This weekend label the 45 year anniversary of theApollo 11mission landing the first human race on the moon . Like all delegation , NASA had a contingency programme . place historian Amy Shira Teitel explainsthe astronauts ’ grim orders if a lunar lander malfunction had left Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin strand on the moon .
Yes , even when designing equipment for 99.9 percent safety gadget , NASA had to have a program in post for every potential outcome , admit events of 0.1 pct likelihood . That preparedness is never in swollen : Apollo 13 take place less than a twelvemonth after , just one of many reminders of thedanger inherentin locomote where nobody has work before .
Update : lector solracer located the full textof the speech that Nixon would have delivered to the world if Armstrong and Aldrin had been stranded on the moon . Here it is , in full(thanks , solracer ! ):
Fate has enact that the men who go to the Sun Myung Moon to explore in peace will stay put on the synodic month to perch in peace of mind .
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 world in their sacrifice .
These two homo are laying down their lives in mankind ’s most noble goal : the lookup for truth and understanding .
They will be mourned by their families and friends ; they will be mourned by their country ; they will be mourned by the citizenry of the reality ; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared ship two of her Son into the unknown .
In their exploration , they stirred the multitude of the existence to feel as one ; in their sacrifice , they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man .
In ancient days , men front at stars and saw their heroes in the configuration . In modernistic times , we do much the same , but our heroes are epical man of flesh and blood .
Others will come , and surely find their way home . Man ’s lookup will not be denied . But these man were the first , and they will remain the foremost in our pith .
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to do will sleep together that there is some corner of another creation that is forever and a day mankind .
Thankfully , Apollo 11 was a success , put down the first men on the moon and advancing human race in science , engineering , and exploration . Amy Shira Teitel is live - tweeting the events of the missionas they happened 45 days ago — go check it out ! [ YouTube ]
Another Update : Reader VeeKaChu just apportion this great photoof his sire from 1964 , working on the fuel that would power the Apollo deputation . Thanks , VeeKaChu !
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