Magnificent Desolation: 10 Fun Facts About Apollo 11
Updated: Sep 29
"In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood." — Bill Safire
Today, July 16, 2024, we celebrate the 55th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, the fifth manned flight of the Apollo program and the first manned lunar landing. The mission's commander was Neil Armstrong, command pilot of the infamous Gemini 8 mission. The command module pilot was Michael Collins, veteran of Gemini 10. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, veteran of Gemini 12, was the lunar module pilot. Let's look at ten interesting facts about Apollo 11!
LMP Aldrin, CMP Collins, and CDR Armstrong (Time / Ralph Morse)
1. Hail, Columbia!
When it came time for the crew to name their spacecraft, NASA officials made sure the astronauts chose names appropriate to represent mankind's first lunar landing (and did not copy the crews of Apollo 9 and Apollo 10), so Snowcone for the CSM and Haystack for the LM were out [0]. The command module was christened Columbia, a historic American name and a reference to the Columbiad cannon which launched the lunar spacecraft in Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon [1]. The lunar module was named Eagle after the national bird of the United States [2]. Since the 18th century, the bald eagle has been a symbol of courage, freedom, and strength and the birds are notable for their adaptability and resilience, trademark characteristics of astronauts. Some even make the Kennedy Space Center, located on Merritt Island, Florida, their home.
Columbia is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Walter A. Weber's painting of a bald eagle for National Geographic Magazine inspired the Apollo 11 patch— more down below (National Geographic)
2. The Eagle Has Landed
Designing an insignia to represent not only a peaceful landing on the moon by the United States but the hundreds of thousands of individuals who dedicated their lives to make that achievement possible was no small task. It also needed to be an image easily understood around the world. The bald eagle was suggested by Jim Lovell, Armstrong's backup, to represent America. As Michael Collins exclaimed in his autobiography Carrying the Fire, "Of course! What better symbol— eagles landed, didn't they?"
Collins traced the bird, painted by Walter A. Weber, from the book Water, Prey, and Game Birds of North America. In his rough sketch he also included the lunar surface and a small Earth in the background— with sunlight coming from the wrong direction (it should have been light at the top and dark at the bottom). Along the bottom was "eleven" but Armstrong felt it would not be understandable to non-English speakers, so it was changed to the Arabic numeral "11".
The final detail of an olive branch, representing the mission's peaceful nature, was suggested by Tom Wilson, a simulator instructor. James R. Cooper, an illustrator at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas, added the branch to the eagle's beak and sent the finished artwork to Washington for final approval. It was denied. Apparently, the eagle's extended talons appeared "too hostile, too warlike," so the branch was moved from its beak to its claws. Collins felt the bird looked slightly uncomfortable, but the design was approved and fifty-five years later has been reproduced on nearly every item imaginable— everything from t-shirts to the Susan B. Anthony dollar. "I just hope that it dropped that olive branch before landing."
Apollo 11 insignia (NASA)
3. The Only Woman in the Room
Inside the Launch Control Center, a three-story building 3 miles (4.8 km) from Launch Complex 39A, one woman in dark clothes stood out among a sea of men in white button-downs and skinny black ties. JoAnn Morgan was the first female engineer at the Kennedy Space Center and began her journey as an engineer the way many others of her generation and the generations after her would— right on the Space Coast. After working at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency's (ABMA) Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama during World War II, Morgan's father was transferred to Cape Canaveral as an ordnance administrator and the family relocated to Titusville, a rapidly-growing city on the other side of the Indian River. Immediately after graduating high school in 1958, she began work as a civilian engineering aide for the ABMA at the Cape. By the time she started her first semester of college, the brand-new National Aeronautics & Space Administration had absorbed the ABMA's space efforts.
Morgan began working full-time at KSC in 1963 as a launch controller and despite working on launches of not only the early Apollo missions but those of Mercury and Gemini as well, she was not permitted in the firing room at liftoff until Apollo 11. During her 45 years at NASA, Morgan filled a number of management roles including director of Safety and Mission Assurance and the first female Associate Director of the Kennedy Space Center.
JoAnn Morgan and her colleagues watching Apollo 11's liftoff (NASA)
4. The World's Greatest Single Broadcast
I'm no stranger to waiting for hours in the Floridian heat and humidity for a launch, sitting through sun showers before the liftoff of SpaceX Demo-2 and staying up all night for Artemis I. There's really nothing like it. According to Chariots for Apollo, nearly a million people made the pilgrimage to Florida's Space Coast's beaches and highways to watch the launch of Apollo 11 the morning of July 16. Another 600 million people around the world watched the event live on television. Near the Vehicle Assembly Building was the VIP section and though these wooden bleachers had no shade and allegedly not enough cold concessions to beat the 85° heat, it did have a Krispy Kreme snack stand. Some of the very important people in attendance were former President Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President Spiro Agnew, comedian Johnny Carson, and even rocket pioneer Hermann Oberth and aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh [3].
Former President Johnson and current VP Agnew witnessing liftoff (Almay via wired.com)
An estimated 650 million people watched mankind take its first steps on the lunar surface four days later— that's one out of every six people on Earth in 1969, around of 150 million of which were American. Even Pope Paul VI tuned in. CBS's 31-hour "TV super-special" hosted by Walter Cronkite was "the world's greatest single broadcast". a During the broadcast, he also spoke with science fiction authors Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein and former Apollo astronaut Wally Schirra [4]. According to The New York Times, 94% of Americans watching television on the night of July 20, 1969 watched Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the moon.
Those without TV's at home or who were out and about that day were in luck as well, as the landing and first moonwalk were shown on television sets in department stores, bars, airports, and other public areas all over the world. The safe landing of Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon was announced during ongoing Major League Baseball games across the country and a crowd of 10,000 even gathered in New York City's Central Park to watch Armstrong's first steps broadcast on huge screens. And no, it was not broadcast in the Soviet Union [5].
Crowds watch the CBS broadcast at the JFK International Airport in New York (Getty Images via Fox 29)
5. Free Bird
On July 20 at 4:09 PM EDT, Eagle was about 5 miles (8 km) from the moon's surface and Armstrong and Aldrin were eight minutes from becoming the first humans to land on Earth's closest neighbor. The entire world held its breath as the spindly spacecraft neared the Mare Tranquillitatis, or the Sea of Tranquility, in the moon's northern hemisphere.
Armstrong and Aldrin had only one shot at landing. If they failed or an anomaly forced an abort, there would be no second chance. They would have no choice but to dock with Columbia and return to Earth defeated, disappointing not only the hundreds of millions of people around the world following along at home but tarnishing America's global reputation and possibly even jeopardizing the future of NASA itself. Or worse, the two men would crash into the moon.
Eagle before lunar descent (NASA)
And then it happened. Five minutes into the descent burn, the number 1202 flashed onto the Apollo Guidance Computer's Display Keyboard, or DSKY. Despite the hundreds of hours practicing and perfecting the lunar landing in simulators, not every possible error code scenario had been rehearsed, including this 1202. Armstrong and Aldrin were not the only ones unfamiliar with a 1202 alarm— most flight controllers in Houston had not seen it before either. Fortunately, an engineer named Jack Garman referred to a hand-written list of error codes and found that a 1202 meant the computer's core processing system was overloaded. However, it was programmed to automatically perform a fast reboot and memory restoration and shouldn't be a huge issue as long as it does not happen again.
Just as soon as CapCom Charlie Duke gave a "go" to proceed with landing, the error occurred again, and again, and again, as well as a related 1201 alarm. What did Mission Control have Armstrong and Aldrin do? Nothing. It took about two seconds for the reboot process to complete and since the errors occurred more than a few seconds apart, all vital information was retained. At 4:17 PM EDT, seven minutes after the first 1202 alarm, the lunar module touched down and Armstrong announced to the world, "the eagle has landed." At 10:56, Armstrong took his first small step on the lunar surface.
Buzz Aldrin salutes the American flag (NASA)
6. From Planet Earth, July 1969
Apollo 11 left mementos at the Sea of Tranquility to commemorate not only America's landing on the moon but mankind's. A silicon disc the size of a Kennedy half dollar carried messages of goodwill from leaders of 73 countries around the world (some of which, such as Yugoslavia, no longer exist in 2024) as well as the four most recent American presidents— Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, and Eisenhower (though the latter two were deceased). In microscopic text along the top was, "Goodwill messages from around the world brought to the Moon by the astronauts of Apollo 11."
Half dollar next to the silicon disc (NASA)
Armstrong and Aldrin also left tributes to fallen fellow astronauts and cosmonauts. An Apollo 1 patch and three medals were brought to honor the crew of the mission— Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee— who perished when a fire erupted in their command module during a plugs-out test on the launch pad. Two Soviet medals were brought to the US by Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman from the widows of cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov and were left on the moon by Apollo 11 [6].
Two particular objects brought to the surface were returned to Earth. The first was a piece of wood and fabric from the Wright brothers' airplane Kitty Hawk, which made the first powered, controlled flight in 1903. The second was another tribute, but this time to a living person. Deke Slayton was supposed to be the second American to orbit the Earth in 1962, but a heart murmur grounded him from spaceflight. Due to this, he was not eligible to receive a gold astronaut pin (similar to a pilot getting his wings) but was appointed Chief of the Astronaut Office and later Director of Flight Crew Operations. The crew of Apollo 1 planned to present to Slayton his own unique gold astronaut pin with a diamond in the center after it had flown in space. It was given to him by the crews' widows and he proudly wore it the rest of his life— except for the few weeks it visited the moon.
7. The Grey Ghost
On July 24, Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and was recovered by the USS Hornet, an Essex-class aircraft carrier built for the Navy during World War II. It saw extensive action in the Pacific Theater, most notably during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. It ended its service in the Second World War as part of Operation Magic Carpet returning troops to the United States. It was modernized during the Korean War to operate jet aircraft and again as an antisubmarine carrier. After brief service in the Vietnam War, Hornet retrieved both the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 capsules in 1969. She was decommissioned in 1970 and was later designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1998, the ship was opened to the public as the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda, California, and is one of only three surviving Space Race capsule recovery ships [7].
A scorched Columbia on the deck of the USS Hornet (NASA)
8. It Came From Outer Space
Immediately after stepping off the retrieval helicopter, the three astronauts, donned in biological isolation garments, entered the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF), a converted Airstream trailer fully equipped with sleeping quarters, a kitchen, and a bathroom [8]. The facility, seated on the deck of the Hornet, quarantined the returning lunar astronauts during their first few days back on their home planet. While in the MQF, the crew spoke to President Nixon and their families, but they weren't the only people inside. Accompanying the moon men were physician William Carpentier and engineer John Hirasaki, who operated the small facility and powered down and decontaminated the command module once it was retrieved from the ocean.
Once the carrier reached Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, the MQF was flown to Houston, Texas (with the astronauts still inside) so they could live out the remaining three weeks of their quarantine in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) at the Manned Spacecraft Center. This is where the lunar regolith and rock samples were also stored during analysis. The purpose of the MQF and LRL was to prevent the spread of any pathogens brought back from the lunar surface, however unlikely that may be. Measures also had to be taken to ensure no cross-contamination of lunar samples with Earth bacteria. In total, four MQF's were built and three are on display— Apollo 11's is at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Canter in Chantilly, Virginia; Apollo 12's is at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama; and Apollo 14's is on the deck of Hornet. The fourth, built for Apollo 13, was not used by NASA since the crew did not land on the moon and was instead utilized by the US Department of Agriculture, though its current location is unknown. While in the LRL, Armstrong celebrated his 39th birthday on August 5.
(left) The crew wears biological isolation garments as they exit the helicopter (NASA) | (right) The crew speaks with President Nixon from the MQF (NASA)
9. We Think the Moon of Y'all
Apollo 11 took one more trip around the globe during the Giant Step — Apollo 11 Presidential Goodwill Tour, a 45-day tour of 29 cities in 26 countries across six continents. It emphasized how the moon landing, despite being carried out by the US, was for all mankind.
All 29 stops were the following: Mexico City, Mexico; Bogota, Colombia; Brasilia, Brazil; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Las Palmas, Canary Islands; Madrid, Spain; Paris, France; Brussels, Belgium; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Oslo, Norway; Bonn and Berlin, West Germany; London, England; Rome, Italy; Vatican City; Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia); Ankara, Turkey; Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; Tehran, Iran; Bombay (now Mumbai), India; Dacca, East Pakistan (now Dhaka, Bangladesh); Bangkok, Thailand; Perth and Sydney, Australia; Agana (now Hagåtña), Guam; Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and finally Anchorage, Alaska, USA.
(left) Astronauts wearing sombreros during a parade in Mexico City (NASA) | (right) Crowds gather at the Belgrade Airport to welcome Apollo 11 (Michael Collins via NASA)
It is estimated that more than 100 million people came to see the three astronauts during motorcades and public events, and they met with presidents, kings and queens, prime ministers, mayors, and even the Pope. They also gave twenty-two press interviews and crossed the equator six times in Air Force Two, the modified Boeing 757 typically used by the Vice President. The tour started in late September and first stopped in Mexico City since it was closest to home. In Rome, Italy, where Michael Collins was born, they presented the Pope with lunar dust samples and a Vatican City flag that had been brought to the moon. Collins spent his 39th birthday on October 31 in Perth, Australia.
One of the last stops of the tour was the Manned Space Flight Network station in Agana (now Hagåtña), Guam. Opened in 1966, it was the first dedicated Apollo tracking station and communicated with spacecraft during near-Earth and trans-lunar injection operations. Guam also made the last communications with returning Apollo spacecraft before they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
(left) Congolese dance troupe with model Lunar Module (Michael Collins via NASA) | (right) Children in Tehran welcome the astronauts (and yes, that sign says "y'all") (Michael Collins via NASA)
10. In Event of Moon Disaster:
"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace." This was the opening line to what is today called the Safire Memo, a (fortunately) never-delivered eulogy penned by President Richard Nixon's speechwriter Bill Safire. Two days before Armstrong and Aldrin were scheduled to land on the moon, Nixon's chief of staff instructed Safire to write a statement to be read by the president in the event the pair of astronauts would be unable to lift off from the lunar surface and return to Earth. Safire alludes to the World War I poem "The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke with the line, "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." Additionally, the memo refrains from referring to Armstrong and Aldrin as Americans and instead focuses on how their sacrifice will impact all mankind and that "they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown."
The announcement was followed by instructions to have a clergyman "adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to 'the deepest of the deep'" once NASA ceased communication with the two men.
Wayne Stayskal's Apollo 11 cartoon published in Chicago American Today on July 21, 1969. The astronauts in white are the crew of Apollo 1. For those unfamiliar, it is mimicking the historic American photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (Reddit)
For a single moment in late July 1969, the entire world was united as a human being set foot on the moon for the very first time. Fifty-five years later, Apollo 11 continues to inspire millions of people of all ages around the world to further mankind's conquest of space and is a demonstration of what we can accomplish through courage, determination, and most importantly, teamwork. It truly was, in the late President Kennedy's words, "the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked." Even though his goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth was complete, Apollo 11 was only the beginning...
"The Smallest Astronaut" by the Royal Guardsmen follows Apollo 11 and Snoopy as they race the Red Baron to the moon (YouTube)
[0] Snowcone and Haystack were proposed callsigns used in Apollo 11's Technical Information Summary from June 1969.
[1] This fictional launch also occurred in Florida, though from the wrong coast.
[2] Apollo 11 was far from the first manned mission to use the callsign Eagle. Vostok 2 and Vostok 4 were Oryol (Eagle) and Berkut (Golden Eagle) respectively, and Gemini 4's unofficial callsign was American Eagle.
[3] Carson hosted the crew of Apollo 13 and Christa McAuliffe on The Tonight Show in 1970 and 1985. He was also a panelist on the show To Tell the Truth on which Mercury astronaut nurse Dee O'Hara was a contestant. Lindbergh was also present for the launch of Apollo 8 in December 1968.
[4] Schirra, commander of Apollo 7, joined Cronkite again during CBS's coverage of the Apollo 13 disaster the next year.
[5] Nor was it shown in China, East Germany, North Korea, or South Vietnam.
[6] Gagarin, the first man in space, died in a plane crash in 1968. Komarov was killed at the conclusion of his Soyuz 1 spaceflight when the capsule's parachute cords failed to deploy properly.
[7] The other two are the USS Intrepid (retrieved Mercury-Atlas 7 and Gemini 3) in New York and the USS Yorktown (retrieved Apollo 8) in South Carolina.
[8] A modified 1983 Airstream Excella motorhome was the "Astrovan", the crew's transport to the launch pad, from STS-9 to STS-135 and is now on display at the Kennedy Space Center.
Bibliography
Brooks, Courtney, et al. "Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft." National Aeronautics & Space Administration, 1979. https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/sp-4205.pdf
Collins, Michael. "Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey." Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1974.
Eliot, Lance. "Apollo 11's Infamous Landing Error Code 1202 Offers Earthly Lessons for Self-Driving Cars." Forbes, July 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2019/07/16/apollo-11s-infamous-landing-error-code-1202-offers-earthly-lessons-for-self-driving-cars/
Jeffrey, James. "Apollo 11: 'The greatest single broadcast in television history'." BBC, July 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48857752 a
"Memento Moon: Some of What We've Left Behind." Smithsonian, November 2021. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/memento-moon-some-what-weve-left-behind
"New Exhibit Features Unique Diamond Astronaut Pin." The Museum of Flight, September 2012. https://www.museumofflight.org/about/press/1931/new-exhibit-features-unique-diamond-astronaut-pin
Patrinos, Thalia K. "Rocket Fuel in Her Blood: The Story of JoAnn Morgan." National Aeronautics & Space Administration, July 2019. https://www.nasa.gov/people-of-nasa/women-at-nasa/rocket-fuel-in-her-blood-the-story-of-joann-morgan/
Simmons, Roger. "Apollo 11 launch VIPs included LBJ, Johnny Carson, Lindbergh." The Columbian, July 2019. https://www.columbian.com/news/2019/jul/04/apollo-11-launch-vips-included-lbj-johnny-carson-lindbergh/
Uri, John. "50 Years Ago: Apollo 11 Astronauts Return from Around the World Goodwill Tour." National Aeronautics & Space Administration, July 2019. https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-apollo-11-astronauts-return-from-around-the-world-goodwill-tour/
Uri, John. "50 Years Ago: Hornet + 3 - The Recovery of Apollo 11." National Aeronautics & Space Administration, July 2019. https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-hornet-3-the-recovery-of-apollo-
Intellectual Properties I don't own
"Free Bird" — written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant, performed by Lynyrd Skynyrd from the album (Pronounced ''Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), 1973.
"It Came From Outer Space" — 1953 science fiction film directed by Jack Arnold and produced by Universal Pictures. Based on a film treatment by Ray Bradbury.
This post was written entirely without the use of AI (sorry HAL).
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