Operation Just Cause... ...for as long as it takes
The Walk Witnessed by the World
by: B F Malone
A little over thirty-five years ago, on May 25, 1961, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered a message to Congress that included the following statement: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth."
In the early 1960's, scientists possessed the knowledge and the understanding of the environment in space that was necessary to explore the unknown--outer space. They also had the required technology to send a human being into orbit around the earth. People have been curious about the sun, the moon, and the solar system, for centuries. When they invented the telescope in the sixteenth century, the world was on its way to discovering the mysteries of the universe. Space flight, however, had not become a reality until the twentieth century, not until four decades ago.
On October 4, 1957, Russia launched Sputnik 1, the first manmade earth satellite. That event hurled the United States into the Space Age. NASA sent a series of satellites hundreds of thousands of miles above the Earth before Kennedy's statement, regarding a man being sent in a rocket to the moon. President Kennedy was confident in America's ability to achieve the goal he had set forth. All that they would need were people who were willing to work toward that goal.
Twenty-five years before Kennedy's announcement, a small boy living on a farm in Ohio, went up in an airplane for the very first time. No one, himself included, could have known that he would be the one to grow up and realize Kennedy's wish for the nation. That boy's name was Neil Armstrong.
Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, in Wapakoneta, Ohio. After his first airplane ride, he became fascinated with flying. Armstrong spent most of his leisure time reading about aviation, and building model airplanes. On August 5, 1946, on his sixteenth birthday, he earned his pilot's license, after two years of flying lessons. How would Neil Armstrong have felt if someone had told him that twenty-five years later he would be flying to the moon?
In 1947, Neil Armstrong graduated from Wapakoneta High School and attended Purdue University to study aeronautical engineering. After only two years, he left Purdue, joined the Navy, and was sent to Korea. He had flown in seventy-eight combat missions, and was shot down once. He risked his life doing what he loved most, flying. For his brave efforts, he had received three Air Medals.
After the Korean War ended, Neil returned to Purdue University, and in 1955, he received his degree. He went on to become a civilian test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, [NACA], an organization that would later become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA].
On Oct. 1, 1958, one year after the successful launching of Russia's Sputnik I, NASA began searching for men to be selected and trained for the Space Program. These men would be known as astronauts. The word, astronaut, comes from the Greek words meaning, `sailors of space'. It was a word that had not become part of America's vocabulary until 1959. Before that time, it had existed only in the world of science fiction.
NASA had put in a request to the Air Force, the Navy, and the Marines, looking for men with certain qualifications, to become a part of the space flight group. Astronauts for NASA had to be experienced jet and test pilots, with at least fifteen hundred hours of flight time. It was essential that they have a degree in a biological or physical science, or in engineering. The men could be no taller than 5'11", 180 pounds or less, and no older than forty years of age. NASA told the possible candidates that their objective was to put a man in space.
While NASA was interviewing applicants for space flight, Neil Armstrong continued as a research pilot for NASA, first at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland. He then worked for the High Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base. He participated in test flights of supersonic planes, including the X-15 rocket plane. The X-15 was a high altitude plane that flew at speeds exceeding those of the contemporary aircraft.
On April 9, 1959, NASA announced the names of the seven men, who would become known as the original seven, chosen for the Space Program. They were navigators, engineers, scientists, physicians, and technicians.
In September of 1962, NASA selected a second group of nine with different qualifications. Those men were allowed to be six feet tall, but no older than thirty-five years of age. They still had to be test pilots, but they were also accepting civilians. Neil Armstrong was among those nine in the second group, with a total of twenty-six hundred hours of flying time in all types of planes, to his credit. He was 5'11" tall and had turned thirty-two only one month earlier. For his work with the X-15, they had awarded him the Octave Chanute Award, named for the man who was the utmost authority on gliders. Chanute had once given his advice, his insight, and encouragement to the Wright Brothers.
Neil Armstrong, and the men in both groups selected to become astronauts, had to answer questions about engineering in great detail. NASA asked them personal questions about their family life. They also gave them thorough physical examinations to make sure their bodies were in excellent condition. NASA's medical team gave them eye exams and their brain wave patters were gauged.
The officials at NASA knew that these men would be subjected to tremendous physical and psychological stress while in space. They conducted the psychological tests to find out how well these men would hold up under great emotional pressure. Psychologists tested them on their reaction time in emergencies that could occur out in space. Out there, they would be expected to act quickly and make sound decisions.
The emotional aspects of flight into space were perhaps even more important than the physical aspects of the journey. Physical conditions of space travel were the problems of extreme temperatures, exposure to radiation, and weightlessness. The astronauts would be confined within a small spacecraft in an unfamiliar setting. Their internal body clocks were adapted to a proportionate amount of daylight hours and hours in total darkness. In space there is only darkness, except light from the stars.
In the past, being confined was the cause of mental fatigue, which impairs judgement and cognitive thinking. Therefore, part of the training included an exercise regimen designed for space flight. Obviously, calisthenics and aerobics were out of the question, but the astronauts performed muscle exercises using their fingers, arms, and legs.
Besides the large amount of actual training, there was a large portion of classroom study. Their studies included meteorology, computer applications, aerodynamics, and various other space subjects. Another segment of instruction for the astronauts involved simulated test flights. NASA trained the men in procedures for flight into orbit, launching and reentry, orbital maneuvers, and recovery at landing sites. There were simulated emergency tests that were invaluable for the men to gain the experience needed to handle a crisis while in space.
The astronauts aboard Apollo 13 proved how important that training was. Part of the Apollo 13 spacecraft was blown away after an oxygen tank exploded on a flight to the moon in April of 1970. The men returned safely to earth using the knowledge they learned from the simulated tests and their own ingenuity.
There was a threefold plan for sending a man to the moon. The programs were entitled Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. The training program for the Mercury and Gemini missions lasted for three years. However, training for the Apollo mission lasted only eighteen months due to the knowledge gained during the first two programs.
Project Mercury was the first step in NASA's plan. They named it for the `messenger of the gods' in Roman mythology. NASA developed the program to put a man in space, keep him there for a short time, and return him to earth.
NASA devised the Mercury capsule for operations in earth orbit. It was a one-man spacecraft designed in the shape of a bell. They launched it atop an Atlas rocket as a booster. When in space, the booster was released and it burned up in the atmosphere. This separation sent the Mercury capsule into orbit.
Inside the Mercury capsule was an environment of pure oxygen, and the temperature was controlled. Hot air was drawn through a heat exchanger by a fan. The air was cooled down with water, and the cooler air was swept back into the cabin of the spacecraft.
Upon time of reentry into the earth's atmosphere, three rockets were fired to reduce the capsule's speed. A specially designed shield covered the capsule. The shield was melted; burned, and vaporized from the three thousand degree temperature it encountered as it dropped back into the atmosphere. Air surrounding the capsule blew particles of the shield away, and with it, some heat.
When the capsule reached an altitude of twenty thousand feet, a parachute opened to slow the capsule down. Then at ten thousand feet, the main parachute opened and it brought down the Mercury capsule gently into the water. A water landing was chosen because of the abundance of water regions available.
Astronaut Alan B. Shepard was the first American in space aboard the Mercury 3 spacecraft, on May 5, 1961. His suborbital flight lasted fifteen minutes. Astronaut John H. Glenn orbited the earth in three revolutions, in a flight lasting four hours and fifty-six minutes aboard Mercury 6, on February 20, 1962. The last mission in the program was the flight of Mercury 7. Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper orbited the earth twenty-two times on May 15, 1963. His flight duration was thirty-four hours and twenty minutes.
The second leg of the journey to the moon was the Gemini program. They named it for the third sign of the zodiac, the twins. During the Gemini program, astronauts lived and worked in space for long periods. They were also able to connect one spacecraft with another while in orbit. The astronauts also performed orbital maneuvers. Gemini's spacecraft had twice the amount of cabin space than its predecessor for the two-man crew of the Gemini missions. It needed a more powerful rocket, a Titan booster, for launching.
For the docking of two vehicles in space, one vehicle called the Agena was sent into a near-circular orbit first. Then NASA launched the Gemini capsule into orbit at an altitude lower than the Agena, and at a greater speed. The astronauts fired a rocket to increase its speed even further and to put it into an identical orbit with the Agena. When the two vehicles were between ten and one hundred feet apart, the astronauts linked the two together. They positioned the nose of the capsule into the slot in the Agena.
For walking in space, the Gemini astronauts were attached to the spacecraft with a safety line. A control box was connected to the astronaut's spacesuit to allow him to control his movements in space and to maintain altitude control. Zero gravity in space prevented the astronaut from falling. On June 3, 1965, aboard Gemini 4, Astronaut Edward H. White II, became the first American to walk in space. He was outside the spacecraft for twenty-one minutes.
On March 16, 1966, Astronauts Neil Armstrong and David R. Scott performed the first docking in space. However, thirty minutes after the successful docking, both vehicles began to rotate wildly due to a thruster's malfunction. The astronauts managed to unlock their Gemini spacecraft and gain control. Astronaut Armstrong brought the craft down safely in an emergency splashdown. Yet Neil Armstrong's greatest achievement was yet to come with the arrival of the Apollo program.
NASA named the Apollo program after the Roman god of music, poetry, prophecy, and medicine. This was to be the third and final step in the plan to fly a man to the moon and back. There were some unique problems associated with the Apollo missions. In space, there is no protection from radiation. They conceived a special shield for the Apollo spacecraft. The astronauts wore spacesuits designed with a distinct covering. Solar radiation is strongest between two zones (2400 miles and 10,000 miles) known as the Van Allan Belt. They named the belt after its discoverer, Dr. James A. Van Allen. The Mercury and Gemini spacecraft experienced only minor problems with radiation because they remained in earth's orbit, below the Van Allen Belt.
Before the Apollo missions, NASA sent unmanned space probes to the moon to collect data for studying the lunar surface. The moon's undesirable environment, with its extreme temperatures and absence of atmosphere, posed the largest threat to the manned lunar missions. The moon has only one-sixth of the earth's gravitational pull. A man weighing one hundred and eighty pounds on earth would weigh only thirty pounds on the moon.
They designed the Apollo spacecraft for a three-man crew. It consisted of three parts, the Command Module (CM), the Service Module (SM), and the Lunar Excursion Model (LEM). The astronauts ate, slept, and worked in the CM without their spacesuits because the atmosphere in the Apollo spacecraft was closer to normal. The CM was equipped with life support systems that provided food, water, and oxygen to the astronauts. It also had control and instrument panels, periscopes, and windows.
The SM contained the rocket engines and fuel supplies needed to propel the Apollo spacecraft into and out of, lunar orbit. The LEM took the astronauts down to the moon's surface and back into lunar orbit to dock with the CM and the SM. The LEM was equipped with rockets to slow its speed before landing on the moon.
On January 9, 1969, three years after Neil Armstrong's Gemini 8 mission, NASA named him command pilot for the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. He, and his crew, Astronauts Aldrin and Collins were going to the moon.
On July 16, 1969, a Saturn V rocket boosted the Apollo 11 spacecraft into orbit. After the rocket's third stage was restarted, the spacecraft was propelled into its lunar course, headed for the far side of the moon. When nearing the moon's vicinity, the spacecraft was maneuvered into position for a lunar orbit. They fired a rocket in the SM to bring the craft into a circular orbit one hundred miles above the moon. Then, Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin entered the LEM and detached from the CM. Astronaut Collins remained in the CM in lunar orbit.
The astronauts fired a rocket to decrease the speed of the LEM's descent. It hovered by using a stabilizing device. Nevertheless, there were a few tense moments before Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon's surface. The LEM, nicknamed Eagle, was to have landed in a spot that Armstrong had discovered was strewn with large rocks. Armstrong had to take over the controls and find another landing site. With less than thirty seconds of fuel remaining for its descent, the Eagle was set down on the moon's surface.
The world breathed a collective sigh of relief as Neil Armstrong spoke those immortal words, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." The crew of Apollo 11 had realized the first part of President Kennedy's goal. Man had landed on the moon. It was one of the most important moments in the history of the world. Millions of men, women, and children, were fortunate enough to have witnessed it.
Just as if he were stepping down from a ladder in his own backyard, Neil Armstrong climbed down the ladder of the lunar module. He stepped down off the last rung of the ladder, and placed his left foot on alien soil. In that split second, he had become a hero in the hearts and minds of every person on Earth. One of America's own had walked on the surface of another planet. On July 20 1969, at a few minutes before eleven o'clock in the evening America watched Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon, right on their television screens.
Neil Armstrong performed a truly astronomical feat. All of his years of experience and training could not have prepared him for that moment in time. He gave no forethought to fame or fortune. He did not worry about the unknown dangers that could have awaited him on the surface.
Many people wondered about what the first man on the moon would say. His first words are ingrained in the minds of the millions who had watched him walk on the moon. After stepping on the moon's surface, he proclaimed, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." It was a giant leap; a giant leap of faith. His footprint will remain in the lunar soil for millions of years. And the memory of that day will remain a part of our country's history forever.
When their work on the lunar surface was completed, the LEM blasted off the surface of the moon and was sent into orbit to rendezvous with the CM. The astronauts then released the LEM. A rocket fired to boost Apollo 11 out of lunar orbit. To reenter the earth's atmosphere, the spacecraft had to follow a definite course. If the craft came in too low, it would burn up in the atmosphere. If it came in too high, it would literally bounce off the earth's atmosphere and thrown back out into space.
Neil Alden Armstrong is a fearless and honorable man who had accomplished what cynics at the time said could not be done. He walked on the moon. The Apollo 11 mission had paved the way for other lunar landings, but none were to be as spectacular as that first one. Never had a man made such a lasting impression on millions of people, for so many years. It is unlikely that anyone ever will again.
Neil Alden Armstrong left the astronaut program in 1970, and in 1971 he had left NASA to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. How lucky for those students to have learned about a part of America's history, from the man who had made history.
Man has truly begun to unravel more of the mysteries surrounding the galaxy. The flight of Apollo 11 and the astronauts aboard that flight are responsible for that. Thanks to Neil Armstrong and the others, there have been space probes sent to other planets in the solar system. Space stations have been set up to collect and return important data to scientists for further space missions.
Space exploration has allowed man to understand the natural occurrences in our daily lives. With communications, weather, and navigational satellites, this nation has gained priceless information about the weather, the navigation of ships and aircraft, and the ways to protect the earth's natural resources.
People who were alive during those early years of America's efforts to conquer the universe will never forget the excitement and pride they felt. That kind of enthusiasm should be kept alive for the future leaders of this country. America's Space Program is one of the most prominent areas of scientific and technological progress.
So, on that night back in the summer of 1969, Neil Alden Armstrong met President John Kennedy's deadline. Not only did he meet it, but he did it with five months to spare.
Barbara Fitzgerald-Malone
Written in the Spring of 1996
