While Armstrong flies the landing craft, Aldrin gives him altitude readings:"Seven hundred and fifty feet, coming down at 23 degrees . . . 700 feet,21 down . . . 400 feet, down at nine . . . Got the shadow out there . . . 75feet, things looking good . . . Lights on . . . Picking up some dust. . . 30feet, 2 1/2 down . . . Faint shadow . . . Four forward. Four forward, driftingto the right a little . . . Contact light. Okay, engine stop."
When the 68-inch probes beneath three of the spacecraft's four footpadstouch down, flashing a light on the instrument panel, Armstrong shuts off theship's engine.
4:18 p.m.- The craft settles down with a jolt almost like that of a jetlanding on a runway. It is at an angle of no more than four or five degrees onthe right side of the Moon as seen from Earth. Armstrong immediately radiosMission Control: "The Eagle has landed."
Aldrin, looking out of the LM window, reports: "We'll get to thedetails around here, but it looks like a collection of just about every varietyof shapes, angularities and granularities, every variety of rock you couldfind. The colors vary pretty much depending on how you're looking.... Theredoesn't appear to be much of a general color at all; however, it looks asthough some of the rocks and boulders, of which there are quite a few in thenear area . . . are going to have some interesting colors to them."
A few moments later he tells of seeing numbers of craters, some of them 100feet across, but most only one or two feet in diameter. He sees ridges 20 or 30feet high, two-foot blocks with angular edges, and a hill half a mile to a mileaway.
Finally, in describing the surface, Aldrin says: "It's pretty muchwithout color. It's gray and it's a very white chalky gray, as you look intothe zero phase line, and it's considerably darker gray, more like ashen gray asyou look up 9O degrees to the Sun. Some of the surface rocks close in here thathave been fractured or disturbed by the rocket engine are coated with thislight gray on the outside but when they've been broken they display a dark,very dark gray interior, and it looks like it could be country basalt."
The first task after landing is that of preparing the ship for launching, ofseeing that all is in readiness to make the ascent back to a rendezvous withthe command spacecraft orbiting above.
6:00 p.m.- With everything in order, Armstrong radios a recommendation thatthey plan to start the EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity), earlier than originallyscheduled, at about 9:OO p.m. EDT. Mission Control replies: "We willsupport you anytime."
10:39 p.m.- Later than proposed at 6:00 p.m., but more than five hours aheadof the original schedule, Armstrong opens the LM hatch and squeezes through theopening. It is a slow process. Strapped to his shoulders is a portable lifesupport and communications system weighing 84 pounds on Earth, 14 on the Moon,with provision for pressurization; oxygen requirements and removal of carbondioxide.
Armstrong moves slowly down the 10-foot, nine-step ladder. On reaching thesecond step, he pulls a "D-ring," within easy reach, deploying atelevision camera, so arranged on the LM that it will depict him to Earth as heproceeds from that point.
Down the ladder he moves and halts on the last step. "I'm at the footof the ladder," he reports. "The LM footpads are only depressed inthe surface about one or two inches. . . the surface appears to be very, veryfinegrained, as you get close to it, it's almost like a powder."
10:56 p.m.- Armstrong puts his left foot to the Moon. It is the first timein history that man has ever stepped on anything that has not existed on ororiginated from the Earth.
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,"Armstrong radios. Aldrin is taking photographs from inside the spacecraft.
The first print made by the weight of man on the Moon is that of a lunarboot which resembles an oversized galosh. Its soles are of silicon rubber andits 14-layer sidewalls of aluminized plastic. Specially designed forsuper-insulation, it protects against abrasion and has reduced friction tofacilitate donning. On Earth, it weighs four pounds, nine ounces. on the Moon,12 ounces.
Armstrong surveys his surroundings for a while and then moves out, testinghimself in a gravity environment one-sixth of that on Earth. "The surfaceis fine and powdery," he says. "I can pick it up loosely with my toe.It does adhere in fine layers like powdered charcoal to the sole and sides ofmy boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch. Maybe an eighth of an inch,but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine sandyparticles.
"There seems to be no difficulty in moving around as we suspected. It'seven perhaps easier than the simulations...."
Feeling more confident, Armstrong begins making a preliminary collection ofsoil samples close to the landing craft. This is done with a bag on the end ofa pole.
"This is very interesting," he comments. "It's a very softsurface, but here and there . . . I run into a very hard surface, but itappears to be very cohesive material of the same sort.... It has a stark beautyall its own. It's like much of the high desert of the United States."
He collects a small bagful of soil and stores it in a pocket on the left legof his space suit. This is done early, according to plan, to make sure some ofthe Moon surface is returned to Earth in case the mission has to be cut short.
11:11 p.m.- After lowering a Hasselblad still camera to Armstrong, Aldrinemerges from the landing craft and backs down the ladder, while his companionphotographs him.
"These rocks . . . are rather slippery," Armstrong says. Theastronauts report that the powdery surface seems to fill up the fine pores onthe rocks, and they tend to slide over them rather easily.
Armstrong fits a long focal length lens into position on the TV camera andtrains it upon a small, stainless steel plaque on one of the legs of thelanding craft. He reads: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot onthe Moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." Below theinscription are the names of the Apollo crew and President Nixon.
Armstrong next removes the TV camera from its fixed position on the LM andmoves it away about 40 feet so it can cover the area in which the astronautswill operate.
As scheduled, the astronauts set up the first of three experiments. From anoutside storage compartment in the LM, Aldrin removes a foot-long tubecontaining a roll of aluminum foil. Inside the roll is a telescoped pole thatis driven into the lunar surface, after which the foil is suspended from it,with the side marked "Sun" next to the Sun. Its function will be tocollect the particles of "solar wind" blowing constantly throughspace so that they can be brought back and analyzed in the hope they willprovide information on how the Sun and planets were formed.
11:41 p.m.- From a leg of the spacecraft, the astronauts take athree-by-five-foot, nylon United States flag, its top edge braced by a springwire to keep it extended on the windless Moon and erect it on a staff pressedinto the lunar surface.
Taken to the Moon are two other U.S. flags, to be brought back and flownover the houses of Congress, the flags of the 50 States, the District ofColumbia and U.S. territories, the United Nations flag, as well as those of 136foreign countries.
11:47 p.m.- Mission Control announces: "The President of the UnitedStates is in his office now and would like to say a few words to you."Armstrong replies: "That would be an honor."
11:48 p.m.- The astronauts listen as the President speaks by telephone:"Neil and Buzz. I am talking to you from the Oval Room at the White House.And this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made Forevery American this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people allover the world I am sure they, too, join with Americans in recognizing what afeat this is. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part ofman's world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us toredouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth. For one pricelessmoment, in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are trulyone."
As the President finishes speaking, Armstrong replies: "Thank you, Mr.President. It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here representing notonly the United States but men of peace of all nations. And with interest and acuriosity and a vision for the future. It's an honor for us to be able toparticipate here today."
The two astronauts stand at attention, saluting directly toward thetelevision as the telephone conversation concludes.
Armstrong next sets up a folding table and opens on it two specimen boxes.Using tongs and the lunar scoop, a quantity of rocks and soil are picked up andsealed in the boxes, preparatory to placing them in the ascent stage of thelanding craft.
Aldrin, meanwhile, opens another compartment in the ship and removes twodevices to be left on the Moon, taking each out about 30 feet from the ship.One is a seismic detector, to record moonquakes, meteorite impact, or volcaniceruption, and the other a laser-reflector, a device designed to make a muchmore precise measurement of Earth-Moon distances than has ever been possiblebefore.
Source: NASA history office
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