back home.
Now they have finally completed work on a revolutionary new flying machine.
Today, they plan to put it to the test
One mile away, the local lifeboat men have also got their eye on the weather.
Nicknamed the "Graveyard of the Atlantic”,
the banks are notoriously treacherous and winter is the worst time of year.
Over the last few months,
the Wright Brothers have regularly called on the locals for help.
Last night, Wilbur warned them to be ready to help again today.
Orville is worried.
The wind is 27 miles an hour.
The last thing he and Wilbur want today is a gale.
Will their machine work in such weather?
And will whoever tests it survive?
Time is running out
The brothers are frustrated.
Having spent the last four years working on the problem of flight,
they're desperate to see if their new machine works.
But they also made a solemn promise to their father, Milton,
a bishop in the Church of United Brethren of Christ,
before coming out here.
They said they would be home in time for Christmas.
The journey from Kitty Hawk to Dayton, Ohio
takes three days, at the best of times.
Today's already the 17th of December.
All they can do is wait
and pray that the wind dies down.
Impatient with the enforced delay,
Wilbur decides to take a look at conditions himself.
WILBUR: For some years, 1 have been afflicted by the belief
that flight is possible for man.
My disease has increased in severity,
and I fear that it will soon cost me an increased amount of money,
if not my life.
HOLM: Wilbur's fear, this morning, is all too real
He has only to remember the fate of the man
who inspired his obsession in the first place,
Otto Lilienthal, the birdman of Europe,
a German civil engineer who had covered distances of up to 800 feet
in elegant gliders made of willow and waxed cotton.
Lilienthal believed man would have to master control of a flying machine,
if he was to successfully conquer the skies.
Alas, Lilienthal's own mastery fell short of the mark.
In 1896, he plunged headfirst into the ground and broke his neck.
Still, even in death,
Lilienthal had been a source of inspiration to the Wright Brothers.
Building a flying machine was the easy part.
It was learning how to fly it that killed most early aviators.
Outer Banks lifeboat man John T. Daniels is on patrol
There are some on the Outer Banks who hold
that if the Lord had meant man to fly, he'd have grown him wings.
But not Daniels.
He's watched the wright brothers with fascination
and was expecting to help them with their new machine today.
So far, there's no sign of activity from the brothers' camp.
9:15. Still there's no respite.
Of course, when Wilbur first came to Kitty Hawk,
it was the wind he was interested in.
WILBUR: I chose Kitty Hawk because there are neither hills nor trees,
so that it is safe for practice
and the wind is stronger than any place near home.
HOLM: Kitty Hawk provided the brothers with a secret testing ground
for their own theories of flight.
The Outer Banks also gave Wilbur the opportunity
to study the natural masters of the art.
WILBUR: We could not understand
that there was anything about a bird that would enable it to fly
that could not be built on a larger scale and used by man.
HOLM: Wilbur saw that the secret of control lay in the way
birds made minute adjustments to the shape of their wings, while in flight.
WILBUR: If a bird's wings could sustain it in the air
without the use of any muscular effort,
we did not see why man could not be sustained by the same means.
HOLM: Rather than making a large pair of wings
and leaping off the nearest cliff,
the brothers started with their feet on the ground, with a kite.
By twisting the angle of the wings of their kite,
they were soon able to control its movement in the air.
Wing warping. as they called it
would be succeeded by flaps in rigid-winged aircraft
But it was this breakthrough that laid the foundation
for the Wrights' next step.
After testing their wing warping theory on kites, they moved on to gliders.
Throughout the autumn of 1902, they were a regular sight at Kitty Hawk,
the wind providing the power for their willow and waxed-cotton machines.
ORVILLE: In two days, we made over 250 glides.
We have gained considerable proficiency in the handling of the machine,
so that we are able to take it out in any kind of weather.
HOLM: while the sand forgave the occasional error.
Today is the result of three years building gliders,
thousands of hours flying above the sand at Kitty Hawk.
But their new machine has one major difference: It has an engine.
Other attempts at powered flight had used brute force,
which meant the machines were simply too heavy to fly.
Calculating that they needed just eight horsepower to fly their machine,
the Wrights have designed and built their own lightweight engine.
They hope that the wings and their own propeller design will do the rest.
At Just after 10:00, Wilbur and Orville decide to go outside
to check over their machine.
They've made every single bit of it
Their two propellers are linked by bicycle drive chains
to their lightweight petrol engine.
The cotton and willow wings, which warp,
and a rudder at the rear, control the machine in the air.
The hand-operated rudder at the front is designed to control ascent and descent.
ORVILLE: Isn't it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved
for so many years, Just so that we could discover them?
HOLM: while Orville's confidence in their genius is impressive,
the brothers are only too aware that their machine is utterly untried.
Testing any machine is risky.
In a 27-mile-an-hour wind, the brothers are risking their lives.
The wind is still too strong.
The frustration is becoming unbearable.
They tried to fly three days ago, but Wilbur, unfamiliar with the controls,
succeeded only in smashing the front rudder.
Repairs took two days,
with no work on the Sabbath, out of respect for their father.
Now they are ready to try again, but cannot afford any more accidents.
Time is running out
WILBUR: The conditions were very unfavourable,
as we had a cold north wind blowing, almost a gale.
Nevertheless, as we had set our minds on being home by Christmas,
we determined to go ahead.
HOLM: Orville reluctantly raises the flag to summon the lifeboat men.
The men set off from the lifeboat station,
along with a boy, Johnny Moore, from the nearby resort of Nags Head.
The new machine is their largest yet.
With a span of over 40 feet,
the upper and lower wings are over six feet apart.
They called it The Flyer.
Now, they want it to live up to the promise of its name.
Since their very first experiments in flight,
the brothers have used photography to document their exploits.
Today is no exception.
Orville sets the camera and calls Daniels over.
Daniels has never taken a photograph before in his life,
but Orville lines up the shot and tells the fisherman
to operate the shutter when their machine is in front of the camera.
Orville takes up position on the machine.
Behind him, Wilbur is ready to crank the propeller
and start up the engine.
ORVILLE: I found the control of the front rudder quite difficult
on account of it being balanced too near the centre.
As a result, the machine would rise suddenly to about 10 feet,
and then, on turning the rudder, dart for the ground.
HOLM: Orville Wright's first flight.
It lasts just 12 seconds.
Wilbur is so amazed that he forgets to stop the watch.
Orville is so surprised that he forgets
to throw the engine switch to stop the propellers.
But Daniels keeps his head.
The first photograph he's ever taken.
It will become one of the most famous in the history of aviation.
The Wright brothers' machine has flown,
but only for 12 seconds.
Despite the excitement of what they've witnessed,
the December wind has got the better of everyone.
The brothers make coffee for the lifeboat men.
But Wilbur is impatient to press on.
Their machine flew, but its brief flight covered a meagre 120 feet.
Wilbur is far from satisfied.
So, it's into the cold for another attempt
It's Wilbur's furn. He makes the second flight of the day.
ORVILLE: The distance covered, about 175 feet.
HOLM: Orville makes the third test flight
Time: 15 seconds. Distance: Just over 200 feet
Each attempt pushes their machine a little further.
At Just after midday, Wilbur is ready to make the fourth
and, what will be, his last flight in the machine.
By the time he has gone over 300 feel,
he is starting to fly in a fairly straight line.
But suddenly, he loses control
The machine pitches forward and crashes into the sand.
The front rudder is smashed to pieces, The Flyer ls damaged beyond repair,
but Wilbur is unharmed.
The brothers are delighted.
Traveling a distance of 852 feet in 59 seconds,
Orville and Wilbur Wright have made the world's first powered flight.
And the only witnesses to this momentous event
are four lifeboat men and a little boy.
1:00, the brothers take lunch.
Eggs, ham and biscuit, again.
They are eager to tell their father that they will be home for Christmas
and they want to let the world know of their triumph.
Ninety six miles away, in Norfolk, Virginia,
H.P. Moore is at work in the circulation department of The Virginian-Pilot.
He's desperate to break into reporting,
but has never been able to persuade his editor he has what it takes.
This afternoon, one of the biggest stories of the century
is about to land in his lap.
The brothers set off to the Kitty Hawk weather bureau
to send a telegram to their father.
ORVILLE: Success! Four flights, Thursday morning, all against 21-mile wind.
Started from level with engine power alone.
Average speed through air, 31 miles. Longest, 59 seconds.
Inform press. Home Christmas. Orville.
HOLM: The telegram operator in Norfolk asks if he can pass the news on
to his friend, who works on the local paper.
The Wright brothers say, "Absolutely not."
They want the news of their amazing flight
to come from their hometown, Dayton.
But the telegram operator ignores them.
(PHONE RINGS)
MOORE: H.P. Uh-huh.
When he gets the call from his friend at the telegram office,
HP. Moore cannot believe his luck.
What?
This is the story that will make his career.
MOORE: Give it to me.
But he needs more facts from the eyewitness.
MOORE: A big thanks.
He wants to get a quote from the Mr wright, mentioned by his friend.
But the line to Kitty Hawk is dead.
The ambitious hack goes ahead anyway and writes up the story
based on what his friend, the operator, has Just told him,
with a few embellishments of his own.
MOORE: The machine flew above the sea for three miles
and gracefully descended to the Earth.
It had one six-blade propeller beneath it to elevate I,
and another propeller at the rear to shove it forward.
HOLM: Moore concludes by writing
that when Wilbur and Orville celebrated their success,
they ran around... MOORE: shouting, "Eureka!"
HOLM: His story is 99% inaccurate.
Kitty Hawk. Wilbur and Orville are
preparing for the three-day Journey home.
They can only imagine how the world is reacting to the news of their triumph.
Seven hundred and twenty miles away,
and Orville's telegram reaches his father in Dayton, Ohio.
MILTON: “Success/ Four flights, Thursday morning
"all against 21-mile wind. Started from level, with engine power alone.
"Average speed through air, 31 miles. Longest, 59 seconds.
"Inform press."
HOLM: The telegram has spelt his son's name wrong,
but Bishop Wright is overjoyed.
Acting on instruction,
he immediately sends his son's telegram to the office of the local newspaper.
Frank Tunison is on duty in the newsroom of the Dayton Journal
As a journalist he prides himself on his exacting professionalism.
Bishop wright's boys may well have made a flying machine,
but a 57-second flight is not news for Tunison.
(GUFFAWS)
If they'd flown 57 minutes,
then it might have made it into the Dayton Journal
But the Wright brothers' first flight
makes the front page of The Virginian-Pilot.
The next morning, H.P. Moore's story is splashed over all five columns.
Last night, he'd offered it to other newspapers, but none ran it,
except for his own.
The role of the four lifeboat men,
who made the events on that cold, winter day in Kitty Hawk possible,
was never mentioned.
But the Wright brothers' reputation as the fathers of modern aviation
was sealed today, on December 17th, 1903.
Only 66 years later,
a piece of their historic plane will make the ultimate flight
and accompany three astronauts on a journey to the moon.
It is the 20th of July, 1965.
Yasser Arafat is the newly-elected leader of the PLO.
James Earl Ray has Just been jailed for the murder of Martin Luther King.
In war-torn Biafra, 4 million people are facing starvation.
And floating a quarter of a million miles away in space,
three astronauts are about to make
the greatest technological endeavor of all time.
Houston, Texas.
NASA flight director Eugene F. Kranz is awake early.
A Korean War air force veteran, he is a patriot and a devout Catholic.
Last night, he attended mass at his church,
the Shrine of the True Gross.
But beyond his religious faith, is Kranz's belief in the space programme.
Not just a part of his life, it is his life.
When he is at work in Mission Control, he always wears a waistcoat
made for him by his wife, Marta.
Today is no exception.
But this waistcoat will be worn for
what will be the most exceptional shift of his career.
Two hundred and thirty nine thousand miles above Houston,
the three astronauts of the eleventh Apollo mission
are still asleep in the Command Module Columbia.
For the last 17 hours, they've been in orbit around the moon.
Thirty-eight-year-old Neil Armstrong from Ohio is in charge of the mission.
With him are astronauts Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins.
Last night, Collins volunteered to keep watch
while the other two astronauts got some rest.
He's to stay in orbit in the Command Module
while Armstrong and Aldrin attempt to land on the moon
in the Lunar Module Eagle.
In 23 minutes' time, they will wake to begin their journey into the unknown.
Steve Bales spent the night in the Mission Control bunkhouse.
Never particularly good at waking up in the morning,
this is one day on which he couldn't afford to oversleep.
It is his first fob since leaving college,
but, at just 26 years old,
he is already a Space Centre veteran of five years.
He doesn't know it, but later today,
the whole of the Apollo mission will rest on his shoulders.
As flight director, Kranz has overall responsibility for the lunar landing.
Around the world, millions of people will be watching live
as America attempts to do something that has never been done before.
For Kranz, and the 400,000 people who have worked on the Apollo programme,
the stakes are high.
The potential for failure is infinite, but if they succeed,
it will be a dramatic climax to a race that began eight years earlier.
On May 25th, 1961, at the height of the Cold War,
John F. Kennedy made what would be
one of the most important speeches of his brief presidency.
KENNEDY: 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.
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things
not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
HOLM: Kennedy took the Cold War into space.
The mission, to put a man on the moon before the Russians,
was the most costly project ever undertaken.
Kranz had been there since the beginning.
Joining NASA in 1966,
he'd flight-controlled on both the Mercury and Gemini projects.
But Apollo was different
its mighty Saturn V rocket engine had finally given man the power
to break free of the Earth's gravity.
Kranz flight-directed missions 5, 8 and 9.
He'd been there through each success and every setback,
including the launch-pad fire that killed an entire crew.
Apollo 11 had successfully taken off four days ago.
It was 2,974 days after John F. Kennedy's speech,
almost six years after his assassination.
MAN ON PA: Ten, nine, ignition sequence start.
HOLM: After orbiting the Earth one-and-a-half times,
the third-stage engine boosted Apollo 11 out of Earth's orbit
and on to a lunar trajectory.
Traveling at an initial speed of 24,200 miles an hour,
the three-day journey to the moon was relatively quiet.
ASTRONAUT: The zero g's very comfortable, but after a while...
HOLM: It had been accomplished twice before.
The sight of men in space was no longer startling.
ASTRONAUT: You tend to find a little corner somewhere and put your knees up,
or something like that, to wedge yourself in.
HOLM: But Apollo 11 had one major difference.
Apollo 11 was going to land on the moon.
8:00, Kranz arrives at Mission Control
and takes over the Flight Director's chair.
MAN ON PA: Apollo 11, Houston.
Now he's coming in. Can't quite make out who that is.
That's big Mike Collins there.
COLLINS: Buzz, you got a little bit of...
Yeah, hello there, sports fans.
You got a little bit of me, plus Neil is in the centre couch,
and Buzz is doing the camera work this time.
HOLM: They are about to embark on the most risky phase of the mission.
The descent to the surface of the moon.
In orbit above the moon,
Buzz Aldrin crawls through the hatch into the Lunar Module.
He starts checking the systems in preparation for the powered descent
Kranz makes his first entry in the Flight Log.
KRANZ: 95 hours and 41 minutes mission elapsed time.
White team descent
Crew in Lunar Module pressurizing preps.
All looks good.
HOLM: He looks over the first row of flight controllers
in a place they call the "Trench".
The controllers have a nickname for Kranz, "General Savage".
There is the Communications Officer.
His fob is to ensure Eagle maintains a strong radio signal with Houston
so the controllers have good data and can communicate with the spacecraft
The flight surgeon will be monitoring the health of the astronauts
through individual electrocardiogram read-outs.
There is Guidance Officer Steve Bales.
His job is to oversee the computerized flight control system
that will take Eagle down to the moon.
And directly in front of Kranz is astronaut Charlie Duke, Cap Comm,
the Capsule Communicator.
He's the point of contact between Kranz's team and the Apollo mission.
DUKE: So, Apollo 11, Houston, did you copy? Over.
HOLM: It's his voice that the astronauts and the world will hear.
Orbiting the dark side of the moon,
Eagle and Columbia are out of radio contact with Houston.
With Armstrong and Aldrin in the Lunar Module,
Collins is ready to separate Columbia from Eagle.
Collins releases the spring-loaded bolts of the docking mechanism,
and Eagle drifts gently away.
Armstrong fires small bursts of Eagle's thruster rocket,
turning the Lunar Module on its head,
in preparation for the descent to the moon's surface.
Nicknamed the "Flying Bedstead™ by astronauts in training,
Eagle's balance is maintained by its on board computer.
The peak of 1969 technology, Hts 74-kilobyte memory
is less than a modern mobile phone.
Collins starts his vigil orbiting the moon in Columbia.
Privately, he has given some thought
to the odds of them safely accomplishing this mission.
He estimates a 50/50 chance of success.
If things go according to plan,
he won't see Armstrong and Aldrin for at least 22 hours.
If something goes wrong down there, it's unlikely he will ever see them again.
Mission Control still has a half-hour wait
before the spacecraft come back into radio contact.
Kranz tells his flight controllers to be back at their posts in 15 minutes.
KRANZ ON PA: Procedures from flight,
will you make sure the doors get secured now, please.
HOLM: Kranz orders security to lock the doors to Mission Control
and switches to a private communication mode.
KRANZ: Will you secure the doors? MAN: Pleasure.
HOLM: Then, after reviewing operational procedures,
he gives the pep talk of his life.
KRANZ: This is the best team I've ever worked with.
I have ultimate confidence in you people.
What we're about to do now, it’s Just like we do it in training.
And after we finish the son-of-a-gun, we're gonna go out and have a beer
and say, "Damn lit, we really did something.”
HOLM: Collins clears the moon two minutes before Eagle,
and establishes contact with Houston.
COLLINS: Columbia, Houston. We're standing by. Over.
COLLINS: Houston, Columbia. Reading you loud and clear. How me?
DUKE: Roger. Fine, Mike. How did it go? Over.
COLLINS: Listen, everything's going Just swimmingly. Beautiful
DUKE: Great. We're standing by for Eagle.
HOLM: Eagle then clears the moon,
but Mission Control has a problem receiving their signal
Communications from the spacecraft have been cutting out
and then returning for brief moments.
DUKE: Apollo 11, this is Houston, how do you read? Over.
(RADIO STATIC)
DUKE: Apollo 11, Apollo 11, this is Houston, do you read? Over.
HOLM: Kranz ls nervous.
In only a few minutes,
he will have to give Armstrong and Aldrin the go-ahead for the mission,
and his controllers need good data.
Charlie Duke suggests that Eagle pitch 10 degrees to improve signal strength.
DUKE: Eagle, Houston, we recommend you yaw 10 right.
It will help us on the high gain signal strength. Over.
Eagle, Houston, we have you now, do you read? Over.
ASTRONAUT: Loud and clear.
KRANZ: Okay, we're off to a good start Play it cool
HOLM: With an improved signal, Kranz asks his flight controllers
for a go or a no-go for the descent
KRANZ. Okay, all flight controllers, I'm going around the horn.
Make your go/no-gos based on the data you had per an iOS. See we got it back.
Give you another few seconds.
We're yelling fine.
-Okay, Retro.
- FIDO? - Go.
- Guide? Control? - Go.?
-Cap Comm?
- GNC? - Go.
- D-Com? Surgeon? - Go.
- Cap Comm, we're go to continue PDI
DUKE: Roger, you're a go. You're a go to continue powered descent.
HOLM: With the Eagle in position, they are about to start
the part of the mission that has never been attempted before,
the manned descent to the surface of the moon.
Only 50,000 feet above the moon,
Armstrong and Aldrin are strapped to the floor of the Lunar Module.
Their mouths are dry from the pure oxygen in the capsule.
The computer will take Eagle down to 500 feet,
then Armstrong will take over control for the landing.
The descent engine fires,
and the Lunar Module vibrates with a high-frequency hum.
Eagle ls face-down, traveling towards the moon at a mile a second.
Armstrong looks out the window to check for landmarks,
but each checkpoint is appearing two seconds ahead of schedule.
At their current rate of descent,
they're likely to overshoot the planned landing site by two miles.
ASTRONAUT: Okay, so we're gonna make it...
DUKE: Roger.
DUKE: He thinks you're a little bit long downrange.
ARMSTRONG. That's right, and I think we confirm that.
ALDRIN: We confirm that Roger.
HOLM: Guidance Officer Steve Bales is worried.
Eagle ls descending too fast 20 miles an hour faster than planned.
If the descent rate increases, Eagle ls Likely to crash-land.
But the speed is constant
They can overshoot the planned landing zone,
and Armstrong should be able to find a new, suitable site.
Eagle furns over onto its back
so that its landing radar can lock onto the moon.
The radar comes to life,
firing information on speed and altitude into Eagle's guidance system.
MAN: Okay, we got data back.
COLLINS: Radar flight looks good.
MAN: Rog. COLLINS: 2,000 feet.
MAN: Rog, 2,000-foot down...
HOLM: Aldrin checks the computer's calculations
against the distance measured by the radar.
Because of the fast descent rate, the two are out by several thousand feet
He tries to input the new data from the radar into the computer.
ALDRIN: A programme alarm.
HOLM: An alarm goes off on the computer.
ALDRIN: 7202. DUKE: 7202.
ALDRIN: 7202.
HOLM: Aldrin has never seen this before.
He has no idea what a 1202 alarm means, or how serious it might be.
Mission Control and Kranz is under pressure.
With an alarm active, the Lunar Module's computer is liable to crash.
Kranz has to decide whether to abort the descent
or override the alarm and hope for the best
Suddenly, the most important man in the room is Steve Bales.
Whether the entire mission is go or no-go
is now down to the 26-year-old Guidance Officer.
But Bales isn't sure what the 1202 alarm is either.
During simulated landings, three seconds was considered a long time.
It takes 15 for Mission Control to give Neil Armstrong an answer.
The entire mission hangs on Bales' call
The astronauts need an answer.
ARMSTRONG. Give us a reading on the 1202 programme alarm.
BALES: Were... We're go on that flight
KRANZ: We're go on that alarm?
DUKE: Roger, we got you. We're go on that alarm.
HOLM: Bales thinks the alarm is the result of a computer overload,
so it keeps resetting itself
ALDRIN: 7201.
HOLM: Another alarm, this time a 1201.
DUKE: Roger, 1201 alarm.
We're go on that flight
- 1201 alarm. - Same type. We're go, flight
Okay, we're go.
HOLM: Then another 1202 alarm.
DUKE: Roger, 1202, we copy.
- HOLM: With the alarms now coming... - ALDRIN: Copy.
- Go. - HOLM: on top of each other,
Bales overrides each one.
Go. Go. Go.
DUKE: We're go. Same type. We're go.
HOLM: Bales' decision allows the Lunar Module to continue its descent
inside Eagle, Aldrin updates the computer with the new data.
DUKE: Eagle, looking great, you're go.
HOLM: But the mission is about to enter its most risky phase.
KRANZ. Okay, all flight controllers, gonna go for landing. Retro?
- Go. Go. - Line up?
- Guidance? Control? - Go.
-Telcom?
- G and C? D-Com? - Go.
-Surgeon?
KRANZ: Gap Comm, we're go for landing.
DUKE: Houston. You're go for landing. Over.
ASTRONAUT: Roger, understand, go for landing, 3,000 feet.
KRANZ. Okay, all flight controllers, hang tight
Should be throttling down pretty shortly.
HOLM: Half-way through the powered descent, Eagle's engine throttles down.
Still under computer control, it pitches over into its landing position.
Armstrong checks the altitude and speed.
5,000 feet up, 100 feet per second, Just as expected.
DUKE: Flight plan looking real good.
MAN ON PA: Velocity down now to 1,200 feet per second.
DUKE: You're looking great to us, Eagle.
MAN ON PA: Control, we look good here, fine. How about you, Telcom?
- Go. - Guidance, you happy?
- Go. - FIDO?
Go.
HOLM: Now, with the moon only 1,000 feet away,
Armstrong looks out at the window.
He does not like what he sees.
In Mission Control, the flight surgeon sees Armstrong's heart rate
rise from 77 to 156.
Eagle ls headed straight for a crater Uttered with boulders.
It's far from ideal as a landing site.
Armstrong initiates altitude hold.
Eagle lurches forward and is rocked by violent shudders,
as he fires the pitch control rockets.
Just 350 feet above the moon, Eagle clears the boulder field,
and Armstrong flies on in search of safer ground.
In Houston, the incoming data tells them
that Armstrong has taken control of the Lunar Module.
MAN: Low level MAN 2: Low level
MAN 3: Low level
HOLM: They can also see that his use of the thruster
has left Eagle dangerously low on fuel
For the first time today, Kranz and the controllers are powerless.
The whole mission is now down to just two men.
All they can do ls listen
to Armstrong and Aldrin counting down the distance to the moon
and hope that the fuel doesn't run out.
ALDRIN: Okay, 75 feet There's looking good.
- Down to 60. - DUKE: Rog.
60 seconds.
HOLM: Eagle has only 60 seconds of fuel remaining.
But Armstrong has found a landing site.
Only 100 feet separate Eagle from the moon.
They have seconds of fuel left
ALDRIN: Two-and-a-half down, two-and-a-half.
Thirty feet, two-and-a-half down.
Faint shadow.
Four forward.
HOLM: 20 feet to go. Armstrong wrestles with the controls.
He has to bring it down level,
otherwise touchdown could shatter Eagle's lags.
DUKE: Thirty seconds. ALDRIN: Thirty, thirty seconds.
HOLM: Upon landing, Armstrong is supposed to shut down the engine,
but he's so absorbed in flying, he momentarily forgets.
ARMSTRONG: Okay, engine stop.
ACA out of detent.
Auto mode control both auto, descent engine command override, off.
Engine arm, off.
413 is in.
DUKE: We copy you down, Eagle.
ARMSTRONG: Houston, uh...
Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
DUKE: Roger, Tranquility, we copy you on the ground.
You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue.
We're breathing again. Thanks a lot
ALDRIN: Okay, we're gonna be busy for a minute.
The whole scene for us, too, looks beautiful
KRANZ: Okay, keep the chatter down in this room.
HOLM: Kranz quietens his controllers.
The flight plan calls for a possible emergency lift-off.
Kranz asks the controllers if it is stay or no-stay.
KRANZ: Okay, T1, stay/no-stay. Retro?
- Stay. - FIDO?
- Stay. - Guidance? Control?
-Telcom?
-D-Com?
-Surgeon?
KRANZ: Gap Comm, we're stay for T1.
DUKE: Roger, Eagle, You are stay for T1. Over.
Eagle, you are a stay for T1.
HOLM: With a unanimous, "Stay,”
Armstrong and Aldrin power down most of Eagle's systems.
The flight plan has a four-hour rest period scheduled,
but there is no reason to wait
Armstrong suggests that the most dramatic part of the mission
starts ahead of schedule.
With Eagle safely on the moon,
Gene Kranz and his white team hand over to a new shift
They attend a short press conference
but are keen to get back to witness the high point of the mission.
Armstrong opens the hatch, moves through the opening
and out onto the ladder.
He pulls a D-ring on Eagle's side, and an equipment stowage tray lowers.
MAN: Got a picture on the TV.
MAN 2: photography on the sequence camera.
HOLM: On the big screen in Mission Control,
an alien, black-and-white image flickers into life.
Armstrong reaches the bottom rung of the ladder.
He pauses.
Then he launches himself into a slow-motion fall,
landing on the foll-covered footpad.
ARMSTRONG. Very, very fine-grained, as you get close to it,
It's almost like a powder.
HOLM: Carefully, he raises his left foot and lowers it onto the dust.
ARMSTRONG: That's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
HOLM: With no wind on the lunar surface, Armstrong's footprint
will remain undisturbed for millions of years.
DUKE: Columbia, say that again. Over.
COLLINS: Roger, the EVA is progressing beautifully.
They're setting up the flag now.
HOLM: Later, Armstrong and Aldrin will unfurl an American flag,
stiffened with wire
so that it will give the impression of flying in this airless world.
Posing for Armstrong's camera,
Aldrin reads the plague that will remain on the lunar surface.
ALDRIN: Neil is now unveiling the plague that is... It says:
"Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon
“July 1968, AD.
"We came in peace for all mankind.”
HOLM: Around the world, 600 million people,
one fifth of the world's population, are watching live on television.
It is the largest audience for any event in history.
NEWS ANCHOR: "One small step for man..."
(NEWS ANCHOR 2 SPEAKING IN SPANISH)
NEWS ANCHOR 3: - ..one giant leap for mankind."
HOLM: After 2 hours and 31 minutes on the moon,
the two astronauts climb back inside the Eagle.
When they take off their helmets, they smell a pungent odour.
It reminds Armstrong of wet ashes in the fireplace.
It is the smell of moon dust
At last, they prepare for a rest.
They have been up since 5:30, Houston time.
In a few hours from now, the two astronauts will blast off from the moon
and rendezvous with Michael Collins in the Command Module.
A final burn of their rocket
will set the astronauts on a journey back to Earth
and a hero's welcome.
Neil Armstrong will enter the history books as the first man on the moon,
Buzz Aldrin as the second
and Mike Collins as the astronaut who went with them.
Gene Kranz will go on to flight direct four further Apollo missions.
Steve Bales will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Honour
for his part in the lunar landing.
Go.
A total of 12 men will ultimately walk on the moon,
the last on December the 11th, 1972.
The first, today, on July 20, 1969,
66 years after the wright brothers' first fight.